A year has come and gone

To my beautiful one-year old boy,


Happy birthday! We made it. You are one year old. Seriously, where did the time go?

It has been an absolute joy to see you develop your own little personality these last few months. We have always loved you to bits but I think everyone can agree that you had some rough moments, particularly in the evenings, when no one could seem to figure you out. I think your dad took the worst of it in the evenings and at bedtime. Now, you let your Nana babysit you and put you to bed with nary a whimper. You are such a happy boy these days.

Unlike your brother, you love, love, LOVE sand and water. I’ve never seen you happier than sitting in the sand at the beach and playing in the water. You even like to eat sand. Big handfuls of sand in your mouth and wet sand smeared all over your face. Oh well. A few extra germs will bolster your immune system for everything else you are going to throw at it later in life. Bath time is also happy time for you. You don’t even care if you are in the bath; you are happy as a clam standing on the side of the tub while your brother is bathing. Heck, you even like standing, looking into an empty tub!

One of your favourite games right now is to shake your head vigorously side to side like you are saying “No!” in response to your dad or I shaking our heads up and down to say “Yes! Yes! Yes!” You think this is completely hilarious. You also like to wave “Good-bye” and “Hello” whenever you hear someone say it. You clap when someone else claps or says “Yay!” or "Good job!".

You also love to talk on the phone. Actual phones, toy phones, small plastic magnet toy pieces, stuffed animals, your shoe – you’ll use anything you can get your hands on to have a conversation.

You seem to be a pretty tough little cookie. Our playgroup mum friends are all amazed at some of the tumbles you have taken without a peep. Most of the time, you just right yourself and keep on playing. I think it might be a good thing that you have such thick skin considering some of the roughhousing your brother has been subjecting you to of late. Don’t worry – I think you are going to be a strong little dude and capable of defending yourself sooner than we think.

At the risk of disturbing the sleep gods, you have put in some great nights lately. Evidently, you love the outdoors because you didn't wake up at all the first night you ever spent in a tent. Then you slept through the night again the second night. I see some camping in our future!

It looks like you love to eat and have an adventurous palate. Avocado sushi rolls, artichoke hummous, and Creamsicles are your latest new tastes. You love cherries.

You aren’t walking yet but you are standing by yourself for extended periods of time and climbing on everything. We’ve found you kneeling on your brother’s play table a foot off the ground and standing on his potty in the bathroom. You also love ride-on toys and can get on and off of various wheeled objects with relative ease. When visiting your bro's favourite playgroup, you can always be found standing on the kids' picnic table. You also love toys with any sort of cause and effect – the dinosaur with the clear plastic balls, your brother’s mix and match farm animals magnet, the Elmo phone, etc.

You are spending your weekdays with your dad now but it is nice to know that you still think your mum is a pretty cool chick. Your smile and frantic crawl over to me when I got back from my first day of work was pretty awesome. You seem to be transitioning just fine.

I love you, little one. Thank you for a wonderful year. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for you.