Irregular Newsletter: Month 14

Welcome to 14 months, Big!

And, wow. It has been a month.

Your motor skills (or attempt at developing them, I should say) are/is still going strong. Now you're into climbing. Everything. Whatever you can wrap that little knee up and over, you will. Thank God you can't reach the top of your crib yet, but that is obviously coming. I'm planning on locating a little crash pad beneath it for the day you get tall enough to swing that knee over.

We got you and your sister a little table from Ikea with its accompanying stools.

It was my idea, and it was a bad one. You're not ready for even the least unstable stool yet. This past Wednesday I looked over and you were standing on one of the little stools. Looking so proud of yourself, you were smiling over at me: Look what I can do!!!

Your smile is infectious by the way.

I rushed over in an attempt to help and in all the excitement, the stool slipped out from underneath you (all in slow motion from my perspective), you fell back, hit your head on the window behind you, and took a good bite on your tongue.

Blood was everywhere and your legs kicked as I held you tight in my arms.

On the bright side, you are LOVING hanging out with Mo4 and her kids while I'm at school. On the first day of that transition, she said to me: He and I will be fine, it's YOU that I'm worried about.

And that has been entirely true. When I go to pick you up, you'll usually acknowledge me with a smile and a hug, and then you're off to either continue your play or to show me something. One person advised me (re: this transition) that you can't have too many people loving your kid and I get that now with full force. He is so happy.

As for your verbal skills, you definitely have "kitty" and "ball" down, but Mo4 claims a whole host of other expressions: "hide" and "dog" and "mama" and "baba". Expressions I have yet to witness.

The "ball" (which actually sounds like "bop") always catches me by surprise. The other day I was helping you into your carseat in BioMom's car when you looked down and then back at me with a huge grin and a "BOP!!" I had no idea that that meant anything until I looked down and saw a baloon on the floor of her backseat.

It made my heart leap!

Of course, I think I understand everything you're saying, but now, to have you actually communicate with us feels a little like hearing static on the radio and then finally dialing into a few recognizable words in the AM frequency.