Well Zane, now that you are one year old, I don’t think I can do these every-month letters to you anymore! You are such a busy little boy now that we’ve already passed your 17 months with no letters. With all the things you’ve done these past few months, it’s no wonder Mommy has had no time to write. So, here’s what happened in the last five months since your first birthday!
The first thing we remember is you getting sick right after your first birthday! You got a really bad cough, like a barking sort of cough. You couldn’t laugh or cry without barking and it would get worse at night. Definitely had to be croup. Mommy was really worried and we took you to the doctor and the fun began. They prescribed this inhaler called Flo-Vent. We started using that on you at night and can I just say, you were SO GROWN UP about it. You let Mommy put the aero-chamber in your mouth and spray the inhaler and you would breathe calmly, just like my super good little guy. We did notice that the inhaler helped you a lot during the night and you were able to sleep well again, but that’s not all we noticed.
Over the next week or so of Flo-Vent, you underwent a transformation. You turned from our happy, sweet, laid-back little guy into A MONSTER FROM HELL! You threw tantrums for no reason, you were angry and hit Mommy and Daddy, and you started to get violent at other times too like randomly throwing things and walking around the house hitting things. We were totally confused by this sudden personality flip! It didn’t seem like a natural stage where you were just learning how to react to things. It was like you were constantly in a state of seething rage about SOMETHING. Finally Mommy was doing some research online and found a LOT of stuff from other mommies about Flo-Vent having those side effects! We took you off the inhaler, and although your cough came back and took awhile to go away, you were back to your happy and friendly self in about 3 days. The funniest part is that doctors say that medicine does NOT cause those effects! Remember this when you’re older Manimo… doctors don’t ALWAYS know what they’re talking about. Most of the time they do, but sometimes when it comes to yourself or your own kids, your instincts are right!
In the month of April, right after you turned one, you started to lose interest in nursing. It might have been because you had your cough for so long – coughing made it pretty hard to nurse sometimes. But you started to kind of self-wean, just during the day at first. You would just look around at your naptime nursing and be so distracted that Mommy couldn’t get a drop of milk into you. On April 27 you went down for your first nap ever with NO milk, and there was no fussing even though you weren’t at home. That’s when Mommy knew you didn’t need to nurse for naps anymore!
Another amazing thing happened in April. You learned to walk! On Thursday April 26, you took your first steps. You were standing at your pirate ship, and you walked about three steps from the ship to the coffee table. At first, Mommy and Daddy just called it a “controlled fall” and we weren’t going to count that as your first steps, because you grabbed for the table pretty fast! But the next day, there were TWO times when you walked 5 or 6 steps to get to Mommy! And the day after that, Mommy took you to visit Oma and you walked back and forth between Oma and Mommy at the playground. You were walking 7-8 steps at a time with NO problems, just two days from your very first step! Even when you stopped walking, you wouldn’t fall. You would just squat down – and you LOVED the whole process. Mommy’s mind was totally blown by how fast you picked it up! By May 8, you were walking like a seasoned pro AND you weren’t nursing during the night anymore. Mommy wasn’t sure if we could even call you a baby anymore!
In May we also had to do a HUGE culling of your stuff. You had grown a bunch, you were walking, and you’d been through a Christmas and a birthday. Your room was crammed to overflowing! Mommy went through your room and filled up a bunch of big bins of toys and clothes to put into storage. Then we went under the landing and Mommy went to work on the stuff under there! We kept all of Mommy’s favorite outfits and all of your best toys, and we still ended up with four big bags of stuff to give away. We sent it to Uncle Nick and Auntie Natasha to look through for your cousin Blake. Maybe he’ll wear some of your old stuff!
Since you’ve started walking, everyone has been thinking you’ll become quite a handful. But you are just a super good little guy! You do occasionally grab things you aren’t supposed to have, but most of the time you are just walking to get around the house and to whatever toy you want. You don’t even touch Daddy’s TV… good job! When Mommy does have to rescue you, you’re never mad… it’s like you’re already trying to learn what you can and can’t be getting into. You’re a pretty careful little guy, and you will NEVER hear Mommy and Daddy complain about that!
You do have your share of little mishaps though… the thing is, you don’t have to be walking for them to happen! One night in May, Mommy and Daddy were changing you and getting you ready for bed, and you grabbed the BIG bottle of baby powder and tipped it up just like a glass. There was a big FOOF and your whole mouth was filled with powder! This was part of the time right after you learned to use cups, where you thought EVERYTHING that was vaguely shaped like a cup, or bottle, or glass, must be something to drink. Your mouth shrank right up, you started smacking your tongue and lips like a dog with a mouthful of peanut butter… and you TRIED to cry, but you were so dried out you couldn’t! Mommy and Daddy were stifling laughs the whole time we spent trying to help you clean out and re-wet your mouth. Don’t judge us Manmo, when your kids do stuff like that someday, you’ll understand how hard it is to be serious when you’re “supposed” to be!
Your first walking injury happened in June. Pretty impressive… you were walking for over a month before you hurt yourself for the first time. You came careening out of the hallway (yes, careening… you get going pretty fast sometimes) and your top half just out-paced your bottom half and you went over face first. You biffed yourself pretty good on our magazine rack and cut your face open right at the corner of your eye. You had nice little goose-eggs above and below the cut too! Mommy just about had a heart attack when she saw how close the cut was to your eye. And as for Daddy… well, we don’t have a magazine rack anymore. Where’s Mommy going to keep the Sears catalogs?
Another thing you started doing this summer is stairs. Those took you awhile, but you follow Mommy up and down all the time now. And by follow, I mean you take 10 minutes to get between floors while Mommy goes about 1 or 2 steps below you in case you fall. With linoleum and concrete on our staircase, Mommy and Daddy will probably be paranoid for a long time. You go everywhere with Mommy now, and you’re learning about laundry… I don’t think you’ve ever been so interested as they day Mommy washed the your bubby and you saw me do it! Before too long you’ll be helping with the laundry, and maybe some other house work! (I’m allowed to dream, right?)
You’re starting to get pretty close to your cousin Jaiden this summer too. Mommy’s been babysitting Noah and Jaiden and you have been spending a lot of time with them! In July we had your 12 month immunizations and you were sick for almost a week from them, just with mild fever but you were pretty tired and clingy the whole time. I knew just how close you and Jaiden were getting when we were babysitting and without anyone asking her, she walked all the way to the kitchen, found your bubby and brought him over to you. It’s been a fun year for you – we took you guys to the corn maze, lots of parks and playdates, and even took Noah and Jaiden to three parades this year! It’s always a party in the car when you guys are together.
One last big milestone for this summer: Your first camping trip! Mommy and Daddy got a spot at Brewers’ campground and we went with our tent for 2 nights. It rained a LOT! We never got to go to the beach at all. We had Oma and Opa, Grandma and Grandpa, and Uncle Allan and Auntie Jolene out in the evenings for supper. We ate great – steak, thick burgers, hot dogs, roasted marshmallows – Mommy and Daddy even tried to make s’mores, and failed miserably. You loved the marshmallows and chocolate separately though! Unfortunately we barely would get a meal eaten, and it would be raining and we’d be sitting in the tent again. You were a good sport though, playing with your truck and other toys outside whenever you could and behaving like a perfect little man when we were stuck in the tent. One thing’s for sure – after this camping trip, we know that you can handle anything! We can’t wait for all the years of fun ahead with you, sweet little guy. We love you forever and ever!
