Freeze.

Sweet Little Ben,

If I could just stop time, I would freeze you right here. At 15 months you are at such a happy, happy, easy, easy, easy, fun stage. There is just a tinge of "baby" left in you, but the growth, development, independence, and hints of "little boy" are so fun to watch emerge. I would change poopy diapers and cut all of your food up into little tiny squares forever if it just meant that you could stay this way.

I'm not sure if you were a high maintenance baby or I was a high stress mommy (yes, probably both), but the first year of your life was filled with so many questions. "Why won't he sleep?" "Why won't he poop?" "What do we do?" I went to every well-check with a list of questions for your doctor. You have an appointment next week and I can't even think of one thing to ask him. Everything seems to be right on track and we are enjoying every bit of you.

You love to brush your teeth and ask to do so several times a day.



You smile and laugh at everything. Life is a delight for you. While we were on vacation, Gramma said, "Dangit!" and slapped her knee. You thought it was the funniest thing you'd ever heard, so she did it again and again and again. Now you say "Dangit!" and slap your knee, too. We really have to be careful because you are beginning to mimic everything!



You run and climb and explore everything you can reach. By the end of the day, we are even more exhausted than you are. We just smile and sigh.



You still have an odd infatuation with the vacuum. Gramma and Grampa finally bought one that is just your size, and the fact that Dirt Devil makes one leads me to believe that you aren't alone among your peers.



You eat what we eat, which makes life simpler, too. Here you are enjoying your first corn dog at Kincaid's.



You have a crazy sweet tooth, too. A boy after my own heart. Dark Chocolate ice cream from Cold Stone? Yes please!



You love to watch animals, but every animal makes a "woof, woof, woof!" sound, just like Gramma and Grampa's dog, Buck. We'll work on that.





Our only "challenge" might be the fact that you're not going to sleep quite as easily as you used to in the evenings. We used to be able to just lay you down and walk out of the room, but now you demand some rocking and singing (sometimes it takes 30 minutes before you pass out!). This doesn't bother us a bit, because it's the only time during the day that you're still enough for us to snuggle you.

Sometimes you just want to get out of bed and hang out for a little bit longer, and we are generally happy to oblige. Sometimes we even give you a graham cracker and let you watch TV with us, just to sweeten the deal. Maybe this wouldn't win us any parenting awards, but we enjoy the "bonus" time.



You are pure joy, my boy, and we couldn't be more thankful.

Mom