20 Months!

Can you believe it?!?!  My little miracle baby is 20 months old today!! Where has the time gone??!?! People always tell you that time flies and your kids will be teenagers or adults before you know it, and you know what....they're right!!  I think back to last year and I can't even remember Stephen when he was a little baby.  I don't remember what we did on a daily basis other than all of the doctor appointments and hospital stays.  Like what we did on normal days.  Now some days are filled with doctor appointments, but most days are filled with regular stuff like errands and walks and jaunts to the park.

I wish I had done a better job at tracking Stephen's milestone's like the first time he rolled over and the first time he said Momma.  It's the normal stuff that I sometimes forget to write down (and maybe I have done some of that and it's embedded into this blog) and I definitely haven't kept a baby book.  I now realize I forgot to track Stephen's height on a growth chart.  Thankfully his doctor's keep excellent records of that on an almost weekly basis, so I can go back in and fill in the holes, but I want to be better about writing this stuff down.  Stephen just amazes me right now.  Everything he does and says is just such a gift!

I'm in awe of his accomplishments and every time he does something like crawl across the floor to get a ball or says a word, or reaches for a glass of water, I just get the biggest smile and feel so damn proud of him!  This is the boy that everyone told me would never live more than a few hours.  The little boy that was never given a chance.  And now he's this beautiful, amazing, loving, fun, happy (except for the occasion toddler-like tantrum when I think my child's been replaced by the devil) little boy who tells every single person he sees "hi" and "bye."  And how loves to climb up stairs more than anything and who can work an iPhone/iPad/iPod like no one's business!  And who most of all loves music!!

He loves seeing other children and calls them all "baby," he still can't live without his monkey or his binkie (and that's fine by me), he wakes up screaming in the middle of the night so that Bill or I have to go in and pick him up and rock him back to sleep, like every other toddler, he loves Elmo, he is talking up a storm and says so many words now like dog, bird, backpack, Poppa, help, hat and understands directions and a lot of what you tell him.  He LOVES getting a tubby in our kitchen sick and throws a tantrum every time we take him out, he hates being put on his back because he knows that usually means something's going to happen, but songs like "the wheels on the bus" and "the itsy bitsy spider" usually  do the trick to calm him right down.  His favorite book is the "Fire Engine Book" and Eric Carle's animal books like, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear."  Every time he pets Mabel, he laughs and he loves chewing on toothbrushes and standing at the bathroom sink with me.

But most of all, he's so affectionate! He loves to give hugs to anything and everything and it melts my heart every.single.time.

I took two little videos of Stephen tonight so I can remember just how much I loved that little voice with the slight southern twang.  I hope it never goes away!!!

[If you can't view the embedded videos, go to My Channel on YouTube to see all of Stephen's videos]