Dear Ash,
You’re a very whiney and laughing 14 month old! You laugh and you whine more than ever before, and while I cannot STAND the whining, I am absolutely in love with hearing you laugh. I would do anything in the world to make you laugh, and it seriously makes my entire day to hear your little giggle… but that’s nothing new.
You got your first big haircut this month, on the floor of our apartment by your Papa and his clippers. I was tired of seeing your uneven bangs that I cut, and even though we were going to let your hair grow so you could be a boy with long hair (one of your father’s own personal dreams- but he doesn’t have the right texture for long hair), we suddenly decided that it would be the night. So, one day you looked like this:
And then after your haircut, you looked like this:
Such an improvement! Upon the first time seeing your haircut, your Auntie came out with, “Well, all new haircuts look stupid for the first little while.” I guess she did not approve.
We met another one of my sisters this month, Leala, and I hope she stays in our life. It was a big day for me, and I’m glad you were able to meet her too.
This was your second Hallowe’en, but the first time we actually celebrated with you (if you don’t count the dreaded pumpkin photo-op incident last year:
You had much more fun this year, dressed as a koala bear and running in the streets after dark, which you never get to do. The first house we went to had a dog, and you went right inside looking for that dog, forget about the felt bag with the pumpkin on it and the licorice in it- you just wanted that dog. Everyone was laughing. We met up with a few friends and spent the next hour roaming the neighbourhood. It was so much fun, even though you didn’t understand what was going on.
You didn’t get to eat any of the candy. Sorry. Maybe next year.
The next morning we took a flight to Toronto to visit your father’s side of the family for the day on our way to Cuba. The last time we saw them was at our wedding and you were such a little baby in comparison- you could only crawl! We were so excited to show you off and spend time with them- I was glad I was able to rig our flights so that we could spend nearly 24 hours in Toronto- it was almost like a free trip.
Your Grandma LaLa, Papa John, Aunt Tina, Uncle Brian and cousins Myah and Caleb met us at the airport with signs and a balloon for you (and two others that had been lost to the force of gravity). You’re too young to really care about seeing family members that you don’t get to see very often, but you fell immediately in love with the green balloon. We went for lunch, then for a swim in our surprisingly awesome hotel pool, then for dinner and a bath at your grandmother’s house. We packed in a lot of quality time and it was one of the highlights of our entire honeymoon!
And then in the morning you and I watched planes taking off for what seemed like hours. You loooooved it.
You were great on the plane going to Cuba, even though a crying baby woke you up 45 minutes into your first nap of the day- after being awake for close to six hours. I was so mad at that baby! But your Nana and Dee were sitting right behind us and they had a brand new dinky car for you and they occupied you for the majority of the flight.
Even though bringing your baby and your parents on your honeymoon might be unconventional, I really, really loved having you (and them) there with us. As a Hilton ad reminded me, “families who play together, stay together.” We asked my parents to come along with us because we thought we’d want to spend a lot of time without you, but we quickly realized that we didn’t mind spending our “romantic getaway” with you- because you were so interested in everything new, it was fun to see you exploring. You woke up in the morning and didn’t stop walking and RUNNING around until you fell asleep. Nana and Dee did take care of you for a couple of hours each day- often while you napped so your dad and I could go playing in the ocean waves together and spend a couple of hours laughing our heads off like we used to.
It was amazing to get to spend quality time together as a family because we hardly ever get to do it with your dad’s work schedule. We played in the kiddie pool and the playground, we walked on the beach, ate food at the buffet (you especially liked guava) and explored the grounds of the resort.
It was a wonderful vacation. We were sad to see it end.
Some of your accomplishments this month are, in point form:
• You learned how to
o blow a kiss goodbye
o how to run
• You can nod yes and no very well
• You can give hugs and kisses (open mouth kisses, haha)
Your verbal words are:
• Nana
• Mama
• Dada
• Papa
• LaLa
• Bubba
• (an attempt at) Ola!
• (an attempt at) Ash
• (an attempt at) Uh-oh!
Your signed words are:
• Eat
• More
• Book
• All done
• Thank you
• Hurt
• Hot
• Help/Please
• Brush teeth
• Milk
• Up
• Down
You’ve also discovered how much fun mirrors can be. One day when I came to pick you up from Nana’s room at the hotel, you were trying on their hats and going up to the mirror to see what you looked like. You can stick out your tongue and open your mouth and say “Ahhh” and you think you are hilarious.
Peak-a-boo comes earlier to some kids, but you’ve just recently started playing it. You cover your eyes and we play dumb and look for you everywhere except right in front of us. We see you out of the corner of our eyes just watching us, eyes no longer covered, and just wait for us to realize that you were there the whole time! and when we stop playing stupid and exclaim, “THERE YOU ARE!!” you get a kick out of it. If was play dumb for too long, you start squealing loudly to help us figure out where you are.
You’ve been able to clap since you were about eight months old, but this month have started clapping when you’re proud of yourself or when you like something. If I say, “Yay!” you immediately clap. Same with when I tell you “good job!”
This month I got into an argument with a couple hundred people online about letting your child cry at night to try to teach them to sleep. Ash, I’ve never let you cry, and I never intend on letting you cry. I respect you too much to do it- I know you don’t look at the world in the same way I do, and even though you’re getting old and are definitely a toddler who probably *should* be able to sleep through the night and settle yourself after waking, you don’t. This may be my fault, or it just might be in your nature- I’ll never know. All I know is that when I got pregnant, I made a commitment to be there for you and to meet all of your needs. Now, it doesn’t mean I let you do whatever you want- because you know there are rules and most of the time you will abide by them and listen to me when I say no, but there is no reason for me to allow you to cry. It’s not healthy, it’s not happy. I want you to grow up to be a confident, independent person and so far it’s working. You’re loving without being clingy, you’re independent without being bratty. I promise to be there for you when you need me, and to never treat you like a burden, day or night.
I still love your nap times so that I can recharge and feel like myself for a couple hours a day, and the only thing that’s better than putting you down for a nap is when you wake up. You’ve taught me an extreme amount of patience, just by being you. I’m looking forward to all the other lessons you’ll teach me as you grow.
I love you so entirely.
Love,
Mama
