12 months

Dear Theo,

Here we are, on your first birthday.  The first anniversary of the day you came into my life.  It's such a bittersweet feeling for your mama.  My heart swells with pride and nearly bursts with love when I think about you, much less see your face.  You have come a long way, baby.

You have said so many words, but you are a stinker.  You say them when you want to.  Sometimes you are prompted, and sometimes you say things on your own.  One of my favorite things you say is "moo."  When you see one of your cow toys, your mouth forms the cutest little "o" and you say "ooooo."  It's one of the most adorable things I've seen.  You say dada constantly.  Getting you to say mama is trickier.  Why is that?  You say "hi" and will wave hello and bye-bye.  I have also heard you say duck and sock, but only once.  When we read your little owl book, you repeat me by hooting.  I can't tell you how much fun it is to see you and hear you learning new things.

You have eight teeth in the front and I'm pretty sure you are working on some more in the back.  On the weekend before your birthday, you had your first fever.  It started on a Friday afternoon and lasted until Saturday evening.  Your mama and daddy were worried because we had never seen you so pitiful before.  You just wanted to sit on our laps, which is totally unlike you.  You are so very mobile and inquisitive.  You almost never stop moving and exploring.  But when you were feeling bad, you just wanted to snuggle with us. You were whiny and slept a lot and your little body was on fire.  Friday night your temperature reached 102.4 and that scared your mama.  I didn't know what to do with a sick baby but we let you lead the way and tell us what you needed.  Your party was Saturday and towards the end of the party, you had some energy.  Maybe it was the cake...maybe it was the attention...maybe it was all the cool new toys.

You had a great party.  We have lots of pictures to share with you.  So many people love you.  You are already so lucky to have such great family and friends. I hope the people that you choose to be a part of your life treat you with as much kindness.

You are taking steps now.  The most we have counted so far is 9.  You get braver every day.  I think if we had carpet at home, you'd be zooming around the house but the slick floors make you a little more tentative.  You'll be walking and running around in no time.  I'm looking forward to seeing you grow and change even more over the next year.

Your eating has been hit or miss lately.  For the longest time, you were happy to eat whatever we offered you, whether is was something you fed yourself or had to eat off of a spoon.  Over the last few weeks, you've become more independent and prefer to eat things that you can pick up with your cute little fingers.  I hope you'll always continue to try new things and be a good eater.  We've started trying to get you away from bottles and onto sippy cups.  Your birthday weekend was a bit of a setback because you didn't want to eat or drink much at all.  Since the bottle is easier and a comfort to you, we just offered you that.  You've started drinking less formula.  You go to the doctor for your one year check up tomorrow and I'm anxious to see how much you've grown.  I think the doctor will say it's time to switch you to whole milk!

You are such a happy, fun baby.  I love you and I like you and I always will.  I'm so lucky to be your mom and I hope every mom loves their baby as much and feels as lucky as I do.  If that's the case, there will be a lot of love going around the world.  You're going to have a baby sister or brother in a few short weeks.  You'll be a great big brother and I'm anxious to see how this new person in our lives changes things.

You're taking steps towards becoming a toddler and we're taking steps towards becoming more experienced parents every day as we learn with you.  You have taught us everything we know about being a mom and dad.  I don't care what anyone else thinks of the way we raise you, but I sure hope you think we're doing alright.  I love you, Peezy.

xo,
Mommy