Letter to my one year old son

Dear Emerson,

You are a little over a year old and, while I hardly thought it possible, I love you even more now than I did when you were born. It has been so much fun getting to know you and I wanted to take a moment now to capture this sweet, sweet time in our lives together.

You are a very curious young man: you like to explore every new thing and new place and even new people. And especially dogs. You LOVE dogs and seem to wish there was one around to play with more often.

I still can’t get over seeing you walk around, going in and out of rooms just like that. You’ve been walking for several weeks now but it still feels like a miracle to me. You still sometimes walk with your arms straight up in the air, probably because you learned to walk with us holding your hands, or maybe just because it looks cool.

I think my two favorite times of day with you are bedtime, when I hold you and rock you in the glider chair at twilight and listen to your breath slow as you get sleepy, and then around 5am when you start chirping in your crib and I come get you and take you back to bed to snuggle for another hour or two before we start the day. You are so little and warm and sweet. It’s wonderful.

You talk a lot and tell us all kinds of things that we don’t yet understand. You say “doot!” and “doy” a lot, as well as “ba” and “da.” You say “mama” too, but only when you are sad or angry. I guess that’s when it feels most needed.

You have five teeth right now, with several coming in even as I write this. These teeth serve you well eating salmon, tempeh, tofu, peas, spinach, black beans, avocado, cheese – especially strong flavored grown-up cheese – lasagna, spinach cheese pie and buttered toast, among other things.

Everywhere we go people comment on your beautiful blue eyes. And on how much you look like your father. And what a happy little guy you seem to be. It’s all true.

Maybe the very best thing of all is hearing you laugh. You are quite a joyful child and it isn’t hard to make you laugh, and your dad and I just love figuring out what tickles you. Funny faces, weird noises, throwing you up in the air or onto the bed, your dad “bushwhacking” up and down the hallway. You are constantly cracking up and we totally love it.

You are a beautiful light, dear Emerson. I love you very much and feel so lucky to have you in my life.

Love,

Mama