Letter to our 13 month old

Dear William,

On January 8, 2013, you turned 13 months or 1 year and 1 month old.  Although when people ask how old you are, I simply say, “One year…”  It’s easier that way.  I learned to do that from my neighbor lady.

You weigh 29 pounds 2 ounces.  You still wear some 18 month size clothing, but are wearing mostly 24 month or 2T sizes.  Shoes: Infant 6 EW.  Coat/Jacket: 3T.   We use cloth diapers, and when you’re on my watch I find that I double-stuff the inserts.  Something is going on with you this week, you’ve had poop issues and did a couple poosplosions in cloth, which is nearly unheard of in the cloth diaper world.  Shocking!  It was on your father’s watch (thank you!!) and he said there was no diaper in the world that could have contained all that.  Anyway, moving on…

This past month we celebrated Christmas and New Year’s and spent lots of time with family.  You love your cousins and think they are incredibly funny, and in return, they really adore you.  This makes me incredibly happy and it’s like a dream come true for us, as parents, to watch you having such a good time with them.

Your birthday was such a busy day (a post dedicated to your birthday party is coming up), but I wanted to take you to Disneyland to celebrate it, so we ended up going a couple days after your birthday.  We rode on the monorail, which you loved because you weren’t strapped into anything and you could stand there pressed against the glass as you watched everything go by.  We also rode the carousel and visited the petting zoo!

We went to Sea World for the last day of 2012, and you saw the biggest black and white “CAT!” you’ve ever seen in your life.  I have to agree, that “cat” was pretty huge!  You also walked around in their Snow World.  It was pretty slippery and you would get your butt up and rock your weight to stand up, and then your butt would go back down. Rinse and repeat.  After laughing because it was so cute, I finally helped you stand and walk on the slippery stuff and you loved it.  You also really loved their big Christmas tree with all the BALLS on it.  You getting your nap is always a concern huge cause of stress for me, and after my mommy-fail at our Queen Mary outing, I decided to take you to the car and nurse you and just let you sleep on me.  With that strategy in place, I relaxed a bit and you ended up taking a 1.5  hour nap on my lap.  It’s been a long time since you’ve slept on me, and I savored every second of watching your beautiful face while you slept, feeling and watching your chest rising and falling, and hearing your little sighs.  I was thrilled to discover that you still smile and laugh in your sleep.

I love mealtimes with you.  We went out to dinner one night at a Mexican restaurant, a totally spontaneous thing.  We had been grocery shopping and as we walked out, I saw the Mexican place.  Since your father was working, it was just you and me.  Dinner with my son.  You sat there, sharing my meal with me, eating rice, beans and chicken.  I was unaware that the owner of the restaurant was watching us through the window, until he came out and offered to give you some more rice and beans because, as he said,  “He loves my rice and beans!!”  In the mornings when I’m home with you (like over the holiday break and weekends), I love eating my breakfast with you and you really enjoy sharing my steel cut oatmeal.  I try to ensure that you get one raisin with every bite of oatmeal, and you seem to appreciate my attention to this detail.

Library story time and Music Together classes have started back up this month after a holiday break.  Your music class is held in a big, open room with lots of space to roam.  You really enjoy walking around, your little legs as they step look like you’re pedaling a bicycle.  We worry about your roaming, but the teacher says that you’re still learning and just to let you roam.  The music follows you!  You love to watch and interact with the other kids there, too.  When the instrument free-time happens, you’re no longer dependent on crawling in the midst of everyone… now, you walk up to the teacher and stand there, first in line, waiting impatiently for the teacher to dump all the instruments out on the floor.  You wanted first dibs on the goods!   From observing the look on your face while you waited, I can see that we need to work on patience with you!  I can’t help but think back to the last series of classes when crawling was your main mode of transportation, and how there was another little boy who was a walker but he speed-crawled next to you and you two raced to the door, you giggling so hard about the fact that someone your size was crawling alongside of you!  I imagine you’ll giggle your way through running races now!

For New Year’s day, your father installed the WeeRide Kangaroo Bicycle seat on his bike; one of his Christmas presents from me.  He’d had a bicycle trailer on his wish list forever, but the reviews weren’t nearly as glowing on that as they were for the WeeRide.  Having now seen this in action, I can completely understand why.  Mounted on the center bar, you’re right up with us, hugged by a parent the entire ride.  We took you for a spin around the neighborhood and you immensely enjoyed being up with us where all the activity happens and you could see what was going on.

Developments:
Walking — You started taking independent steps on 11/27, and every day you would add more and more.  Now, you’re pretty much a full-on biped! I can put you down and you stand there independently (instead of folding to a sitting position), and as of January 1st, you toddle around about 95% of the time, and 5% of the time you crawl.  Now, at 13 months, crawling is pretty rare.  I have to tell you, I thought the crawling naked baby before bathtime was funny, but the walking naked baby before bathtime is absolutely hilarious!  Especially because you are obsessed with the big red Yoga ball that we keep in the bedroom.  I used to bounce you on that ball when you were a newborn to get you to go to sleep, now you think bouncing on that ball is hilarious (which is why I stopped doing it when you were around 4-5 months old).  It’s amazing how much a difference a month, or even a week, makes in your development. Last year, at one month old, you would lay on your back and smile  at the ceiling fan as it went round and round.

You are obsessed with opening and closing bedroom and bathroom doors. There is no containing you these days.  I get bathroom privacy by locking the door, and you stand outside of the door and jabber about why the door knob isn’t working, while you repeatedly jiggle the handle.  You also love to press the water and ice dispenser buttons on the refrigerator door, and have started spraying yourself in the face with it.  That makes me laugh.  You are so curious (nosey?), you like to see what’s on the counters and table and will stand on your tiptoes and peer over, while you reach your hand up there, looking for all the world like an elephant trunk, exploring to see what you can reach and pull down.  As much of a workout as your tiptoes get, I don’t doubt that you will be either a ballet dancer or a basketball player.  ha

I bought a stuffed Rudolph on clearance at Big Lots after Christmas.  You showed zero interest in it while we were shopping.  I got it home and stuck it on the back of the couch, not even realizing that it’s the exact size of our cats.  Well, now it’s your own personal Rudolph “CAT!”  It’s one of the first things you ask for every morning, and you carry it around with you, lay down on top of it, smile at it, drool on it.  Silly me, thinking it would be a cute Christmas decoration.

Talking — “Cat” was one of your first words, not surprising as we have 5 of them. Mama and Dada were right around the same time. “Ball” is a favorite word of yours. “Car” is another favorite. We all know about the “tater tot” video. haha Although I’m not sure that really counts because you have no clue what a tater tot is. “Bye Bye” combined with any of the above.  One  morning we were walking downstairs.   All the cats were lined up at the gate and as soon as they saw us, they beelined down the stairs ahead of us, and we followed a herd of tails down.  I thought you would say CAT!! as you usually do, but instead you waved at them and said “BYE BYE CATS!”  “Up” when you want up. “Nananana” is for banana and “pop” is popsicle, two of your favorite foods in the whole world. “Nana” with the milk sign is for nursing.  You greet people with “Haaaiiiiii” and say “K” when asked if something is “ok”… “wow” if something amazes you, like the Christmas tree or lights, and “Cool” if you like something. You practice these words regularly and will pop off and on while nursing to say them, and also when you wake up. Also, you understand far more than what you say, like shoes, jacket, froggy (your lovey), plane, etc., Things that are day-to-day or are in the books that you read. You will flip to pages in a book if I ask you to find something.  The morning of your 13 month birthday, you finished nursing and looked up at me and said, “Turt… turt.”  Knowing that your Grandma D. has a turtle and turtle is mentioned in your Quiet Loud book, I asked, “Turtle?”  You smiled and repeated, “Turtle.”  I finished the sentence, “Turtles are quiet!”  Then you said, “Cats” and hissed.  haha  Other things you say, “What’s this?,”  “What’s that?,” “Uh oh.”  You say, “Awww awww” to mimic the cawing sound of birds outside.  You also like to say a high-pitched “Ahhhh” when you know that the sound will echo. Waaawaaa (fake crying), Uh oh (timed perfectly with dropping something or when someone else drops something), Uh uh uh uh uh uhhhhh (timed with something you shouldn’t be doing).  In addition to the “milk” sign, you also sign “more” and “all done.” You do a whole lot of body language and pointing, which is also a form of communication. I feel like there are other things you say, but can’t remember them just now.  You seem to be very linguistic.

Teeth — Your 7th tooth, the upper left lateral incisor poked through on December 24th.  I laughed about that one, singing, “All he wants for Christmas is his 7th front tooth, his 7th front tooth…”  Your 8th tooth, the upper right lateral incisor poked through on January 9th.  It looks like your upper left cuspid tooth is following hot on their heels.

Despite all that teething, you continue to be a great sleeper.  The one nap schedule is working out well for you… except for Fridays, which is garbage truck day.  Ain’t no one in the neighborhood gets naps on Fridays.  If you’re actively teething, you sometimes have trouble falling asleep. Understandable, I think.  Because if I’m in pain, I have trouble falling asleep, too.  Usually, though, on nights like that, a ten minute cuddle session goes a long way toward easing you into dreamland.  Of the handful of times when you’ve had trouble falling asleep, there have been a couple of times when I get frustrated… I’m human after all and have a lot of things to do each evening before I get to go to bed.  But when you reach for me, and then relax against me, I remember how comforting it was to have my mommy hold me when I was little… and sometimes still to this day. The simple trust that you have that I’ll be there for you, and that my presence is reassuring and comforting to you, melts my frustration away.  Especially because there has never been a time recently when you’re not actively trying to go to sleep.  You try, oh, how you try.  And so, giving you a peaceful journey to sleep is my gift to you on those nights.

Exasperated and unable to sleep…

Food/Nourishment — you still nurse and you really seem to enjoy it.  You haven’t really cut any nursing sessions out of your schedule, although you’ve shortened a couple of them, or are preferring to block feed.  Your nursing hasn’t impacted the amount that I pump when I’m at work, so I know I have good and established supply.  Studies have shown that breastmilk is a living fluid and contains all the nutrients and vitamins you need, and so even if you don’t “eat” all that well, as long as you nurse, I have confidence that you will be perfectly nourished and hydrated.   Lately, your “solids” appetite has been off, and I’m attributing that to all these teeth you’re getting. That being said, though, food is not something I worry about with you.  You love food… you prefer turkey or chicken over other meats.  Broccoli, brussel sprouts, beans of any sort (kidney, green, etc.), peas, avocado, onions are favorite vegetables.  Potatoes and sweet potatoes are always good.  You haven’t found a fruit yet that you dislike.  Banana, apple, pear, oranges, mango… the list goes on and on.  The only thing I’ve found that you repeatedly and immediately spit out are carrots.  You don’t really seem to care much for eggs, either.  You like toast with butter, but French toast was a no go.  You like to load your spoon yourself, and think it’s great fun to get things on it and hurry it to your mouth.  You like the spoon to be right side up, and you actually get much of the food in your mouth.  We’ve added raisins to the portable snack list, along with Cheerios and bananas.  Those are things you’ll eat no matter what.

Things I want to remember about you this month:  How rapidly you went from crawling to walking, just a short month. The way you converse with us, so emphatically, and I swear it sounds just like you’re speaking some sort of foreign language (I blame your Grandma D., she’s trying to teach your Korean haha).  The way you moan and groan when you eat a food you like and how I know that’s how you’ve actually gotten into your mouth.  How you play games — playing patty-cake — you started doing this while nursing, patting against the palm of my hand, accompanied by nursing smiles, seriously, one of the cutest things ever.  You have an amazing sense of humor and I can’t help but remember even when you were in-utero, how funny you were.  When we picked up your 1 year pictures, I was holding you and the receipt they needed to find the order.  I set the receipt on the counter and you reached for it, but I didn’t want you to have it, so I turned it into a game of sliding it just out of your reach.  You started giggling and playing.  Or how when you have something and we ask, “May I see it?”  You will reach as if to hand it to us, and then pull it away just at the last second and laugh and laugh… PSYCH!!”  haha How determined and focused you are on things and how when you’re done focusing you turn around and smile at us with a great big “Haaaiiiii!”  The way you say “Ahhhh” when you know your voice will echo, like in the foyer of Walmart or the landing of our staircase.  The way you smile when I ask if you want to see your neighborhood before I open the shutters in the morning. The way your little legs look as you walk around, with your little fluff butt on top of them.  How nostalgic I was the first time you walked away from me, but then you turned around and grinned at me.  I couldn’t help but think how symbolic that was of how life with you will likely be from here on out… walking away but grinning back.

Love, Momma