Wordful Wednesday: The Longest Post EVER

Hi Interwebs.

Since I have been telling myself I'd do this since his birthday, and since I need to post something, and since I don't have any photos on hand that would allow me to participate in Wordless Wednesday, you're getting this instead. [edited: I added in some pictures, but I didn't have them when I started all this.]

Oh, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant now, have an ultrasound coming next Thursday, and decided I needed a name for Child #4. After much browsing of the Kamusi Project, I have settled on Kibeti. Pictures forthcoming (next weekend)!

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Dear, sweet Kibwana, more commonly known as Monkey Head, I can't believe you're already a year old. I have had you for a whole year! To celebrate, I want to record what you're like and what you can do.

You are really, REALLY into food. Any kind of food. Of course, Big Person food is best, especially if you get to feed yourself. If you see me or Daddy eating something, even if you just ate a huge dinner, you'll start chanting muh-mah-muh-muh-meh-muh... which officially means "More, more, more!" but practically speaking, it means "FOOOOOOOOOOD! Mah belleh! NOW!"

Granted, you are endlessly polite because you always sign "Please" when you want something. Of course, I think you think it means "Gimme/I want that", but I like to delude myself into believing you're just that charming.

Some of your recent favorite foods - meaning things that you inhale in 2 seconds flat and never stop asking for more of: graham crackers, goldfish crackers, broken-up Kraft american cheese slices, and bananas. In fact, since your birthday, you've started eating bites of banana, straight out of the peel. In fact, I even let you hold your own banana sometimes! However, you don't seem to grasp the concept that you could take more bites if the bites were just a LITTLE smaller and more managable.

Immediately after this photo was taken, you stuck your finger in that little round mouth hole to hold in the HUGE bite of banana.... just like the Little Dutch Boy holding back the sea.

Other than saying "more", you don't really talk too much. You do use the "muh" sound to mean milk when I hold up a bottle of milk - and also sometimes you say milk when you just want anything to drink. You also like to say Da! You know that sound applies to Daddy, and if you hear him in the other room you'll yell Da! Da! Duh-Da! You also seem to yell Da! when you know I'm just out of sight and want me to come to you, but you don't seem to use it as a name for me like you do for Daddy.
Your last two words seems to be paci and uh oh. You started out a month or so ago just making a very airy sssssss sound almost like a whistle, but now you've added a P sound at the beginning, saying psssswsssswshwsssss. Whenever you drop something, you like to announce it by saying uh-oh, but you can't seem to get the idea of making short vowel-only words. So instead, you sort of hold your breath and grunt or groan out the sound : uuhhhhhhhhheeehhhhhhuuuuhhhhooooo.
You are a lot better at copying noises than words per se. For instance, you will always answer that a cow says... MMMMMMMMMMMMM and a kitty cat says eeeeowww yyyowww yoowwww. You're pretty good about telling us a monkey says ah ah ah ah ah, and snorting for a pig noise. You used to bark at the doggies but lately it seems you're not interested in that. Your lion roar is now a whisper roar (a breathy raaaaaa instead of a vocal one) and you rarely make elephant noises anymore unless you see the picture of one on your book. If you're really focused, you may make a kissy mouth for fish, or tell us that a bug says psssss (buzz).
You are really attuned to noises in the environment. You always hear when the sirens zoom past, and you squeal back at them once they're gone. You even try to sign "siren" sometimes. You've been doing a lot of signing lately, too: you're working on "ball" (looks like clapping but I know what you mean) and "book", you're pretty good about signing "milk" and you try to sign "drink" (looks like you're blowing kisses and sounds like BbbbbbbAH!). You point at your head when you want to visit your pooh bear lamp...!? You still grit your teeth and clench your fists to show you're angry. You will sign "change" when you need one sometimes, or at least when I ask if you do.
Other words you know: If I sing Old MacDonald you go get your singing tractor. If I say paci, lovey, bear, monkey, book, or ball, you're pretty good about making the noise or sign (if there is one) and then going to fetch one. You know to put your arms up when you want to be picked up or if I tell you "arms up" for changing clothes. You love to walk around in just a diaper. I know you'd love to be totally naked (you have been trying to get those diapers off!) but you can't be trusted without one, even if you just filled up the last one!
You love to go for walks with Daddy in the stroller. You have always loved being blown on, whether it's the wind outside or having a person puff a breath on your face to make you laugh. When you were tiny, the few times you got really upset and cried for a "long time" (all of 20-30 minutes!), it helped for me to stand underneath the AC vent and let it blow on you. You think it's awesome the few times we've put the windows down in the car while driving you around.
Speaking of the car, you're technically big enough to ride facing forward, but we got a new car seat that allows you still to face the back window. You are my big helper, holding up the seatbelt receiver (the button part) so I can "plug" it in. You're great in the car except when the sun's in your eyes, which is understandable.
Outside of the stroller, car seat and the high chair, you almost NEVER sit down. You have been walking since December and you just love being active. After spending a couple overnights at Miss Tonya's and having your first experiences with a step, you are ALL about stepping up and down and climbing on things. I've had to discourage you from climbing on the baby gate (ack!) and on the outside of your crib. You love the popper toy and instead of just dragging or pushing it across the room, you like to stand still and push it back and forth like we do with the vacuum! Is that on purpose or are you just standing still and it works out that way?
You also love dragging the broom around. Well, you love anything that is long and skinny: brooms, vacuums, light sabers, a recorder (flute), dog bones, small flashlights, sticks... and lately you've been really into using whatever stick-thing you're holding to manipulate other things, like playing easter egg golf with a stick, poking your broom at a dirt spot on the floor, or pushing the piano-keyboard keys with the flashlight.

Or seeing if item A fits inside item B.

You really enjoy music, and you dance to music whenever you hear it. You dance along with TV shows like Pajanimals or the Backyardigans. Sometimes you just dance to random noises! You shift from foot to foot, you spin in a circle (I've seen you do four spins in a row before getting off balance!), you wave your arms back and forth, you rotate from the waist up while holding on to something (such as your musical phone or a teddy bear), you bend your knees to bounce up and down. You like it when I pick you up and dance around, but not when I grab your hands and try to dance with you that way. I think you are too independent to enjoy being moved around like that.

However, in the days since your birthday you are much more cuddly and enjoy touch a lot more than you seemed before then. When I'm sitting in the rocker, you come over and rest your head on my knee - a little hug - and then go back to what you were doing. If Daddy is in the room, laying down, you get a huge kick out of climbing on him, especially the "falling off" part. When I'm on the ground, you like to see me fall over at your gentle push. In the past week, since you had a cold, you've also been constantly walking over to me, turning around, and sitting down in my lap. Only problem is I usually don't have something in my hand to entertain you with, and hugging only entertains for so long, so you're soon up and about again.
Your hair has lightened up a lot - like Daddy, Kibibi, Grandma, and Uncle Dan, it looks like you're going to be a blonde soon, and probably for the first several years of your life, until you darken back up again. Your hair is SO long, it hangs down past your eyebrows and all the way down over your ears - although it is so fine and fluffy, it's rarely covering anything. One of the ways you take after Daddy is the way your hair gets all floofed up when you're sleeping. You have awesome morning mohawks.
You also take after Daddy with your tongue. It is HUGE! Monstrous! I bet you will be able to touch it to your nose just like Daddy can do. You love sticking it out at us. You hang it out and pant to imitate the dogs. You slurp it in and out to imitate Keela drinking. It's a great way to distract you when you're crying about having a diaper change. (which I do NOT understand. Why complain about laying down when you know it's only going to last for a minute?)
Right now you have 10 teeth - all of the front teeth, and your top molars have both poked through. Neither molar is completely through down to the flat part, only the leading edges are through, so when I look in your mouth each molar looks like two little front teeth coming in sideways. You've been drooling like crazy and chewing things on your right side, so I can't tell if you're going to poke through another one on that side or if you're just feeling the effects of that continued emergence.
Right now you're fairly average weight in the body - not lean, but not overly chubby other than your thighs - but you have HUGE, GINORMOUS chipmunk jowls! When you grin really big or laugh, you get a dimple in the left one. At your last Doctor's appointment I think they said you were 27 inches tall and weighed 20 lbs. You're starting to grow out of the 9 month clothes, though, so I think you've had a growth spurt since then.
You are my super most favorite toy ever in the whole world. I love watching you. I think you're a pretty smart little monkey. I love the way you smell and your cute fuzzy hair and watching you laugh at whatever makes you happy. I love hugging you and I am so glad that having a hug from me can make it all better most of the time. I get frustrated when you are difficult to put to sleep, but your cheery, quickly-ungroggy face in the morning is as good as sunshine.
Before you were born, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a child. Now, even having had you, I can't imagine what it will be like having the next one. I can't imagine possibly loving another someone the way I love you, and ultimately, I don't suppose I will, since you are your own little man and I love you for everything that means (just like I will love Kibeti for all of his/her own little self). Having you around this year has been such a treat. I am lucky, lucky, lucky to have gotten the best baby possible, and I look forward to the day when I can brag to you about it and you're old enough to understand how much I enjoy you.
I love you more every day.
-Mommy

See?! you are so cute!!