Dear Zealand,
It has been quite a year for you and for us. You have blown through all of your milestones at a dizzying pace. You are now like a taut balloon ready to burst with language and upright movement. On your birthday you took your first few steps toward "dada" near your crib. Mama missed it but came in just in time to see daddy's eyes moist with pride. You are so active now that mama can barely keep up. You race through the house on your knees or with your walker grabbing whatever you can get your hands on. You love pulling things from their place in cupboards or shelves. Cups filled with liquid, particularly coffee, are especially attractive. Neatly folded clothes are also tantalizing. Toys on the floor are just not as interesting. The one exception is trucks.
Your truck collection is growing and boy do you love trucks. You make a low grumbling sound for "truck." (Babies, dada, small animals, and pictures of people are all accompanied by a high pitched "ah" and "oh"). On the day before your birthday your Ami gave you a big dumptruck that you pushed throughout the house all day. Toward the end of the day you started lifting it up with both hands while moving into a standing position. You looked like a bodybuilder.
The sound of busses, trucks, and cars is music to your ears. Your eyes become wide and you purse your lips into an O shape when you hear an engine of any kind. Watching the Muni trains on Carl and Cole is especially exciting for you. You also kick your legs and squeal when the "bu" comes.
Climbing stairs up and down is also a favorite. You tried very hard to master stairs - going down in particular, and you now do it with the greatest of ease. Often times you ask to be put down at the bottom of our stairs (35 stairs straight up) so that you can climb up yourself. It is exhausting to watch! I am amazed that you can do this. Although your enthusiasm for this has waned a bit. You now ask to be put down at the last five steps where I will usually put our bags down and sit on the landing so that you can go up and down up and down for at least ten minutes.
You haven't graduated to full fledged walking on your own yet. I think it is because you want to wait until you can do it really well. This seems to be your tendency. You work on one skill over and over again until it is mastered. Then, on to the next logical step. First it was the commando crawl all over the house. Next crawling with knees and so on. You get the last bit from each skill until you feel compelled to add another ball into the air.
You are very strong and have a great command over your body. You push and lift your walker all through the narrow confines of our often messy apartment. You climb with great confidence play structures with kids more than 5 times your age. There is very little wobbliness to be seen. You seem at place because you know how to climb so well.
At playgroup now most of the other kids are still content to remain in the circle, or at least close by. Not you. Your desire to leave the circle started as soon as you could commando crawl at 6 months. If there is a walker to be found you are off! If not you will crawl to where you can stand. Always on the go. You are not terribly interested in other kids yet. Occasionally you will pause from your intense wanderings to socialize with another child but that is the exception. You mainly want to move and explore. The days where your mama could sit with another mom and chat are long gone. I am fast on your heels watching for signs of potential danger so that you can enjoy your freedom.
In the past few weeks you have become much more demonstrative and willful punctuated by shrieks and tears. You know what you want and are not afraid to let that be known. You despise diaper changes and will howl and grab the side of your table to wriggle free. Increasingly you are demanding that our world accommodate yours. You have definite preferences now and if we fail to understand what it is you want - watch out!
Along with your strong will is a very sweet side that melts our hearts each and every day. You reach for cuddly hugs and will snuggle with us in between bouts of activity. You sure do love your mama and dada. When we reenter a room your whole face lights up. And, each day when your dada comes home from work you can barely contain your excitement.
One of my favorite moments with you is after you have woken up from a nap. The first sight of you is always such a sweet one. I often open the door saying "is there a little boy in here" and am greeted with a shy ear to ear grin. Lately your new thing is to throw all of your blankets, pacifer, stuffed animals (bear bear and lamby) on the floor at some point after waking. When we open the door you are standing and pointing to the pile on the floor. We now make a game of throwing all of the items back in so you can throw them back out again.
Lately you have taken a real interest in your books. Before you turned one we would always make it a point to read at least two books to you a day. Many times you would be very squirmy and distracted. Now in the mornings and evenings we go through at least 6 books each session no problem. You will hand us a book from a huge pile on the floor (your books never remain for long on the shelves) and crawl into our laps. Often you will want us to read the same book to you again. Your favorites are just about anything by Sandra Boyton, My Friends, by Tara Gomi, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See, Global Babies, and You and Me Baby. You love hearing stories about animals and babies.
The celebration of your first birthday was a blast. The night before your mama finished up a homemade birthday banner on the sewing machine (she finally, finally learned how to sew on that machine and is excited for all the projects to come) and stayed up late cooking and baking for the big day. Your father ran around the next morning cleaning and doing last minute errands while your mama finished up the party favors and lunch preparations. The theme was doggy since you love dogs and it seems just about everyone in San Francisco has at least one. Your cake was a yellow cake with chocolate frosting - no box mixes for you kid! And, stuck to the cake was a gingerbread dog and bone. Your mama also made these same cookies for all of the guests as a party favor. Doggy balloons and peach and rosemary (taken from a bush down the street) wine spritzers topped off the event perfectly.
I should say that all of this was possible because of your grandparents in Walnut Creek who volunteered to have you spend the night with them the night before your party. At first your mama wasn't sure since you have never been apart from us for that long but as she thought more and more about the work that still needed to be done the answer became quite clear. From all accounts you had a wonderful time. You love spending time in Walnut Creek and especially love pushing a garden seat with wheels around in the backyard from one end of the lawn to the next. Apparently in the morning first thing you crawled straight to the door and started shrieking to be let out.
You had a great time at your party. Two of your friends, Maricela and Griffin, came with their parents and the three of you sat in the middle of all of us grownups playing with trucks and blocks. You seemed to enjoy the attention and the happy chatter of all the people around you.
Teresa, Doug, and big girl (almost 3 years old) Alina came as did Uncle Barclay, your mama's friends (Sarah and Bethany), and of course Ami and Papa.
When it came time for cake you couldn't quite figure out what all of the fuss was about. Your expressions were priceless - absolutely full of wonder, confusion, and then glee when everyone started clapping at the end. You too joined in with the clapping.
Sadly, the cake was not a hit. You are not yet a fan of chocolate. It might have been too bitter for you. (Postscript: You more than made up for this by devouring in two seconds a double vanilla cupcake that your mama baked the following weekend for your playgroup birthday party. Phew, you are related to us).
Your party was a perfect ending to a wonderful first year. You are an absolute joy to everyone who knows you. We love being your parents Zealand and look forward to all of the days and birthdays to come. To us you are larger than life itself - so funny, talented, loving, adventurous, smart, and just plain special. How lucky we feel each and every day.
Happy Birthday with all of our hearts.
Love,
Mama
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