Cheerful Sunday

Today, I am cheerful that I am 34 years old. I got to celebrate the day with my two most favourite guys who make me smile so big. I have amazing parents, family, and friends. I'm a lucky, lucky girl. Can't wait to see what the next year brings.

11 Months

Dear Sweet Baby,

How is it possible that you are nearly a year old! You are so awesome. I find myself utterly obsessed with how adorable and wonderful you are. I'm THAT mom. And I don't even care. I want everyone to know how amazing you are.

You are learning and growing so fast. You haven't made any real progress on walking, (just a couple of steps at a time, very rarely) but you are getting so steady at standing. You can stand without holding on to anything for a really long time. You get a look on your face like you're thinking about walking, but then think better of it and decide to crawl instead. I give you about a bazillion kisses a day which has led to your greatest trick yet. One day, we were out walking and I had you in the sling. I was talking to you about what we were doing and said something about "kisses". Imagine my surprise, when you started blowing sweet baby kisses to me! I did it again to make sure, and- sure enough- you know what "Kisses" means! Daddy and I are taking total advantage of this new trick and getting kisses from you as often as we can.

You are eating and sleeping well, though don't talk to me about naps. I said last month that I was going to work on getting you back in your crib for your naps, but that never happened. Partly, I just like snuggling with you now while I can! I know you won't always be a sweet little baby who wants to take naps with Mommy so I'm taking full advantage.

Stacking cups are still your favorite

The time has really flown by and it will be your first birthday before we know it. You are such a cool sweet little guy. Every night, after I've nursed you one last time, I hold you close and say "Mommy loves you so much. You are sweet and smart and beautiful and funny. Mommy and Daddy love you. Grandma and Grandpa love you. You'll go to sleep and have sweet dreams, then you'll wake up and we'll have a wonderful day." Sometimes I wax a bit rhapsodic about how you are the best thing Mommy and Daddy have ever done, etc. etc. if I'm feeling extra cheesy. But it's all true. I mean every word and I want it to soak into that gorgeous head of yours, so I'll say it over and over and over.

I love you, love you, love you.
Mommy

Word of the Week

Loftattic

Lofty Mysteries

Definition: The space under the roof of a house, often used for storage

Used in a sentence: Our flat may be lacking in storage space, but at least we have a loftattic!

10 Months

Dear Line,

Ten months! You are ten months old! We celebrated your first Christmas and got a picture taken with Santa.  I'm hoping to make it an annual tradition (though I think we'll try to find a better Santa next year... maybe one not located in a strip centre parking lot inside a tiny wooden hut!)

You surprised Daddy and me by taking your very first steps this month. You wanted one of us to pick you up and moved from Daddy to Mommy in hopes of some extra attention. (Daddy was busy working!) I was chatting to Grandma online, but saw you take two little steps just out the corner of my eye. Daddy saw it to and we couldn't believe it! You haven't managed more than one shaky step again, but you are getting much better at standing up on your own. You can balance for several seconds before you plop down on your little tushie. You still prefer to crawl for speed, but I don't think it will be long before you're running rings around us. You have also gotten the hang of waving this month. You love to wave to us, but are a bit more reserved with strangers. You also love to point. Often you aren't really pointing at anything, you just have a finger up in the air. Daddy and I joke that it looks like you are saying "I have an idea!"

You are still eating well, though you've had a bout of pickiness lately. You went off sweet potatoes, sending me into a panic! You seem to be developing a strong preference for certain foods to be warm, whereas you used to not mind one way or the other. Your favorite these days seems to be half a pita with hummus and grated carrot. You've also started drinking a lot more water, which is awesome. I'm so glad that we decided to do Baby-led Weaning and can't imagine doing it another way. You added in a second morning milk feed directly after your first when you were sick earlier this month and haven't dropped it yet, but I don't mind.

Speaking of you being sick, you passed another childhood milestone by coming down with your first virus. One morning you had some tiny marks around your mouth. At first, I thought you'd just scratched your face by chewing on fingers with nails that were a bit long. By mid-morning, though your Daddy pointed out that it looked more like a rash. Mother's intuition told me it was Hand Foot and Mouth, a very common childhood virus. It was confirmed when the rash spread to your arms and legs. I felt terrible that it took me so long to figure out, as looking back you'd been under the weather for about a day before I noticed. I could tell you felt a bit crummy because you were fussier than usual and didn't want to eat. We gave you plenty of TLC and you were back to your old self before the weeks end.

Mr. Spotty Face

Your night sleep is still really good- though some mornings I'd be happy for you to sleep a bit later! Your naps are a work in progress. Lately I've been lying down with you to nap. It's very nice and sweet to snuggle with you, but makes it difficult to accomplish much. I keep telling myself that it's all just a phase and that you'll only be a baby for so long, so I should just treasure the moments of cuddling with you. I'm working on putting a nap routine in place, though, so look out for that next month.

You are still a total Daddy's Boy, clinging to him and reaching for him. You love me too, but rarely cling to me the way you do him. I love watching the two of you together. The other night, Daddy and I were going to bed and he declared "I'm going to check on my boy". It was the cutest ever. (Psst. Today is Mommy and Daddy's 3rd wedding anniversary. In case you can't tell, we dig each other SO much. We always want you to know how much we love each other and how much we love you!) 

Your understanding is really increasing. You definitely know the sign for milk and get super-excited when I do it. You've even done it a few times. We're working on "more" now. You say "mama" a bunch, and you're starting to associate it with me. You've done "dada" a few times, but not regularly. Mostly it's still sweet babbly nonsense, but we love it anyway! You are able to "play" a lot more now and love to do peek-a-boo. By that I mean that you will hold something out for me to duck behind (like the collar of my shirt) and then pull it away and laugh. You can also hand me things when I ask for them. You are so fun. I'm sure every parent thinks their baby is the bee's knees, but baby you sure are swell!

Christmas was fun, but you didn't really know what was going on. We didn't put up the tree because we didn't have much space and I was worried you would pull it over. Next year, we'll pull out all the stops and really do Christmas right. You got several presents that you really love like your walker, wooden puzzles and a shape stacker. I staged a little photo shoot of you to celebrate the occasion. It makes me laugh and smile, just like you always do.

I love you so much,

Mommy.

See you tomorrow

I'm publishing this to make myself accountable. Tomorrow night I'll be back with a 10 Month letter because I'll have finally figured out how to post more pictures. (I appear to be able to past them from my phone, but that's as far as I've gotten!)

Until then, please enjoy this picture of Linus doing an Elvis impression!