Yesterday was Mother’s Day.  We went out with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nancy, and Aunt Sandra and Uncle Dave.  Aunt Sandra is a soon-to-be mom due on August 5, 2009.  We are so excited to have little Maggie join our family.  Grandpa is going to watch both Maggie and you after Aunt Sandra goes back to work.  We are so excited to see how you’ll react to having a new baby around.  It might be more fun for you but I know you’ll miss having Grandpa’s undivided attention.  He loves you so much even with the little scratch marks you’ve left on his face from playing too rough.  We know you think it’s funny to scratch but the rest of us find it a little frustrating.

You are getting so much better with the walking thing.  I know you’ll be ready to let go of my hand any day now and just take off.  All I ask is that you do not go running right into the street.  I was walking with you yesterday and you were so mad at me for not letting you walk off the curb and into the street.  You are such an independent and stubborn boy.  It makes me laugh as you remind me so much of how I am that I simply cannot be upset with you.  Although everyone tells me that I will regret wanting you to be mobile, I can honestly say that I look forward to the challenge.  I may have a good running partner.

At dinner yesterday, you were not your wonderful self.  Normally, you can sit for quite some time and interact with us without getting upset.  However, you were getting your seventh tooth and you were not happy about it.  You haven’t had any new teeth come in quite a few months.  Your first two broke in at about 4 months.  You got your bottom two first.  Then your top two came in that the same time.  And then you got another two on the bottom.  This is the first one that is pushing through by itself.

Mother’s Day morning, I gave you Cheerios while Grandpa made you a cheese omelet.  I also cut up pineapples for you.  Grandpa made me two English Muffins.  You ate part of it.  The only food group your were missing was vegetables.  It worried me when Grandpa carried you up to bed at 7:00 pm knowing you never had anything for lunch or dinner.  You only snacked on bread in the restaurant.  It made me feel better when you woke up around 9:00 pm.  It was so late that I only gave you some Cheerios, milk, and some pineapple juice.  Normally, you are not very cuddly.  But when you don’t feel well, you just want to be held.

Grandma and I took turns holding you while we watched the season finale of The Apprentice.  I can’t believe they made that finale three hours.  I didn’t even care for the final two (Joan Rivers, Comedian and Annie Duke, Poker Player).  I would have much rather have seen either Herschel Walker (winner of the Heisman Trophy) or Jesse James (custom bike and car builder among other things) make it as one of the finalists.  I liked both of them as they remained true to who they are during the game.  Joan Rivers resorted to name calling while Annie Duke was only out to win just to put Joan in her place.  I would have liked to have seen Annie win only because I did not like how Joan played the game.  She acted extremely juvenile and you cannot take back words she called people (comparing Annie to Hitler and calling poker players white trash).  For those reasons alone, Joan should not have won.  However, I liked her charity better than Annie’s.

Michael, it can be such a tough world out there.  At only 14 months I can see how strong you are.  You aren’t going to be one to allow others to push you around.  Remain tough but don’t lose your heart.  If you remain true to who you are and trust your values, morals, and ethics you will never go wrong.  You have excellent role models to help you along the way.

I will always love you.

All my love,
Mommy
XOXOXOXO

One day you’ll have questions that I may not always remember the answers to.  But we’ll both have this place to come back to for the answers.  They may be silly questions like, “When was the first time I ate real food?”  Or a scary question like, “How could you not have known I climbed up the stairs in Grandma and Grandpa’s house?”  That happened last Saturday, by the way.

We were playing and you decided to crawl off as you sometimes do to explore the downstairs.  When you were being much too quiet, I started looking for you.  You still aren’t walking without holding onto someone’s hand but you managed to crawl up the stairs.  I found you playing with a shampoo bottle in the bathroom.  Your grandparents and aunts found the story entertaining.  Your grandfather dug out the child safety gates which you were none too pleased about.  And Tall Uncle Dave in Florida got a good laugh when I told him the story.

This is where we can share those stories about you and me.  It will contain all of our pictures from pregnancy to birthdays and holidays with friends and family to vacations and beyond.  Most importantly it will give us a look into who we are and how we’ve grown.  I look forward to the journey ahead of us.

Regardless of whatever rocky roads we may come across along the way, always remember that Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Nancy, Aunt Sandra and Uncle Dave, and (most importantly) I love you very much.  And just as special, we have lots of friends who love us, too.  We may not get to see them as often but they are in our hearts and vice versa.

As you get older, there may be questions that I won’t have all the answers to.  In those cases, I promise to be there to help you search for whatever answers you may be looking for.

All my love,
Mommy
XOXOXOXOX