I love these next few. He's got his business face and his party legs.
I can't tell you how many times I've seen Tony make this exact same face (next picture).
"Mom, I need the camera."
"Fine. I'll just lay here with my feet and look like daddy."
Pictures of him these days capture his quiet, inquisitive side that's coming out more and more, but what they don't capture is the constant wiggles and the gleeful squealing and the regular squealing and the silliness. Trust me though, it's all there.
And now, to you my boy.
The word of the day is BIG. You are just big. You are tall and round and heavy and the bright spot of the universe. You weigh 21 dang pounds and wear 12-dang-month-sized clothing with ease. I honestly think I've pulled something in my shoulder from carrying you around.
You are sweet and sure of yourself. We haven't had any episodes of stranger danger yet, although a few times you've been disconcerted by a crowd. Chances are you are a comfortable-in-small-groups person like me and dad. Usually though, you just smile at everyone, new and familiar.
*You're officially sleeping in your crib at night now, sometimes all night long and sometimes back in our bed by morning. I don't feel the need to rigidly sleep train you yet, if ever. I have the feeling we'll figure things out our way.
I don't mind getting up at night when you cry. Usually when I enter your room I can see you smiling at me from the dark. You're figuring out the sleep thing; you've never needed to be swaddled, and you're needing less and less me to position you just the right way.
When we lay down for naptimes you wear yourself out by kicking and looking around. You play with my hands and touch my face and look out the windows or at the ceiling fan, and then when you're ready to sleep you roll to face me still gripping my fingers.
In fact, you love holding my hands. When we're nursing you're not settled until your free hand finds my fingers.
You also love your own hands. Lately you sometimes stop whatever you're doing and just inspect them, turning them over and slowly wiggling your fingers. It is exactly precious.
The other word of the day is rolling. You are very good at it. You roll to your stomach and push up with your hands. Sometimes you stick your butt up in the air and smoosh your face into the floor. I think before long you'll be crawling, which is completely ridiculous and you should stop it right now.
Last week you were sick for the first time, and it was hard. I hated it. You were restless and your nose ran and you coughed and you had a fever and you cried. But while that was hard, it was also another reminder to be grateful to be dealing with only a cold. So many other families have to deal with much, much worse.
We've started you on some solid foods now, and you've seemed to like just about everything we've tried so far. Rice cereal and oatmeal, bananas, apples, pears. Prunes, because you NEVER EVER POOP. (Edit: I retract this statement, definitely.) Grandma even gave you cheerios. This new 'big kid food' phase scares me because it means you're growing up, and I'm sad. But at the same time, I'm excited and happy for you. Motherhood is very confusing.
* I wrote this post on the 18th and didn't get the pictures taken until yesterday, and in that 10 day difference almost everything I said about never sleep training you have been voided. Suddenly you were waking up crying multiple times a night and just would not stay asleep. So we tried bringing you back in bed with us most of the night where you still never really settled down and so I would get no sleep. And after just a few nights of that I sent Tony a text that said: "We're going to sleep train James."
And James is a perfect child. Because I had decided to do a cry-it-out-with-checks version of sleep training and was prepared for some difficult nights of non-stop screaming, and instead it's like 2 days later and you're putting yourself to sleep in your crib (for nights AND naps) like a seasoned pro. You're in bed by 6:30 and wake up at 3 to eat, and then sleep again until 6 when we have to wake up for work. PERFECT. I love you. Please don't change again.
