Dear Mack - Months 13 & 14

Dear Maverick,

I think for the time being I will be doing your letters two months at a time...at least until July...and then all bets are off. I am thinking this because one month seems to pass in seconds, you're changing so fast. On Saturday you turned 14 months old. Looking through pictures we've taken these last eight weeks for the photo project we did in March, it's like I can see you becoming such a big kid right before my eyes.

Some mornings I am amazed at how much you have grown and changed overnight. Each sleep turning you more into a boy and less my baby...but both just as sweet.

You have always been very vocal and inquisitve, but it is definitely increasing as you babble your way through the day sounding like you are having a complete conversation with inflection and expression and everything. You are becoming such a sponge for information and I am having to be very careful with that and what you see as you imitate so much. Shortly after your first birthday, you started pointing at whatever was in front of you and saying "what's dis?" or "what's dat?" And as soon as I tell you what everything is, you move on to your next item of business on your busy pre-toddler schedule. Now we spend lots of time every day saying "And that is laundry detergent. And that is a towel. That is a trash can. That is a leaf....and a lid...and a piece of paper....and a spatula". And you are happy as a clam toddling off with your new-found knowledge and your first complete spoken phrases, which are "What's this? & "What's that?"

And then there is the walking. Finally the walking!!! After 7, yes SEVEN long months of cruising you are finally up on 2 legs. After being one of the first in your peer group to crawl way back in September, I was certain you would also be an early walker.

I could not have been more wrong. I am certain this assumption is not the first time I will look foolish for thinking I have you figured out...and in this instance you taught me a very good lesson. I hope I remember it. You still are not an exclusive walker, and spend good part of your day crawling, but you can walk when and as far as you want to, and you are very proud of yourself when you do. Of course with every bit of new mobility for you comes a new childproofing challenge for me. Recently, you have discovered the toilets. And now, if I turn my back on you for an instant, you scurry to see if one of the bathroom doors happens to be open. I try to keep them closed, but a couple of times over the past weeks, I heard splashing and discovered you with your arms submerged to the elbows in toilet water, gleefully paddling away. Ick...

You are also developing an awareness of humor. By that I mean that you have figured out that when you do certain things, I laugh, and you like it when I laugh, so you do those things more and then try to think of new things to do that will make me laugh. Funnily enough, I feel the same way about you.

You mimic actions a lot more than you used to do. The other day you came across a hair scrunchie that had fallen off my bathroom counter onto the floor and without any hesitation you picked it up and started trying to put it on your head. It's amazing to me how much you are learning just from watching.

Like putting things inside of anything.

Or how to hold the phone with your shoulder, just like mommy.

Or how to push buttons - and enjoy cause/effect.

You have had a couple of semi rough days as you are starting to bust through some molars which has resulted in quite a bit of mucous/slobber for you and a good bit of nose-wiping from me. I could devote an entire blog to the topic of how much this kid hates to have his nose wiped, but I will spare you.

All these little things are adding up to a growing sense for me that you are really becoming less of a baby and more and more of an independent little person. And I'm so proud of all your accomplishments, but it also makes me a little sad to see that baby slip away more and more every day.

Which is why I'm glad that every night when we start to wind down for bed time, you still crawl up in my lap and let me rub your back and massage oil into your growing legs and sing you songs and when you start to get sleepy I ask you if you are ready for "night night" you crawl up and lay your head on my shoulder and off we go to snuggle and cuddle for a last bit in your room before you fall asleep. I love that.

And I love you,

Mommy