Here we are at 11 months, and I am feeling all the feels, as they say.
I remember this time last year so vividly. The anticipation of your arrival. The changing seasons. Saying goodbye to work and hello to the unknown.
I'm so emotional thinking back to each previous month, wondering how we got there, and now we are here, less than a month from your big first birthday.
You're just getting over every possible ailment, which seemed to come all at once. In the last week, you had a fever, your first cough and cold, and more teeth trying to emerge. You poor little bug. Most of the days you were still your jolly self, and of course I still took you to roll around in the dirt up at the farm and also to a gym class. You're such a little busy body, and you loved every minute of the play, but I should have known better.
You're not walking yet, but your army crawl has advanced to a "big girl crawl" as we call it, but you're a heck of a lot faster doing that army crawl. And why are you so attracted to electrical outlets and cords and pretty much everything that should be put away? Yesterday I caught you on the fireplace hearth just jingling around the fireplace tools. Totally safe, right?
You are a chatty little lady, and you're very opinionated. I think we might be out of the woods on your screaming phase (fingers crossed). Boy was that embarrassing...we'd just be meandering through a shop and you'd blurt out this high-pitched scream. No thank you, Fraser.
Highlights from this last month include (but are not limited to!):
- Not that you'll remember it, but--you got to see the solar eclipse (a once in a lifetime opportunity, my dear, and quite amazing!).
- You continued your Thursday night daddy-and-me urban hike ritual.
- We got your hair in your first ponytail, and we realized how much you look like your Auntie Whitney when she was a baby.
- Mealtime became somewhat of a rollercoaster as the things you like turned to the things you threw off your high chair tray first. You still continue to wolf down scrambled eggs and a whole banana every morning (thank goodness!).
- We went camping again at the coast (I probably won't forget this trip, as you tried out your new carseat and proceeded to have your first diarrhea accident forcing a side-of-the-road wipe down...but we recovered, and we had a great time with your friend Reagan and family).
- We tried to soak up every last minute of sunshine and summer...not that we won't be out in full force in the rain, but still.
- You really, really loved Garden Babies at the farm in our area.
- You continue to really, really love the musical lap time program at the library, though you are far from wanting to sit nicely in my lap anymore! :-/
- You gave up your pacifier after our Sunriver trip.
- You grew out of your baby bathtub.
- You might as well be packing up for college.
- Oh, and another thing I won't forget is when I took you to my first moms group of the season, and you wouldn't stay in the childcare. An hour of crying, and they decided to call me back to comfort you. I'm sorry, baby. I think you were teething at the time. You're not usually such a clinger.
- And on a terribly sad note, we lost your great-grandma, Ebie. I can't even begin to write about this right now, as Ebie was a one-of-a-kind lady, and she loved you dearly. You're a lucky baby that you got to meet three of your great-grandmas. I have no doubt Ebie will be your angel in heaven, along with great-grandma Mary (your middle namesake). And I'm not saying that you'll for sure play sports, but if you do, Ebie will be your biggest fan and know all of your stats up there in heaven.
We're having a harvest themed first birthday for you...selfishly because I love pumpkins and fall decorations. And everyone keeps asking me what you're going to be for Halloween. I guess putting you in six different costumes when you were less than three weeks old somehow implies that I'm going to go big every year? It's still TBD at this point.
I love you so much, Fraser. SO so much. I still can't believe you're ours.
Love,
Mom
