11 months

Dear Mallory,

You are 11 months old now, and I’m sure that means nothing to you (what with the lack of an ability to grasp the concept of time), but me? I have to keep pinching myself to make sure it’s true. I don’t know where the time has gone, and yes, I realize that makes me sound like an old fart to say, but just you wait. You swear you’ll never say things like that now, but your time will come, too.

This month… you walked! Really and truly. We caught you taking a step here or there, and within a few days you were going 10 or 12 steps at a time. Just today you crossed the entire playroom-soon-to-be-dining-room. You still walk terribly though, listing to one side like a ship going down, and you usually don’t cover very much ground. You still prefer to crawl when you need to motor, and I still prefer it when you do; I will miss having a little crawler in the house when you are a full-time walker. Plus, there are fewer head injuries to worry about this way.

You have become addicted to climbing the stairs, something you will often do ten times in a row if we don’t run interference and bar you from them. At least you somehow also know that you are supposed to go down the stairs backwards, on your belly, instead of plunging over the precipice head-first. You are also still game for some high chair acrobatics at any time (though we have decided to get your old high chair back – it’s getting ridiculous!)

One thing I do love and encourage you to do is dance! You have suddenly turned into a dancing fool. There are a few songs in particular that will set you off, like the theme to Fifi and the Flowertots (a new Treehouse TV show) and also the Jonas Brothers – which makes you very on trend, since they are all the ‘tween rage these days! The first time I saw you dancing to the Jonas Brothers video on the Jungle Book DVD, I laughed so hard I cried. You were rocking right out. Good thing we caught your performance on video – you can probably expect to see that clip at your wedding.

You are down to nursing just once a day, at bedtime. You wear a size 4 diaper during the day and have just graduated to a size 5 at night after wetting through consistently. You are 20 pounds 12 ounces and 29.5 inches tall. You generally are wearing size 12 month clothes now, but your round little Buddha belly sometimes has me buying 18 month tops for you to ensure they fit. Your favourite food appears to be pizza, and although you loved fruit just a couple of weeks ago, I haven’t seen you eating any of it lately – and I’m totally mystified as to why.

Now that you are 11 months old, I am in the thick of planning your first birthday party. It will be small – immediate family only – but my goodness, I just can’t help myself. Experience with Liam tells me that I only have a couple of years to do it up my way, before you start insisting that you want a Wonder Woman party or some such nonsense (how on earth did he ever latch onto Spider Man so strongly? – but I digress). As I design invitations and browse iTunes for a playlist I get all weepy, but that’s OK – I hope to get it out of my system before the big day arrives.

The countdown is on now, not only to your birthday, but to my return to work as well; it’s now only three weeks away. (Actually, it should have been this week – but I’m currently ‘on vacation’, trying to soak up some more time with you.) We have your first trips to Cindy’s house planned for next week. I both dread the day that I hand you over to someone else – I will miss you terribly – and I also look forward to this next phase of your life. It means that we’ll have had a wonderful first year together and that you will have graduated out of babyhood and into toddlerhood. And I would find myself wishing I could go back and do it with you all over again… if only I weren’t so excited to see what comes next.

Love,
Mom