14 month newsletter

Dear Beatrix, the light of my life.

Today you are 14 months old! 14! It's a lot isn't it?
I feel that this past month was broken into 2 halves, the first was just you growing and being cute, cute, cute, with more cuteness. Then the second part? Holy crazy! First you learned to walk, and now you will do nothing but walk, unless that is if you are baby running. It's quite adorable, but because of your only walking rule you have hooker knees. They are rather bruised up and a little trashed! They don't seem to bother you though, and while I cringe and your knees take the brunt of a fall, you get up and wobble away. I thank a sorts of lucky stars that babies don't have knee caps! And the other crazy development of the last two weeks? Only you cutting a whole mess of teeth! As of today you have cut 3, nearly 4 teeth. Oddly the first two you cut were your top front teeth. You have quite the adorable little smile now, although I will always miss your gummy grin. Now when you give me your open mouthed kisses, they're not just slimy and gooey, there are little sharp bits that gouge into my cheek. See? The adorable that abounds? Cheek gouging kisses!
Earlier this month my older brother Rob and his wife Kelly and their son Liam came to visit us and you had a great time with them. Granted Rob and I don't know each other that well, we weren't raised together and didn't meet until our teens and then there was a long break where circumstances kept us apart, but now we're in touch and you have another Uncle and Auntie. Their son Liam, is only 6 weeks younger that you, and the two of you were the most adorable little partners in crime while we were dragging you two all over Northern California. I don't think that there have ever been two happier and better behaved babies, ever! Such little troopers, sitting in the car for long rides, taking all of your naps in car seats and waiting patiently while Mama, Daddy and Auntie and Uncle tastes lots of wines in Sonoma and Napa. Such troopers. You were rewarded though, we took you guys to lots of children friendly places and you and Liam had lots of fun playing. I think that you two will be friends for life, and that makes me so happy!
Your eating this month hasn't changed much, other than you love to dip stuff. I think your favourite thing to eat is celery sticks and hummus. You dip the celery into the hummus, suck it off, and repeat. Eventually you end up eating some of the celery, but mostly you consume hummus. There may have even been a time where you might have drank some hummus... clearly I shouldn't turn away from you! You still get a couple of bottles a day, but I only give them to you when you're about to go to bed and when you wake up in the morning. I am not too keen to take them away from you. If I were able to breastfeed you, I wouldn't be weaning you anytime soon, so I see no reason to take your bottles away. I do find it amusing though how you get so confused if I give you milk in a sippy cut instead of a bottle. If you're a little cranky you will absolutely refuse to drink your milk until I put it in a bottle.
Your pottying has taken a bit of a back seat to your walking. But Daddy and I are still determined. I have been known to let you walk around naked so I can plop you on the potty regularly, and you have been known to reward me by peeing on the floor. You're so precious! Like a flower.
You love to play with your dolls, and you have 4 that you really love, Baby, Dolly, Shepard and Other Baby. As you can see we're real creative with the toy's names around here, however you do know who's who and you'll being me the requested doll. You also give love to Duck (Donald), Dog and I'm teaching to disregard Elmo, who's eyes you like to poke at. Daddy and you still play with your blocks and demolishing towers is still a favourite game. I continue to buy you too many books and you continue to read them all, which makes me so happy. We always have a big pile of books on the floor for me to trip on, but you spend a lot of time surrounded by your books, so I don't get upset.
In terms of the words you have, you say "Mama:, "Dada", "BAAAA" which is ball and always shouted, I've heard you say "Chachi" and "cat". You still say "duck" and various other words that I can't remember, along with all sorts of singing and yelling which is mostly what comes out of your mouth, and always in a happy way. Your signing has taken off. While the sign for 'milk' seems to have dropped off your radar in favour of "AHHHHH!" and pointing, you do sign 'more', 'cheese', 'cookie', 'thank you', and rarely 'please'.
All in all I'm realizing that toddler hood is pretty amazing and I love to see you explore and create the world around you!
Love Mama