My sweet boy,
This is the first time in a year that I have felt kind of sad to be sitting here writing to you. Today at 12:53pm, you are a whole year old. I know you are still a baby. But a year is the big one. You are becoming more a little boy with each passing day, and those tiny little memories of details and perfect little moments of complete silence are slowly starting to fade into new memories of belly laughs and your perfect little voice.
This time last year you were still safely tucked away deep inside my belly. You were rumbling and tumbling and very much not wanting to come into this world. And honestly I dont blame you. Its cold out here. We were having quite the adventure getting you here and your dada and I were slightly terrified of what was about to happen. Life was changing. In the biggest way. And I didnt know that I could be a good mom. But I am happy to report that a year later we are still in one piece and we make it through every single day with God's grace and more joy than we know how to handle. You have become our joy in our every moment and for that we will always be grateful.
Month 12 has been a big month for you. You run now. No more walking. We run. Everywhere we go and everything we do is with great intensity and determination. You know what you want. And you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Your temper has shown up this month, very suddenly and very loudly haha. But you are learning discipline with so much grace and you take in every single thing that we do and say and most of the time you respond properly the very next time. Watching you learn and grow and develop this month has been the most eye opening for sure. As your become a big boy and not a little baby you are learning your boundaries and how to test them and it has opened a brand new chapter in our parenting 101 book. I dont know that we have passed all the tests quite yet, but we are getting there. Its all about learning.
We havent had your One Year Well Visit yet, so Im not positive exactly how much you weigh or how tall you are but I am going to say because of how tall youve gotten and how active you are that we are around 31.5 inches and right around 24 lbs. I could be terribly wrong, but I think Im close. Check your baby book if you really want to know later on ;) You wear all 18 month shirts and are finally starting to fill up your 12 month jeans. You wear mostly 18 month sweatpants though and your pajamas have been 18 months since October. You have just been filling them in more and more. You wear a size 4 shoes and you are still filling up size 4 diapers. I think within the next few weeks we will be moving up a size in those too. Youre just getting so big and strong!!
You have been sleeping so much better this month. The first two weeks were a little rough but the last two weeks have been great. We get a solid 8 to 10 hours every night and if you are waking at this point we know that something is bothering you. We still love our gripe water for gassiness and those darn teeth give us such a hard time. But we do a little motrin if you really seem to be hurting. And baby orajel has been working some for you too. You have 6 teeth that are all the way through and 4 more that are pushing their little hearts out trying to come in. You are such a trooper though. Most days you can't even tell that there is something going on and all of a sudden there are just all these teeth! Youre two front teeth have the cutest little gap in the middle and it might be my favorite thing in all the world. That smile just melts every single part of my heart.
You play like crazy and have really started to use your imagination. You will sit and play with one thing for a lot longer of a stretch than you used to and you make things talk or make noises. You love love love to read books. You do this thing now where you will pick up a book and bring it over to us and turn around and walk backwards until you run into our legs and then sit in our lap and read the whole book. You turn the pages yourself and you clap at the things that you like and frown at the things you dont. When you finish one you get up and go get another one and come back and do the same thing. You love music and dancing. We do a lot of that around here. You learned some pretty awesome new moves from Frozen, so we spin now and use our winter powers to freeze everything and then use our giggles to unfreeze it all. Its our favorite game :) Nonna bought you some coloring books and crayons last week and you love that so much. The first day that we tried it out, you were so proud to show your dad what you could do when he got home. It was so stinking cute. You kept looking up to make sure he was watching you and then you would color color color and then look up and smile this big cheesy grin. You are just the best kid. Just the very best.
You are obsessed with Frozen. You love it so much. I dont know why. Its like kid crack. You just sit and watch it. Mickey is still your best friend. And you love Jake and Doc. Your favorite music is worship music, but you also have your favorite upbeat songs that we dance our little hearts out to. You have music in your blood kid. I can't wait to see if you can sing.
You are talking up a storm. We have a lot of half words. Du for Duck. Og for Dog. At for Cat. You have said cup a few times and we have our last month's words that have become your power words haha! Mum-mum, dada, daddy, ow, hi, yeah, yah, etc. You talk a lot. It just doesnt always make sense haha! But you are getting a lot better at association. You point to what you want. You pick it up and bring it over to us. You know where certain things go and where certain things that you want are. You are very specific about certain places that you want things. You put stuff into piles and then move them across the room. Your play room is organized chaos. You are definitely my son :)
You eat so stinking much. You would eat all day long if I let you. We are on all solids now with two beechnut pouches a day to make sure that we are getting enough of the good stuff in you. We are really trying to expand your range of foods, but I am now completely understanding of why certain foods are called kid foods. Kids like them. Without hesitation. Grilled cheese, mac and cheese, toast, french toast, waffles, pancakes, eggs, mashed potatoes, etc. You will eat them all. You are all about snacks, still all organic and you love to mooch. If anyone is eating anything, you have to have some. Even if you dont like what it is. You have to have some. You share an english muffin with your nonna every single morning. It might be the sweetest thing Ive ever seen. Its a memory that I will cherish forever. Ill never forget that one.
You make the best faces. You have this squished face smile that is my very favorite. You also have an excited face and a surprised face. You have an angry face and a concerned face. You also make this gasping noise at just about everything and its pretty stinking adorable. Annoying at times haha. But adorable nonetheless.
You have become quite the cuddle bug this month. You will sit and watch a movie with us and let us hold you. You will come over and reach to get up so that we will hold you and you will sit and stay a while. That has never been the case. Even when you were a newborn you didnt like being held. You preferred to be in your rock n play or on your kick and play mat. I like that it made you independent but I also love that you like to cuddle now. I will never turn down a chance to just sit and hold you.
You are so intelligent. You can identify object. you put all your shapes into the right holes on your shape sorter all by yourself. You clean up when we ask you to. You pick out what you want and let us know what it is. You mimic all of our faces and our movements. You watch our every move and repeat it all. You take your time and do things right. You even hold your crayon the right way and we didnt even teach you that one. You have perfect rhythm and you know what the beat to every song you hear is. You love to help us do things, like sweep and run the sweeper and you are so proud when you do things right. I cant even believe how much you are doing.
Malachi... it is an honor to be your mama. You make it so easy. The way that you so innocently love us has taught me not only what it means to love, but how God loves us. Ive hear people say it a thousand times, but it is so stinking true. You never truly know what it means to love until you love your own child. The day that you were born was such a magical day. You changed our hearts and you made better people. For that I will always be so thankful. You love us when we are unlovable and you teach us grace every single day.
With every month that passes, my dreams for you just get bigger. Watching you become this little person, with thoughts and feelings and wants and needs has only made me pray and seek the lord for your calling and your purpose in this life even more. I can only pray that we are teaching you to love Jesus and to live a life of integrity. One where people will know you by your love. Your dad has a friend that he speaks very highly of and the thing that always stick out to me when he is talking about the relationship he has with this friend, is that he loves. Through the good the bad and the ugly. Through your weakest and your strongest moments, he loves. And to me, that is the highest compliment that anyone can give. At the end of my days, I want people to have known me for my heart and for the love that I have. And thats what we are striving to teach that sweet little spirit in you. We want you to always love. Even when people are unlovable or may not love you in return. We want you to love the way that Jesus loves. And I promise you that as we raise you to love the lord we will also raise you to love people the way that he loves you in return. Its not always an easy road to walk. And sometimes it hurts. But, my precious baby boy, I never want you to lose the love that you have right now. Only let it grow. You are just so beautiful.
Happy Birthday, my sweet boy.
I’ll eat you up, I love you so.
All my love,
Your mama
