Dear Rowan (16 months),

Everyone warns you and it's 100% true!  Your babyhood went by so fast and now you are squarely a toddler.  You are the blondest thing that a girl like me could ever have a hand in producing.  Everyone calls you a "tow head" which confuses me.  I know it means that you are blonde, but as to whether it was "toe" or "tow" I was unsure.  I just looked it up on the internet, and it has German roots: tow headed is literally "flaxen haired". This meaning of tow comes from Middle Low German touw (which means "flax, hemp fiber") 

and so there you are, boy with the flaxen hair.  

Your favorite word is "uh-oh." You say it to the exclusion of all other words.  Sometimes you draw it out "UH...........

........oh."   such dramatic affectations already.  You get that from your Dad ;)  You are an EXCEPTIONAL dancer.  You are also an exceptional sleeper and I can't tell you how that has changed my life and made all things possible.  We had a rough go of things for a while there, but the moment that I went to NYC for 12 days you made an executive decision to 1. stop nursing (we kind of co-made that one) and 2. sleep through the night.  Your dad thought it was funny that the first night you slept all the way through was the first night I was gone thereby making the fact that you didn't sleep "my fault."  ha.
Now you sleep from 7 pm till 7 am most days and that is AWESOME.

You love to play in dirt and with water, you and your dad went to the beach a lot this summer and you are fearless when it comes to water.  You just run right in until you fall down and then you pop up-- so happy and drenched (and thankfully not drowned because your dad chases you all around while I sit and lament the heat.  I can't help it I'm such a Yank)

One of the (many) funny things you do is after bathtime when we kiss you goodnight you usually dodge us both and then one night you grabbed both our heads and pushed them together so that we'd kiss each other instead of you and we all thought it was so funny that now you do that every single night.  You splash the CRAP out of me at bathtime, you fresh thing.

Other fun things: you empty the pantry regularly, you're warming up to the idea of the piano, if even the slightest hint of a dog bark passes on any light breeze, you immediately bark like a dog, you approach dogs in our neighborhood freely but are deeply offended when they lick you and you reprimand them severely for it, you climb up to your room and sit in the rocking chair with books-- whenever we can't find you that's where you are, you think it's really funny to kick me in the belly when I change you-- that will have to change soon :)

There's a little brother or sister on the way for you!  You are very sweet and cautious with other babies so that makes me happy, I can't wait to see you turn into a big brother!