Almost 15 Months

Hey little monkey man,

I’ve been trying to plan do a little “update” on you (almost 15 months old!) but it’s been hard to find the time, and really narrow down what’s new and decide on a new "system" for documenting all the things. Every single day you are surprising me with new things, and I am surprised as it would seem my love for you (and pretty much every thing you do) grows larger than the day before. Every day I think “This is it! This is how much I love him! It’s so much!” and then the next day’s love surpasses that amount. It’s unreal! 

I’m just so proud to be your mom. (And all my Instagram followers can attest to that.) 

You are just a wonderful mystery to me. Lately you are super independent, you love to play your own games and explore and find things to carry around and dote on. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago you were living in my belly, kicking away, drinking placenta juice (um, I probably could have phrased that less grossly– I’ll explain when you’re older and your wife is pregnant) and your dad and I were blissfully unaware how you would quite literally change every aspect of our lives for the better. Life was pretty great before you but with you? Incredible. Completely incredible.

I was pretty determined to document your first year well, and I am really glad that I did because it was a total blur. For some reason I thought things would slow down a bit after your first birthday, but I was totally mistaken. What was physical growth and leaps, has now been replaced by leaps in communication and daily skills. It seems they appear each day, just something new that you’ve never done before.

Like today, for example, you started saying “uh-oh”. Which is funny, because I’m 99% sure I don’t ever say that, but the girl we have babysitting you on Mondays while I work (her name is Meghan. We love her) says it all the time. Today in your stroller on our walk you dropped your water bottle and before I could stop the stroller you chimed: “uh oh!” just as clear as day. It was adorable. 

Today, you also let it slip that you know what several animals say! Lion (RAWWRRR), sheep (BAAAAH–– but in a kind of scream-o throaty way), cat (MOW MOW) and you kill the doggy sound (WOOWOOWOO) and then you remembered that doggy = Lobo and then you just obsessed over Lobo for a while.

Oh, your Lobo Obsession. We can’t believe how long it has lasted, but you are in love with that scraggly shedding black Husky. Every dog you see in the neighborhood is “Lobo?” and when you meet new people, wave at them or say “Hi!” the next word out of your mouth is “Lobo”. We are wondering if it has other meanings we just haven’t figured out yet, but I really just think you’re like “Hi, I’m Lincoln. Have you met Lobo? He’s great. Lobo. Oh, and also, Lobo.” Occasionally you’ll say Luna (kinda sounds like NUNA) but most of the time it’s all Lobo, all the time. 

A few weeks ago you started walking around the house with your hands behind your back. You just tucked them behind your back, and held hands with yourself.  It was the funniest thing, and just so cute and we didn’t get a picture. But it was so funny. You looked like such a proper little man. You only did it that one day, and have yet to do it since. 

Last week, you became really aware of forks and spoons and love to hold one in your hand at dinner. You occasionally try to eat with it, to no avail just yet. If I load it up you can get it to your mouth without spilling, but you can’t quite load it yourself yet. 

Speaking of mealtimes, you still eat like a total champ. You eat whatever we eat, and lately you ask to see what is on our plates (when I say ask, you point and stare quizzically and say “ooooh” or “oh”–- or whine a little…) to compare with what is on yours. Nothing gets past you! Last week you ate almost 3 whole tilapia filets off my and your dad’s plate, but would not touch the tilapia we cut up for you on your own plate! Cow’s milk cheese makes you gassy (sorry, you got that from my gut biome) and you love some goat’s milk yogurt and cheese. You loved broccoli up until a couple of months ago, and now you will not eat it. Such is life. Your favorite foods are oranges (GES), bananas (BABIES), strawberries (BAREES), and pita and hummus, which you never refer to as anything. You will ask for oranges and bananas by name. You never really liked drinking milk of any kind from a cup, but love drinking water from your Camelbak. 

But, your FAVORITE beverage cup is an empty Starbucks cup. This is the best, because I totally love a full Starbucks cup. You love to take pretend sips and say  “mmm” really loud, and it’s my favorite pretend game. Today on our walk we both had our coffee cups and water bottles. It was awesome. 

You love to open and close doors, and if anyone comes over you like to walk them to the door and say “bye bye” (all southern-like… baaaiii bye). You have gotten really good at navigating the step down onto the patio (the first time you face planted on the concrete. Oops.) and will usually wait for me for the next step down to the sidewalk. You understand “big step” and take huge lunge steps whenever I say that. It’s hilarious. You like to walk to the car and hold my hand in parking lots or our driveway. On Friday you fell in our driveway walking to the car and wearing shorts, it was really sad. You cried, and then I gave you the whole bag of veggie straws and you were totally over it. On Sunday you walked all the way from the nursery room at church out to the car holding my hand. That is by far the longest distance you’ve walked without being carried.

You love the “I’m gonna get you!” game, and will run away for a second, and then turn around and run at the person “getting you” with your arms opened to be picked up. You still love to snuggle, and it’s becoming less frequent, but you’ll take breaks from playing to come wrap your arms around my neck or snuggle my arm or leg (or face). Lately at night or before naps if I’m holding you you’ll wrap your arms around my neck and hold on really tight, as if to remind me to not put you down. We spend a lot of time snuggling, but it is always time well spent. There is no place else I’d rather be. 

You love Dada (obsession rivals that of Lobo) and I think you associate music with him, which is totally understandable since he plays bass and practices in front of you all the time. When “Shine a Light” comes on in the car (we have the Hear As in Heaven album on repeat– my radio is broken) you exclaim “Dada!” and dance. You get super excited to see him when he comes home from work, and will ask for him sometimes when it is nap time. He is currently home a lot more since it is track out and you love it. You get to see him more, and I get to see him more and I get to change a few less poopy diapers. I love you, but kid. Your poop is gross.

I’m pretty sure you love me, too. You still call me “Dada” sometimes (what the heck is up with that? See “lived in my belly” at the top...) and you love bedtime with him and reading stories and brushing teeth, but sometimes you just want me to hold you (again: totally okay with this, always and forever). You tell me night-night when it’s time for bed, and when it’s nap time we’ll sit in the chair in your room and play peek-a-boo, or tickles, or read a book, or just talk about life (Lobo). These days are the sweetest gift. Just the two of us. I definitely have work to do, but I am savoring this time because if life has taught me anything, it is that seasons come and go quicker than you’d like for them to. In August you’ll be starting pre-school, and so begins the end of our days just the two of us. Sad? Yes. Good for both of us? Absolutely. Did I cry filling out the application? Yep. Do I need to sleep more at night? Totally. 

I came downstairs today and Dada was cooking dinner with you in the Ergo on his back and you were like “Mama?” and it was really funny, because you were clearly trying to not be on his back anymore. As soon as you saw me you tried to leap out and exclaimed “done!”. Occasionally you are All-Dada or nothing, and some days you just want me to snuggle you. I kind of miss being your Number One, but I guess it’s time I share you with others since I pretty much had the first year and some being the preferred parent. Also, your Dada is so great. You are already learning so much from him. Me and your Dada are a team, and we try to do everything together. Keep you safe, cook healthy meals for us, keep our house clean, keep the Lobo hair outside or in the garage… and you love to help too! If we are cleaning you will find the broom and “help” us sweep, and you love to take things out of the trash or recycling and put it back in, or put other things in (RIP remote control). You are already such a good team member. 

You are currently getting your 1 year molars and some other teeth and it’s pretty terrible. You are experiencing short bouts of rage, and occasionally you lash out (read: bite) something, which again, is totally understandable considering the current teeth situation. We’ve had lots of conversations about biting mommy, and how we can’t. We can bite muffins! Or cookies! or babies (bananas!) or ges (oranges). But we can’t bite mommy, or dada, or Lobo because it’s ouchies. And really, we only had to talk about that twice, and you haven’t tried to bite me since. You did bite the metal trashcan today (um, ouchies for you) and you tried to bite the wall yesterday in the playroom, but that didn’t work out because of the shape of walls vs. shape of human mouths. But it’s all good. We’ve got baby Tylenol and tomorrow we are going to make smoothie popsicles. I’m also hoping that when you learn some more words you’ll use those instead of your teeth to bite things. According to your Aunt Cassidy this is something called “payback” because I was a biter, as a kid, but as far as I can tell she doesn’t have any marks to prove it, so that’s all hearsay.

It won’t be long before you are two years old and learning more and more about being independent and your emotions and we are getting lots of good practice in lately being patient and learning how to communicate with you. You were not excited about waiting for the egg hunt to start at The Hop last weekend. You do a great job of calming down when you get frustrated (like, when forks are hard) or when you can’t do something on the first try (you used to get really mad at the corn popper walker thing) and even though you can’t say a lot of words, somehow we know that you are listening and understand us. This is equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. 

You know that bedtime comes after dinner (you seriously are like “all done! Night night” most nights. and when you’re ready for a nap after lunch, you are all about “night night”. Sometimes I try to distract you with toys in the playroom (oh yeah! we have a playroom now!) and you’ll walk over to the door and tell me “night night”. 

Any-who, I could write volumes of all the things you do and things I love about you (like, your chubby toddler thighs, I am obsessed with your little legs and feet and toes) but most of all I want you to know that we are so grateful that God picked us to be your parents. The journey to this point was a roller coaster for sure, ups and downs, turns, and spins, and some upside down time, but it was so sweet, and so necessary. Before you were born I wanted to be a great mom, and I had traits in mind of what a great mom would be, and it was on the roller coaster that I really learned how to ride it and those traits really began to grow. Almost 15 months (+39weeks and 4 days of gestation) of being your mom has been the greatest gift, and I can’t wait for the rest of forever to watch you grow! You're so much fun! 

All my love, Mama