I have loved you since the day I learned we were going to have you, maybe even before that. Every day you amaze me with the things you learn from us or teach yourself, with the way you make me happy no matter how bad of a day I’m having, with the way you make your dad’s face light up every time he sees you. Everyone warned me that the first year of your life would fly by, and somehow I thought we would be exempt from that. And yet, here we are, exactly one year from the day you came into this world, and I feel like it was just yesterday that I held you for the very first time.
You are strong-willed and stubborn like me, and smart, handsome, and curious, just like your dad. Your favorite thing to do right now is test your limits (and ours!). You like to start going toward something you know you’re not supposed to (like the stairs), and then you look back at us with this huge grin on your face and a look that says, “I dare you to try and stop me!”
When you first started to roll over and move around on your own, you would roll everywhere – everyone, including your dad and I, thought it was the cutest thing! But then, before we knew it, you figured out how to commando crawl, and left the adorable rolling in the past. You finally stopped commando crawling several weeks ago and have become very good at “real” crawling, but I think that soon you will leave the crawling behind, too, as you are very quickly learning to walk.
You have mastered the word “Dada” and love to say it over and over, especially when I try to get you to say “Mama”. You love to wave to everyone and everything, especially the cats, but you wave backwards, and we love it! You love to play hide-and-seek, to chase the cats, and to follow us around, especially me when I’m cooking. You have eight teeth right now, and you absolutely love to show them off by making goofy faces or just grinning so big we can’t help but grin back. You love to laugh, and you love to make us laugh (and you do so often!)
You are the light of our life, the apple of our eye, the center of our universe, and we couldn’t love anyone or anything more! This year has definitely flown by, but we have enjoyed each and every moment of it! You are our little baby, our little boy, our little man…we love you, John Franklin Thompson, V!!
Love,
Mom
I love every picture we have ever taken of you, but here are just a "few"...
