11 months later

Dear Cole:

It’s been 11 months since I last wrote, at which point you were 11 months old, so it seems fitting—though hugely embarrassing—that now would be the time for me to come back to tell you just how much more you have enriched our lives in the last 11 months. 11 months ago we didn’t think we could love you any more than we already did, and you’ve proven us wrong—you make us adore you more and more each day. Your personality has truly exploded. You have the most charming smile, with your sparkly eyes and cute dimples; and then you have your funny smile, where you wrinkle your nose and show all your teeth as you smile. For months, you have been really good at mimicking intonations, and now you are getting really good at repeating words. You have quite a collection of words, a few of which you pronounce clear as day, but it is others—the ones you assign very unique pronunciation to--that I really want to capture on video. In the meantime, here are a few:

La la doo = cock a doodle doo
La la tee = brush, brush teeth
Fa cha = fire truck
Bee cha = big truck
Woof = puppy
Mo = come on
Moo = moon
Bah = bus, bug, ball, book, bear
Poo bah = Pooh bear
Peechees = fishes (gold fish)
Peechy = peach
Sue = shoes

You love, love, love your brother. You want to do everything Jon is doing. This video shows you following Jon around and being a copy cat.

Jon adores you right back. The two of you get into squabbles at times, mostly because you want to have whatever Jon is having or because you are breaking apart something Jon is putting together. But most of the time, the two of you get along wonderfully. You truly do have the best brother.

You love to dance. You ask for the music to be turned on, and then you say, “Mama. Mo. Da da da” (Mama, come on, dance, dance, dance). And then you dance and spin and jump. Speaking of jumping, “your baby’s development” e-mail at 22 months said that you should be a few months away from a real, two-footed jump. Yet you have been jumping with you both feet up, sometimes five or six jumps in a row for at least a month or two now. You are amazingly coordinated—you run, jump, catch and throw the ball—and love doing it. Considering that you didn’t start rolling over until 8 or 9 months, I find your advanced coordination abilities amazing. I wonder if you will be into sports when you get older.

You love the water and yet completely dislike pools. You could play in the bath or simply splash your hands under the running water in the sink for hours (ad now that you are tall enough to reach the faucet in the half-bath downstairs, I am worried our water bill is going to go up). Grandma Pam’s water fountains were your favorite part of the garden, and you insisted on turning them on every time you went outside (“mo aqua”). Yet, you want nothing to do with a pool, especially public pool. It took you several days before you were comfortable enough to get your feel into the baby pool on our patio. But public pools—no way. You are very interested and actually request to go in the water, and then immediately back out. You lift up your legs as far as they can go and climb up the body of the person holding you—doing everything you can to make sure the water doesn’t touch you. You were like that last summer, but after 10-15 minutes of gently dipping your feet in the water, we could coax you into the pool. But not now. We tried on several occasions this summer—from Iowa’s Adventure Land to a local pool to the splash park at Sesame Place—but we no success at all. As much as your brother loves all things water, I am surprised that his enthusiasm has not rubbed off on you since you love doing everything Jon does. Perhaps next summer…

Eleven months is a long time, and I hope to write down some of your adventures of these months that didn’t make it into cyberspace in a timely manner. Like your first birthday party, your trip to the mountains of Deep Creek Lake, to the beach and to Iowa, your ever so odd eating habits, and much more.

For now, at the end of month 21, I want to remember…

… your strong determination to take your shoes off as soon as you enter a house (I wonder if you got that from your brother, who continued to take off his shoes when we looked at several model houses recently).

…your love of buckles and your uncontrollable desire to buckle any buckle you see.
…your excitement over every bug you see (even the dead ones, like the squished one we saw at Staples last night, and you would not let Daddy leave the store until he saw the bug).

…your golden wispy hair, which gets so soft after a bath and so curly when you sweat (and you sweat a lot!).

…your sweet ‘I wuv woo’s and how excited you get when we come home from work.

…how much you love to push a baby stroller outside (despite our attempt to transition you to a less ‘girly’ task of pushing a toy grocery cart instead).

…how you refuse to give kisses, but give out the biggest bear hugs.

…how much you love playing ball and how just about every trip to a toy store ends up with us bringing home another ball. You love to throw it, roll it, bounce it, you name it.

…how you must be covered by not one but two blankets when you go to sleep, and how your crib entourage has suddenly expanded from Baby, Elmo and Gon-gon the monkey, to an additional baby, a kitty (titi abie), two puppies, a spider (and I am sure something else I am forgetting).

…how you recognize the places we drive to and the reasons for going there. You point to the local nursery to tell us that chickens live there, you point to the metro station to tell us that daddy rides that train, you show us where Lala lives (Lauren, the baby in our nanny-share arrangement) and where Sky lives (our neighborhood friend).

You have enriched our lives in ways words cannot describe. Likewise, there aren’t enough words to tell you just how much I love you and how grateful I am for you.

All my love,
Mama