Dear Xander,
I can't believe we are only one month away from you turning one year old. I can't believe it was a year ago when we were in Kansas all sorts of anxious for your arrival. A year ago we were madly getting out basement remodel done and not totally aware of how our life was about to change. Now we play in the basement every day, we are fully aware of how much our life has changed, and we have the joy of our lives giving us hugs, smiles, and the best laughs we've had every day. At this point I can't even remember my life without you (for better or worse :-) ).
This month we had some great experiences and some great milestones passed. The biggest milestone, of course, is the fact that at 9 months and 3 weeks you WALKED! As predicted by your Poppi and agreed to by your Dad, you walked. I made sure of it. With some intense training sessions and constant berating and withholding of food when necessary we did it. (okay, it was far more instigated by your intense desire to get places quickly than anything I did - and I didn't withhold food...or intensely train).
Unfortunately for prosperity sake the video shows a dad that is probably way too excited - but hey - it was a very exciting day to see you moving on your own. I will never forget the odd feeling I had when I set you up to stand and you didn't collapse or crumble under your own weight. You held yourself up for a long time! Unfortunately, in an effort to capture the greatness of this moment it wasn't a few hours past your first solid steps when you fell square on my leg - causing you to get a fat lip and a bloody nose :-( But we got it on video:
You are so eager to walk and each time I set you up and encourage you to go your arms go above your head for balance and you giggle in delight over your new discovered skill. It is so fun to watch. I worry, however, as you get a little more daring you will begin to get more fat lips and more bloody noses. You seem to be unswayed by fear though and keep plowing through it all.
Another skill you showed off this month was your ability to climb stairs - REALLY FAST. You can climb with really no hesitation or problem at all. Pretty amazing for someone who didn't know what stairs were just a few months ago :-).
You are starting to say words more meaningfully. Your first word, other than "da da da da da" probably came from a game your papa played with you. He would switch the kitchen light on when and it would catch your eye. You would then point at the light and your papa would turn it off. Each time you pointed he turned it on or off. We would say "light" a lot while we did it and so guess what your first word was? Yup, "Light." Pretty cool!
It really was an amazing month with so many milestones completed. We still have to work on shoring up your walking skills and encourage talking all we can. Now that the weather has improved we are going to go out and explore the world more. We have made many outings to the park, the zoo, and to friends house and I'm sure the next month will be the same. Thanks for being in our life, Xan. You are the man!
Love,
Dad.
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