Holden:
You are pure energy! This month was all about exploration and expression. You are scooting and crawling and cruising all over the house, including up the stairs. Your curiosity is growing and you don’t like being steered away from something that has piqued your interest. You even walked a little bit for a few days! I realize that is probably no big whoop to parents of your contemporaries, who have had walkers for months now, but this is a big deal to us. You are very conservative with your walking efforts. There for a couple of days, you would take six or so steps between daddy and me, unassisted. We cheered and made such a big celebration every time. So naturally you have decided you are not into that, and now you won’t do your parlor tricks for us anymore. Simpletons.
You are still absolutely obsessed with Mr. Kitty. He can’t sit anywhere near you without you being up in his business. I am bracing for him to get annoyed and pop you, at which point your daddy will send him into orbit, but he hasn’t quite yet. He has very firmly stretched out his arm and placed his paw on you, as if to say, “That is close enough.” But you don’t seem to pick up on his subtle hints. You just squint tight, smile wide, shake with excitement, and go at him with a big open mouth anyway. You loooove kissing that kitty.
Your expressions are so funny when you really get excited. Your little balled-up shake move tickles me. And you put on a real show after your baths. Like in this video, when you were just out of the tub and feeling feisty. Your grandmother was in the next room trying to sleep, but you decided it was time for some mirror yellin’.
Little yeller from Lindsey Turner on Vimeo.
You really enjoy having your expressions mirrored, either by the baby in the mirror or by mama and daddy. And one of your favorite games is being surprised. You make the funniest “OOOOOOH!!!” face and sound and run away. You love playing with a ball and chasing it around or rolling and tossing it back and forth. You like inspecting your toys on all sides and considering how they work. And then throwing them. Lately you’ve really enjoyed throwing every toy and soaked wash cloth out of the bathtub during the entire bath. You are also really into throwing all your toys down into the office/cat room, including steering your little 4-wheeler over the cliff and making it crash into the floor below. And then you look at me, like, Why did you let that happen?!
You go to sleep at night and take naps with your Cookie Monster that Daphne, Coco, and Dustin gave you. Do you remember when you first saw Cookie Monster at your birthday party, and you were SO SCARED? Who would have ever thought you’d become best friends with him? Sometimes we will hear Cookie Monster say, “Let’s sing … together!” over the monitor at night, and it sounds both precious and terrifying, because Cookie Monster sounds like an actual monster when whisper-growling via a baby monitor. Seriously.
As the weather is warming up, you’re getting to go outside more and more, which you love. You are content to sit on mine or daddy’s lap on the porch and watch the trees and the cars. I take you onto the front lawn and we sit out in the sun and you tug at the grass and smell the wind. You are so chill. But you do get upset when it’s time to come inside.
We traveled back to Memphis for a split second and you got to see some old friends and a brand new baby! I wish we got to see our old friends more often but I40 is longer than it should be sometimes.
You sprouted a bunch of new teeth this month, including a molar. So you’re eating more complicated food when you’re not busy throwing it on the floor to test gravity. You’re always interested in what mama and daddy are eating (and still cannot wait to get your hands on our coffee), but it’s more often than not in theory, because you get a taste of some new things and get really weirded out at the effort required to chew and swallow some of the stuff we eat. And then you’ll go and eat a bunch of lima beans. Are you sure you’re my kid?
Daddy has been sneaking you haircuts all month, and I finally got him to save a lock of hair for me. I guess you’re happier now without all that wispy stuff in your eyes all the time, but it was a milestone your mama wasn’t quite ready for you to hit.
You’re a really happy kiddo, kiddo. And that makes us happy.
Yay! So glad he learned to love Cookie Monster. I was so sad to hear it scared him at first.