I'm a little horrified that I haven't written you a letter since April. You are at the age where you change so much and fast!
You are definitely in the terrible twos. We notice it more in attitude than necessarily breaking of things. Don't get me wrong, you've broken my phone and a few other things. But that was all ages ago. I think that happened even before you were two.
Now you're just grumpy and sulky. You want to be held all of the time! You're too big for this and I'm having flashbacks to babies. You're definitely keeping your mom happy to be finished having kids! You have meltdowns and temper tantrums. You hit. It's not unfamiliar to see your arm going violently up and down on a victim.
You say, "No!" in the most bratty, sulky voice. I actually find it funny. You still floor flop. You love to yank on my clothes and cry.
We are still breastfeeding. Sigh. You call it, "the other side." I've asked you enough times if you want the other side that now you think that's what it's called. It's cute and so I haven't corrected you. Although I do goof sometimes and call it breastfeeding.
It's not entirely your fault that we're still breastfeeding. I had you about weaned. I had said no enough times that you had stopped asking for it. You could lay in bed with me and not ask for it. My heart about broke. On the third day of no breastfeeding, I reminded you. "Do you want the other side?" I asked. Of course you agreed.
You love breastfeeding. Without my interference (telling you no constantly) we would be breastfeeding for a long time. But you're two. Almost two and a half. I know it's time to stop. I think this might be the hardest part for me of you being my last kid. It breaks my heart to stop.
After a few weeks of you breastfeeding multiple times a day (in July), we're back down to one time a day. I'm determined to stop within the next month or two. It was hard to stop this summer. We could do morning cuddles. That's going to stop once school starts.
Of course, school is going to be funny this year. I haven't mentioned this, partially because I haven't written to you and partially because this effects you hardly at all, but COVID-19 pandemic is going on. You miss out on nursery. That's about it for the changes. For a while, I didn't take you shopping. Dad and I have changed that as you like to go and it provides a break for the other parent.
Although you are a horrible shopper. You run. Or you dilly dally. You can really go slow! I've resorted to taking the baby carrier, that's meant for, you know... a baby. When I get fed up, I put you in it. You do not like the baby carrier but have come to gradually accept it.
One thing that is fun is that your talking has exploded the past few months. You have been a slow talker. I was shocked the other month when you clearly said, "Let go of me." Four words stung together! Look at you. We still can't understand you most of the time. We often ask you to show us. My favorite speech habit of yours is that you say, "Do!" instead of "Yes!"
You are fairly good at playing by yourself. I blame YouTube. We let you watch way too much YouTube. I got fed up with you not holding still for diaper changes. I held out for a long time but eventually gave you the phone for diaper changes. Over six months of that, and you are a pro with the phone. You really know how to work it. You call it, "hone" and ask for it every diaper change. You call me "Ma" and I feel like I'm on Little House on the Prairie.
Anyway. You often watch videos of people playing with toys. This has made you quite the expert on play. You get this sweet little falsetto voice when you play. I love that innocent voice! I love watching you play and have fun.
You're starting to walk down the stairs which is huge. You hold onto the railing but you're doing it. It seemed like you went down on your belly for forever!
Your favorite book is, "Chalk" by Bill Thomson. Every page that has the vicious dinosaur on it, you'll exclaim, "Oh no! Saur! Saur!" It's adorable.
There you have it, Crew. You are equal parts cute and aggravating. Some days I can't wait for you to grow up and other days I want to cry because you're growing up! You are my forever baby and I love you. So much.
Love,
Mom
Okay, I just found some notes of things you do. We had the missionaries over for home church. We all got distracted for a moment and looked over to find you drinking the missionaries sacrament water! We all got a good laugh at that.
Your favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast. You get exposed to a lot of girly movies thanks to Bria. I don't mind. But I must say that you've taken an interest in cars in a way that Bria never has.
You learned how to jump a few months ago. You went through a phase were you would jump up and down quite a bit. It reminded me of a rain dance.
You like to eat bananas like a monkey, just like Dallin and Akarie. I can't take them out of the peel because you like to pull it down. You also went through a phase where I had to leave granola bars in their wrappers. You wanted to be the one taking them out.
I have two lists of boy names on my sticky tabs on the computer. I haven't erased them because it's precious to me. I figured I better record them here. Plus, I know it's interesting to see what names parents considered. I looked for names by looking through the social security name index. Any name in the top 100 was eliminated. We liked more unique names. There were two different lists from different searches. I reviewed the 1000 many, many times.
List #1:
Lawson
Hugo
Pierce
Kyson
Titon
Crew
Turner
List#2:
Barrett
Otto
Alastair
We ultimately liked Crew the most. It was a slow process. We were first introduced to your name because Dallin had a Crew in his class. We heard about Crew and liked the name. When we saw it in the social security name index, we added it to our list of possible names and it eventually won out. I also have to say that celebrities, Chip and Joanna Gaines, had a boy a few months after you and named him Crew. I blame them for the bump in popularity of your name the year you were born. We named you before they had their boy and announced his name! I don't think we would have named you something else just because of that. I need to clarify that we weren't copying them. Ha, ha.
I remember really liking the name Hugo and Otto. I couldn't get Anne Frank our of my mind for Otto. I worried Hugo was too dorky. Pierce seemed too violent. Barrett was too popular. I loved the idea of calling you Bear! I don't know if that would have been cute as you aged... I never seriously considered Alastair, Lawson, or Titon. Titon was too God-like and hard to pronounce that second "t." Lawson Lewis was a little much. Alastair had the same dorky potential component as Hugo.
After you were born in the parking lot, my family suggested names like Parker and Carson. Ha, ha.
You are definitely in the terrible twos. We notice it more in attitude than necessarily breaking of things. Don't get me wrong, you've broken my phone and a few other things. But that was all ages ago. I think that happened even before you were two.
Now you're just grumpy and sulky. You want to be held all of the time! You're too big for this and I'm having flashbacks to babies. You're definitely keeping your mom happy to be finished having kids! You have meltdowns and temper tantrums. You hit. It's not unfamiliar to see your arm going violently up and down on a victim.
You say, "No!" in the most bratty, sulky voice. I actually find it funny. You still floor flop. You love to yank on my clothes and cry.
We are still breastfeeding. Sigh. You call it, "the other side." I've asked you enough times if you want the other side that now you think that's what it's called. It's cute and so I haven't corrected you. Although I do goof sometimes and call it breastfeeding.
It's not entirely your fault that we're still breastfeeding. I had you about weaned. I had said no enough times that you had stopped asking for it. You could lay in bed with me and not ask for it. My heart about broke. On the third day of no breastfeeding, I reminded you. "Do you want the other side?" I asked. Of course you agreed.
You love breastfeeding. Without my interference (telling you no constantly) we would be breastfeeding for a long time. But you're two. Almost two and a half. I know it's time to stop. I think this might be the hardest part for me of you being my last kid. It breaks my heart to stop.
After a few weeks of you breastfeeding multiple times a day (in July), we're back down to one time a day. I'm determined to stop within the next month or two. It was hard to stop this summer. We could do morning cuddles. That's going to stop once school starts.
Of course, school is going to be funny this year. I haven't mentioned this, partially because I haven't written to you and partially because this effects you hardly at all, but COVID-19 pandemic is going on. You miss out on nursery. That's about it for the changes. For a while, I didn't take you shopping. Dad and I have changed that as you like to go and it provides a break for the other parent.
Although you are a horrible shopper. You run. Or you dilly dally. You can really go slow! I've resorted to taking the baby carrier, that's meant for, you know... a baby. When I get fed up, I put you in it. You do not like the baby carrier but have come to gradually accept it.
One thing that is fun is that your talking has exploded the past few months. You have been a slow talker. I was shocked the other month when you clearly said, "Let go of me." Four words stung together! Look at you. We still can't understand you most of the time. We often ask you to show us. My favorite speech habit of yours is that you say, "Do!" instead of "Yes!"
You are fairly good at playing by yourself. I blame YouTube. We let you watch way too much YouTube. I got fed up with you not holding still for diaper changes. I held out for a long time but eventually gave you the phone for diaper changes. Over six months of that, and you are a pro with the phone. You really know how to work it. You call it, "hone" and ask for it every diaper change. You call me "Ma" and I feel like I'm on Little House on the Prairie.
Anyway. You often watch videos of people playing with toys. This has made you quite the expert on play. You get this sweet little falsetto voice when you play. I love that innocent voice! I love watching you play and have fun.
You're starting to walk down the stairs which is huge. You hold onto the railing but you're doing it. It seemed like you went down on your belly for forever!
Your favorite book is, "Chalk" by Bill Thomson. Every page that has the vicious dinosaur on it, you'll exclaim, "Oh no! Saur! Saur!" It's adorable.
There you have it, Crew. You are equal parts cute and aggravating. Some days I can't wait for you to grow up and other days I want to cry because you're growing up! You are my forever baby and I love you. So much.
Love,
Mom
Okay, I just found some notes of things you do. We had the missionaries over for home church. We all got distracted for a moment and looked over to find you drinking the missionaries sacrament water! We all got a good laugh at that.
Your favorite movie is Beauty and the Beast. You get exposed to a lot of girly movies thanks to Bria. I don't mind. But I must say that you've taken an interest in cars in a way that Bria never has.
You learned how to jump a few months ago. You went through a phase were you would jump up and down quite a bit. It reminded me of a rain dance.
You like to eat bananas like a monkey, just like Dallin and Akarie. I can't take them out of the peel because you like to pull it down. You also went through a phase where I had to leave granola bars in their wrappers. You wanted to be the one taking them out.
I have two lists of boy names on my sticky tabs on the computer. I haven't erased them because it's precious to me. I figured I better record them here. Plus, I know it's interesting to see what names parents considered. I looked for names by looking through the social security name index. Any name in the top 100 was eliminated. We liked more unique names. There were two different lists from different searches. I reviewed the 1000 many, many times.
List #1:
Lawson
Hugo
Pierce
Kyson
Titon
Crew
Turner
List#2:
Barrett
Otto
Alastair
We ultimately liked Crew the most. It was a slow process. We were first introduced to your name because Dallin had a Crew in his class. We heard about Crew and liked the name. When we saw it in the social security name index, we added it to our list of possible names and it eventually won out. I also have to say that celebrities, Chip and Joanna Gaines, had a boy a few months after you and named him Crew. I blame them for the bump in popularity of your name the year you were born. We named you before they had their boy and announced his name! I don't think we would have named you something else just because of that. I need to clarify that we weren't copying them. Ha, ha.
I remember really liking the name Hugo and Otto. I couldn't get Anne Frank our of my mind for Otto. I worried Hugo was too dorky. Pierce seemed too violent. Barrett was too popular. I loved the idea of calling you Bear! I don't know if that would have been cute as you aged... I never seriously considered Alastair, Lawson, or Titon. Titon was too God-like and hard to pronounce that second "t." Lawson Lewis was a little much. Alastair had the same dorky potential component as Hugo.
After you were born in the parking lot, my family suggested names like Parker and Carson. Ha, ha.
