My dear, sweet boy. What are we going
to do with you? In another month, you'll be two years old. In some
ways, I can't believe it and in others it feels like you've been two
for a long time.
It's been quite a month. Of course, the
biggest thing that happened was Christmas, and it was fantastic. It
was a crazy few days that involved a LOT of gifts, getting to know
and love your extended family, a lot of hard core playing and quite a
bit of magic. It was a busy, busy time with a lot of visiting and
family dinners, and you did super well. On the first day after the
chaos was over, you had a four hour nap, which is a personal record.
You loved playing with Aunt Natalie and
Uncle Darin. You enjoyed piling all your cars into their hands until
they couldn't hold them all, and then you would knock the cars out of
their hands and onto the ground in great glee. You connected really
strongly with your cousin Isabel – you even let her colour with you
in your colouring book, which at the time was a pretty honking big
deal. You had a fantastic time with your Tio Rodrigo, who was always
able to make you laugh. But you totally fell in love with Tia Reiko.
You learned her name really quickly, and by the end of their visit,
you would wake up from a nap or in the morning and call for her. It
was very sweet. We were also lucky enough to get a visit from your
Grandpa Will, Grandma Anne, Aunt Heather and Uncle David. It was very
special to have us all together for the first time. You were showered
with love.
And you were showered with gifts. Santa
Claus brought you an awesome toy recycling truck – the same one you
love playing with so much at Robin's. It was certainly the hit of the
holiday. You also love your new Hot Wheels storage box (you like
taking the cars out more than putting the cars in), you've gotten
great use out of your new table and chairs and great pleasure out of
your new puzzles, and we had a great time test driving your new
plasma car in the tunnels at Carleton. You were very excited to
receive your new ride on toy (a pirate ship!) from Uncle Mark and
Aunt Janine. It's still a little tall for you, so you have been known
to sit on your old, smaller ride on car and pull the ship from
behind.
Your vocabulary has exploded recently.
You babble constantly, and have many new words. “Mommy” is one of
your favourites. You love calling for me, and for a while, “Mommy”
was your go-to word for whenever you were the least bit unhappy,
whether I was around or not. You also say “tiss,” and give me a
kiss goodbye through the gate every day. It's the best part of my
day. I'll say, “I'm leaving now! Where's my kiss?” and you come
running down the hall saying, “Tiss! Tiss!” It's fantastic.
(Another of your favourite words is “mine”. This is less
fantastic, but perfectly normal, and we continue our work on
sharing.)
We've had some wonderful moments
together this month. Daddy started a fire in the fireplace one
evening, and you liked it so much that the next day you pointed to
the empty fireplace and said, “More?” You are your Daddy's son.
We've had several fires since, and in fact, ran out of wood. You
watched an episode of Little Bear which involved puddle jumping, and
started jumping through imaginary puddles in the living room. Aunt
Kimmy came by with Caleb and Noah and they gave you a Duplo set of
Lightning McQueen and his truck Mac. As you unwrapped the gift, you
caught sight of Mac and got so excited. You said, “Ooooh! Oooooh!”
and pointed eagerly. It was adorable.
You both gained and lost teeth this
month. There were a few days where you were being very difficult. You
were easily frustrated, generally cranky, sleeping poorly and not
yourself at all. Then suddenly you had eye teeth and it all made
sense. Then last week, you got too excited and tripped and fell in
the living room and your tooth made contact with a Hot Wheels and it
broke. (The tooth, not the car.) It's your left front tooth, and the
chip is pretty significant. We're off to the dentist next week to
make sure there's nothing to worry about. It's just such a shame –
you work so hard to get your teeth and you've already lost one! On
the bright side, you look a little bit like Chris Neil.
Baby, I know I say you get sick every
month, but holy cow, this month it was bad. One night you woke up
with a croupy cough – you sounded like a barking seal. We
immediately canceled our plans for the next day and Uncle Mark and
Aunt Janine came over for a play date, as croup isn't dangerous to
adults. Well, it turns out you had more than croup, and they are
lucky they didn't get sick. You had RSV (with a bonus ear infection)
and boy, were you prolific. Despite the fact that we kept you out of
day care from the moment we saw you weren't well, you managed to give
it to three of the kids at day care and Robin. And even though you
were already on antibiotics when she took care of you for the day,
you gave it to Grandma. You had a terrible fever, a horrible cough
(the croupy cough was replaced by a deep, phlegmy cough that came
from your toes), and were obviously miserable. You didn't eat for
three days. It got difficult to keep you hydrated. (We eventually had
to finally let the juice genie out of the bottle – and once it's
out, you can't put it back in. So you get juice now, watered down,
once a day. And you're pretty happy about it.)
You are almost back to 100% now, and
we're very happy about it. We're looking forward to this next month
as your vocabulary continues to grow, you continue to be a sweet,
amazing little boy who makes us laugh, fills our hearts, and
brightens our days.
Pooks, just after you were born, I sang
you a very special song to tell you how happy we were that you had
finally come into our lives after so many years of looking for you.
This past week, the woman who made that song famous passed away. So
today, we listened to it several times and danced together. I'll put
the lyrics here. Because they are so, so very true.
At last, my love has come along,
My
lonely days are over,
And life is like a song.
Oh, yeah, at
last
The skies above are blue.
My heart was wrapped up in
clover
The night I looked at you.
I found a dream that I could
speak to,
A dream that I can call my own.
I found a thrill to
rest my cheek to,
A thrill that I have never known.
Oh, yeah
when you smile, you smile,
Oh, and then the spell was cast.
And
here we are in heaven,
For you are mine
At last.
