Month Ten

August 12, 2020

Titus,

You have become highly aware of the environment around you this month, including each gate, bar, door, and fence. Each of those barriers must be crawled to, inspected, and tested prior to your acceptance of a space. Beyond that, any desire to gain access to the area beyond the barrier brings the stand, shake, and chew. Full-body shaking of the gate is quite regular now, by which you have managed to bring down improperly secured gates. Onward the resistance! Drawers, doors, and other accessible furniture should be opened and closed and opened and closed as much as possible. We’re breaking out all the baby locks and safety equipment we still have. Good thing Amazon delivers in two days.

The gates are up on the stairs, and on both doors to the playroom. More than either of your brothers, we can just set you down in there and you’ll happily play with your toys for as long as 30 minutes by yourself. We peek in and see you cruising along the shelves, pulling off all the toys, and crawling around with toys in your mouth. You’re just happy to be there…mostly. You have discovered that a well-shaken gate will unlatch itself if it’s not fully secure. At that point, you’ll make a beeline for the stairs, if the gate is open, or Molly’s water dish.

Molly’s water dish is one of two spots you’ll head for if one of us is watching. If not, it’s apparently no fun. But as soon as one of us says something or looks in your direction, you’ll smile, squeal, and crawl as fast as you can toward the water dish. It’s as if you just can’t wait to be chased and caught. Maybe it comes from your general love of water. We’ve been swimming quite a few times this month, and you love the water and to be in the pool, swimming around and kicking in your float. Even your brothers love to see you in the pool having fun.

In conjunction with your adventures in containment and escape, it’s fun to see you really start to recognize and mimc words. Probably by example from Daddy and Mommy’s interactions with your older brothers, you know what both “uh-oh” and “stop” mean, including looking back and Mommy and saying “op!” when she told you to stop rolling over on the changing table. You’re also really running through those signs now, from more, to all done, to thank you. But your favorite is “milk”, along with Mommy still being your favorite person. Morning, noon, or night, Mommy always get smiles, squeals, and reaches when she walks into the room, no matter who else is currently holding you.

You recognize names, including yours, and the boys. You’re also quite sure who Molly is, and that she’s the dog. “Where’s Molly?” brings a look all around the room until you see her, and you get a huge smile on your face. We think that “Seth” means both brothers right now, since that’s what you say when either Seth or Noah show up. Noah’s ready to hear you say his name, too.

You’ve also come up with more of your own signs and ways to communicate with us. Pulling that bib off means “I’m done, thanks”. Slapping the tray generally means “more”, although it might mean “all done”, depending on the specific situation. Mommy gets pats on the back and shoulder when it’s time for nursing and bed, the most used sign of all. We also get waves, thank you, and blown kisses. Sometimes all at once, with a full body wiggle to boot!

Lots of fun family events this month. We all traveled back to Colorado to see family, and to celebrate Noah’s 5th birthday. Dinosaurs, rawr!. Mommy and Daddy celebrated their 15 year anniversary this month. So many wonderful things have come through our marriage, with the latest being you! We also got to have a remote family birthday part for you great-Oma, who turned 93 this year!

You being the first child of our without apparent food allergies means that you’re getting all the good stuff! Brownies, fresh strawberries, ice cream, and cake (hooray for brother’s birthdays). Pizza, taco meat, and hamburger. After you crawled across the neighbor’s patio and ate (maybe swallowed?) a small rock, Mommy wasn’t going to let you refuse to try a piece of hamburger. “If you can eat a rock, you can eat hamburger. Just like everyone else pretty much everywhere, you’re a fan of Chick-fil-a.

The zoo slowly reopening some of the buildings (with mask restrictions) brought visits to see the zoo. You absolutely loved the penguins, and they swam right up to the glass to see you, too! We even got a little bit of a fit when we had to move on! In true family tradition, taking after your brothers, you fell asleep in the stroller later in the visit. We have pictures of all three of you at about the same age asleep in the stroller at one zoo or another.

We’ve continued our nightly walks, mostly to the park so your brothers can run around prior to bed. As soon as we stop the stroller, you start wiggling to get out. We started out this month with just swinging with Mommy or Daddy. You’ve since graduated to climbing and crawling all around the playground. Slides were for climbing up, only. You figured out that bare feet and humidity really make it possible to climb right up! You had a lot of fun trying to extend that climbing to the waterslide at the neighbor’s house, slipping, and sliding down to be caught by Daddy.

Each night at bedtime, you’ve started picking out the books you like. We can hold up a couple books, and you pick the one you want. If we pick the book, and you decide you aren’t interested, you quickly try to close it, and chew on it. Ironically, your least favorite book is “Guess How Much I Love You”, which inspired the theme for your whole nursery. Oh well. We still love you to the moon and back anyway.

Keep on living your life with infectious joy. Everyone who sees you immediately has a brighter day from your smiles and cute looks. We are so enjoying being your parents.

Love,

Daddy and Mommy