growing up—15 months

Dear Gideon,
Today you had your 15 month well baby check-up. Just as she always does, Dr. K said you are "growing beautifully". That's no surprise to me, I'm lucky enough to be your Mom and get to watch you grow beautifully every single day. You currently weigh 22 lb. 5 oz. and are 32 inches tall. You've had quite the growth spurt as that is a lot taller than you were just 3 months ago.

15 months—June 24, 2008

At the beginning of last month you started grabbing hold of our fingers and guiding us to some destination to perform for you. Whether it's to the piano on your round-about, to one of Daddy's guitars to play a tune, to the cupboard for snacks, or over to books that you want read, how can I refuse? I can't. If you aren't getting a satisfactory response by pulling on our fingers (hehehe...insert fart joke here)—or if our hands aren't conveniently located you'll grab anything you can to get us up (toes, shirts, heads).

You are super expressive and make some of the cutest faces. The "no" face with the pursed lips. The way you sign "all done" and "more". Even that deeply focused look of curiosity. All so adorable. You've started saying "awwww"and at all the right moments. You'll point to something that you like—like a dog—and say "awwww" in a tone that says, "Look Mom. Isn't this just so precious?" I wish we had it on video because it is just that cute. You're saying a lot of words now and some of your favorites are "Mama", "Dada", "boon" (for balloon), "book", and "owsigh" (for outside).

Faces like these are the reason we take so many pictures.

I'm still nursing you once a day—when you first wake up for the morning. It's the last bit of what has been a really special time for us and I'm having a hard time letting it go. Even typing this brings tears to my eyes. I know there are many people who would shake their heads in disapproval at the fact that I'm still nursing you after a year but I really don't care what they think. This may be the only time in my life that I get to experience such an intimate natural thing and I'm not going to let societal norms take that away from me. I can feel that the end is near though. This month you offered your stuffed monkey some milk one morning while nursing. Very generous, but the only monkey I'm nursing is you.

Some sort of sleeping mechanism finally clicked inside of you over the last month or so. I now have the pleasure of raising a child who takes a 2 hour nap in the morning and another 1 hour nap in the afternoon. Without the aid of being rocked to sleep. I'm also finally getting to experience sleeping through the night again. You go to bed around 7:30 each night and sleep for a glorious 11 or 12 hours. Thank you.


I still have not conceded to a haircut for you. Once we make that initial cut your baby hair will be gone and it will never be the same. I'm sure you're a little hot with that mop right now but it's just so cute. The way it curls up on the sides and in the back. I love it. I had said that I would cut your hair when people started saying, "She's so cute." Well…I'm a liar. I've been told that 3 times in the last month and I'm not budging on the haircut. I just say, "He's a boy, but thank you". Polite but to the point. You don't look like a girl, you're just so beautiful with that red hair and those blue eyes. As the old lady at the hot dog stand said to us last week, "He's just too pretty to be a boy." She meant it as a compliment. I swear.

See. It's not too long.

You love to be outside and are fascinated with picking peas in the garden. Just the other day you followed me into the garden, sidled past the tomatoes, shimmied up to the trellis and yanked a pea off the vine. You must have only gotten half of it because the next thing I see is you taking a bite of the pea part that was still hanging on the vine. When I showed your Dad later we could see your little teeth marks in the bit of pea still dangling there.

Another, umm… milestone this month was the first ever pooping in the tub. Fifteen months and we never had a turd bath. Hopefully this can be a one time thing. I was lucky enough to be at work when it happened but your Dad called me as soon as you and the tub were properly sanitized. I laughed, glad it didn't happen to me. I appreciate it.

I imagine you'll make this face again in 20 years when you're drunk telling your buddy how glad you are to be such good friends.

You aren't the only one who is growing. People are genuinely affected by you. At your Uncle Alex's graduation party a few weeks ago you were eating some of your Crunchie snacks. Phil was holding you at the time and you were insistent that he try one. Now, Phil is notorious for being extremely picky with his food and he did not want to eat that snack treat. But you would not give up—shoving it right into his mouth as soon as you had a chance. Phil was a trooper and ate it. It was a big day for him and I was oddly proud that he was a trooper and ate it even though it was the last thing he wanted to do. He did it because of you. You are just that special to him.

You're the best.
Love,
Momma