Month Seventeen

Dear Abe,

Just for posterity sake, I am writing this after the 42nd Superbowl in which the New York Giants upset the New England Patriots (they had a perfect season ... and Tom Brady is hot ... those are my tidbits from that.)

So, welcome to your seventeenth month. A little late, as usual, but the whole family has just awoken from a horrible, horrible sickness. You were the sickest I have ever seen. It really scared me. On your worst night I slept in your room. If I could have slept in your bed, I would have. That is how sick you were. I have realized that you
being sick is forty thousand times worse than any sickness I have ever had. I just want to hold you constantly and kiss your cheeks. But, you are getting better. Even though we have to hold you down and squirt the awful smelling antibiotics down your throat. I promise they are making you better. And I am sorry I have threatened to put them up your behind if you don't sit still. I won't do that.

So, on your healthy days, you are freaking hilarious. I swear, you are the funniest kid I have ever met. All you want to do is "party" as you call it, or dance to your Wiggles tunes (You say party because the Wiggles say, "Hello. We're the Wiggles. Hoop Dee Do for the Wiggly Party.") You run over to the stereo and move your little arms from side to side, bob your head up and down, and do the high kick very fast (like "I'm a maniac! manaic! on the floor!") That is your party. You ask us every day, at least five times a day, "Parteeeee???" How can we deny you your parties?

The newest toy that you are obsessed with is your Thomas the Train choo choo. It is an authentic Thomas (aka it was $10.99, and I'll be damned if I tried to replace it with the cheaper version. You have expensive taste.) You carry that thing everywhere with you, and when you don't have it, you put your arms up and say, "Choo choo???" There have been nights where the train has gone to bed with you. What a cuddly toy -- a nice, tiny, wooden choo choo train.

In the bathtub we have lots of foam letters and numbers. Every night I go over the letters with you, and usually you repeat after me. "H," I say. "Ossssshhh," you say. Then you proceed to put the letter "I" in your mouth. So, I thought all of my teaching had gone to waste. But then, one night, your daddy and I were both giving you a bath and you pulled a letter out from out of your back and said, "M!" And, it was indeed te letter "M"!!! How you knew that I will never know. But, you certainly impressed us. We will live off of that one until you are at least six.

Sometimes daycare will write little notes to us and recently they wrote, "Abe was his happy-go-lucky self dancing and laughing all day." And, that made me so happy. You are so happy-go-lucky. What a great thing to be! To hear you laugh or see you smile is all I look forward to every day after a long day of work. I love to kiss your big belly and practice dance moves with you.

Today I finally used my $25 on ITunes I got for Christmas. Instantly I knew what song I wanted to get. It was a song that I heard a lot when I was pregnant with you, and particularly the day I went into labor with you (it was a really big hit back in the year 2006.) I remember laying on my bed at 6 in the morning. My giant belly reached to the sky, and I was having earth shattering contractions. I prayed that you would be born, and as I listened to this song it seemed like it was written for you and me. (Okay, and my hormones, were like CRAZY).

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

Love,
Mama