Fifteen!

Dear Luc,

Good grief Littlebat, you are fifteen whole months old today! I don't know why, but I've always thought of this age as somewhat of a milestone. And here you are... such a big boy. I can't even believe how much you've grown up and changed this month. I think I must say that every month, but darn if it isn't sooo true.You are such a little monkey! You can climb almost anything with ease (onto the dining chairs, the coffee table, our still not unpacked boxes of books, and your toys- ones definitely not meant for climbing). And on a related note, you've become a master counter-surfer this month (perhaps you received lessons from Kelly?). And you can run with the best of them (like tonight when you let go of Daddy's hand in the parking lot of Home Depot and ran away from us- thankfully not into traffic- and I had to chase you, fully realizing for the first time just how fast you really are).

You still love to dance, and have made up one of your very own that we like to call happy feet. You shuffle your feet fast on the floor, almost like a gallop. You do it when you are really excited- like when we put up the Christmas tree, or whenever we're about to watch a movie or eat crackers (CRACKers). Sometimes you do it when you're on the verge of a tantrum too. Though you really don't have very many of those.

It's been pretty cold this winter (for the most part), so we haven't spent a whole lot of time outside, which is a bummer. You'd play outside in 30 degree weather if we would let you. You looooove to be outdoors, often trying to squeeze past me when I open the back door to let Furrybat in or out (even if you're just in your pajamas). You even love windy days, saying wheeeeee as the bitter cold wind whips through your hair (that is of course if I've been unsuccessful in getting you to wear your hat- which you are usually, though not always, pretty good about). It snowed once earlier this month and Granny told me you really enjoyed playing in it (though the mittens, not so much).

You can correctly identify a couple of body parts now (hair, toes, and sometimes belly button and nose). We haven't been very dilligent in teaching you the names for body parts, though I just read that learning body parts is a 15ish month milestone, so I guess we better start working on it.

We have been watching a lot of movies lately, mainly because you've been sick and it's been an easy way to keep you occupied while administering your medicine. I'd had just about all the Baby Einstein I could take about two days into your illness, but thankfully Aunt K and Uncle M came to the rescue with a new Veggie Tales video and the first six volumes of the Signing Time series. We especially love those (we've been watching the first two) and you're learning a ton of new signs. You now sign (in addition to milk and "please") dog, fish, car, and the correct sign for more, and you understand/ are learning eat, ball, friend, share, play, bath, shoes, socks, stop, go, and soooo many others. And Papa and I are really enjoying learning the signs too. It's an awesome way to communicate!Speaking of communicating, you speak a few more words now too. You say mama a lot (yippee!) and you say ha! (hot) whenever you see (or touch) the pipes on the water heater, a light bulb, the oven, etc. Even if the object isn't hot, you seem to understand that some things should be hot. And there are a few others too that escape me right now...

One thing you haven't figured out (yet) is how to communicate with your friends. Most (okay, all) of your playmates are pretty aggressive and fearless. Not you. When they try to give you hugs (in the case of our neighbor's little girl, C) or tackle you (like your buddy K does) you stand completely still and look up at us with a completely terrified look in your eyes, like a deer in headlights. Then you let yourself be pummeled to the ground and then... you cry. I try not to react, but usually I end up having to come to your rescue. It's pretty awful.

The alternative though... is much worse. Sometimes when you find yourself being backed into a corner and you don't know what to do, you panic and start hitting. I suppose it's a normal human reaction- the desire to defend yourself. But I just wish you didn't feel so threatened! The other day when K was here, one minute you two would be sitting quietly, playing or reading, and the next thing I knew you were smacking the hell out of each other!Daddy and I think it's partly because you aren't in a daycare setting and haven't had a chance to learn those necessary social skills. And partly, we know it's just because you're fifteen months old. But another large part of it is your personality (most of your friends, including the above mentioned C and K, haven't been to daycare either). In general, you get very excited when you see your friends and are happy to play alongside them. You are even pretty okay with sharing toys. It's the full-contact toddler wrestling that you aren't especially fond of. And it's the hitting that worries us.

When a frightening situation occurs (when you feel threatened, hurt, offended, etc.), the more upset you become, the more you seem to hit. In fact, sometimes you'll do something unintentional (poke me in the eye, get your fingers caught in my hair), and if I gasp in pain or say ouch, you'll panic, then hit (then you'll dissolve into tears, then hit again, followed by more crying, more hitting, etc.). And again, I try to react as little as possible while explaining why it's not nice to hit, then eventually I calm you down by distracting you with another activity. We're also learning the signs for hurt and sorry, which I'm sure will come in handy and will hopefully help you understand what's going on.

The hitting certainly isn't an all-the-time, or even an every-day kind of thing. I don't mean to make it sound all that bad. You are a very smart, very sweet, sensitive, thoughtful, loving little boy. You are normally very gentle (as gentle as a toddler can be). And I'm sure that these types of social interactions will get easier for all of us in the near future. Attending some sort of play-group or regular toddler social event would probably help too, so we may ask Granny to start taking you to the library story-hours again.You still love to read books, and besides your other favorite activity- watching movies (we normally don't let you have a lot of screen time, but for the past couple of weeks it's been at least 30 minutes every day, most days more like 1-1.5 hours a day- ugh), you enjoy driving or pushing your fire truck, throwing your blocks around the room, chasing Kelly with the Corn Popper (laughing maniacally, no less), and recently, you like to play dress-up any chance you get. Shoes, hats, socks, Daddy's pants, my underwear (on your head), whatever you find lying around or in the (clean) laundry basket, you pull out and put on. And when you get your feet in my slippers or are parading around in Pop Pop's hat, boy are you proud of your accomplishment! It's so cute. And you really got a kick out of the play kitchen at the doctor's office. You actually cried when it was time to go home and I had to take you away from it, which was the first time I think that's ever happened, with any toy. You kept wanting to wash your hands under the play faucet just one more time. You seem to enjoy pretend play a lot, especially with cups, spoons, pots and pans, etc. (you could stir pretend soup all day long). It makes me wonder what kind of interests you'll have as you grow up. A chef? A fashion designer? A doctor, lawyer, astro-physicist? I've never really thought about it before, but the possibilities are endless... and so exciting.

I think this is a good time to mention that I am strictly against forcing gender roles on children when it comes to playtime (in theory I'm against it anytime, though I do really enjoy dressing you in those adorable little boy clothes, and I do find myself gravitating towards trucks and trains and puppy dog tails and all that). So I'm more than happy to buy you a play kitchen when you're a bit older (or dress-up clothes), whatever makes you happy and satisfies your curiosity. I loved playing with blocks and trucks and with dolls and tea sets when I was a little girl. And I want you to be able to experience all of those things too.One thing we are almost sure of is that you're (probably) going to be a lefty. I first thought you might be when you were less than three months old- as soon as you began to reach for and grab objects, you showed a strong preference for your left hand (actually I suspected it from birth, because whenever you sucked your fingers, you always sucked on the fingers of your left hand- but everyone said it was way too early to tell). Now we see that same preference every time you pick up a fork or spoon, or a crayon. So, you are likely a south paw! And I think that's kinda neat.I think you're neat. And being your mama is super neat! And I love you bunches, Littlebat. Each day more and more.

Love,
Mama