Dear Joshua,
You are on the brink of turning 14 months old. It has been a while since my last post, so here is finally another update. So much has been going on. You are so inquisitive and curious about the world around you and so excited about life, it is a pure joy for me to watch you grow. You are all over the place now and understand so much. Unfortunately for me one of your new favorite activities is carrying objects through the apartment and putting them away, somewhere where they don't "belong". If I open a drawer or bag, or put on a shoe, Lord only knows what I will find.
On May 3rd you said vacuum for the first time - sounds like babum....you have a passion for it and love to push it around. You even cuddle with the thing! On May 5th you clapped for the first time! You were so excited to discover you could do it! Now you are getting really good at it. Since then you keep pointing at your hand wanting me to tell you what it is (hand). You are also learning to eat with your spoon. You can spend long stretches over your food just manipulating the spoon and bowl, I even often give you a clean spoon and bowl to play with in your high chair....this is a much cleaner option for mama, then having to clean the entire area you are seated including you! Your favorite food is still yogurt, but you have stopped liking avocados, unless mixed in with something. Meat, potatoes, veggies blended are great, or just veggies is good too. Fruit is not your thing at all. Cereal isn't either unless a good portion of yogurt is in it. You don't like anything sweet, only savory. Getting you to drink water is going better, but the best drink of all (and as far as you are concerned, the only drink) is mama's milk. You are into noodles finally and also true to your Bavarian birth: fresh baked Brezen and Weisswurst.
One thing you have done a few times, which I have found disturbing, is you gag yourself with your spoon. You do it repeatedly...even though your face shows displeasure, you find the sensation oddly fascinating and are compulsed keep doing it....hmmm....Grandma Detroit says it is such a boy thing!
You are becoming more assertive (sometimes even aggressive) about getting what you want. Like yesterday, you wanted the paper towel roll cause this is a new passion of yours. You were yelping for it, so I finally let you play with it, saying okay but it is not for eating, but then you started to eat it....so I took it away. You were hopping mad. I explained to you that it is not for eating and gave you a cooking spoon instead which you immediately chucked on the floor, offended. I ignored it/you. Today you started screeching for the paper towel roll, I distracted you with other things one after another but you kept coming back for more.
Like most kids, you love going outside to play and the playground/sand is so exciting, but for you the biggest kick is walking around, just walking around. Unfortunately for mama you like to walk out of the park, leaving the park and going back in again and again is just too cool! Along the way you stop and look at the flowers on the ground. You squat down and get real close to the daisies and stroke them. You are captivated. You picked one or two today and I asked you if you wanted to give it to mama. You did and were so proud : ) You love to go up to big trees and touch the bark. You notice tiny details that I overlook, until pointed out by you. It is amazing what a clean slate you are and how you so easily take in the multitude of impressions around us.
On Mother's day, papa took you and Leo to the Wasserspielplatz (water playground) in Westpark. Just in your diapers you played in the sand and water, running in and out, in and out, and in and out of the water. You just couldn't get enough. After your diaper weighed about 20 pounds papa took it off and you ran off to play your bucket buck naked : )
I am amazed at how well you can entertain yourself, for good stretches too. This is great for us at the office. You are also so adored by the students and faculty alike and Patricia (my counterpart) loves you. One of the students has started babysitting you at JYM. Sarah and you have a natural affinity for one another and she plays with you, reads to you and takes you on walks or to the park. You make each other laugh.
You even have found your own task at the office. You carry the printed papers from the copier to whoever printed, i.e. to either mama or Patricia. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing when someone prints something, you drop everything to go take care of your duty! It is one of the sweetest things I have ever witnessed.
Anyhow, I am growing as person as I grow as a mother. You are learning so much from me, but I am learning as much if not more from you too.
Love, your Mama
(These pics were taken just outside our apartment)
