Dear Diego,
I thought time went by too quickly during your first year and here it’s gone doubly fast during your second. You’ve gone from being my big baby to my little boy in the last 12 months and you are truly an independent little being at this point. I have so many things to reminisce about over the last year that I don’t know where to begin… You’ve gone from uttering a few garbled words beyond Mama and Dada to full sentences and you look at us with exasperation when we don’t understand exactly what you’re trying to tell us. Your steps were tentative and slow 12 months ago and now you run, sometimes leaping just for the fun of it, with reckless abandon. You were completely dependent on us 12 months ago and now you don’t even look back when running off to join your friends. And what great friends you have made this year! Jacob, 4 months your senior, is the guy you look up to. You’ll follow him anywhere. Although your personalities are different – Jacob has a pensive way about him and thoroughly thinks through his next action before making a move. You, on the other hand, are quite reckless and jump right in even when you are literally “in over your head”. That being said, you listen to Jacob and will often follow his lead. I think he will likely be the voice of reason in your future. Savannah, 3 months your junior, is even more head strong than you are! She is always game for any trouble you might lead her into and she is the most apt to hurt your feelings if she doesn’t want to play or hold your hand. The three of you are perfect friends and inseparable.
You have shown us, over the past year, so many facets of your personality. You are at once sensitive and brave. Your feelings are hurt by any perceived injustices – like when Savannah refuses to hold your hand – and yet you have no problem running headlong into any exciting adventure. When we were in San Diego in October, you tried your hand at skateboarding – all on your own – and didn’t shed a tear when you landed head first on the concrete. You ran right into the ocean over and over again despite being bowled over by the strong waves. Your Dad took you out into the surf on a boogie board and you LOVED it, making Mama shiver with your love of the unknown. Just a month ago, when we visited your Tia for her wedding in Indiana, you lost your balance and fell face-first into the deep end of the kiddie pool. I was terrified, but when I pulled your up out of the water, you looked at me with a huge grin on your face and said, “I swimming, Mama!” I think that sums up the juxtaposition that is uniquely your personality. You are a just little boy who thinks things in this world should be fair and are crushed when they aren’t. At the same time, nothing scares you much and you will try anything – from eating sushi at Mikuni’s to horsebackriding to climbing up to the highest slide on the playground (you know, the one for the “big” kids) without looking back.
In the past year, you have gone from being unbalanced and tentative as you walked across the living room to running across the park so fast that I cannot catch up with you. You were always good at kicking a soccer ball but now you can run toward it and kick it “on the fly”. You have gone from pushing your little John Deere tractor to riding the tricycles at school on your own. You now love putting your head to the floor, trying to do somersaults without assistance. You’re not quite there yet but I know it will be any day now that you gleefully make it over your head and land sitting on the floor, filled with delight and accomplishment. In November, we “ran” the Toddler Dash at the Turkey Trot in Davis and you toddled along slowly, holding my hand. I cannot wait until next year when you can run along side your peers even though I will miss walking slowly by you side holding hands.
One year ago you were babbling a word hear and there, still calling all of the women in your world, “Mama” and now you can say so many sentences that I can’t keep track of them all. I remember distinctly one of your first complete sentences. You walked into the dining room from your bedroom, looked up at me and said, “I need shoes, Mama.” I couldn’t believe my ears! One minute you were barely uttering one word at a time and the next minute you’d figured out sentences! Since then you have become more opinionated every day and use the phrase, “my turn” whenever you’d like to take over whatever Mama or Dada are doing.
You’ve fallen in love with the entire animal kingdom, both wild and domestic, thriving and extinct. You’ve always loved Baxter, Johnny and June but your love has grown over the past year and you lovingly call them all by name. One of your biggest frustrations is that Baxter won’t always play with you and you take if very personally when he is not in the mood to play. Your favorite dog by far, though is a yellow lab named Lola. She belongs to our friend Sandy and she will play with you gently but incessantly for hours. When she plays tug-of-war with you, you laugh and laugh. She never tires of playing like Baxter does. You also love Wendy and Martin’s dog, Jack, who doesn’t play but is a total cuddle bug and loves nothing more than to be hugged all day long. You’ve always been a big fan of the horses but your love and knowledge have grown over the past year so much that you’ve known the difference between a horse and pony since the beginning of the Summer. Your not intimidated by their size in the slightest and will walk right up to Eclipse to brush his legs. You also love dinosaurs and love to hear, “How does a dinosaur say goodnight?” over and over again at bedtime. You never cease looking for cows or deer on the side of the road when we’re on road trips and will chant, “mo dee or mo cow,” over and over again once you’ve spotted one.
Possibly your two favorite pastimes are playing music and playing ball and that would be ANY kind of music and ANY game that involves a ball. Your Nana showed you how to play the harmonica and you caught on immediately! Since then you’ve been great at playing the harmonica, the guitar, drums, really any instrument you can get your hands on. Your cousin Lucy is a pianist and music teacher and you discovered the piano at her house when we visited Corvallis after Christmas. You were so thoughtful as you explored the keys, listening to each note before moving on to the next. We like to go to Southside Park on Tuesday nights to watch the Aztec dancers dance and play drums. One evening you and Jacob joined their circle! You both watched the dancers feet carefully to imitate their moves. Dancing at your Tia Ellen’s wedding and at Carnaval were two of your grandest moments. Of, how you love dancing with your cousins, especially Elise and Ashley! As for balls, well, you’ve spent the last year loving basketball, baseball and soccer. You have a wagon full of balls of all shapes and sizes and you play with them EVERY day, no joke.
Last year you’d only seen snow for a brief afternoon but this year you had two trips, one to Oregon and one to Bear Valley, where you got to spend lots of quality time playing in the snow. We visited Chito and Grammy DiDi after Christmas during a rash of snow storms and got to march around making snow balls and snow angels. A few months later we spent the weekend in Bear Valley with Meera and Matt and did lots of sledding and snow shoeing. You loved the cold but were a little intimidated by the sledding. You were never more content than when you’d fall asleep all bundled up on Dada’s back in the Ergo while we were snow shoeing.
This year has been full of times spent with people who love you. Many of them you’d spent lots of time with last year but this year you’ve realized that they are “your people”. You love going to visit your Abuelo and Abuela, watching out the window for Nana, talking to Grandpa on the phone and visiting with Tia Ellen and Tio Matvei on Skype. You are never more happy than when visiting Tia Maria and Tia Maritza because they never tire of playing with you, You recognize your Grandpa Jim on the phone and go to the refrigerator to get his picture whenever we talk about him. You visited with Will and Max and all of your cousins at Tia’s wedding and had a grand time being “one of the gang” and totally ditching the grownups. Your two favorite “big kids” in all the world are Ashley and Josie and whenever you see a picture of an older girl in one of your books you call her one of the two. You know all of the names of the teachers and kids at your school and even “tattle” when someone has wronged you. We discovered this by accident when I asked you who had bitten you (I was actually asking about mosquito bites) and you straightforwardly answered that one your classmates (who shall remain nameless) bit you.
You seem to be looking forward to the arrival of your brother and are constantly covering my belly with a blanket for the baby. You sweetly bring your baby toys to my tummy for the baby to play with and think that you have a baby in your tummy as well. A few weeks ago you told me very seriously, ” I want baby come out now…” (Some days, I couldn’t agree more.) I know you are going to be the best big brother in the whole world.
You’ve probably had as many “firsts” this year as last: you made your first best friends, Jacob and Savannah, you saw your fist movie in the theater, sled down your first hill, jumped into the swimming pool, rode a tricycle, decorated the Christmas tree, learned to brush your teeth, flew your first kite, built your first sandcastle (and destroyed it), and many more. Mama and Dada have had a fantastic time learning and growing with you every day this year. We can’t believe how far we’ve all come! I can’t wait to spend the next year with you, Dada and baby Enzo. You are the most important people in my world.
I love you with all my heart. Always.
Love,
Mama
