Gage: Twelve/Thirteen Month Letter

Dear Little Ball of Endless Energy,

You're finally a year old. And, I gotta be honest with you, I am writing this a whole month after your first birthday. Turns out I had no idea how busy we would truly be celebrating birthdays and Christmas and mine and your dad's anniversary last month.

We threw you a huge party at The Little Gym, and although I am positive you won't remember it for yourself when you grow up, it was a great memory for the rest of us. You had a lot of friends and family that came to help you celebrate. You face planted into your cake like the champion that you are and it reminded me of when you use to breastfeed with your face buried in my boob for your meals. I had to make sure your nostrils were free for airflow. And, I loved how at one year, you could remind me of you being a newborn.

You are gigantic. I mean that in a nice way. Your legs extend well beyond my lap when I hold you, and you weigh close to 25lbs now. You have 6 teeth and an insatiable appetite to learn about everything going on around you. You have a decent vocabulary even though you're not putting sentences together yet. You say mama, dada, jinx, ball, bath, done, cracker, car, battery, pretty, no, bye bye, nana (for Hannah), please (although you rarely say it b/c you're stubborn), guck (for yuck, in reference to the trash) baba (for bottle), and the other day you said bacon 3 times while we were eating breakfast.

You got soo much stuff for your birthday and Christmas. I am glad your dad and I didn't go overboard purchasing gifts beforehand. But, that just shows how much people love you. And, I am taking this moment to say that I have good intentions about sending thank you cards to the gift givers, but am terrible on follow through (i.e. actually addressing them and putting them in the mailbox) with those things. I get that from your grandma. :)

You are extremely unafraid. You climb everywhere, play in the dark, giggle when the dogs growl for you putting your whole weight on them. You also are a little beligerent. I can certainly figure where you got that from...You will be told "no" and then look at us, smile and touch whatever we said "no" to.

And, finally, you have started being intentionally affectionate!!! You give kissies (sometimes with a little too much tongue - i.e. ANY tongue) and you will lay across us or our laps and roll around in an effort to cuddle. Hannah does NOT appreciate this gesture. You love to sit on her and Noah. And, I know you're trying to be sweet, but you're like the jolly green giant on those petite kids! Noah doesn't mind, and he will occasionally push you away, which I totally understand. You have to outweigh him by a few pounds. You also run to give hugs if I crouch down and open my arms.

Gosh, I'm sure there's so much more...you popped another tooth through the gums on the bottom yesterday. So, you're technically at 6 1/2 teeth now. You STILL love people and you get a lot of attention where ever we go.

I can't believe it's been a year. It feels like it flew by. But, on the bright side, it wasn't so horrible that we won't be giving you a baby brother or sister sometime in the next year or so.

Love, Mommy