16 Months

(Your dad fed you Oreos for dinner)

To Carson:
You are 16 months old today. You are the funniest and cutest little boy. Your dad and I love you so much.

(You like to get the cereal boxes out of the trash and carry them everywhere)

Some things that you really like to do right now are: run everywhere, go outside, climb stairs, shut doors (now you can pull it shut not just push it), sit on us and roll around on us, jump, sing songs, read books, repeat what we say, eat, laugh, copy people--do yoga (when dad gets out the yoga mats you lay down before dad can), take clothes out of drawers and hampers, use your dirty clothes hamper to put your toys in (specifically, your Little People school bus), play with balls, run around on the basketball court (you always get upset when it is time to go), look at yourself in the mirror or oven or dishwasher, get silverware out, do whatever it is we are saying 'no' to, take baths, sleep, carry your blanket around the house like Linus, talk on phones (you just hold it to your ear and say 'aho' or hello), press the buttons on phones, brush your teeth, play in our bedroom, follow us around and play hide and seek (or you run and try to get away and we chase you--you are usually naked when this happens--but you giggle the whole time).

You are really branching out and starting to love even more books. Your favorite books right now are:

(Reading Oh, The Thinks You Can Think)

'uhday' which is I Am Not Going To Get Up Today
'eyes,eyes,eyes,eyes' which is The Eye Book
'abug' which is The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
'tetete' which is Oh, the Thinks You Can Think
'zeezus' which is My First Book of Mormon
'oppa' which is Hop on Pop
'teetot' which is I'm a Little Teapot
And other books that you love but don't have words for yet are:
I Love You Through and Through
There's a Wocket in My Pocket
The ABC Book
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
And any other book that anyone else has at church (The Hymn Book) or the store.

You still make animal noises for a cow and a monkey instead of trying to say what they are. You try to say giraffe and it comes out like 'uff'', you think you are saying elephant when you put your arm up like an elephant trunk.

(Playing with Cubby Bear in the car)

You are talking so much. It is a lot of repeating all of the words that we always say, so we usually know what you are talking about. Some new words that you have started to say are home, outside, shoes, sock, basketball, ball, cracker, amen, and help. And you also are doing way more signs that your dad and I do not know. We need to watch your Baby Einstein Video so we know what you are trying to tell us.
You just run around all day, happy and playing. You really light up our lives. You make every day an adventure and always bring smiles to our faces. Even when I tell your dad something that you did he smiles just thinking about how cute you probably were while doing it (even if it is making a mess). You are getting so big and being able to do more and more and it is really fun. But I am sad at the same time that you are such a big boy already. Your hair is finally growing and every day you look bigger to me. You can get down off of our bed by yourself, which is really high and just a few days ago you climbed up on the couch and chair all by yourself. You were trying to get our food, of course. You still love your pacifiers and last week at church you were so excited when you found 3 in the diaper bag. You put one in your mouth and held the other two and were just so happy. But you only get them at the beginning of nap/bedtime. I love to take you places with me because you are so good and you are always interested in things and people and I love it when you are keeping me company. I love to see you play with your dad. You just crawl all over him and wrestle and giggle. I just watch and smile. Carson, we love you so much and are so happy to be your parents. We are so happy to see you learn and grow but we don't want you to grow up too fast.