the jellyball family blog

Dear Noah,

Hey, little Jellybean. You are losing your baby fat, growing longer and leaner with every passing day. Everyone keeps commenting that you have lost your infamous chipmunk cheeks, and as your Aunt Sarah described it - the rest of your face finally caught up with your cheeks.

You are 17 months old now - the same age your brother was when you were born. You continue to wow us with your sparkling personality and cheeky sense of humour. You love to laugh (and still get the hiccups when you laugh too much) and you are always in a good mood. Except when you're not, and when you're not, WHOOOOAA baby watch out. It's headbutting, thrashing around, big crocodile tears, and crying so loud that my ears will be ringing.

I find it pretty amazing that you're able to talk at this age and that you know so many words. Sometimes you only say the second or last syllable of a word, but we know what you're talking about. Amongst the words you know: Mommy, Daddy, chien (dog), 'seau (short for "oiseau", meaning bird), avion (plane), 'lon d'eau (short for melon d'eau, meaning watermelon), biscuit (cookie), craquelin (cracker), lait (milk), eau (water), pipi (pee), caca (poop), lélé (your version of "télé", short for television), dodo (sleep), bain (bath), nez (nose), tête (head), yeux (eyes), pied (foot), 'teil (short for "orteil", meaning toe), chup chup, (ketchup), livre (book), raisin (grapes), toast, van, taxi, and ca (that). Add to that the half-dozen words that you know in Vietnamese! I swear you can count too - you know several numbers between 1 and 10 in three languages.

You say yes to just about any question, and sometimes just to mess with you, I will ask you something completely made up, like "Did you have a bad dream about hippopotamuses again?" and you'll moan "Ouiiiiiii..." (yes) This is a far cry from a few months ago, when the answer to every question was no. You're able to understand a great deal though, even though you may lack the words to respond.

You also know a ton of names for various people and toys - you can say many of the names of the characters from the movie Cars, including 'Queen (Lightning McQueen), 'Mone (for Ramone), and Sally. You always ask for James, the red engine, and 'Rold (Harold) the Helicopter, from Thomas the Tank Engine. You recognize our neighbours and even some of their pets - "Lelen" (Helen), "Ma" (Emma), and Max (their dog). You love to call out for your grandparents - I swear, if I had a dime for every time you said Mamie, Papie and Ba Ngoai, we wouldn't have to work for a living.

When asked what your name is, you tell me that it's Bob. You've been doing this for a few months now. We hope someday you'll go by your real name, but hey, nothing wrong with Bob for now.

You are a bit of a picky eater and I feel like you should be eating better, but I know this will come with age. There are a few things that you will reliably eat - chicken strips or nuggets, Greek gyro meat, French Canadian meat pie, Lebanese meat pie, and anything from the pastry/cookie/cracker food group (what, not a food group? are you sure?) You're pretty good with your fruits but you're not a huge fan of vegetables. You'll entertain a piece of asparagus or cucumber from time to time, and possibly a french fry or roasted potato, but that's about it. You've started eating cereal with milk in the morning, which is always a bit of a mess but you eat a lot of it. You love yogurt, though it tends to be part play thing by the time you're through with it. You, like your brother, love ice cream. In fact, I'm pretty sure you down it faster than he can. You love to dip everything in ketchup! Even somethings things that aren't meant to be dipped in ketchup, which is why I never eat any leftovers off your plate. Not after I had a leftover piece of watermelon with ketchup. Blech.

You've recently learned to twirl around in circles (then dizzily fall over), you throw your arms in the air and do little mini-leaps into the air, and you can kick a ball better than your older brother. You have always been great at throwing - balls, toys, food. You playfully call out the name of a victim and stumble towards them with a mischievous smile, your fingers wagging, doing what we call the tickling fingers. I love it when you do this from the backseat of the car.

You've been sleeping a good part of the night in bed with us, and for the time being, it doesn't bother us and allows everyone to get some sleep. We'd love it if you would go to sleep easily and sleep the entire night, without interruption, in your own bed - but there are really no two babies alike and you'll do your own thing at your own pace and whenever you're ready. You still nap in the afternoon for an hour or two, and you go to bed around 9pm, usually after your brother's already been put to sleep. You usually wake up in the morning around the same time we do, and sometimes you wake up demanding that we serve you some milk.

You love doing all the things that your brother does. You want to sit on the potty. You want to wash your hands. You ask to have your teeth brushed. You love being able to roam free when we're out and about, and it's starting to get a little bit easier going out with you and Caleb. I find that I'm taking a stroller less and less these days.

You make all kinds of wonderful animal sounds. You love fish ("wiff!"), ducks ("quack quack"), cows ("moooo"), birds ("cheep cheep"), dogs ("woo woo"), cats ("meow") and sheep ("beeeeh"). You love to see city buses ("bus! bus! bus!") and planes. You even get a little excited when you see trains, though I think because you see so many of them at home, it's kind of old news to you. When you walk backwards, you say "beep beep beep" like a truck does when it backs up. You are able to recognize many of the characters when we are out and about - you'll recognize Thomas the Tank Engine, Caillou ("you!"), and even Cars-themed stuff.

You're a rough and tumble kid. You love climbing the two-step in the kitchen. You can go upstairs on your hands and knees, but you love trying to walk up them by having us hold your hands. You're pretty stable on your feet but you still have the occasional tumble. A few weeks ago you fell while in the bathroom and landed face first on the ceramic floor. You have a teeny tiny chip on one of your two front teeth - so tiny that only I would notice it, and I'm pretty sure it hurt me more than it hurt you.

You are a super affectionate little guy. You love to hug and plant juicy open mouthed kisses on our lips and cheeks. Often, when I am trying to rock you to sleep, you will lift your head up off my shoulder, say "Mama", plant a kiss on my lips, and go back to snuggling on my shoulder. You will grab our faces with both your hands, and plant kiss after kiss on our cheeks until we are soaking wet. (And loving it.)

You have a really expressive face. You have this great expression where you raise both your eyebrows and open your mouth in mock surprise - something you surely picked up from your mother. A bit like this:

You are starting to sing along with your brother and I! It's amazing. You are chiming in with the odd word and you happily clap your hands together during and after a song. There is always a huge round of applause and a chorus of "YAAAAY!" after the alphabet song or Itsy Bitsy Spider. Lately, we have been singing this one Thomas the Tank Engine song about a duck, and there is one part in the song where there is a big long high note that we all howl at the top of our lungs - and this is your favourite thing to do now. You will howl the words "sooooooo happy!" along with us when it's that moment in the song, and chime in with "quack quack choo choo choo" when we get to the refrain. You have always been a huge music fan, and we love to see you dancing in your own personal style.

You love to play with your big brother Caleb and I often hear you howling with laughter as you two are inventing some game. He likes to build train tracks; you're all about destroying them. You hold your own with him - if he tells you to do something and you don't want to, you shake your head and say "NO!" I really love seeing you two being play buddies. Your dad isn't sure that you two will continue to stay close because of your distinct personalities, but regardless of that, I know there will be lots of time and opportunities for adventures together.

In a few days, I will be starting a new job and spending my days away from you. I can't tell you how much I've thought about this in the past month and a half since I accepted the job. I will definitely find it more difficult to be away from you than your brother; it's not because I love you more than I love him - it's just that you are, in my mind, still my precious little baby. However, I take a great deal of comfort knowing that your father gets to share in experiencing some of these precious, fleeting baby moments.

You are a sweet monkey and we absolutely adore you.

Love,
Maman