January 17, 2011
Dear Nicky,
You may have noticed that’s it’s been a couple months since I last wrote. You’ve been keeping us very busy running around chasing after you. First you were crawling around at the speed of light and now you’re walking just as fast! Next thing you know you’ll be running around! Now that you don’t need to use your hands to crawl, you use them to carry things all around the house. If we thought your toys were everywhere before, we were wrong! And it’s not just your toys, either. I keep finding your little treasures all over the house – like the pasta strainer in my bedroom or the remote control in the bathroom.
You’ve learned so many things the last couple months. You know what lions, cats, sheep, elephants, monkeys, snakes, giraffes (you stick your tongue out) and motorcycles say (you LOVE motorcycles). What a smarty pants! We also taught you what dogs say, but since you can’t say “woof” yet we taught you that dogs pant. When we were at Grandma and GranDougie’s house for Christmas you fell in love with their dog and followed him all around the house panting all day long – it was so cute! You also love laughing back and forth – a favorite pastime while we’re driving home from school. The coolest thing that’s happened lately though is that you’ve learned your first word – “bye bye”. You always know when to say it, either when I’m picking you up from day care or putting your coat on at home, you start chanting “bye bye”. Pretty amazing!
You are insisting on being much more independent lately. You eat all by yourself now and we have the stains on the walls and floors to prove it. You can get some really good distance with a spoon. If I had to guess right now I would say you’re going to be left handed – you almost always eat with your left hand. You’re also getting better and better at entertaining yourself. It’s so much fun to hear you making happy noises with your toys while we’re working somewhere else in the house. There’s a saying that if your baby is being too quiet, he must be doing something dangerous or naughty. Daddy jokes that it’s usually the opposite with you: when you’re quiet, we usually find you in your room surrounded by a pile of books.
When we read to you these days you have an adorable habit of crawling into our laps. You’re so snuggly – I love it! You’re finally starting to learn to give people kisses too. You’ve loved to kiss your books and toys and kitty for a while, but when it comes to kissing people you’ve been much more reserved. Now you’re starting to plant them on us and I’m taking as many as I can get – I know there’s only a limited time before you think you’re too grown up to hug and kiss me so I’ve got to get a store built up now!
I know I tell you this all day long, but you’re so much fun and so adorable. We love you so much!