Dear Jamie,
As I think about what I’m going to write to you this month, the first thing that comes to mind is how busy you’ve been! Busy, busy, busy boy. You have learnt to do so many things.
First up, and most importantly, you’ve learnt where our noses are. You can point to them – Mummy’s nose, Daddy’s nose, Jak’s nose, teddy’s nose. It’s very clever. However, when you’re asked where YOUR nose is, invariably you point to your ear. What is it with that? You also know where your toes are. And you know that shoes and socks go on feet. You have taken to picking up our shoes and bringing them over to put on top of our feet.
You’ve learnt to point in response to simple questions. You can point to the photos of Daddy, Grandma and Grandad in your “Who Loves Baby” book. But you don’t seem to know the word “Mummy” yet, much to my disappointment. On the subject of pointing. You point at EVERYTHING. “Det!” you cry, pointing at the light. “Det!” you cry a moment later, pointing at the wall. “Det!” you cry, having now swiveled to point at the mantelpiece. I need a swivel head just to keep up with all this pointing! And each time, I try to acknowledge whatever it was you had pointed at. But, honestly, Rabbit, sometimes I just have no idea at all, what has caught your attention.
You’ve learnt to stack your duplo blocks and you’ve learnt to stack your donut rings onto their stand. Your co-ordination and dexterity has really improved. When you’re really pleased or proud about something, like stacking a block on top of another, you make this unmistakable sound. It’s a “Aaaaaaa-ah!” sound with a big wide open mouth and a smile. Then you sit back and beam at me with the pride of accomplishment. Never lose that pride, Bunnyrabbit. Pride in the things you accomplish is wonderful.
Your favourite toys this month are without a doubt those toys that make music. You play your musical gnome and the Jack in the Box all the time. As the music plays, you rock backwards and forwards with joy. When we watch Raggs on the TV after tea, you rock back and forth to the songs they sing. You are very musical and I like to encourage that in you.
Grandma was teaching you the hand movements to Twinkle Twinkle recently, and every now and then as the music plays I see you making the cutest little diamond by touching your two index fingers together. The first time you did that, my eyes filled up with tears at how clever you were. You looked so tiny, all hunched over your musical gnome, concentrating on making your diamond. I love you!
You are a loving little boy. You love cuddles and you’ve learnt what hugs are. You can give hugs when you’re asked. A “hug” consists of leaning your head against our shoulders and going “aaaaaah”. I just adore your hugs! You were given a huge blue teddy bear for your first birthday and you love hugging him. You lie all over him on the floor. He’s like a big cushion for you. If I say “Give Big Ted a hug”, you crawl over to him, lay your head down into his blue fur and go “aaaaa-ah!” Tonight we were sitting on the floor watching TV and you were lounging on Big Ted. Suddenly you roused yourself and hauled Big Ted over to where I was sitting. Still holding onto him, you scrambled your way into my lap, dragged him up there too and cuddled into my shoulder with him. The three of us sat there, cuddling and watching TV.
You learnt to wave when we’re saying goodbye. Your wave is a very distinguished royal wave, accompanied with a very serious look on your face. It is such a good wave and lots of people smile and comment when they see that you’re waving at them. Grandma and Grandad have taught you how to blow kisses too. You hold your hand up to your mouth and then blow. You must have learnt to blow at your birthday party last month. I didn’t bother to get you to blow out your candle because I thought you didn’t know how to blow. But now I regret it. Because the very next day you were blowing with all your might. You must have watched the other children blowing out your candle and learnt how to do it. What a shame I didn’t give you a try.
The other day you grabbed a piece of paper toweling off the roll as I was going to wipe something up off the floor. You can sit for ages, pulling apart a piece of paper toweling! But, this time you weren’t as interested in pulling it apart as you were in putting it to good use. You must have watched what I was doing, because the next thing I knew, you were making very effective wiping movements on the floor with your toweling. Well… that has got me thinking! I’m thinking of getting you started on the housework ;).
You went to the beach for the first time this month. Daddy took you into the water. At first you weren’t very happy with the waves rolling in, but you soon got used to them. You enjoyed putting your feet in the water, collecting shells, chasing seagulls and playing in the sand. I took about ninety photos in probably no more than half an hour.
While on the subject of firsts, you met Santa for the first time this year. (Last year you were too little.) You weren’t impressed with him at all though, and I had to sit between you and the big man so we could have a photo taken. You were very wary of him indeed. Oh, I’m so looking forward to sharing Christmas with you this year!
And, yes, how could I forget? You also had your first “babycinno”. Grandma started buying them for you when we went for a coffee, and now the owner of our regular café shouts you one each time. How spoilt are you?
Well, Jamie, I think that next month I will be writing that you are now walking. You stand for quite long periods unaided. With a huge look of accomplishment on your face. You are very mobile and can walk around using the furniture to baland on or using your mobile toys as support. You look so uncoordinated as you stumble along behind your toy. But you get better and better every day and I don’t think it’ll be long until you’re walking without any help at all. Wow!
I love you................thiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
Mummy
Journaling: When Jamie was born, Thomas and William asked their Mum about his relationship with them: "So, does this make him our Brother in Law then?", they asked. I had to chuckle. They're actually cousins. But there's a logic in their reasoning. Sort of!
Your favourite toys this month are without a doubt those toys that make music. You play your musical gnome and the Jack in the Box all the time. As the music plays, you rock backwards and forwards with joy. When we watch Raggs on the TV after tea, you rock back and forth to the songs they sing. You are very musical and I like to encourage that in you.
You learnt to wave when we’re saying goodbye. Your wave is a very distinguished royal wave, accompanied with a very serious look on your face. It is such a good wave and lots of people smile and comment when they see that you’re waving at them. Grandma and Grandad have taught you how to blow kisses too. You hold your hand up to your mouth and then blow. You must have learnt to blow at your birthday party last month. I didn’t bother to get you to blow out your candle because I thought you didn’t know how to blow. But now I regret it. Because the very next day you were blowing with all your might. You must have watched the other children blowing out your candle and learnt how to do it. What a shame I didn’t give you a try.
You went to the beach for the first time this month. Daddy took you into the water. At first you weren’t very happy with the waves rolling in, but you soon got used to them. You enjoyed putting your feet in the water, collecting shells, chasing seagulls and playing in the sand. I took about ninety photos in probably no more than half an hour.
While on the subject of firsts, you met Santa for the first time this year. (Last year you were too little.) You weren’t impressed with him at all though, and I had to sit between you and the big man so we could have a photo taken. You were very wary of him indeed. Oh, I’m so looking forward to sharing Christmas with you this year!
And, yes, how could I forget? You also had your first “babycinno”. Grandma started buying them for you when we went for a coffee, and now the owner of our regular café shouts you one each time. How spoilt are you?
I love you................thiiiiiiiiiiiis much!
It didn't help that J had been up since 5am, and had refused to have a morning nap. So he'd been up 8 hours by the time this photo was taken. Much too long for a little fella.
