You've enjoyed two weeks of being one year old now and you've wasted no time in trying lots of new things, growing in new ways and testing the limits of your abilities.
It has been my most favorite pastime this year, to watch you grow, to watch your papa grow as a father, and to watch the two of you fall in love with each other. You two absolutely adore spending an entire day together playing legos, taking walks, talking, eating... just being boys. I am so very blessed by God's gift of YOU in our lives. I love you my little one!
Lately you've been crawling around the house like you've been doing it forever, rather than just three weeks. You prefer to crawl on our rug, but your curiosity no longer keeps you from venturing onto the linoleum floor. (Although it does keep you from leaving a picnic blanket and getting onto the grass.) More and more you are venturing into the corners of a room and into another room from where we put you down. It's a good thing you are doing this becoming-mobile thing gradually, because getting our house safe for you has happened gradually too. You're pretty good at listening to "no" when you want to head for the tv or the plant and you even sometimes listen to "turn around and go the other way." I'm so proud of the listener you're becoming!
But even more exciting is the talker you're becoming! You've been working on it for months, but Friday of the Independence Day holiday weekend, you said cheerios to us when we gave them to you to keep you occupied while we packed to go camping. Well, ok, you said, "ee-o." But we knew what you meant! Then that Sunday you looked at Toby and said here. It sounded like "hi," (with a short i sound). The next day, we all laughed when you looked at Toby, pointed to the ground and emphatically said "tay!!" (stay). You've been trying to say Toby's name and we can always tell that's what you're saying, but it comes out different every time you say it. At first it sounded like, "Thhhhhhh!" with a lot of spit. Now it's "Bo" or "Toe" or "Eeee-bo" or "Beee-oo" or any number of combinations of those sounds. Anyway, you're becoming quite the little talker.
On your birthday, you weighed 16 lbs and you stretch a whole 27.5 inches tall. So you're small and doctors are worried about you. I'm trying not to be, but your week-long bout of fevers and diarrhea after those 12-month shots on top of the nasty bit of teething you did the same week had me pretty concerned about your all-around health. But now you're back to being the normal, feisty, energetic, smiley you, with your almost-8 teeth! (Four on the top and almost four on the bottom.)
You were kind of spaced out and really tired for this picture, but here's our family.
You're pretty good at voicing your opinion - or rather your disagreement with Mama or Papa when we take something away. You love turning the pages of books. You like knocking over towers. You adore the sippy cup Great Grandma gave you and the polar bear puppet Grandpa gave you for your birthday. You are really good at holding a sippy cup, tipping it up when it gets almost empty, and turning it around in your mouth when you are holding it with the spout on the wrong side. You sleep on your side and sometimes on your stomach. When you're overly tired, you sit up in your crib and crawl around but can't remember how to lay back down again so you scream until I come in and remind you how. And then you scream for me to pick you up because you forgot that you really wanted to sleep in the first place. But most of the time you cry for me to put you down for your nap and go right to sleep once you're there. You love your little yellow plastic tow-truck and you make truck sounds while pushing it across the carpet. It's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.
I could listen to you giggle All. Day. Long.
Danilo, you are my joy and my delight. I love you to pieces and I'm so proud of who you are becoming.
Love,
**Photography by Jon Eichelberger