Dear Violet,
You are one year old! I don't know when that happened, but it's true, so for your first birthday I've written you this little letter. I'm writing it while you take your morning nap in your crib. This has probably only happened 7 times in the last year. Usually I nap in the bed beside you, but I'm not actually all that tired today, so this is a test and I hope that you pass.
Suddenly in the last month or two, you've become a person with a sense of humor, who knows how to make us laugh. You do this by clapping at Dr. Phil's jokes or when everyone on Family Feud starts clapping, you clap along as well and you point at Everything asking "That?" We always tell you what it is that you find so interesting. Even if you've asked 35 times already. Your Dad and I find it endlessly cute that you've now taken to pronouncing "That?!" with a lady's Southern belle drawl. Thaaiiaat? Yup. cute explosion. Now your Dad and I even go around saying "Thaaaiiat." We're hooked.
You are a bit of an early walker and even though it means you already have two little chips in your teeth, we're very happy that we no longer have to carry you from room to room. That reminds me, I have an appointment with the chiropractor on Wednesday.
You play hide and seek and you love it when we chase you. You give kisses and hugs. You hug the cat so tightly that her eyes bug out, but she lets you do it, and even purrs.
You love salmon with garlic and onions, peas, watermelon and oranges.
You are constantly picking old crumbs up off the floor and eating them. This makes me crazy. I try to poke around in your mouth to fish out old, fallen peas, but you won't open up. If you do open up, you then proceed to chomp on my finger with a variety of your 8 teeth. For some reason, I'm guessing just to torture me, you've now started to pick up fake, invisible crumbs and wait until I'm watching and then you put the fake, invisible crumb in your mouth. This seems unreasonable.
You love when you discover that the door to the land of the bathtub, cat food, cat litter and endless bottles filled with goo is open. You make a beeline for that magical room, but I or your dada always beat you to it and when we close the door you cry and cry as though unicorns have died. We distract you by opening the fridge door (also magical!) and then you are ok.
I slammed the bedroom door into your head the other day when I was on the phone with Clearblue. I also had Hydro Quebec on the other line. I ran into the hallway to grab a receipt out of my bag and then when I pushed the bedroom door open, lo and behold, you were right behind it. You fell to your bum and cried like I'd never heard you cry. I whimpered "Oh my God!" dropped the phone and picked you up and held you close while a big red line developed on your forehead. It reminded me that I should probably slow down a bit. That even though things are hectic and chaotic I don’t need to be getting all frantic and opening doors on my sweet child’s forehead. Lesson learned.
You like toys, you really do, but mostly you like remote controls (or as Daddy calls it "the magic stick that makes the people in the box come to life"), cell phones, anything in the fridge (oooo! Glass jars!), mail, garbage, shampoo bottles, dirty laundry, the cup of water on my nightstand (tipped over 3 times and counting), kindles and dirty shoes best. You've touched those dirty shoes so many times, I don't even think to wash your hands after anymore. Just building up that immunity, right?
Today someone came to take our car away because we are moving to Vancouver in two weeks and we want it to be there when we arrive. I opened my computer for 1 minute to go on their website when I looked around at you. You were flinging around the sopping wet morning diaper that I had just taken off of you. You were literally swinging and circling it around your head as though it were a lasso. My jaw dropped and I shouted "no, Violet" and you held out your hands and shrugged, looked at me like "what? YOU left it right here. This is on you, mama."
Something that I wasn’t expecting is that already, at 1 year old, you are the most hilarious person I know. There are some people, like me, who really enjoy being funny and try so very hard to be funny, and there are others who are just funny. You’re like that. Not even trying, but always winning at humor. You seem to know how hilarious and silly it is that when the song for the weather report during the news comes on, you start dancing. You look at us with a huge grin and bop and bop.
You go to bed at 8 and you come into our bed whenever you cry out for us, which can be anywhere from 12-3am. I nurse you and you fall back asleep quickly. This can happen anywhere from 1-3 times a night until you wake up for the morning around 6:30am. We really like sharing our bed with you and especially like seeing your smiling face first thing in the morning. We're not sure how long this will go on for, but for now, we are all happy with the arrangement.
I'm still nursing you 5-6 times a day total and two weeks ago started introducing organic whole milk. You thought it was water, but when you realized it wasn't you let it all dribble out down your chin, abandoned the bottle and came straight for the tap. I'm clearly going to be breastfeeding you Forever. It's going to get embarrassing at some point when you're 12 or 13.
You don't say many words, but you know what many things are. If I ask where your chair is you point to it. You also know flower, trees, dog, cat, ball, blankie, bunny, teddy bear, bath, eat, water, nose, head, hand, foot, hair, duck, hug and kiss. This is all very exciting to me.
I looked at you this morning and realized I am the happiest I've ever been in my life. Motherhood is no joke, it has change me. Sometimes I still miss my wild self. Heck, sometimes I just miss playing candy crush on the toilet, but I had years and years of that and I wouldn't go back. I wake up happy and I go to bed grateful because of you, Violet. Thank you for choosing me as your Mama. I hope to do my very best for the rest of my life to teach you all the things that I believe to be important: Kindness, gentleness, patience, joyfulness, courage and how to laugh and laugh and laugh. Thanks for being the squishiest, little love. I am the luckiest person who gets to be with you every day. Love you Forever.
