Jax 1st Birthday

Every year on the night before the boy's birthdays, I write them a letter. It started for each of them on the night before their births. I save them all to give to them one day.

My dear sweet Jack Wilingham,

My Jack-Jack.

My Jaxie.

My Jackaroo.

You were the one I thought would never be.

I had resigned myself to it.

And yet here you are.

So full of life, that sometimes –

It seems so much bigger than what your little body can hold.

Can contain.

It’s like you came out knowing you were our lives

Greatest Surprise.

It leaves me speechless.

Breathless.

In awe.

You’re magnetic.

It pours out of you.

Through your eyes.

They radiate like blue sunbursts.

Through your smile.

It makes people forget the toughest of days.

You posses the art of drawing people in.

It’s magical my love.

Your brother has taught me compassion.

To speak gently. With great thought.

To live with empathy. With kindness. With intent.

To learn to be still. To be at peace.

To love without limits.

Without conditions.

If he is my heart, than you my love -

You are my soul.

You’ve shown me the beauty in reckless abandon.

In leaping first and thinking later.

Approaching life with great wonder.

With great patience.

With deep rooted happiness.

With excitement for the unknown.

Letting go of what we have no control over.

You’ve taught me how to be present.

To live in the now.

You never think before you do. You just do.

That use to terrify me.

But I realize now what a blessing living that way can be.

I love that about you.

I envy that about you.

It can be loud.

It can be messy.

It’s not always pretty.

You exhaust boundaries.

You push limits.

It’s intense. You’re intense.

You live big my love. You love big.

In everything you do.

But I never want you to lose that.

You’re going to achieve wonderful things because of it.

I fell in love all over again the day you were born.

And every day since.

Happy 1^st Birthday Jax.

I love you.

Thanks for being our bookend.

We needed it. More than you will ever know.
Xoxo
-Mom

At one you are ….

Saying Mama, Dada, Brother, Nene, Pop-pop, Yaya, dog, up, no-no, love you, bye-bye.

You sign “More”, “Hungry/Eat”, “All done”

You eat everything and some of your favorites are cheerios, chicken, eggs, bananas, cheese.

You’ll attack someone for ice cream.

You prefer to drink out of a cup.

You’re starting to walk.

Your favorite activities are ramming your baby walker into everything including your brother, stealing his hockey guys, eating the dog food, climbing up the stairs when nobody is looking, jumping on the couch, standing on chairs to get to things we’ve obviously mistakenly put up high, unplugging things, biting the dog, talking on the phone, pretending to read books, drawing on your face with markers, singing with your daddy, playing in water not limiting yourself to the toilet or dog bowl, playing peek-a-boo, playing hockey, watching hockey, waving bye-bye, and wrestling your brother.

Everything goes into your mouth. Everything.

You dislike the dark, being told no, being confined, avocadoes, pacifiers, baby gates, your crib, socks, swings, things that are sour, anything on your head, being put down and diapers.

You still have no hair.

You do have 6 teeth though.

You wear size 18-24 months clothing.

You adore your brother and love your little cousin.

You’re pretty awesome. I think you’re secretly a superhero.