Letter to the Birthday Boy

Dear Birthday Boy,

You are a whopping ONE YEAR OLD now.  You still lay your head down on my arm and let me rock you to sleep.  You giggle when I rub your back - you're most ticklish there, just like me.  You're exploring more and more, getting more teeth and beginning to walk.  My baby is one.

Back to rocking you to sleep.  We, ahem, I, have spoiled you rotten since day one.  Then night before you turned one, you slept through the night for the very first time.  It was magical.  But you've gotten in this pattern of being rocked sound asleep, and then waking up and crying the moment you feel your little body leaving mine and waking right back up and crying.  I've just had to let you cry it out, and I know it hurts your feelings, but you.have.to.sleep.  That's it, end of story.  And eventually you do fall asleep, but you put up one heck of a fight.  And you're waking up in the middle of the night now crying for your pacifier, but we've let you find it on your own and it only takes a few minutes before you're back to sleep again.

M met a lady who said you were a lap baby.  You cry and someone picks you up and puts you on their lap.  Yep, I did it to us.  You were spoiled rotten for six whole months coming to work with me and while we are at M and Pa's, you get picked up and carried around.  When we're at home you have always been toted back and forth from one spot to the next.  But then you started crawling and things became more accessible to you.  And that meant you didn't get carried and toted from one spot to the other.  Nope, you crawl after us crying, wondering why we aren't taking you with us?  Well, it's because now you're mobile.  And getting heavy.  And you're not as still so it's harder to multitask while holding you.  So I just have to let you cry.  It's not a cry because you're hurt, it's a cry because you just don't know why in the world I walked past without picking you up.  It's getting better, especially because now, you are taking steps.

Steps I say.  The precursor to walking.  The world is your oyster.  And we should probably babyproof a little more.  But right now you'll only walk for us if we stand you up, step back and hold our arms out for you.  You walk right to us and then the last step you kinda start falling forward and we catch you.  You think it's great fun, but I know you'll be walking like crazy in no time flat.

You love to sing 'Itsy Bitsy Spider' and wave your arms to all the motions.  You sing along with Luke when he sings the 'ABC' song.  You throw your arms up way over your head when we say 'How big is Owen?' and you play peek a boo.  I love all the little things you do.  And you've just started really putting your head down on our shoulder, which may be the sweetest thing ever.


You still love going to daycare, and you get excited when we walk through the doors.  You love all the interaction with the other kids and they have a big gym with a ton of balls for you to play with!  And my favorite part is when I pick you up in the afternoon, you hear my voice and start squealing with delight.  It makes my heart do some serious smiling.

You have a total of 4 teeth - 2 lower (they came in first around 10 months), and 2 upper (they came in several weeks ago).  You're curious, don't really like reading books with me (that doesn't stop me from reading at least 3 to you), love peek a boo and playing with Luke.

You are one.  An amazing one year old.  And your father and I thank Heavenly Father every day for entrusting us with you while we are on this earth.

We love you.
Mom and Dad