Dear Ana,
Today you turn fifteen months old. It is so hard for me to imagine that you are only fifteen months old, because you seem like such a person to me. A couple weeks ago we had lunch with a friend of mine and her seven week-old son and I could not remember you ever being so tiny and helpless. You are so independent and amazing it is hard to believe that you were ever anything but.

You are suddenly filled with an interest in the world and everything around you. You love to go places and point out all the things you see along the way: “Car. Kitty. Car. Puppy. Baby. Tree.” There is always something for you to point out to me. And on the rare occasion there isn’t, you take the opportunity to point, say “kitty” and remind me that there was a kitty there. Once.

Last month we were in search of an activity for you and after trying out several, we finally decided upon Gymboree. Every day I am reassured that we made the right choice. You love going there so much. You wake up in the morning and say, “Pop, pop?” which is your way of asking if we are going to Gymboree today. Your favorite part of the class is when we play on the giant parachute while the teacher blows bubbles and everyone sing songs. There is a line in the song that goes “Pop. Pop. Pop the bubbles out” and it makes you so happy.

Gymboree has been amazing for you. Not only does it let you interact with other children, provides age-appropriate structure, and fun activities, but after attending just a few classes your father and I noticed a physical change as well. You have become much more confident in your balance, walking, and climbing. You use to be very timid and cautious but now you try things you wouldn’t otherwise have even considered. It has also help you to become more outgoing and friendly. You aren’t intimidated by crowds and are always the first baby to shout a friendly, “hi!” when someone enters the room. Yesterday your teacher made a joke that next week you will be leading the class.

Your warm and caring personality goes beyond the walls of our home (and Gymboree). You are mesmerized by other children and if they stand still long enough you always try to hug them. They are not always pleased to be smothered by you (particularly if they were just reprimanded by their parents), but you just want to share all the love you have and do everything to make others around you happy. Your most current interest lies in infants. The other day we were at Peanut Butter & Ellie’s Cafe (a children’s restaurant) and you were happy to spend your play time walking the perimeter of the room peeking into strollers and car seats in search of babies. Occasionally you even found a parent who was willing to let you see (or touch!) the baby and you literally shook with excitement. Everyone keeps telling me that this is very promising behavior and that you will make a great big sister. I am sure that when that day comes, you will be amazing, but I am not ready to share you yet. In the mean time, our cats and dogs provide plenty of hugging opportunities.

Your continue to blow me away with how much you talk. You learn a new word at least every day. However, once you feel comfortable with a word, your perfectionist crystal-clear enunciation starts to relax and your words become a little squished together or you drop off a syllable. Since I spend all day with you, I am usually the last one to notice because I now consider myself to be pretty fluent in “Ana-ese.” But your, “Up, p’ease” has now become closer to “upies” and “joose” is now “joo.” I can’t be too hard on you because what you lack in articulation you make up for in manners. You add please to almost everything, even “no, no, p’ease!” and I am continually amazed when you slip in a well-timed thank you, or as you say, “tay goo.”

Another milestone you have reached his month is you have finally started cleaning up or putting your toys back where you found them. As a borderline OCD mama, I have to say that this milestone pleases me almost as much as the manners. It took me awhile to realize you were cleaning up because I would go into a room where you had been playing, fully prepared to tidy in your toy wake, when I wouldn’t find anything out of place. I just assumed you went into another room without getting anything down. It wasn’t until I actually witnessed you playing with a toy then put it back on the shelf as you wandered out of the room. You can imagine my delight! I guess seeing your mama do it a hundred times a day it was bound to catch on eventually, right?

The sweetest thing you have started doing this month is whispering. Every night while we are getting ready to go to sleep, once I turn off the light I talk to you in a whisper. Generally shushing you or telling you, “it’s time for night night” or “good night, I love you.” A couple weeks ago during your last feeding of the day, you stopped nursing, looked directly into my eyes and whispered a string of jumbled syllables then went right back to nursing. Now it has become a regular occurrence and I love every incomprehensible second of it. Before I know it you will be asking me to turn off the light on my way out, so I am going to cherish you whispering me sweet nothings for as long as possible. Just try not to grow up too quickly, sweetheart. I guarantee it will happen faster than either of us is ready for.
All my love,
Mama

Dear Ana,
Today you turn fourteen months old. Your little personality is emerging more and more each day. I am continually amazed by you. I love nothing more than setting you down and just sitting back to see what you are going to do next. I am so grateful for what a patient, thoughtful, little person you are becoming.

You have this adorable habit of singing or talking yourself to sleep. Every day I put you in your crib at nap time and you snuggle into your blankie and roll over on your side as I pull the door almost closed behind me. Occasionally you go straight to sleep; like the only thing keeping you awake was the fact that you were still standing upright. But more often than not you are quiet for a few minutes and then I hear a steady stream of words and sounds coming from your room. You are like a little old woman frantic to use all her coupons before they expire: you just wouldn’t want them to go to waste! I always peak in and check to see if you are playing in your crib rather than sleeping, because after that much noise I expect you to be wide awake. But no, you are all cuddled up sleeping away as peacefully as ever, just so relieved you were able to say those words. One. Last. Time.

Not only do you love to say words, but you love to read them as well. Books are easily your favorite thing at the moment, which is obvious by looking around our house. You can find piles of your books on my nightstand, on your Daddy’s bedside table, on the bookshelf in your room, in a basket in the living room, in a pinch you will even read the cookbooks in the dining room. In fact, the only place we don’t have books is in the diaper bag because God forbid we accidentally leave one behind somewhere and the Universe is thrown off balance.

A love of books is something your father and I can totally relate to. There is nothing we love more than curling up to read a good book. We both understand how important it is to have a comfy place to read, so we bought you your very own chair. Whenever we are in the living room you go straight to your chair, climb up (it’s still a little big for you to just be able to sit on), and settle in. You enjoy having a piece of furniture all your own that fits you so perfectly. I just love looking over to see you sitting in your chair, flipping through a book, and knowing there is no where else you would rather be.

A couple times in the last month a magical thing has happened at our house: it SNOWED! In fact one day it actually snowed enough we were able to go outside and “play” in it. (While it snowed a couple times last year, you were only a couple weeks old and I wasn’t about to take you out outside and put you in the snow.) But I wasn’t going to let another winter go by without my daughter getting out into the snow, so I bundled you up and took you out in the front yard. At first you just stood there, not sure what had happened that made the world turn white. Then you got brave enough and actually bent over and touched the snow with one tiny finger. Once you determined that it wasn’t going to hurt you, you plopped down and sat right in it. Next thing I knew you were brushing your hands across the snow. So I gathered some up in my hand and made you your very own snow ball. You were so excited you held onto that snow ball tightly in your hand until it melted.

The cold winter weather has forced us to get a little creative in how we spend our days. We have started taking little “field trips” once a week to places such as Gymboree class, the Children’s Museum, and Kindermusik class. I love watching you explore new places and see the excitement take over your face when we try something different. You always surprise me at how comfortable you are in foreign situation and with new people. You are so friendly and outgoing it warms my heart to watch you reach out and make a stranger smile.

Oh and something has to be said about what a girly-girl you are! You love, love, LOVE jewelry. You are always digging in your bag of toys to put on necklaces. Even ordinary things become “jewelry” in your eyes as you drape them over your neck. In fact, I now wear necklaces purely for the joy they bring to you. Oh and don’t even get me started on your love of shoes. You already climb into my shoes to “try them on.” And you love to play in my closet because all of Daddy’s shoes are right at your level to play with. The other day when you were in my closet you actually looked up and spotted all MY shoes. You turned at looked at me, pointed, and yelled “shooooes!” It was as if Christmas had come early. Baby girl, just know that I will do everything in my power to make sure that your face lights up like that as often as possible.

All my love,
Mama

Dear Ana,
Today you turn thirteen months…I know, back to telling your age in terms of months again! Thirteen is usually considered an unlucky number, but not for us. This month has been as perfect and magical as we could ever hope. I had fully intended on only writing these letters to you for the first year of your life, but like a lot of things involving you, I am not ready to give this up. There are just so many things I want to tell you, to share with you, to help you understand what an amazing person you are.

The biggest news of all this month is you are officially walking! You started walking on your birthday and haven’t stopped since. It was perfect timing because so many of your family and friends were all there to witness your first real steps. We had the video camera rolling as you took about ten steps right into your cousin Emmitt’s arms. It took a couple days before you really got the hang of it, but now you walk everywhere with confidence!

But walking hasn’t been your only great accomplishment this month. You have started talking as well. It seems like you learn a new word every day and it is becoming difficult to keep track of your expanding vocabulary. When you learn a new word you mouth it first, then whisper it for a couple days as you practice the way the word sounds coming out of your mouth, then once you are confident you are doing it correctly, you say the word aloud. (Being a perfectionist is totally something you get from me, sorry! But I swear it’s not always a bad thing!) These are the words you can say: Mama/Mom, Dada/Dad, kitty (which is sometimes shortened to just “ki” like you are so excited you just can’t complete the word), Abby (our cat…you can tell what you find important), baby, bite, cheese, treat, up, uh-oh, please (pronounced “peas”), hi, bye, guys (as in “Hey! Guys! Come get me out of my crib!”), happy, book, ball, balloon (pronounced in one syllable as “bloon”), blankie, binky (pacifier), go, yes/yeah, no, and don’t.

But unlike most children who use “no” or “don’t” as part of a tantrum, you use it as more of a baby alarm system. When you are doing something you know you are not suppose to be doing I hear a faint, “No, no…don’t” from across the room. Then I am able to come over and quickly remove the object you shouldn’t have. I can also tell when someone forgot to put the baby gates up because the pitter-patter of your little feet speeds up when you are racing towards something you shouldn’t be doing. I just listen closely to you and your noises and we can prevent most major accidents. Works like a charm!

We have recently expanded your language boom to include some fun “baby party tricks.” When asked what noise a puppy makes, you reply “woof.” In fact, when you hear our dogs bark, you often woof back at them…then more often than not you follow it with a “shhh!” You also know that a sheep says “baa.” But when we try to tell you a kitty says “meow” you simply laugh at us. I think it’s because you have never heard our cats make a noise anywhere close to that. And you would know because you pay very close attention to those cats!

Aside from animals, you are also very into music right now. Anything that sings or plays music captivates you and makes your eyes light up in a way that warms my heart. A lot of your toys sing the alphabet so every once in awhile you belt out a random string of letters. It usually starts with “ahh, bee, cee, dee,” then warps into your own twisted version of what I imagine you think are “letters.” We have also gone to a lot of birthday parties in the last couple weeks and you have become very fond of singing “Happy Birthday” only your version goes more like, “Happy to ooo.” If we even mention the song or say “happy” in a sentence I often hear you whispering the song under your breath.

Oh Ana, my sweet baby girl, I am just so happy you and I are able to spend so much time together. I know you won’t be able to remember these moments when you are older, so I try my very best to document our lives through my website, photographs, and even these letters, so when you grow up you will always know we filled our days with happiness and laughter, but more than anything you will know that you were loved.

All my love,
Mama