Soon after Silas was born I asked my mom, “How do you have a child and not be sad every day because they’re growing up?”

At that time, Silas’s milestones came so fast, I couldn’t keep up with my emotions–1 day old, 1 week old, 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 1 month, 2 months… She told me her favorite age is 18 months. A toddler’s personality is so much fun, and she loves how they aren’t capable of jumping even though they want to really badly! (I haven’t yet tried to get Silas to jump–maybe tomorrow.)

So, whenever I would feel sad that Silas was growing too quickly, I would remind myself that he hadn’t yet reached mom’s favorite age, 18 months. Today Silas is a year and a half, and surprisingly, I wasn’t sad about it.

We took him to the park tonight after supper and had a blast playing, laughing, climbing on the playground equipment, taking pictures, and watching him conquer the tube slide for the first time. His favorite thing was to run down the hill as fast as he could toward us not knowing how to brake before slamming into us.

This little guy is babbling up a storm these days. He says, “Da” (for Dad), baby, whoa, wow, hi, eye, “ah-dah” (all done) and uh-oh. Sometimes he pops out a new word here and there, but it’s hard to get him to repeat them. He’s also learned to touch his lips and say, “Shhh.” Silas can point out his eye, ear, nose, mouth, chin, head, belly and feet. He loves to lie down on his back, tickle his tummy, and say, “tickle, tickle, tickle” to get us to tickle him.

I think knowing that Silas will soon be a big brother helps me to be glad at this “grown up” stage.