You mimic us now, and it is so funny. Sometimes you gape your mouth like a fish and then watch me and see if I’ll copy you. We go back and forth like this, making funny faces at each other, and your eyes open wide and you smile and I am crushed all over again by how fantastic you are and how much I want to eat you up! Sometimes you and I will stand in front of the mirror and make funny faces – you like to streeeeeetch your face out so that your mouth is open wide and your eyebrows are high, then you stick your tongue out and do silly things with it. I copy you, you copy me, and we collapse into giggles at our silliness. I love to watch you be goofy – you have the most genial personality.
Every evening after bathtime we have wrestling time on the guest bed. It grew out of you being a total turd when I try to dress you – your little baby bum will not sit still for two seconds, and you do the twisting escape routine the nanosecond that I lay you down. So I started laying my body across you in a kind of wrestling pin, squeezing you between my upper arm and torso so that you giggle and laugh, and meanwhile I’m frantically trying to pull your pants on before you get tired of this game. This has evolved into at least twenty minutes of chase and wrestle and toss and tickle and what-have-you. You’ll sit up on the bed and give me that sideways look of mischief, a half smile on your face, a smile that says – Chase Me. And I chase you and you laugh so hard you cough sometimes, absolutely lose it, and I revel in the fact that you delight in me as much as I delight in you. I realize it will not always be this way, and I am enjoying it so much. Sometimes dad will hear the ruckus and come in to join the fun, and then Virgil comes in and is all jealous and gets in the way, and we’re all a big pile on the bed. You climb over us, run away from us, pull our faces, and we laugh, and I realize how imperative it is that we have another child because we cannot keep from spoiling you with our love and attention. A sibling will teach you to share!
Speaking of pulling faces, you do some pretty funny things to make up for being weaned. You miss the boob – we had a hard time of it the first few weeks, when you were NOT happy and would not be pacified with a bottle – but I ignored your tantrums and now we haven’t nursed in a couple of weeks and I miss it but I don’t. Anyhow, now when you suck your thumb, you hold your own nose with your index finger and you hold MY nose with your pinky, and hold me close. You also will lay your head on my chest, where you used to nurse, and suck your thumb. I feel like you’re trying to mimic the nursing activity, and it’s pretty cute. Again, I love that you want me, find comfort in me. I love that I can hold your whole body in my arms. One day you’ll be six feet tall and sprawling, and your girlfriend will take my place as the body you want to be closest to, and that will be fine. Today, I am your favorite, and I adore you.
As for walking – you’re a bit stubborn, kid, but you are so close. You’ll get it, I’m not concerned. You stand unassisted, you travel from one piece of furniture to another. You’re almost there. Every night after wrestling-after-bath time, we let you loose in the front room and you wreak havoc. You put your favorite toy (at the moment, a bat shaped like a carrot that we bought you for Easter, or a stuffed elephant) in your mouth, another toy in your hand, and you crawl with focused purpose. You troll around the house and grab things and destroy them, and then move on. You completely wreck the room in a matter of minutes, and it is so funny to see you go at this activity like it is your job, and a serious one. You’re pretty loud, too, and when comparing you to your cousin Ella I find it so hilarious that you are so different. She’s pretty placid, peaceful, quiet. You are a noisy, screeching, talking, moving, havoc-making machine. I’m so proud of you, your silly antics, your strong body. You have personality to spare, Jack, and everybody who meets you loves you. But nobody will ever love you as much as your dad and me. The sweetest ache, the loveliest joy. Our prince!