Braveheart

Dear Mackenzie,

You are quickly becoming my little daredevil! You love climbing up on whatever you can, whether it's the coffee table, Second GuhGaw's bed or the couch. You hadn't been able to pull yourself up on the latter before but this afternoon, I watched as you grabbed a hold of the couch cover, lifted your leg up over the edge and hoisted yourself up onto the cushion! You are so strong and so brave--a dangerous combination! Maybe because you are the littlest member of our household, you love standing up on high surfaces and feeling tall. Whenever Daddy and I let you stand atop a dresser or kitchen counter, you start beaming and surveying all that is suddenly beneath you.

Other developments this week: 

- You started hugging everyone a lot more. You often walk up to me and hug my legs or go over to your siblings and hug them. So sweet!

- You like to press your face against mine and give me an Eskimo kiss. So adorable!

- You started blowing raspberries. Really forceful, wet raspberries. So messy!

- You don't like it when I pay more attention to your siblings so when you want me to focus on you, you climb into my lap, lay down in a nursing position and open your mouth wide. You know that when I nurse you, I have to pay attention to you! So sneaky!

- You *really* like corn. You tried it for the first time at dinner tonight and kept asking for more. So corny!

Love,

Mom

Open Wide

Dear Mackenzie,

You were standing up in your room today and I was suddenly taken aback because you looked so big! It's funny how I see you every single day but then I blink and it's as if you've suddenly aged several months. Your arms and legs are longer, your cheeks are chubbier (you even have a dimple when you smile!), size 12-months clothes are too tight on you, your hair has grown down to your shoulders and you have so many teeth (even your molars are all coming in). You have also become incredibly strong--in the past few weeks, you have acquired the ability to climb up the entire staircase, climb onto the top of the coffee table and pull yourself up on the iron bars on the side of the daybed in your room. The latter is especially funny because it's a little more difficult and you grunt so much while pulling yourself up, like a baby American ninja warrior!

In other developments, you finally started drinking cow's milk (about 6-8 ounces a day, but you still like to nurse), can now feed yourself with a fork and are showing an increasing interest in eating foods that aren't the pureed baby mush I've been feeding you for the past nine months. It's actually pretty hilarious how you ask for food: You open your mouth SO WIDE and just hold it open toward me (or whoever has the yummy looking morsels) until I feed you.

Example A:

Example B: 

Example C:

You are such a cutie! You often reach for my hands and lead me on little walks around the house. You like it when I lift you up and let you put items back on their shelves--my bottle of calcium pills, your jar of lotion--and beam and clap for yourself once you've done so. Whenever you hear upbeat music, you sway back and forth and wiggle on your butt if you're sitting. The other day, we were having a dance party with your siblings and you were doing the CUTEST dance! You were swaying back and forth, pointing your fingers in the air and lifting your legs side to side. Yesterday, I was holding you when Daddy came up to me and kissed me. Not to be outdone, you immediately held my head in both your hands, leaned in toward me and gave me the sweetest kisses on my mouth!

I love that you can understand more now. You wanted a bite of food the other day and I told you to drink your water first--and you did! When we were in your room and I asked you if you wanted to read a book, you walked over to your bookshelf, picked one out (your current favorites are Bedtime for Batman and Adorable You), brought it over to me and plopped down in my lap so we could read it together. When we were done, I told you to put it back on the shelf, which you did. You are already such a big girl (with a really big mouth, haha!)!

Love,

Mom

Cute Antics

Dear Mackenzie,

You are doing so many cute things that warm my heart so much!

-You have been making the funniest faces lately! Sometimes, you just suddenly widen your eyes and mouth a lot so that they are huge circles. Or you scrunch up one side of your face and smile. 

-When you hear a song you like (like when your Olaf doll sings "When I Am Older"), you smile, lean to the side and punch your fist in the air.

-When you play with your baby basketball hoop, you smile and clap for yourself every time you put the ball through the basket.

-When I come into the room, you immediately stop whatever you're doing, break out into the big open-mouthed grin and toddle toward me while giggling.

-When you want me to pick you up, you walk up right next to me, look up at me, smile, reach your right arm up toward me and say, "Hey!" It's so irresistible! And you have already learned that it's irresistible! You were crying today because Daddy was holding you but you wanted me instead. Then it must have hit you to use your new trick because you stopped crying mid-cry, raised your arm toward me and said, "Hey!" And it totally worked because I took you from Daddy's arms!

-You picked up JieJie's hat yesterday and put it on your head all by yourself! I had never seen you do that before and you looked so proud of yourself when you did it.

- You said Mama! I'm not exactly sure if it was directed at me as you weren't looking at me when you said it but you did say the sounds "ma ma" several times while I was in the room with you . . . so I'll take it!

Love,

Mom

Dancing Queen

Dear Mackenzie,

I love the toddler stage so much! As JieJie said, you are no longer "a boring baby who doesn't do anything" and you haven't reached your temper-prone Terrible Twos stage yet, so you're in the fun sweet spot in between! You grow more bubbly, playful and sociable every day and you do so many cute things that make our entire family smile. Some examples:

- You mimic me a lot. When I was making a cake the other day and you were sitting in the kitchen with me, you mixed your baby spoon around in your bowl just like I did with my wooden spoon and mixing bowl. When I was putting on lotion at night, you watched me and rubbed your hands all over your head and neck.

- You attempt to put your clothes and socks on by yourself. You're not quite there yet but it's so cute to watch you try.

- When I turn lights on or off, your eyes widen a LOT. It's as if the sudden appearance or disappearance of overhead lights completely amazes you!

- You toddle all over the place now and are getting so good walking. Sometimes you walk too quickly and almost tip over forward but you are able to catch yourself, find your balance and stand straight back up again. You even walked backward for the first time last week.

- Whenever your baby gate is open, you make a beeline for it! Now that you are more confident with walking, you love leaving the safe confines of your room to explore the rest of the house.

- When you do walk toward the door, you often turn back a little, stretch your arm out toward me and smile as if to say, "Come on, Mama, let's go!"

- You love to dance! Whenever I play music on my iPad, you smile and sway back and forth. If my iPad is on the coffee table, you often tap the screen and try to turn it on. When I help you with that and play a song, you smile such a big smile and start bouncing and swaying happily to the music.

- You like to chase me and be chased!

In other news, you have an eighth tooth coming out of your bottom gum. It is so cute but I am still breastfeeding you, so when you bite me while nursing, not so cute! You also tried whole milk for the first time last week but didn't like it. You drank it thinking it was water and immediately look startled when you realized it wasn't. I tried giving you a few more sips but you kept shaking your head and refused to drink anymore. I tried giving you milk again for a few days after that but you still refused it. So that is why we are still breastfeeding. We'll try again soon.

Love,

Mom

No One Messes With Your Sister!

Dear Mackenzie,

It has been one month since you turned one and you have blossomed so much in the past four weeks. It's as if you immediately jumped from being a little baby to a little girl! You have learned to do so many new things this past month and you have developed such a sweet, fun-loving personality.

New motor skills: walking a length of nearly ten feet on your own (you are such a good walker already and love walking all over the house--and it's so cute how proud and pleased you look every time you walk!); holding and drinking from your own bottle; stacking blocks; when sitting on the couch, turning over onto your belly and scooting off the couch backward; opening twist-cap bottles

New interests: pointing at everything, playing with light switches to turn the lights on and off; handing me series of things, listening to the songs that your dollhouse plays--you especially like the rub-a-dub song that plays when you push the button in the bathroom and will just sit next to your dollhouse and continuously push the button so the song plays over and over again

New cute behaviors: laying your cheek on the coffee table and smiling up at me; scribbling with a crayon and looking so happy while doing it; hearing us laugh really hard and laughing really hard along with us--I guess you don't want to be left out!

New growths: a tiny seventh tooth coming out of your bottom gum!

The biggest development, though, has been your sense of empathy. When you see one of your siblings crying, you scrunch up your face and whimper. You were especially sweet a few days ago when JieJie and Second GuhGaw were fighting over a colored pencil. Second GuhGaw wouldn't share it and JieJie started crying. You crawled over to JieJie, climbed into her lap and made whimpering sounds as if you were trying to commiserate with her. That alone was pretty darn cute but then you took it further--after you tried to comfort JieJie, you crawled over to Second GuhGaw, who was lying on his stomach and drawing. You climbed onto his back, sat on top of him and started yelling really loudly at him! You were totally scolding him for upsetting JieJie!

You are awesome! I love that you have become aware of other people's feelings and I really love that you had your sister's back!

Love,

Mom

Mommy Is Mine

Dear Mackenzie,

Like your three older siblings before you, you are not too keen on sharing me. We were in your room earlier today and Second GuhGaw was sitting in my lap. When you saw this, you immediately crawled over to us, grabbed my shoulder to pull yourself up to standing and attempted to push Second GuhGaw off my lap! When he didn't budge, you used your head to try and squeeze in between him and me! Hahaha! Possessive much?

Love,

Mom

You're One Year Old!

Dear Mackenzie,

When I was a kid, I dreamed of eventually growing up, getting married and having three kids: two boys and a girl. I wanted to name them Erik, Christopher and Samantha. Fast forward a couple decades and my childhood dream had come true: I was married and had two boys and a girl (though I ended up giving them more unique names). But as happy as I was and as chaotic as it already was juggling three young kids, I found myself wanting a fourth. Crazy, right?! A majority of the families we know have two kids, a couple have three and just one has four. Many people I met since Second GuhGaw was born looked at me incredulously when I told them I had three kids; what was I doing wanting four? But that was my new dream: to have a big family, a full house and a strong support system for my kids now and when they are older.

And that is how you came to be! If you thought I got a lot of incredulous looks before with three kids, you should have seen the looks I got when I my baby bump started showing and we told friends and family that #4 was on the way! I heard the words "wow," "brave" and yes, even "crazy" a LOT during my pregnancy with you! And yes, it was definitely crazy after we brought you home from the hospital and there were so many kids in the house. And yes, it got crazier still when a global pandemic overtook the world and we had to close restaurants, shut down schools and shelter-in-place at home for months on end. Honestly, if I had known a pandemic was coming, I'm not sure I still would have wanted another baby, given how risky it is to be inside a hospital now. Thus, I am so so SO glad that I couldn't tell the future because I am so so SO thankful that you are a part of my life! I will also be eternally grateful that you were born just a few months before I ever had to utter the word "coronavirus" and that you are too young to understand what "social distancing" means or why your entire family covers half their faces every time we go outside. During this pandemic, I have often joked to friends that when you are older, we will tell you about these things called "restaurants" and "playgrounds" where we used to go. However, it is my sincerest hope that the virus that has dominated the world during two-thirds of your first year will soon be a thing of the past and that when you are older, you will be going through a storage box at the back of my closet, pull out a pile of old cloth face masks and ask me, "What are these things?"

My Kenziebear, you have brought our family so much joy and laughter during this oftentimes bleak year. It has been wonderful having a cute, squishy, happy baby in the house again and your older siblings absolutely adore you. When you were a newborn, we marveled over how small and delicate you were and over the past year, we have marveled over how much you have grown and every new skill you have acquired. You can stand up from a sitting position all on your own now and are independently taking more and more steps each day. You already said your first word (hi!) and say hi to us all of the time. You are incredibly observant and notice how we use everyday objects: when you hold the TV remote, you aim it at the TV like we do; you correctly hold a pencil and attempt to scribble in my crossword puzzle book; you take my lotion bottle and tap it onto the top of your hand. You are empathetic and whimper when you see one of your siblings crying. You are funny and know when you are being cute. You are also playful and sweet and the perfect addition to our family!

I love you so much, baby girl! Happy first birthday!

Love,

Mom