Happy 1st birthday

Dearest Monkey,

It’s your first birthday… where did the year go??

I remember giving birth to you as if it was yesterday (read the story here)…

And now you crawl & cruise around the apartment as if you own it – which you probably do, considering that the ratio of adult to baby material is slowly shifting in your favour. And although we tidy up at the end of each day (and sometimes during the day) – you still manage to distribute all your toys across the lounge, dining room and kitchen within minutes of entering the room, creating a minefield of obstacles for your parents to maneuver. I am also starting to realize that although we put your books on the shelf each evening, you prefer pulling them off the shelf, littering them across the floor (and under the couch) which obviously makes it much easier for you to lick the pages….

HIM (Papa) will continue to try to encourage you to walk … but I realize that this is probably only going to happen when YOU are ready and no amount of encouragement from our side is going to have any affect. But your standing and walking while holding onto something continues to improve in leaps & bounds. So we will learn to be a bit more patient, I promise. When you are ready… we will be there.

You love feeding yourself rice cakes and I can always coax you to eat if I offer a yoghurt. But you refuse to hold the bottle of milk when it is time to drink. Cooked food can sometimes be a hit or miss affair… But you are always interested in whatever we might be putting into our mouth… especially croissants, which might not be on the baby approved list of foods.

You have 4 teeth!! The experience for all of us on the bottom 2 making their appearance was truly hellish… but the top 2 were somewhat “easier” and proud to say that they are half way out! So soon you can start gnawing on more food options!

Your entire face lights up when you see me or Papa after a period of separation. And let’s not forget how much you love the crèche owner, whose arms you can’t wait to get into each morning when I drop you off. It doesn’t matter how rough my day has been at work, the moment that I walk through the front door and see your HUGE semi-toothless grin which is JUST FOR ME, all my problems seem to melt away.

You already know what “NO!” means, especially when we say this as you try to climb the stairs. Your reaction is to sit down on the floor, screw your little face up and cry (real tears) for about 2minutes before your attention moves onto something else. It takes every ounce of will power for me not to comfort your crocodile tears OR not to laugh! So far, you seem ok with that.

You have started sleeping longer stretches at night although I must confess that a full night of sleep would be a real treat to us. 4am is still silly-o’clock… I can handle 6am…but 7am would be even better. So I suggest we start working towards this, ok?

I love watching you as you spend more and more time in solo play – “reading” your books (or mine) or banging anything against anything (Noise is KING!) or just “exploring” (I especially love watching you investigate something like a piece of fabric with your eyes, fingers and eventually, like everything else… your mouth!). You still come to me or look for me every once in a while to “check in”… but I am also grateful to be able to get a few more things done around the house as opposed to be on full-time baby handling duty during your waking hours.

Your giggles are the best sound in the world. The BEST…. when Papa tickles your tummy or blows kisses into your cuddly neck… and your laughter comes straight from your belly… I just want to melt.

I was totally unprepared for the past year. Who knew that being a parent was so mentally draining? I expected the physical and emotional turmoil – but I never realized how much I would second guess myself! We questioned if we were doing the right things? Feeding you too much or too little? If your cries were from hunger or pain or ? We second guessed every action… but Papa and I learned how to manage, how to support each other and through it all, became *parents*, or at least tried our best. We are still unprepared for what the future might hold… but a little bit more confident that we could handle things, especially together.

Plus, I must mention that through this entire year, our love for you grew each and every day… as did our love for each other.

And I can’t wait to see what the next year holds in store for you (and for us)

All my love, now and always
xxxx