Dear Nathalie,

TODAY is the actual day I should be writing this.  YAY Me…for not being tardy.

This month, I actually had quite a bit of time with you.  Your regular care providers had the audacity to either travel out of town for a week or get moderately injured in a golf cart incident.  PRIORITIES PEOPLE!  WE HAVE A BABY TO CONSIDER!!  Anyway, I was able to care for you on several days during my vacation…and yet I did not get that many new photos… but the one I did get is precious:

 

This past month you have been really developing those walking skills and are working on a slow run… I say slow only because you are tiny and I can catch up to you.

You are eating all kinds of things these days.  Peanut butter is, thus far, okay and I plan to ply you with it whenever possible.

You are primarily a sippy cup user and get a bottle (of water) only at bedtime.

I think I am being redundant – whatevs

The thing that sticks out to me the most is that you are NOT ok with familiar people in unfamiliar places unless it is your CORE people… Mummy, Daddy, Grandfather… and I was not there on those occasions but I heard the stories of how you reacted so let’s pretend that I am on that list.

In the past month, Legendary Pokemon were released into the world and you participated in your first Raid Party with Me, and Mummy and Daddy.  I let you use my Pokemon Go Plus and you really like the lights on it…unfortunately you were not successful in ANY of your attempts at capturing a Pokemon.   Oh, and car seat regulations were ONCE AGAIN updated .

To be honest, this month after your birthday party really flew by and even though I have seen a great deal of you, I feel like you are frozen in time simply further developing your acquired skills.  PLUS, Whimsy Kitty is really capturing most of my attentions these days.  You two are going to grow up together and be great friends…I hope.

So, I will let you (and the rest of the world) move on with life and close by saying that you are such a joy and I love you bunches!

Peace Out Tiny Creature,

GranDawn

 

Dear Nathalie,

Today is the anniversary, but not of your birth, of your DUE DATE!  I figured if I was going to be late this time, I would be late with a purpose.

LOOK HOW YOU HAVE GROWN!!!

You may not know this, or maybe you do…hard telling what you will know by the time you are able to read and understand these rantings of mine, so moving on…when I learned that the doctors calculated your due date to be the day after my birthday…yes, you were due on July 5th…my heart hurt a little.  I remember growing up with a birthday on the 4th of July…parties were challenging because everyone takes a vacation that week…plus you get the American flag (not that I don’t honor the flag) thrust upon you as a cake or presents.  I have heard from others with birthdays the first week of July and they have shared my sentiment.  So, I prayed HARD that you would not be born that week at all and YIPPEEE!! You were not!  So, here I am a week AFTER your birthday saying Happy FIRST birthday and I am late because you have been celebrating your birthday for over a week!  It began the weekend before with a trip to Ohio to visit your Daddy’s side of your family, then AUNT PIXIE CAME HOME JUST FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY and spent as much time with you as she could…you took to her pretty quickly, almost as if she’d not been gone at all.  That first night when you fell asleep on her I thought she might cry she was so happy.  THEN there was the party for you at your home on the Saturday AFTER your birthday where 35 of your family members witnessed you play with a cake in a baby pool.  It was the best.  BUT that was not all…We visited with Mrs. Jen Babin today and she had a birthday gift for you!!  (And a gift for Whimsy) I believe that today should be the end of it…WHEW…that was a lot of love going around for one tiny person!

Other things of note:  You are definitely walking.  You took your first steps (according to my texts from your Mummy records) on June 9th – and just as I had hoped it was in the presence of your Mummy.

You can climb stairs as if you were doing it since birth.  Going down the stairs is something entirely different.

You had your one year check up and you weigh 18 pounds and I THINK that Mummy said you are 29 inches tall.  Whatever it is, you are at the 25th percentile on the growth chart in both height and weight.  Dr. Bajuyo said that you are a proportionate baby.  A tiny one, but proportionate.

You like spaghetti.

You are no longer on formula.  It’s foods and whole milk for you now kid.

You have many teeth.  You bit my foot today while we were visiting Mrs. Jen, she missed it and kept asking you to do it again while she was watching – yes, she is a very good friend of mine.

You definitely understand what a KITTY is…and will point at one if I ask “Where is the kitty?” – so, I upped my game today and now I am referring to the kitties as Ripper Kitty, Cally Kitty, and Whimsy Kitty.  You may not know your relatives by name but DADGUM you will know the kitties!   Oh, and Whimsy is new this month.  The two of you have an adorable little rivalry going…  there are toys that you actually fight over, and she is a kitten…not a human, you are fighting with a kitten.  AND you seem to understand that Cally gets scolded when she tries to escape out the front door because every time you saw her at the door today you growled and chased her away from the door…Thank YOU!

You like to share all of the things!  When you are not fighting Whimsy, you occasionally offer her your food.  AND you try to play in the kitty water dish…fair is fair.

It’s been a whirlwind kind of month…your Mummy is 21 now which means, she can now drink because you cry.

I kid…you are a pretty good baby, and Mummy isn’t too fond of many things to drink. Perhaps she will take up smoking!  I kid again…she has asthma and frowns upon smoking as a whole.

Ooops, that was a rabbit trail. I’m going to say farewell before I put my foot in my mouth.

I love you little one.  This first year +7 days with you in our lives has been awesome!

Keep on toddlin’

Love, GranDawn