Dear Tristan - 15 Months

Dear Tristan,
It’s the first Christmas that you are really aware of what’s going on. You don’t know who Santa is, or that he will be bringing you presents, but you do know there is a huge Christmas tree in the banned from children, therefore glorious, office. A tree that has lights and shiny things that need to be touched. It’s the second year that our tree has only had ornaments on the top half, but that doesn’t stop your brother from pulling them down and handing them to you.

You and your brother are starting to pal around with each other and when you are upset, sometimes he announces that he needs to go and check on you and walks over to you and starts cooing, “It’s ok Tristan, it’s ok.” It rarely calms you down, probably because his version of cooing, it speaking in a very high pitched voice about three inches from your face. You’re not so much into that kind of thing.

You are starting to add a few new words to your vocabulary, words like Cookie – (Coo-KEEEY) and my personal favorite, Mommy (Mah-meee), you draw out the second syllable in sort of an Old South Southern Drawl... won’t Daddy be proud?! We've been trying to teach you sign language, although you don't seem very interested in it. I think that's probably because when you need to eat for example, you pull out your chair away from the table and crawl up into your booster seat, assuming the position, smiling while you wait for one of your slave-people to bring you a tray of food. You eat with gusto.

You are starting to ease into the separation anxiety phase, which means you need to be everywhere Mommy or Daddy are, that you are not. Solo bathroom trips have become something to be treasured. More often than not, it means that you follow me to the gate and if I go (sneak) into the office to check my email, you come barreling down the hallway and climb up on the gate like a monkey, screaming at the top of your lungs as if you’d just been abandoned forever.

You don’t however, seem to have stranger anxiety. I am positive that you will happily sit on Santa’s lap this year and might even smile for the camera. You walk up to strangers and beam at them adoringly, puffing out your chest and waddling away after they’ve been absorbed by the cuteness for a full 10 seconds. You don’t smile, you beam.

Love,
Mah-meeeee