16 Months

Dear Cris,

Have you ever heard the saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’? I don’t think it could be more accurate for anything right now if not for you, and the 16 months you have been in our lives as of today. They have FLOWN by. The last time I wrote you, you had just turned ONE, and although it seems like that was just yesterday, you have changed so drastically in 4 months, I can hardly believe it.

At 11 months & at 15 months <3

There is really no other way to put it; you are SUCH a little boy. Around Christmas you began to walk by yourself, and since then it has been like a whole new YOU has emerged. You have endless stores of energy; you run EVERYWHERE, you play silly games and enlist everyone’s help- because there is nothing you love more than having others play with you. Most recently, you’ve begun to use your imagination; we run from room to room and scare monsters together, we pretend to eat & drink from empty plates and cups, and you wander around peeking into cupboards, letting your mind understand the things you are seeing and how you can use them to make up some new game.

It amazes me that at this time last year you were only 4 months old, just a tiny, round little thing that cuddled, slept, and occasionally played small games. Sometimes I look at you and can’t understand how you became such a little person (and so fast!), and yet a part of me has already forgotten the little baby you were not all that long ago.

At 4-5 months, and at 16 months <3

Time is funny like that. Every day passes by, and you don’t think too much of it because that’s just the thing about time; it is constantly moving forward. But when you take a moment out of a day to think of all that changes when those days become weeks, months, and finally years? The days are long, but the years are short. The more I see you grow up, the more sad and nostalgic I am for the tiny little thing you once were, and yet I’m already imagining you as a child, reading Harry Potter with me, or playing soccer with your mom & dad. I’ve truly begun to see what kind of personality you’ll develop as you continue to get older, and I’m so excited to continue to see who you become as the months keep going by.

I know you’re still so small, but you are getting bigger in leaps and bounds. I love that when you see me, we start up right where we left off; you’ve decided what games we’ll be playing before I’ve even had time to take off my coat. I love when you take my hand and sit me down so I can show you something new, or so we can play some random new game I invent on the spot. Each week when I see you again, you’ve undoubtedly learned something that will utterly amaze me, and although I miss you on the days that I’m not around, I love discovering what kinds of things you’ve picked up from the world around you in that time.

The truth is, these letters, whenever you’re old enough to read them, will never be able to convey to you JUST how strange, wonderful, and completely amazing your life has been to those around you. Living these days with you and knowing that you won’t remember these moments for a few more years is so strange, and I want you to have something to look back on that shows you just how much your family adored you, and how much we’ve learned from YOU as you’ve grown up. You’re not just the first baby in our lives in a long time- you’ve made the whole family realize how important it is to spend time together. You’re getting to an age where you have realized that we all love to spend time together and we love to include you in every bit of it. I can’t wait to see how all our love for you translates into the early years of your life, and I only hope that as you get older, family is something you never, ever forget.

Happy 16-months-of life! There is nothing that I have loved more than being your aunt, and really, I just wanted you to know that today, as you hit another milestone in your life.