Dear MrMan,
This week, you turned 14 months old. You may be wondering where your 13 month letter is. Stop looking now. I started a 13 month letter, and a 13-month-plus-13 days letter (which coincided with the last day of 2006), but neither was finished. Somehow, I've been so involved with being with you that I missed writing about you. I suspect that a lot of that has to do with how quickly you're changing. And what exactly these changes are.
As mentioned in my last letter to you, you're walking. In the past couple of months, you've really cultivated this skill. To the point that you run, or at least lurch with increased speed. You're still working on the knee-bending thing. Your walking has been more fun than I'd anticipated. We can play chase through the house, much better than the version that involved you on your hands and knees. I can watch you delight in going in circles from the dining room to the hallway to the kitchen, back to the dining room.... I'm less grossed out by your exploring new places, because now you explore on the soles of your shoes instead of on your hands.... Of course, it's also a little harder to wrangle you, with this newfound independence, but that's part of the job.
In the past week, you've gotten really good at climbing on to chairs. Other things too, but especially the chairs. Yes, the day I'd been dreading has arrived. The walking dread turned out not to be justified. The climbing dread? Quite justified. Nothing ever seems quite fully out of your reach. For a while, we'd reached a nice phase where I didn't have to constantly be in the room with you. Those days are gone for now, as you are quite capable of quickly and quietly moving a chair within reach of a table or other piece of furniture and climbing up to explore things that shouldn't be explored by little hands. Today, you drove your ride-on truck (one of your favorite toys these days) over to the front door and then stood on your truck seat to try to turn the door knob. So many things to watch out for.
When we're out, you get very happy about seeing other children, saying hi and wanting to interact with them. Last week, when we met up with some friends at the Children's Museum, you walked over and immediately tried to hold Ben's hand, even though you'd met him only twice before. I'm so bummed I missed it, but a few weeks ago, you went on a picnic at the Fly, where you met an older girl of 20-plus months. You were smitten, it seems, as there was much hugging going on: you approached her, hugged her, and took her hand to lead her over to our food. When playing with younger children, you seem to recognize the need to be gentle. You give more spontaneous kisses and naaz my face. You give us high fives. You hold your hand, and sometimes other things, to the side of your head, to indicate talking on the phone. Having pretend phone conversations is one of your favorite activities. Peek-a-boo is another. You love to initiate it, peeking out from behind things and saying, "Dali!" (the Persian version of "Peekaboo!"). Or I guess it's more like "Dai!" I see the glimmerings of a penchant for hide-and-seek, as you do sometimes like to make yourself scarce for a few moments before saying it.
I'm still slow to realize that many milestones are gradual. I think I pictured language acquisition to be sudden, but I've recently concluded that it's more of us coming closer together: your speaking, my understanding. I think that right now, there are many more words coming out of your mouth than I realize, but eventually your pronunciation will improve and my figuring out what sounds go with which things will improve. Lately, it seems like every few days, we achieve some sort of breakthrough in reaching a common understanding of one of your utterances. Some of your Persian words include hot (this is one of your favorite words, accompanied by your hand going out to indicate caution), no (which you've started saying while doing or contemplating something you're not supposed to do), two, water, outside, picture, and dog. Your English words include hi, bye, uh-oh (which you use constantly, whether the thing in question has dropped accidently or on purpose), night, ball, bird, cat, and dog. Yes, from what we can tell, you seem to say dog in both languages, though they're quite similar, so we're not completely positive.
You also speak animal pretty well, making sounds for cats, dogs, sheep, monkeys, owls, horses, ducks, and roosters. Your barking often involves your whole body, especially if PapaJoon busts out the Who Let the Dogs Out video with all the puppies, or if you are in the presence of a real dog. You are enamored of Corporal, constantly spending time in front of his cage. You dig around in his food bowl, grabbing handfuls to feed to him yourself. You fearlessly stick your fingers in his cage and in front of his mouth. You know how to open the cage, so I sometimes will find one of your toys in there. It seems your philosophy is that if it's good enough for you, it's good enough for him. I guess you also believe the reverse, as I have found you sticking his food in your mouth and trying to grab his colorful ball.
You drink on your own from a cup, skillfully tipping it with both hands. You've got decent handling of a spoon. I've noticed that you're a bit more effective at getting the food into your mouth when the spoon is in your left hand. But the spoon is not just for mealtimes: you enjoy carrying one around the house at times. Once, when I was out for the evening, you took a spoon to bed with you. You also like to carry around pens, straws, and anything you can put an eye out with. Needless to say, it's only when we're not on top of things that you're able to carry these things around. You enjoy time in the kitchen, spending time with the plastic storage containers, baking pans, and alphabet magnets. If someone is cooking, you're adamant about seeing what it is they're doing. And then, of course, exclaiming that the stove is hot. Maybe it's because your favorite foods are cold - I think that, if we let you, you would eat cheese and yogurt all day. Thankfully, you like lots of other things, too, but dairy makes your day.
I think I've mentioned your strong-willedness and defiance before. They're growing, too. I hope that you let go of the latter, and that the former serves you well in life. Unfortunately, when you don't get your way, or if we try to take something away from you, you deftly throw things. Your aim is enviable, but your temper is not. I'm sorry to say that I think that you've inherited that from me. Interestingly, since your birth, I've been pretty good about keeping my volatile temper in check, so it's not something you've picked up through observation. Time will tell if it's just a phase, or part of your personality. Either way, I hope to help you develop other ways of expressing your anger.
You are content to sit and "read" on your own for fifteen to twenty minutes at a time. When I watch you, I can't help but think you're reading a choose-your-own-adventure, where you choose the books and the pages you want in your story: you pick up one book and study a page or two, then quickly move on to another, doing the same, perhaps turning the book upside down for a moment, then on to another.... Some of your favorite books these days include Jamberry, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You see?, Who Is Coming to Our House?, and Sheep in a Jeep (which often makes you exclaim uh oh!). You are very disturbed by page nine of One Baby Mountain Goat - something about seeing George Washington in stone bothers you. Two of your favorite songs are Tick tock, tick tock, I'm a little cuckoo clock and Three Little Monkeys. With the former, you participate by saying tick tock and cuckoo!, and with the latter you mimic the hand motions we use.
Your pointing skills rock now: you use one finger instead of your whole hand. You're also able to use one finger to precisely press buttons. You've figured out how to trigger most if not all of your games. Yesterday, I noticed that when you knocked on the door, you actually made a fist and rapped with your knuckle. You like to stand in front of the air intake vents in the hall. You're very excited by passing trucks. You really like lights, often requesting that the lamp in the living room be turned on, as well as the dome light in the car. I oblige you with the first, but explain that we don't drive with the indoor light on. You enthusiastically smell flowers, bending over in front of even little ones before scrunching your face and deeply inhaling.
You insist on your feet being above the bed covers, even if they're encased in footed pajamas. When you're sleeping between me and Daddy, this means that you're usually on top of the comforter while we're beneath it You don't seem bothered by that. You also don't seem bothered by waking us up to help you unearth your feet. The past few weeks, you've been sleeping in your own bed, at least part of each night. You seem to prefer it as the place to fall asleep, but you're not totally thrilled about the sleeping alone part.
MrMan, I delight in sharing each day with you, watching you discover new things. Thank you for your enthusiasm for life and letting it spill over into my own.
Love,
Mommy