Dear Tristan - 22 months

Dear Tristan,
A few weeks ago, we took a trip up to the beach. We rode in the car with Papaw and then Daddy came up a few days later, when Papaw had to leave to go back to work.
You can’t help but get up at 7am when we are on vacation. You wake up and instead of going back to sleep like you do at home, you get so excited because we aren’t at home, that you just can’t help but stay awake.

The first morning that you woke up at the beach house, you climbed out of the pack and play and then launched yourself into the hallway at full speed shrieking with laughter; only to freeze and realize that you had no idea where you were. You cried hysterically for a minute but as soon as you saw me, you came to your senses and demanded that I bring you juice and tell you where your brother was at.

Finally, a trip to the beach and you weren’t trying to put the entire beach in your mouth!
You were fearless in the surf at the beach but apprehensive at the Sound which is where we spent most of our time. Going to the Sound was more like a vacation for Mommy than the beach was so we spent a lot of time there. At the Sound, I didn’t have to spend the entire time with my heart in my throat, watching you like a hawk, lest the ocean try to take you. You were able to play in the waters edge, collecting shells and after the third day of the trip, intermittently crying because you were completely exhausted from the excitement of the previous three days.
Papaw has the house set up nicely for guests under 4 years old. There’s a tire swing in the back and a baby pool that can be filled with freezing cold well water. And truly I think it might have been just as fun as playing at the beach for you and brother both.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that you are speaking in short three word sentences or that you have amazing agility and are able to climb anything. You’ve started retaliating against your brother and at times just randomly jump on him, hitting. The first few times we pretended like we didn’t see it as you’ve taken enough abuse from our eldest. But since we’ve had to break it up and put you in time out. But you’ve also discovered that you have a super power. You use those three word sentences to come up and say, “mama, ca-na, hit!” and then burst into tears as if you were hurt. More often than not, this is true, but there have been several times that I’m sure Connor has been completely innocent.
My personal favorite of all of your new skills is one that I think will serve you well in life. You are developing a sense of humor. You get a good laugh out of funny sounding words and there’s nothing that cracks you up more than pointing to your brother and yelling TIME OUT! It’s certainly not funny to him, but it makes you laugh every time. You love a good joke, a mild scare or a tickle. I’m so glad that your sense of humor is developing… you’re going to need it growing up in this family.
I love you,
Mama