To my sweet 14 month old

Oh, baby boy!  You are such a joy!  We have been busy keeping up with your older brothers and homeschooling the last few months.  We have also been busy making some memories. 

You have just started talking.  You have two words.  No "daddy" or even "mommy".  You say, "hot".  You seem to understand what is hot; but, for a brief time, you said everything is "hot".  You also say your oldest brother's name-three syllables made into two. 

You still love to take your socks off.  At least you keep your shoes on now.  You have started taking a few steps, three or four, here and there.  You are the fastest crawler in the West. 

It's OK with us that you seem to be taking your time on everything. 

You get into EVERYTHING.  You love to take things out and put things in.  You love to take things apart (Duplo Legos) and put them back together.  You love to unscrew things (ahhhhhh!):  lids, pens (with tiny springs all over).  When you unscrew, say, the coconut oil in the bathroom, you like to put things inside and close it again. 

You figured out the toilet paper.  Hopefully, that wasn't much fun and you don't do it again.

You eat everything.  One day, you had just woken from a nap and ate 4 servings of sweet potatoes with ground beef and zucchini (a family favorite).

You love turning lights on and off.

You squawk at us until we show you or give you whatever it is that you want.  We try to tell you the words to say so we can segue to talking.

You love the swings and the slide (in just the last month, we have tried the slide and today, you loved it)!

We celebrated your first birthday as a family.  We go big for your birthday when you are bigger and can participate more. 

We also celebrated your mom's and dad's 12th wedding anniversary as a family.  We sort of recreated the night daddy proposed and rode the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel (which has recently been taken down I hear).

We picked some apples from a local farmer and you LOVED going into the boxes and helping yourself.  I did not love that so much.  We finally finished making some apple chips and apple sauce and spoiled all your fun.

You recently "helped" daddy hang picture shelves for mommy.  Thank you, my sweet.  You love helping us with everything.

For Halloween, you tolerated us dressing you in a lion costume we had, which we made into an Ewok by hiding the tail (because your brothers were Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex).

Your brothers think you are just the cutest thing.  And so do we.  They are very helpful to us.  You tolerate them so well.  You love to be with them.

You have a new fear of the bath.  Mommy was so careful to introduce you to water and you loved baths and water play (beaches, pools); but, recently, you have started crying when anyone takes a bath (and, mommy can definitely not take a shower without you crying the whole time!).  We will figure it out together, bud.

You are growing and changing all the time!  I might have to cut your hair (curls) soon.  It's just so cute.  I love you so much.  It's so hard to see you get big.  But, it is good.  All good.