Letter to a 14 month old

You got a wicked sense of humor kid. It's very very weird to see my sense of humor on a little being. It's not always as cute as I think it is ;-)! For example, you boink people on the head with any old object and then clap & laugh like a maniac. Your Daddy kind of looks accusingly at me when you do this.

When you find something that you are not supposed to be handling i.e. my phone or unattended dangerous objects, I start towards you and say in a stern voice, "Daaax...". You immediately get this bright glint of joyous mischief in your eye, squeal loudly, and then sprint with fervor in the other direction, little fingers clutched tight around your forbidden treasure. I can't help but grin at your antics.

However, when I reach you and manage to pry whatever breakable/expensive/beloved thing you've managed to acquire with your grippy little hand, you SCREAM at the top of your lungs and throw your back into an arch. This, my little love, is an exceptionally dramatic way to express your displeasure & I ignore you completely & two seconds later you're fine, toddling and giggling at some other random thing.

You are all boy & love to climb & get into things. Here's a short action sequence spanning 37 seconds in real time.

You've got this totally annoying & messy super fun new hobby of taking everything and throwing it over the stairs. You also love to drag things from mine & daddy's room to your room and vice versa. So the house is all mixed up all the time. I'm finding your books or toys in fun places, like our bedroom drawers. And colorful little drums & rattles in the pots & pans drawer in the kitchen. All of this makes me feel hopelessly messy completely amused. It also makes me want to donate everything we own to Goodwill.

You are officially officially on one nap a day! I feel like some kind of mecca of parenthood has been reached. What a relief to only worry about one nap a day! We can get going in the morning, come back for your ONE NAP OMG, and then go out in the afternoon if we want! You are also still SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Sleeping. Through. The. Night.

You did stop sleeping through the night for a few weeks because you got sick again on November 19th. That same super sick that you did on Halloween where we had to count your breaths and give you breathing treatments. Honey, you were in a bad shape. It tore my heart out, and makes me worry so hard that I want to tear my hair out.

Your Daddy was calm though and reassured me that we didn't need to take you to the hospital. We just did what we did last time with the nebulizer and you slept on either me or daddy for about 24 hours. By the morning on the second day you were back to good, breaths slow & steady, but it took you the rest of the month to beat the junky lungs.

After your sickness passed, to get you back to sleeping through the night, it simply took two or three nights of Daddy going to you when you called & holding you or humming to you until you fell asleep. You kept pointing to our room, but Daddy stayed strong. Daddy didn't get much sleep those couple of nights & you weren't particularly excited about it, but you were never alone and now you sleep great. I am so relieved (huge understatement) that you've seemed to reached a new milestone!

Grandpa Gary came to visit this month. We took you on a nice long walk around Lake Poway. The fresh air and the ducks put you right to sleep--it was nice to have you sleep in the sling again! He also took you to the park with your Uncle Cole where I hear he yelled at some older kids who were trampling over you at the park. I was pretty pleased with his grandfatherly-protectiveness :-).

For Thanksgiving, my friend Kasey came to visit who had you thoroughly mesmerized by her iphone (you are your father's son). We cooked a big fat (and very very lackluster) meal (when will we ever get it right?!). The highlight of which was Uncle Cole's 'Holiday Sangria,' which you can taste in just a few short decades.

Kasey, Uncle Cole & Daddy in front our weak-ass attempt at a grown-up meal (I promise you that by the time you care, I'll learn how to cook an amazing T-day meal)

You are in cloth diapers 95% of the time (you sleep in a sposie at night) and I am loving it. You have never had one single diaper rash your whole life & you always look cute in your fluffy butt. Your Aunt Stacy is now proudly cloth-diapering your new cousin Pria & that has given us infinite amount of time to obsess about all the cute diapers. I am so happy to have someone else to share my obsession with. Your Daddy teases me a bit about how lovingly I organize your diapers, but I'm pretty sure he finds it ridiculously charming.

Your language is better and better. You understand so much. When I tell you to go get your "truck" or "ball" or "book" or "blankie" or "sippy cup" you look for them and then bring them to me! When I say I want to change your diaper you sprint far far away from me. You try to say "Diego" but it sounds like "Dygo." When those yippy neighbor dogs bark, you run to the window and bark back.

You LOVE the book "Jingle Bells," much to my dismay. You carry it to my lap at least five times a day. I'm quite possibly tone deaf so singing is simply not my bag, but I do it for you anyway because it's probably the right thing to do. You can hum three full bars of Jingle Bells now, which is pretty darn cool.

We love you so much little guy. You make me smile all day long. Thanks for your buckets of sunshine.

(My camera is on the fritz so there are only a few photos as of late. This is killing me. I didn't put a fancy new camera on my Christmas list either, so I am apologizing for your lack of pictures this month & the next few until I get this worked out buddy.)