Lexi One year one month (13 months)

Dear Lexi,

What a fast, crazy, fun-filled month! It was cold, we got lots of snow and you had you’re first (second) Christmas. Technically, your first Christmas was last year, but you were 3 weeks old so it only 1/2 counts. And to be completely honest, you could have given two hoots about Christmas this year too. You definitely didn’t ‘get it’.

Favorite moments

For your birthday you received two baby-dolls, some pretend bottles a stroller and you love to take care of your babies. It is so sweet to watch you put the bottles up to their faces and put them over your shoulder and pat their back. When you take them for ‘walks’ in their stroller, you’ll waddle to the front, squat down and check on them and fuss with them a little bit and then continue your ‘walk’. It’s so adorable to see how caring and nurturing you are!

We took you to see Santa for the first time. I tried to plan the visit so we wouldn’t have to wait in line very long, but failed. Luckily, you and Daddy were stuck in traffic while I waited, so you only had to wait twenty minutes. I wasn’t sure how you would react as you usually take awhile to warm up to new people and places, but you did surprisingly well. You didn’t cry or smile. You pretty much just sat there and looked at him were intrigued by the items on the table next to him.

You’ve made the connection that when you pull the bathtub drain up, water disappears. When you’re done playing you’ll announce ‘aaaww done’, pull the plug and try and swing your leg over the edge of the tub, which you not quite tall enough to do so yet, and makes mom nervous.

Daddy has done a really great job teaching and enforcing ‘one-touch’ with you. You can touch almost anything one time, but no grabbing or multiple touches. This came in handy with the Christmas decorations up. You touched the tree and a couple of ornaments a few times and then were done with it. Daddy also set-up the Christmas tree train and you LOVED it. Every time you came into the room, you would run and point for it to be turned on. Then, you would proceed to run back and forth as it would circle and giggle and stomp your feet. You were pretty darn cute. And it was fun to see Daddy excited, as you showed interest in his hobby!

Not exactly a favorite moment, but definitely a memorable one, is the first negative behavior we’ve seen from you. On a couple of different occasions if I said ‘no’ to something you wanted, you would take my hand and try and bite it. At first, I thought it was a teething thing, but after it happened a couple of times and you would look at me as I said no, and then take my hand and bite it, I knew you were expressing your anger. I’m not sure what to think of this. Part of me is nervous for what that may mean for the future. Part of me is intrigued that you have been pre-programmed to react this way. This isn’t a learned behavior because you have never seen anyone else do this. Another part of me is sad that I’ve made you so angry you’re driven to hurt me. I know there are going to be many situations in the future where you’re not going to like what I say, but it doesn’t mean I like it.

Other notables:

You learned how to climb up on our couches this month.

You spent your first night away from both mom and dad. We’ve each spent nights away from you, but not at the same time. Grandma B loved having you!

You love to point at everything and shake your head ‘no-no-no’.

New words for the month: ‘uh-oh’, ‘oh-no’, ‘no-no-no’, ‘see’, ‘num-a-num-a-num’, which translates to ‘I’m hungary’.

Your hair has grown long enough to be put into pigtails. You look like blonde Boo from Monster’s Inc.

Your bottom right tooth popped through–which was pretty terrible and you felt awful from it. You also had a cold at this time which made the teething process that much worse.

You can identify your ears and your toes (in addition to your nose and eyes)

If we leave food out on the counter, you demand to have some of it.

You make brum-brum noises while playing and pushing your cars.

Sweet Lexi, you are so fun to be around and dada and I love watching you grow and learn. We love you more everyday.

Love,

Mama

Snuggling with Daddy on Christmas! Too much fun for you!

Reading stories with your Grandma Sampson’s.

Family pic on Christmas Eve

Fun playing in boxes

Snuggles for your pillow

The ONLY decent day to get outside in the entire month!

Sleeping like Auntie Sheila, butt up in the air.

You LOVE LOVE LOVE reading books, with mama and dada and by yourself

Your first wall ‘artwork’ we woke up to as your sippy cup wasn’t properly screwed on and you were shaking it all over the place creating beautiful artwork.