dear baby,
a little late (again, surprise surprise...hehe) but happy 11 months to you, our beautiful baby boy -- pictured here with your recent fave things in the whole world: your blankie aka your BFF (an aden + anais swaddle blanket rolled up) and your favorite korean rice cracker aka kka kka
at 11 months, you...
- love to point...at pretty much anything and everything. your tiny little finger is so powerful and can lead us to so many places and coerces us to give you so many things (because it's just so darn cute!) it's been so much fun seeing you point at things and it has been helping you communicate what you want/need. i love that you can point and things like your water or your kka kka and tell mama what you want.
- you are so, so silly! you make funny faces at us all the time (my favorite is your scrunchy duck face and kissy face!) and you love to make people laugh. when you do something silly and we laugh, you throw your head back laughing and do it over and over. it kills me! <3
- you started to walk! you were taking some adventurous steps this month but now you are finally able to get place to place with a little bit of help. we even got you shoes! you love walking around outside and holding our hand.
- (i think) you like to clean. I don't know where you got that from (maybe halmuni aka grandma lee) because i'm pretty sure you didn't get it from me! but you love wiping the floor with the swiffer and will rub the table with wipes randomly. you are learning so much and so fast!
- speaking of which, you love books! especially the board books that you can hold yourself. you rarely sit through an entire book but you love flipping the pages and clapping after the book is all done!
- you still love to eat a lot but your current faves are fruit and carbs (bread, plain rice and noodles!) you are still nursing about 3-4x during the day but we successfully weaned you off all your pre-nap feeds. hooray!
- you can sign/understand "more/please", "all done", "thank you" (though you do a cheap 10 degree angle korean bow instead of the sign language version, lol), "no thank you", "up" and can wave hi (one hand) and bye (two hands - not sure why lol!)
- we just transitioned you into a toddler car seat *tear* and you officially outgrew all of your 6 month clothes (sorry for making you wear em for so long, mama's on a budget! hehe)
- you like to chew/suck on your index finger. which is so random because you were never a thumbsucker or had interest in the pacifier - but it's cute!
- you love to crawl and sneak in between small spaces. our pretend city membership has been handy and you love exploring whenever we go out!
- you are starting to become more affectionate (hooray!) and you can almost give me a hug and whenever i ask you for a bbo bbo (kiss) you give me your forehead to kiss...progress! i think i hug and kiss you 100 times a day. i can't help it!
- you make a lot of noise and babble all the time! you don't say any words yet but like to say "ba ba ba ba" and "da da da da" and you make a "oh!" or "oof!" sound when you point at things.
your personality is definitely starting to show more at this age. you are definitely starting to become more temperamental which has been so much fun but also challenging too! as of late, I have been praying soo much more for God to grant me the wisdom and patience and grace I need to be a good mama. i'm sure you will learn this soon enough, but i am a sinner too. I am weak in and of myself and lack so much in patience, kindness and self-control. most of the time, I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm so thankful for this grace period that God has given me to learn while you're still little and not too aware of all of the mistakes that i'm making. sometimes I feel scared that I will mess up or helpless because I feel like I don't know what I'm doing! but I know that He is sufficient to help us both as we venture in this life together and I am praying that God will help me just to be faithful in obeying Him and loving Him so that I can raise you to do the same.
I can't believe we are just a few weeks away from your 1st birthday. from toddlerhood!
even when the days are hard and long, I love every day and moment I can spend with you! I'm trying so hard to remember and enjoy every moment and detail of this time and stage and I want to hug you and cuddle you as much as I can. I've been trying to step away from different distractions just to really be in the moment: putting away the phone to just play with you on the floor, choosing to leave dirty dishes in the sink and laundry in the dryer just to do silly nothings with you.
it's been so, so sweet.
my heart bursts with thanks to God for you. I'm truly thankful for every day.
happy 11, my sweet, silly boy.
xoxo
your mama
