12 months! You have been alive for 12 months, this amazes and thrills me to no end.
This has been a busy month for you, but truthfully you’re busy every month, you just accomplish something knew. Emmett, I cannot believe that you have turned a year, that 365 days have passed since the very moment that I gave birth to you. We have had our ups and downs, but I’ve learned so much and grown even more, I wouldn’t change a moment of the past 12 months.
They made him a birthday crown at day care.
Last month, you were pulling yourself up, cruising along the edges of things, this month you’ve begun to take your first steps. We were actually doing FaceTime with your paternal grandparents when you decided there was something across the room that you wanted to check out. You pulled yourself up on your crib, wobbled a bit and then decided to take 4 stiff-legged steps to the toy you were looking for. I squealed (as I almost always do for your accomplishments), I was just so excited! Your grandparents thought you had fallen or gotten hurt because at the moment, your daddy had the camera facing him. Whoops! We were able to get you to do it again but only for 2 steps, you just know that crawling is so much faster.
As the month has progressed you’ve taken more and more unassisted steps, but crawling remains your main mode of transportation. I don’t blame you, you move so SO fast when crawling. You’ll get there before we know it and then the real trouble begins! 🙂
Another major physical development has been that you can now stand up from sitting without any assistance. You more frequently use the couch, but you are able to sit, then move into a squatting position and finally stand up, sometimes you’ll take a step or two but most of the time you’ll plop back down to play.
You also, sadly, had your first real fever this month, it happened so quick too. The day after the fourth of July your dad and I had taken off and were going to have a ‘date day,’ so we got up early and took you to day care. When I dropped you off, you were fine, happy and sweet but by the time I had gotten nearly home, your day care had called me to let me know you had a fever of 102.1. I turned around and went back and got you. Your fever got pretty high (104.1), so we went to the doctors but other than that, we spent the next 3 days just cuddling you and making you comfortable. Poor guy, just wanted to be held.
You’re a pro mimicker! It started with kissy noises. I had been nursing you and sat you up and blew you a kiss, you stared at me for a few seconds and then kind of puckered up your lips and made the kiss sound. It was adorable! I kept kissing your sweet little cheeks and you kept making the sound in response, but it has since developed into more. Now any time your father or I do anything, you try and do the exact same thing. The other morning, we were all in bed cuddling and your dad touched my nose, he knows I hate having my nosed touched but he did it so you would see and repeat it. Guess what? You did. Your dad was thrilled. Me? Not so much! Either way, it’s really cute having you try and repeat the things we do whether it be a sound or an action, you will try anything.
Most babies around your age start waving hello when someone walks into a room and waves at them. You are no exception, only thing is that you do it a bit differently and it’s THE cutest thing. You throw your arm and hand in the air, like you’re about to present someone and just hold it there. There’s no, flapping or waving of the hand, just a straight, stiff arm. So cute! Toward the end of the month you’ve changed how you hold your hand and now, sometimes you will actually wave. It’s amazing how just (less than) 30 days can change you.
You continue to be fearless when it comes to food, you will try just about anything we give to you. Some days you might not eat much or may not like the way something tastes but if we give it to you again, you’ll love the way it tastes the second time. Case in point, blueberries… you hated them the first time I gave them to you. However, I kept sending them for lunch and putting them on your tray for dinner. After about a week of doing that, you started devouring them, now we are forced (not that we mind) to buy the 2 pound container of blueberries so that there’s enough for the week. You almost always eat what we do, things like salmon couscous, grilled chicken, asparagus, ravioli, Naan, etc. etc. The only time we have to come up with an alternate meal for you, is when we’re eating something spicy and that’s mainly because we figure something hot (in spice) like that may hurt you and you wouldn’t understand why.
For Christmas, you received these Fisher Price Snap Lock Beads and you love them. You get so excited when we connect them all together and then you’re able to break them apart and look in the hole that is on one end. You also love putting them on your fingers, you’ll put one on your index finger and one on your pinky finger and shake your hand around, it pretty adorable and very silly. But anything that has a hole or indentation you love.
Your dad and I haven’t really baby-proofed anything up until the last week of the month. You were mobile, but we were able to wrangle, you in one way or another, so we avoided getting rid of or moving things that weren’t safe for you to play with. However, during the last week, you started pulling down daddy’s DVDs almost daily and getting into things that were completely unsafe, so we immediately started reorganizing and getting the house ready for a baby that is very active.
Has it truly been 12 months? Have I really written 11 different “Dear Emmett’s”? Holy cow! I find that so hard to believe but it’s very obviously true. You’ve come so SO far from that bitty baby that was born and would only eat, sleep and pee/poop. Now you play, hug, cuddle and love. You’re amazing and I have no doubt that you will continue to be this way for the rest of your life.
Happy 1 year birthday, sweet sweet Emmett! Mommy loves you to the moon and back!
