15 Months

Dear Noah,

I'm late on this letter and for that I am so sorry.  Let's just chalk it up to being busy chasing you...EVERYWHERE.  Yes, my son, you officially started walking this past month and your mama is tired.  So, so tired.   Your grandmother and I learned a very valuable lesson the other day when we attempted to navigate shopping without you in your stroller or in a shopping cart, i.e. me carrying you and you screaming at the top of your lungs to be put down.  I don't mind you having a little freedom to explore but it's the fact that my stern "come here right now, Noah" admonishments went unheeded.  You bulldozed displays, ran out of my grasp, and laughed uncontrollably because you thought Mommy was "chasing" you rather than trying desperately to corral you.  We are so going to work on this little man.  Oh, and I am never taking you out in public without some sort of tether ever again.

Not only are you walking, you're also talking.  You have new words, new sounds, and new gestures everyday.  Your recent language acquisitions are: YiYi (Lily, our dog), Jojo (great-grandma), PopPop (grandpa), Pa (please, and you better use this all the time), among others.  You can do TOUCHDOWN!  and raise your hands in the air, you like to "fist bump" with me, "knock, knock" on all closed doors, make elephant noises accompanied by raising your hand in the air to mimic the trunk, and scratch your armpits when you're being a monkey.  You know that the train says "choo, choo" and the cow says "moo, moo".  You're a little sponge and I am constantly reminding Daddy to watch his mouth around you.

We took you for your first official and professional shoe fitting and I am going to admit something terrible.  I had you wearing shoes a size and a half too small.  I know.  I KNOW!  Talk about Mother of the Year over here.  I honestly didn't know they were too small.  In retrospect they were CLEARLY too small...enough that your young and observant Aunt Hilary noticed and demanded you get new shoes.  You owe all your future foot comfort to her.  So we hauled you off to Stride Rite and got you properly fitted with a couple new pairs of shoes.  And to add even more shame, you clearly walked much better in your new shoes.  You were near running afterwards!  Sigh.  Shameful.  I promise to never deny you new shoes and proper fittings again.

Buddy, you're a rock star.  Your fourteenth month was trying for all of us but I think you came out the other side a very cool little kid.  You spent the majority of the past month pushing out tooth after tooth and fighting cold after cold and yet you remained relatively cheerful and playful.  We had our moments, to be sure, and you and I are still learning how to manage each other, but we're hitting our stride in this new place called Toddler-ville, Land of the Bi-Polar Baby and Manic Mother.  It has it's ups and downs but it's a pretty cool place to be and I'm happy I'm here with you.

I love you more and more every moment of every day.

Love,
Mama

P.S. I don't have many pictures (read: maybe two but they're blurry) of you since you're, you know, WALKING and all now.  And any time I take out the camera you see buttons and make a beeline for it.  Seems that getting your picture is a lesson in patience.