Month 14

Dear Corbin,

You turned 14 months today! You have at least one tooth coming in on top, and it looks so strange that we actually had to ask a couple of people if they thought we should take you to a dentist. It turns out that top teeth simply look that crazy.

This has been the month of Mom drops you. One week, you leaned out of my arms while I was putting you into your car seat (which was already in the car) and you knocked your mouth into the car seat, scraped up your chin and bit the end of your tongue. Then the next week I was carrying you while you were in your car seat, and I twisted my ankle. I tried to catch my balance, but ended up just staggering around into the patio table, then setting your car seat down hard on the ground and kind of falling down next to you. I also spent your college savings putting a new bumper on the van after backing it into a parked car, so if you've been wondering where your phobia of car stuff comes from, look no further.

You and Grandma Lam and I went over the UP for my birthday weekend, the end of March. You had a fun time playing with Aunt Alice and Cousin Diana (who does a hilarious bear imitation, by the way), but for some reason you were very shy around Aunt Cele. Grandma Lam thinks it's because she and Cele look too alike for your comfort. In any case, we had a fun time going to the little zoo and playing around Aunt Cele's big yard. The next weekend, we hunted for Easter eggs at the apartment. You went to the MN Zoo again and petted some animals there. You had your last swimming lesson until this fall. You gained three new pairs of shoes, and some summer pjs. You're a busy kid!

The weather has been really nice, so you've been doing a lot of playing outside, in the yard and up at the park. We got a little climber for you, and we put together a sandbox on the front porch for when it does rain. You also like pushing your "car" around, and you're much better at steering it now, except on the grass. There's a little boy down the block, Seth, who came over to play for a little while last Saturday. Whenever you're around other children, your normally cautious approach slows down even more. It makes me think that we should find you a play group pretty soon, so you start getting used to people who move faster than your parents and grandparents.

You also like playing with the dogs outside. You and Arrow play fetch sometimes, which means you walk around with a tennis ball for a minute and then "throw" it. Arrow will run over and pick up the ball, run around in a circle with it and then drop it by you. I watched you do this for almost 20 minutes one afternoon, and it was pretty darn cute.

The biggest thing that happened this month was that you started using signs to talk to us. The breakthrough was when you learned "more." Once you learned the basic concept of signs, you picked up a couple more very quickly: please, drink, and all done. You do modify them, however, which is alternately simply fine and completely hilarious. For more, you tap your fists together, instead of your fingertips. For drink, you tap your fist against your mouth or cheek, instead of opening your hand into a C. For all done, you turn your hands palm up instead of palm down. But by far the best one is please, which I taught you in the bathtub when you wanted me to wind up your wind-up frog. I said, "Mama, do the frog please," and tried to get you to pat your chest. Instead, I accidentally taught you to pat your belly. So now when you're eating dinner and I remind you to say, "More please," it looks like you're saying, "More...in my belly!" and it makes me crack up every time.

More...in my belly!

Love,
Mom

With your Easter bunny from Grandma and Grandpa Thorne:



You still won't let Arrow eat in peace:


Hey, Mr Teeth.