11 months old

You know how everyone tells you how quickly time passes once you have a child?

Well it’s true.

And even though they tell you that you still just don’t understand until you’re staring at the last four weeks of the first year of his life and you just can’t understand how time suddenly moved into warp speed.

I guess that children, babies in particular, are changing and growing so rapidly that life seems to move faster than you had ever thought possible. Or perhaps it’s the busy and frenetic pace of life that you enjoy while chasing an increasingly mobile child through a life full of hazards and things you just don’t want broken. Whatever the cause, this has been the fastest 11 months of my life by far. I feel, and I am sure all parents can relate, simultaneously excited for the future and nostalgic for the past. I want to freeze time and preserve each adorable giggle and yet I am excited for it to plummet ahead and watch him change and learn.

I am already having a “hard time dealing” with the fact that he is turning 1. Not that I am not thrilled that he is here, in our lives, healthy and growing (I am!) — and so I don’t want to sound ungrateful — after all, growing up is the point. But I feel like just last week I had a newborn and now I have a CHILD. He is willful, independent, curious, and smart. He does what he wants and he enjoys the heck out of life. He has so much to teach me, and so much to learn. There are not enough photographs, videos, blog posts and brain cells to capture each cute thing that he does. I feel as though, despite my best intentions, they will slip from my grasp like so many raindrops, transformed and lost forever as they were. That is why his impending birthday is a little bit painful for me. I already have hazy memories of his face when he was oh-so-small and I can’t believe that he is old enough to have a birthday! When I imagined how he would change our lives I just don’t think my imagination went this far.

To say I love him would be an understatement. Eskimos have something like 22 words for snow and I have only one for love and it just doesn’t work this time. I love cookies, I love reading, I adorecherishsquishkissobsessoverloveloveloveLOVE this child. He is 22 pounds of cute and almost constantly happy. I don’t even understand how I got such a JOYFUL child. He is the happiest creature I have ever encountered.

He is changing so rapidly now, I am not even certain where to begin to describe his latest milestones. He is close to walking: he stands up and moves from one piece of furniture to the next and has even occasionally forgotten to hold on and stood for a bit. I know he could walk if the idea where presented, and I know it will be, and I am patient. i gave him a toy that is a wooden stick with wooden discs that you slide on the stick (they have holes in the middle) and he can place them all on the stick. The look of concentration on his face is adorable. He opens all of our cupboards and loves nothing more than to empty them of their contents. I allow him to do this with one cupboard full of tupperware, and he empties it about 7 times a day. He has started to leave gifts in our shoes. He put a toy in one of my boots and a bar of soap in the other, then loaded Josh’s running shoes similarly. He says “oh wow!” and of course “uh-oh!” as well as lots of “mama”s and “dada”s (but still not directed to us as names). He is signing “hungry” and I think he started to sign “more” but I’m not completely sure. He almost said “banana.” When we get him ready for bed, he leans in to Josh’s kiss on his forehead which is absolutely precious. He has started smacking his head with both hands and likes to grab my face and plant a crazy slobber kiss on it. He climbs all over me and grabs my hair (usually gently, but not always). He crawls on all fours for faster access to his feet so he can stand or climb, but when he’s covering distances quickly he still army crawls.

He is, for the most part, a very easy child. Willful, yes, but happy and easygoing, too. He really goes with the flow and joins me on my daily adventures. He is always moving, kicking his feet and waving his arms. He tries to make every person he encounters fall in love with him I think. He will stare at a person until the notice him and then smile his brightest, dimply smile and they have no choice but to smile back. He will call out to people we pass and wave at strangers from a restaurant high chair. He is ticklish and will laugh and laugh when you tickle his belly.

I hope I’m documenting his adorableness enough. I’m trying my best. He is just too cute for words.