Month 11

Dear Corbin,

You are eleven months old today. It is frankly shocking to think that you are almost a year old. Eleven months! I’ve been a mom for eleven months! That’s crazy talk! I was reflecting today that I now feel normal and comfortable in my body again, and not as if I am still getting used to not being pregnant. You, of course, keep changing every day.

You have two teeth now, both of them on the bottom. I did buy you a toothbrush, but you’re not crazy about actually letting us use it. Tonight at dinner you were enjoying using your teeth to bite crackers and cereal. I think you’re having fun making crunching noises now that you can. You’re much more interested in finger foods now. If there isn’t some kind of finger food on your tray, you’ll grab the spoon out of our hands. You seem to like pasta, and chicken, and breakfast sausage. You still love toast, but now you want bigger pieces if not the whole slice at a time. You still love applesauce and banana-‘cado, but you truly and deeply love cheese. You will drop other food to eat cheese instead. It makes me so proud that you’re living up to your Wisconsin heritage.

This month, I spent time away from you for the first time. I had to travel for work, and while I enjoyed being able to go out to a bar like an adult, I was happy to come home. The worst part was that I was in California, and so when my biological clock woke me up at 6:00am, like normal, it was actually 4:00am where I was. So I was forced to console myself with lots of coffee during the day and beer and whiskey at night. It was tough, but I survived. You also had your first babysitter while I was gone, which you slept through entirely. Keep that up and your nickname will be Easy Money.

You took a couple more steps this month, but you’re not really walking at all, yet. I am a little bit surprised because you love walking around holding on to your push toy and our hands. I thought you might be walking on your own by now, but you’re still working up to it. You might as well wait a bit longer. We’re supposed to get a big ice storm this weekend, so there will be no going for walks anyway.

The only other thing going on this month was that everybody got sick. You had a very runny nose and a cough. Your dad had a sore throat and a stuffed up nose. I’m getting a sore throat right now. Your Grandma Lam has a very sore throat and the sniffles. Ironically, for being so sick a couple of months ago, Grandpa Lam is now the healthiest one here. When you’re sick, you want to be held all the time. You just lay your head down on our shoulder and snuggle. I don’t like it when you’re sick, but getting to hold you like that makes getting a shoulder full of snot totally worth it.

Love,

Mom