Dear Baby,
You are meeting your first year head on and chest out. You love to walk about the neighborhood peering into people’s front porches, pointing at trees and birds, sitting on the drainage grates half-hidden in the grass, and squatting to watch snails.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVUg1He3zdQ]
Being a social, communicative boy, you enjoy using sign language and even make up your own signs (you swing your right index finger across your left palm when you want to play with your dad’s ipod touch). Sometimes you talk so earnestly with expressive “Eh”s and “oooooooo”s, using your hands to make up signs as you go along. I know you’re saying something urgent (perhaps that you see a deer in the picture in front of the bed?) but I can only smile and pretend to understand.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVffgFMwXAk]
Last week you startled me by demonstrating three new skills in one day. You sat down on the bed and that stacking car toy that Sue Emo gave to you? The one that drives me crazy because as soon as I stack up the round blocks on the dowel, you love to rush over, pull the dowel out and let everything tumble to the floor? THAT stacker. You sat down and calmly assembled it yourself and now it’s one of your absolute favorite toys. That same day when you were handed my cell phone, you flipped it open, held it to your ear and whispered “hi” in a breathy baby voice over and over again. (The third skill? I think it was making up the sign for the iPod touch.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDgALA9gB6g]
Elimination communication has been going well too. In fact, most mornings you wake up dry because you’ve peed in your potty 1-3 times during the night. And we’ve had two days (24 hour periods) in a row where we only had two misses each day. For a brief moment I thought we were going completely diaper-free, but that was a fleeting dream. Still, your bladder is bigger and stronger, and you have a good idea about the potty – you’re just not always willing to stop to take the time to go. I’m going to try more naked-butt and training underwear time this month and see if we can ramp it up a little. The new Baby Bjorn potty insert was a hit too; you love sitting on the big potty like me and your dad. Our EC progress deserves its own post though, so I’ll write more about this later.
You’re still crashed out on the bed behind me. A day at the beach followed by a pool party yesterday has wiped you out (in a good way). We’ll have a mellow day at home today and then take a walk down to the post office around lunch time.
I love spending my days with you Baby.
Love,
Mama
P.S. One last video – this one filmed and edited by Christian’s Auntie Corrina.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwg94iuOsdE]
