18 months
12 August 2017
Dear E &L,
You are at such a fun age! I love just watching you. The other day I just sat on the couch as you moved things around the room. You have these little ideas that get into your heads and you figure out how to carry them out.
When Grandma Cox came to visit this summer, she brought you a Signing Time DVD. One of her many awesome yard sale finds. I quickly realized what a good idea this was and since then you two have been hooked on all the videos that I've checked out from the library. Now you know lots of signs and are able to communicate a little bit better with me. The signs that you both use the most are dog, bird, water, and time. When you sign ‘time,’ it’s because you want to watch Baby Signing Time. Sometimes E climbs on the stool in the bathroom and sign ‘wash hands.’ I’m hoping that your love of hand washing continues when we get to potty training. One of my favorite things L does is to bring me your shoes so I’ll put them on and then you sign ‘car’ because you want to go somewhere.
You both love to climb on things. We currently keep all the kitchen chairs in the living room because you and your sister will use the chairs to help you climb on top of the kitchen table. I do let you climb on the coffee table. E, you do this cute thing up there where you move your feet back and forth really quickly. L, you figured out how to climb into your high chair when the tray is off, how to climb out of your crib (it wasn’t on the lowest level), and how to climb out of the pack ‘n’ play. While we were staying at your cousin Carter’s house, there were no buckles on the high chair and you would stand up in the chair at almost every meal. I’m so glad that I can strap you in again.
We had lots of great time with family this summer. We went camping with your Jones family. You really liked being outdoors. Probably the highlight for you was going up and down the ramp on Grandpa’s trailer. The only downside was that neither one of you slept well. Both of you ended up in bed with Dad and me on a full size air mattress.
We also traveled up to Utah for the Cox reunion. I was so impressed that you did so well in the car for such a long trip. L, one of your favorite activities was playing with a box of tissues I brought for you. You made cute little “woo!” sounds as you pulled them out and made it all the way to the end of the box. The back seat was covered in white. While we were up there, your aunts and cousins fought over you the entire time. They just love you so much. You got more exposure to dogs and cats and started to warm up to them, especially Carter’s dog, Jessie. At church up there, L noticed the person conducting the music and started waving your arm around just like her. It was the best.
You are both really into reading books now. I love it. We have to go the library frequently so that I am not always reading the same books over and over. One of the books that I’ve read to you dozen of times is called Toot Toot Beep Beep. L, you were reading it to yourself one time and I heard you say, “Chugga Chugga,” which is one of the noises of the cars.
You are always jabbering as your walk around the house and starting to say a few words. Not surprising, one of the words E says is ‘bird.’ I also bought you a bird shirt that you love to wear. L's two newest words are “blueberry” and “belly button.”
L, You love to put things on your head. I’m going to blame your Dad for this one. He would always put bloomers on your head like a hat and now you bring shorts to me and request to wear them on your head.
E, one of the cute things you do right now is that you occasionally ask to have your diaper changed. You get a clean diaper out of the drawer and lay down on your back. One time you saw me putting diaper cream on your sister, so you later grabbed the cream, lay down, pretended to put it on yourself, and waited for me to come and give you some. It's too bad you're not this willing every time you need a diaper change.
E, one of the cute things you do right now is that you occasionally ask to have your diaper changed. You get a clean diaper out of the drawer and lay down on your back. One time you saw me putting diaper cream on your sister, so you later grabbed the cream, lay down, pretended to put it on yourself, and waited for me to come and give you some. It's too bad you're not this willing every time you need a diaper change.
I love you so both much. I am just so lucky that I get to hang out with you all of the time.
Love,
Mom
P.S. I almost forgot to tell you about the great news we recently got. Dad and I have been trying for over a year to figure out how we were going to get the $350,000 bill paid for your NICU stay. Due to a bunch of circumstances, the insurance company wasn’t going to pay it and neither was the organization that told us for months that they would. We were denied when we applied for financial assistance from the hospital, but the person who gave me that bad news said there was one more thing we could try for. Of course, I said we’d like to apply I called back to see how much of a discount they were going to give us and was informed that our balance was now $0. I couldn’t believe it. Every time I think about it, I still can’t believe how blessed we’ve been.
