Alexander,
The last several months have been a blur. Even in our relatively inactive times, it has felt so busy. I have tried numerous times to catch up on monthly posting about you here, but every time I got half way through something, I would have to put it down because you were doing something else new and cute. That's basically been your story for the last four to five months - how much newness and how much cuteness can one little boy cram into a day - turns out, quite a bit.
You have mastered language, both of the English variety, and of your own. Your babbling that used to be completely incoherent has taken on a whole new style. You actually talk to us in full sentences of babble, complete with cadence, timing and rhythm. It's fascinating to me to think about what must be going on in your head as you're amazing us with your eloquence. With regard to English words, you say quite a few and understand even more, but your favorites over the last two months have been Daddy, Mommy and NO. I was actually thinking about titling this post, "How many more times can you say no today, kid???"
While the constant stream of nos can be frustrating (especially when we're handing you your juice, or one of your blocks, or something else you've specifically requested and you shake your head vehemently while showering us with about two solid minutes of nos), it is really wonderful to see that you're learning what you like and what you don't, even if we don't always give you much choice in the matter.
Your walking, which begun just after your 14-month birthday, has reached new heights of skill. You're actually running now, most of the time. You also have all of these different walks you use at specific times - there is the "dinosaur walk," where you lift your legs high with each step, banging your feet on the floor and yelling, "BOOM!." There is the "duck walk," which you learned in your Saturday morning music class. My favorite is the "Mommy and Daddy want me to come to them, so I'm going to walk in the complete opposite direction," walk which has you frequently looking back at us over your shoulder to give us one of your blessed smiles, the kind that when I see it melt my heart so that I have NO choice at all but to join the game with you and chase you around the dining room table, nevermind that I'll be late for work.
You are also quite a climber. You've mastered all of the stairs on the first floor of our house, and we're working with you on walking / crawling up and down stairs to the second floor now. I was completely amazed when, just the other day, you grabbed my hand and climbed up half of the stairs one foot at a time, not the hands over feet crawl, but just like a big boy. I think the enormity of the situation grabbed you too because at about the sixth stair you looked back at me with a half-smile / half-scared expression and nearly fell backwards. Fortunately no bones were broken that day, but it reminds me that with every little milestone you reach, you are still going to need us around for a while.
I shot the video below when you were about 4 or 5 days old, when your father and I were at the peak of our new-parent cluelessness. And if you think I'm kidding about how clueless, at this point, we were actually still sleeping in shifts at night because we couldn't possibly both sleep at the same time with you in the house, whether you were also sleeping at that time or not. Thankfully, this lasted only until you were about 7 days old, when I was up for my shift, it was 3:00 AM, you were sound asleep and a voice of reason yelled in my brain, "YOU COMPLETE IDIOT - PUT HIM IN HIS BASSINET AND GO TO SLEEP." So I did.
Anyway, I chose to post this here in lieu of recent photos as a reminder to me of just how far you've come in your 18, approaching 19 months, and of just how much more growing we get to experience with you.
I love you, Alexander,
Mommy
Flashback! from Carrie Bender on Vimeo.
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