Dear Morris,
With one day to go until you’re officially 11 months old, here I am, writing to you about turning 10 months old! Oopsies! Being 10 months old was, I’m quite sure, your favorite month yet. There isn’t much about this world that doesn’t cause arm flapping, hand-clapping, high-pitch-scream excitement. In experiencing this excitement with you, we’ve also come to the conclusion that you are most likely not going to be a very quiet and/or shy child
You love to twirl all the little treasures you find in nature through your fingers and to stand wide-eyed on the window sill, pointing at the birds or waving to the neighbors. As you point you yell “da” or “ba” and nod your chin down in a cheesy grin. You are busy copying the sounds you hear, from the sound a goat makes to the sound of the neighbor’s drill. You’ve discovered food doesn’t just taste delicious but that it also accentuates your evergrowing arm strength, as you toss it everywhere around you. When you’re feeling extra silly, you dip your head in the bath bubbles or under the faucet of the sink, emerging soaked with squinted eyes and the most addictive laugh. You grunt loudly as you push us to the ground to wrestle us, body slamming us with a roar of laughter. As your preferences for certain activities grows, you’ve also found strategies to help you do those things. For example, you’ve come up with the cutest (and quickest) butt scoot to get you from A to B while holding an object in one hand. Something crawling just didn’t allow you to do. You’ve also discovered that you can stand up without any support and even sit back down if you move very slowly. Reaching for objects on the top of certain furniture got frustrating so now you’ve figured out how to crawl onto that furniture and walk between them. You’re even smacking your lips to let us know you’re hungry. Most excitingly, your adventurous spirit led you to taking your first steps this week, getting you to mama and papa in five or six steps at a time. Perhaps the best thing about it is how much fun you think it is, diving into our laps at the end.
You’ve become so independent. When we watch you from a distance, we catch you curiously investigating how things work, clapping to music, hiding in tiny corners, loving the sound of your fingers scratching different materials, and we can see that you are most intrigued by how things open, close, and fit into other objects. You love trying to put the candles in the candlesticks or pull all of the fruit out of the fruit bowl, only to put it all back in again (and take a few good licks or bites along the way). You surprise us with how focused you are when you stack blocks or ring rings onto a pole and how one day you woke up knowing those cute, pudgy little fingers could roll cars and throw a ball.
Of course, for all the reasons we love how independent you are, we love how much you love spending time with us even more! From dancing in the living room to making forts out of the comforter; long walks outside to sometimes daily bubble baths - this pandemic has meant we have made so many lovely memories together as a family, too. You laugh a hearty laugh when you see us laugh and love to make us laugh, too. You watch us so closely. You hug us so tight. You calm immediately when you wake to see we’re there. You love to take part in the loading of the dishes, laundry, or the food prep. Basically, you just want to be a part of everything we do and while this isn’t always easy, it’s pretty amazing to see you try. We’ll never know a love like yours, that’s for sure.
This month you welcomed the new year, 2021, STARTED LIKING DAYCARE, and experienced your first snow fall, sneaking out just before bed time to play! Unfortunately, you also spent the entire month in lockdown which meant a 8:30 pm curfew, only one visitor per day, no travel, and absolutely nothing open. Someday soon you will see what a cool city you live in, full of lovely restaurants, museums, bustling squares and markets, beautiful shopping, and so much more. You’ll also get to meet so many wonderful family and friends. Unfortunately, you just will have to wait a little longer but don’t worry, we have plenty more memories to make until then! Onwards to one year, little Mo!
We love you!
Love, Mama