Dear Silas

I need to apologize to you. It seems that second child syndrome extends even to this blog, because it's far too rare that you really get your due here.

Some things about you:

--You're 21 months old. That's just a few months shy of two and yes, it blows my mind.

--Your days are marked by your little routines. You're up at about 6:30 and, after a diaper change, you're whisked downstairs into the high chair to eat Cheerios one by one until you wake up. And let me tell you, IT DOES NOT GO WELL if you don't immediately get your morning Cheerios.

--Which brings me to something interesting about you. Waking up hits you really hard. It can be the morning, or it can be after a nap, but you have this shaky, uncertain, slightly irritated demeanor when we come to get you out of your crib, as if you're uncertain what it means, this "waking up," and you are not at all sure you're down with it.

You know what?

In this regard, WE ARE EXACTLY ALIKE.

The other two members of this household bound out of bed full of vim and vigor and plans and speak AT FULL VOLUME IMMEDIATELY. With those two, lights are flipped on, music is playing, and work clothes or dress-up clothes are instantly in full effect. They bound about the house like horses. You and I, though, we have to slink around a bit with our backs bent double, cringing up at the light while we try to determine who we are and what this all means, again. Come at us too fast and things might not go well for you:



You have your Cheerios and I drink my tea and everything ends up all right in the end, though.

--Trucks are your life. Pickup trucks, utility trucks, delivery trucks, construction vehicles of every ilk, garbage trucks (watching the weekly pickup is a hallowed ritual never to be missed) and OMG FIRE TRUCKS. You are obsessed. And your vocabulary is coming along, but who wants to call them fire trucks when they go nnnnnnEEEERRRR EERRRRRR ERRRRRRRRRRR Nee No! Nee No! Nee No! So you call them "nee noes." Works for me.


Here's the nee no the Easter Bunny parked next to your Easter basket.
It makes noise. A lot.

--Speaking of your vocabulary development, like any man you are in awe of your manhood, and since you're our kid, you've got all the proper terminology...which you can't quite say yet. And so the other day in the checkout line at Target, when you pointed to your crotch and shouted "MEE MAH! MEE MAH! MEE MAH!" with an enormous grin on your face, I just smiled serenely at the people cooing over how cute you were and laughed on the inside.

You love to play with crayons:


Here you are at 19 months, with the playroom looking like a playroom

You like to read:


I'm all like "Oh, look, is that Cars and Trucks and Things That Go?
Cause I've gotta go do this, uh...thing..." And you're all like "HEY! Get back here, lady!"

And you're really silly.



I think we'll keep you.

Love,
Mama