Dear Lucas (56 Weeks),

You have learned a lot of things this week. You are definitely stuck somewhere in between being a sweet little baby and an independent toddler. In some ways this has been one of the most amazing weeks for you it has also been one of the most challenging for me. Your Daddy used to say he wishes you would have been born a toddler so he could play with you right away. First off, "OWWW" and now this week I see why babies come out all sweet and tall... it is so you are in love with them for when they start walking and talking and throwing fits.



If I had to sum up this week in one word it would be TANTRUMS. Several times a day I find myself wondering who replaced my sweet laid back baby with an angry little monster. Out of nowhere you just started throwing these screaming fits. Since you've always been such an easy going happy baby at first nobody believed me. The first time it happened was during breakfast. You were eating your banana like normal and instead of eating your yogurt or cheerios you started pointing at the bunch of bananas that I had the audacity to leave out on the counter in your site. You started pointing and screaming "NANA NANA NANA." I quickly put the bananas out of site and told you "all gone, no more," and you starting flinging your head back into your high chair. Now you will randomly stop playing to throw a fit because your toy looked at you wrong.



Today as your physical therapy appointment started I explained to your therapist about your tantrums and she didn't believe me because she said you were way to young to throw tantrums. She told me that maybe you were just tired from all the hard work you were doing. I started to think she was right when you started throwing a tantrum for her. You refused to let your feet touch the ground when she went to get you to stand... something you hadn't done since you've been able to pull yourself up. She looked at me and said "OK, there is a little attitude there for sure," and you continued to throw several mini tantrums refusing to do stuff you did just last week. You didn't want to crawl on your hands and knees today but all we had to do is say "up" and you would get up on your hands and knees and crawl while YOU screamed "up, up, up" as you went. I couldn't help but laugh. Your therapist apologized for not believing me at first saying that she forgot how smart you were and that now you are more mobile and have choices of how to get around you are probably voicing those choices and trying to test our your new forms of Independence.



The amazing thing this week is the explosion of words that you say. It seems like everyday you are saying something new. Your vocabulary is quite impressive for an almost 13 month old (or at least I think so)

• Dada
• Maaa Maaa! (MaMa, still not as much as Dada... and you usually say Mama when you are upset and Dada when you are excited and happy and want to play)
• Jadie
• Kitty (although you don't say this one that much anymore)
• Hi
• Hey
• Bye-Bye
• See (you say this while you point at things)
• Ree (tree)
• up
• No (you say this more in copying us like when you crawl up to the TV and change the channels.. you don't seem to know what it means yet)
• Nana (banana)
• Peee ba (peekaboo)
• Set (Sit... this one you said tonight for the first time. You would say it after I would tell Jadie to sit and you would get this satisfied look like you were the reason she was sitting)

(click to watch)

Today we stayed with your Great Grandma again. Right before we went to leave I took you in the backyard so we could stick our feet in the pool. You happily kicked your feet and splashed with your toes but wanted to splash with your hands. I carefully held you over the water so you could splash, splash, splash. I realized I need to take you swimming again soon because eventually the water will be too cold and you seem to enjoy swimming so much. After all the splashing was over you were pretty wet so I sat you on the grass to try to encourage you to play with the grass and stop hating it. You are slowly progressing from Hate to strong dislike. You didn't cry while you were sitting on it but you did try to hold your feet in the air to keep them from being defiled by the unworthy green grass...and you tumbled right over. I couldn't help but to laugh.

Your favorite person to look at is still yourself. I am always catching you trying to play with the baby in the mirror. You are always trying to show the mirror baby something neat you found. Today you actually tried to give the mirror baby hugs and kept bumping your head because you wouldn't give up. I picked you up and gave you a hug and went "awww" and you hugged me back, patted me on the back, snuggled close and said "awww."

Bugga-Bugga, I love you to the moon and back,

Maaa Maaa!!!