1 Year 9 Months

Dear North,

The excitement of the holiday season is behind us and we are left with a house brimming with toys. Although you didn't seem to understand Christmas per say, you sure enjoyed ripping into presents.

In the winter, most animals slow down and hunker down for the chilly months. But you are not one of those mammals. Being stuck indoors has been a challenge. We have removed the gates, excepting the one accessing the stairs and you now have free range to roam and explore. It is rare to see you sit still, especially when you could be rooting for carbs in the pantry or flushing the toilet, two of your most recent obsessions.

Hide and seek is one of your favorite pastimes, except you have a hilarious twist to the rules. When you are the hider, which is most of the time, the seeker is expected to ignore you staring straight at them smiling like a mad man. No, instead they must look for you in ridiculous places while repeating "where are you North?" until you emerge from your hiding spot and get closer and closer. Eventually, you put your face right in front of their face. That's when the seeker is allowed to say "there you are!" and everyone falls into a pile of giggles.

You're finally over a bad cough that lasted a week or so. I've never seen such an unhappy puppy. Of course, during those sick days we gave you whatever you wanted. By day three you were surviving on graham crackers, juice and honey. Entire days were spent watching youtube videos on the computer because that's what you wanted. I'd say you enjoyed calling the shots for a few days. Then you started to feel better and your parents turned on you.

We are still dealing with the fallout, of course. Your dad told me that you followed him around the house throwing mobile tantrums the other day. You threw yourself down and let out a cry. Your dad left the room. You looked up, realized no one was watching your awesome display of dismay, you pressed the pause button on your tantrum setting and picked yourself up to go in search of an audience. Once you found him, you immediately resumed the gruesome production for his viewing pleasure. I hope to get it on video one day. Here are a couple of moments we have been able to capture on video.

Merry Christmas

1 Year 8 Months

Dear North,

I am convinced you are Mister McGoo. You always seem to be walking on the brink of certain painful injury and are saved just in the nick of time. It's not due to blindness, as is the case of McGoo. Rather, you just cannot stop yourself from exploring all things dangerous. I know I've written about this before, but it's only getting worse as you gain confidence in your climbing abilities and electrical knowledge. Meanwhile, your dad and I stand guard beside you, attempting to catch you when you fall and keep you from electrocuting yourself. That's our job now and for a long time to come.

You spend a good amount of time with dad in the garage these days too, sorting bins and playing with the tape measure. Maybe that explains your recent pastimes like hammering on the sliding glass doors and taking a screwdriver to your train. You imitate everything you see us doing, which makes you somewhat of a mirror. It's terrifying really and means we have to start acting appropriately while driving.

Because you are a parrot, language is improving slowly but surely. You can say dada, mama, green, meow, daddy, baby. Those last 2 just came out this weekend and we've been practicing other "y" ending words ever since. Believe me when I say, your father would happily sit for hours listening to you say "da dee" over and over again. He would melt into a puddle each time too.

Between you and me, on the weekends, your dad has been dressing you in flannel shirts to compliment his own color palette of the day. On Saturday, you both wore red flannel and on Sunday, the hue was blue. It's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen.

And now, some pictures!

"Are you trying to trick me into eating vegetables again?"

"Alright I'll eat it, but don't try any funny stuff. I've got my eye on you."

Any guesses on what the cameraman is wearing?

1 Year 7 Months

Dear North,

Every month that goes by becomes our new favorite version of you. In the past month, your comprehension of what we are saying is more obvious than ever. You delight in pointing to body parts as we call them out to you. Chores are made more enjoyable with you as a helper, eager to follow our directions. Even being told no is more acceptable lately as long as we explain the reasoning behind the denial. With the chill in the air, you often grab a book and a blanket and plop down in the nearest lap for story time. Maybe being stuck indoors for the winter won't be so bad after all?

Left to your own devices, I can normally find you surfing the internets, squirting the cat (or any object really) with the spray bottle or moving a chair across the living room to access the light switch. Occasionally, you even touch your actual toys. You take them out one by one, pile them in a new location and then carefully put them back in your toy bin. I do not know where you get your OCD from though.

The other day as we played with blocks in the living room, I caught myself staring at you and studying your every feature. Had you noticed my glazed over eyes and strange smile, it might have freaked you out. You are our little boy! It's a stupidly simple realization that occurs to me less frequently as I allow myself to get caught up in meaningless day to day activities of life. But in that moment, I recaptured some of the awe I felt holding you in my arms those first minutes of your life. I promise to open myself up to that amazement more often. But I cannot promise that I won't smother you with kisses as a result.

I flipped the screen over so he could look at himself while I filmed him. He obviously liked what he saw.

A rare glimpse into life with a North.

1 Year 6 Months

Dear North,

You are a whopping eighteen months old already. Even if I didn't know it myself, the season change seems to be reminding me of how quickly time moves. I will always enjoy how your birthday is the beginning of Spring because it's pleasant to mark time in conjunction with the season changes of North Carolina.

Our early fall has been filled with camping trips to Jordan Lake. Around the campsite, you like to tidy up by mowing the pine straw and relocating rocks. The camping experience has changed with you in the picture. As always, you are independent and drawn to dangerous situations like investigating the fire pit and turning the knob on the propane tank. If not being watched at all times, you will wander off into the woods or down the road in search of new sticks, rocks and often, garbage. We always leave our campsite cleaner than we found it thanks to you.

One of our campsites had a marked path down to a private beach along the lake. You were free to roam up and down the sands pointing at the different debris that had washed ashore. Sticks seemed to be your favorite find. Sometimes it is pointless to take toys to the beach, although you always love a simple bucket and shovel. But you often abandon everything in search of adventure. Then one of your mean parents chases after you, cutting your quest short again.

This is your reaction to being told not to do something. We see this face a lot. I admit, it makes me laugh. Of course, I hate seeing you so unhappy, but I find it amusing that the simplest things can bring your world crashing down. Like both of your parents, you hate being told what not to do. To get back at us, you have mastered the art of fake crying. It sounds like a machine gun, a very fake machine gun that fires at the utterance of the word "no" that is.

Then it's right back to being adorable.

1 Year 5 Months

Dear North,

September is upon us and with it the end of summer. As we move into the thankfully cooler temperatures of fall, I welcome the relief from the oppressive heat and am excited by the prospect of many camping adventures in the next few weeks. We just bought a new to us pop up camper to make these adventures even more enjoyable for all of us.


You were particularly fond of playing in the galley sink, with your body snugly wedged between the back of the counter and the camper's screened window. Much of your time inside was spent squeezing the bubbles out of the sponge and then wiping the bubbles off everything. Thankfully, you haven't attempted to rotate the sink handles to turn the faucet on yet. Your dad and I work as a team, one of us distracting you while the other slyly uses the water as quickly as possible. I hate to think about the day you open the flood gates, but I promise to laugh when it inevitably happens since I've just jinxed myself.

You're still taking two naps per day and sleep about eleven hours per night, which was a great concern of mine going into this trip. You do great in a crib, but you've never slept in your own bed or with us. The first night we set up camp, we decided to have you sleep on the convertible bed/dinette area because it's the shortest bed. We stuffed the exposed side of the bed with pillows, just in case you rolled off in the night. Aided by the blue glow from the radio light, all night long, your father and I checked on you to make sure you were okay. Around three in the morning, I woke up and you were gone. My stomach dropped as my body sprung to action. I scanned the room but there was no trace of you, a lamby or a binkie in sight. Perched on top of the table bed, I reached under the table to the cubby area and felt your fuzzy head. I may have possibly poked you in the eye too. They say to never wake a sleeping baby and I'm certainly not disputing what "they" say so early in the morning. I heard murmurs from the table depths about an hour later and rescued you. You slept between us on the king sized mattress after that, which became one of our favorite memories of this trip.

When we needed a break from chasing you back and forth around the campsite, your dad would sit with you while you played in the truck. The inside of a vehicle is a wonderland for you, but the truck seems to be your favorite.


This will be the picture that will break my heart when I look back years from now and reflect on how little you were. So don't be surprised if I make you wear a sleep sack into your teenage years.