Dear Nathan, (13 months old)

Dear Nathan,

This is such a fun age.  I keep saying that, and each age just keeps getting more and more fun!  You are 13months old, and there is pretty much nothing that can stop you!  You are finally walking - and you can literally go anywhere you want to go on those two little feet!  You are running too, which is pretty funny because you really only do it when you are trying to get away from me or your dad - or if you are trying to get to something we don't want you to have!

It's so funny, because you often look like such a grown-up little boy, but then sometimes you still look like a baby.  Especially when you are asleep or are going to sleep.  You still like to go to sleep on one of us, and then we put you in your crib.  You still look so tiny when you're laying on your Daddy - and when he puts you down in the crib and you curl up with your knees under you, you still look like a tiny baby.

What are you up to lately?  Pretty much everything!  You are very vocal - trying to imitate sounds and words.  You love Baby Einstein's Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and have been working on how to say e-i-e-i-o.  We have to really watch what we say around you now.  The other day, your Nana confessed that she hurt herself and said "crap" and you repeated it right back to her!  Mommy is going to have to be much more calm in the car from now on, it appears.


My favorite moment of your 13th month so far has been when we put shoes on you and you tried to walk in them for the first time.  You picked your feet up SO HIGH, I guess because the shoes were heavy and you thought you needed to lift them as high as you could to take the step.  You got the hang of them pretty quickly, though, and are now zooming around everywhere in your tennis shoes.  :)

You are showing so much personality now.  I'm seeing a lot of me in you, which is a little scary!  You're showing us you have a lot of your dad in you too, though - especially the way you try to figure everything out.  You love to swing.  It's one of your favorite activities right now!  You like to go really high!  When the swing starts to slow down, you get bored and start looking around, but when someone gives you a good push, you get the biggest grin on your face and you laugh so hard!  It's so much fun to watch you having fun.  I absolutely love it.

It's just as much fun watching you learn, though.  Your brain is just a sponge right now, and if you see something once, you can pretty much do it after a couple of tries.  Which makes babyproofing kind of difficult!  We do have you blocked from certain areas in the house, just to keep you safe and to keep some of our more valuable things safe.  I look forward to breaking down those barriers and letting you roam free, but that's probably going to take awhile.

Sweet Nathan, never forget that Mommy loves you very much.  You are the light of our lives.

All my love,

Your Mommy.

PS.  Leaving you with two of my favorite pictures from the last few weeks.  This is you investigating a pumpkin, and the other is you holding your Daddy's hand.