Dear Ben,
This time last year, I was feeling every bit of nine months pregnant. You were getting big in there! Must be why I've been thinking about my pregnancy so much lately - your impending arrival was becoming a reality as I had baby showers to attend, a nursery to set up, clothes that wouldn't fit, ankles that disappeared... And here we are a year later, and I'm finding it hard to believe that our baby is becoming such a little boy.
I'm learning that while babies have simple, basic needs to be met, boys have opinions and preferences and fears and attitudes. Like in your opinion, you should only eat bananas, Cheerios and Gerber snack foods. But when I make you eat something else, you would prefer to be able to pick it up with your fingers instead of me using a spoon. Your fears of the bath have been drastically reduced by a method your Aunt Jess believes may come back to haunt you - sharing the tub with me! (in a bathing suit, mind you.) While dealing with ear infections so often has masked your true personality a bit, your attitude greatly improves after a couple of days on meds...which we're hoping will be needed less often now that you've gotten tubes.
Aside from cruising around the house by balancing on the walls or with a walker, other pastimes include helping me in the kitchen by reorganizing the tupperware drawer and checking out what's in the pantry. No mishaps so far, but cabinet locks are definitely in our future.
What? You didn't want to use this one, did you?
Living it up at Lauren's (from school) one-year old birthday party
You and Grandma started a funny game at Thanksgiving of tongue-wagging, which I promise to get on video soon! And we've talked to Papa and the cousins once on our new webcam...remind me to tell you again about the wonders of technology that we didn't have when I was your age. ;)
While I'll admit this month has had its challenging moments, it's also been fun to witness you deciding what you think about things and figuring out what makes you happy and what makes you mad. We're just hoping for more happier moments, like this one, in the next month!
But no matter what, Daddy and I are thankful for every moment we have with you - the best Christmas present we could ever have.
I love you!
Mommy
This time last year, I was feeling every bit of nine months pregnant. You were getting big in there! Must be why I've been thinking about my pregnancy so much lately - your impending arrival was becoming a reality as I had baby showers to attend, a nursery to set up, clothes that wouldn't fit, ankles that disappeared... And here we are a year later, and I'm finding it hard to believe that our baby is becoming such a little boy.
I'm learning that while babies have simple, basic needs to be met, boys have opinions and preferences and fears and attitudes. Like in your opinion, you should only eat bananas, Cheerios and Gerber snack foods. But when I make you eat something else, you would prefer to be able to pick it up with your fingers instead of me using a spoon. Your fears of the bath have been drastically reduced by a method your Aunt Jess believes may come back to haunt you - sharing the tub with me! (in a bathing suit, mind you.) While dealing with ear infections so often has masked your true personality a bit, your attitude greatly improves after a couple of days on meds...which we're hoping will be needed less often now that you've gotten tubes.
Aside from cruising around the house by balancing on the walls or with a walker, other pastimes include helping me in the kitchen by reorganizing the tupperware drawer and checking out what's in the pantry. No mishaps so far, but cabinet locks are definitely in our future.
What? You didn't want to use this one, did you?Between birthday and Christmas parties, your social calendar has stayed quite full this month. It's so fun to see you with other babies your age - while you mostly still play beside each other and not with each other, you've started interacting with some nice face pokes and toy grabs. Daddy says you think you're a tough guy because you get such a kick from whacking him in the head and watching him act wounded. Sure it's cute now, but I have my doubts about encouraging incident-note behavior from school!
Living it up at Lauren's (from school) one-year old birthday party
Speaking of getting big, you weighed in at 21 pounds on the hospital scale yesterday! I don't know how tall you are, but your feet hang over your carseat and some pants have become capris. You show off your two bottom teeth when you laugh, and the top ones seem ready to poke through soon. You've started pointing as a better way to communicate your needs (like, "I need more banana."). "Dah" is your word. Just the one and you use it indiscriminately for everything. There was the one time you looked right at Tyler and said "Dada", which was very exciting! And every so often, you go on a "mamamamama" tangent, but it's too early to tell if you know that's me.
You and Grandma started a funny game at Thanksgiving of tongue-wagging, which I promise to get on video soon! And we've talked to Papa and the cousins once on our new webcam...remind me to tell you again about the wonders of technology that we didn't have when I was your age. ;)
GI Ben surveying the scene in camo sweats.
While I'll admit this month has had its challenging moments, it's also been fun to witness you deciding what you think about things and figuring out what makes you happy and what makes you mad. We're just hoping for more happier moments, like this one, in the next month!
(Forgive the gross nose wipe...I was not a well woman.)
But no matter what, Daddy and I are thankful for every moment we have with you - the best Christmas present we could ever have.
I love you!
Mommy
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