14 months

Dear Jack,

I wake up in the morning to the sound of your happy squawks and squeals. I open the door to your room and there you are, standing in the crib, holding Puppy, smiling away and ready to start the day.

I take you into my bed and you nurse and poke my eyes and nose and slap my hand and it's my favorite part of the day. We cuddle for 20 minutes or so and then you sit up, clap your hands as if to say "Enough laying around, let's start the day!" and roll off the bed, feet first like you taught yourself to do.

You run out into the living room and open your toy box or follow me into the kitchen and open a cabinet and you play while I make coffee and get our breakfast togetherAfter breakfast you play some more and after a while we go into your room and sit on the floor and you take books out of the basket and hand them to me and I read them to you, some over and over, some just the first few pages then it's on to the next. We read Brown Bear Brown Bear, One Fish Two Fish, The Feelings Book, Miss Spiders ABC's, Big Dog and Little Dog, over and over and you never get tired of them. I love how much you love books, sometimes I walk past your room and see you sitting there by yourself turning pages and looking at pictures.

When your Papa leaves for work in the morning, as soon as the front door opens you are marching down the hallway on the way to say goodbye to him at the elevator. You push the button for him and wave goodbye as the doors close. I know this is your Papa's favorite part of the day.

When we go out together, you insist on helping us lock the front door then you insist on pushing the elevator button and once we are in, using the key fob to press that button to go where we are going. This is something you just picked up by watching us do and you will wave that fob the whole way downstairs, much to other people's amusement. You always wave when people join us in the elevator and when they leave, smiling at every person we see.

You don't say Hi or Bye but you do say "ball" (one of your favorite things) "down" "juice" "water" "quack quack" "play" and "woof woof"(though that sounds more like "thhhhh thhhh" for some reason but it's a work in progress)

You can feed yourself with a spoon now, though I still have to help you or you would wear more than you eat but you can always get the spoon into your mouth even if it's upside down and all the food is in your lap, it never seems to bother you. You also love to feed me or your Papa whatever you are eating, and of course Chewy. He is really starting to warm up to you now because he gets so many pretzels and cookies and crackers from you. Sometimes you will just stand with a cup full of treats and hand feed him one after the other. In return, he always lets you grab one of his toys and chew on it or wave it around or throw it and let him chase it. I told you both you would be great friends one day and I think that day is very near. You get so happy and excited when you see him, almost as happy as when you see me or your Papa and it makes me smile inside that you love him so much.

After dinner, I tell you it's "bath time for Bonzo" and you march into the bathroom and start throwing toys into the tub while it fills with water. We've just started getting you to put your face in the water and blow bubbles in the tub, as long as I do it first and sometimes you blow bubbles and sometimes you get a nose full of water but you take it like a champ either way, the best part of you is that you are not afraid to try anything new.

We get out of the tub and I help you put on your jammies, then we read more books and after a while I ask if you want some milk. You smile and clap your hands and lay in my lap and drift off to sleep. There is nothing I love more than to feel the heft of your warm body in my lap as you fall asleep and sometimes I sit in the dark for a few minutes after you are already sleeping because I know it will not last much longer and I want to always remember what this feels like, while you are growing and learning and doing so much, yet at that moment you are still my little tiny baby who I had in my belly just over a year ago.

Love,
Your Mama