Sweet Kendall,

Even though you will be getting THE letter next month on your first birthday, I wanted to write you one more before that milestone. It is all coming too quickly!

These past 11 months have been so eventful between the move, building, and all of Emma’s milestones/struggles, that I want to make sure that you know NONE of it overshadowed you. In fact, you have been a light in my life these last few months, warming my heart with those cute dimples and making me laugh along with your sweet giggles. I am beyond thankful that God put you in my life.

Overall, I would describe you as sweet, but your personality intrigues me. Once again, I am reminded that you are a complex being that God carefully knitted together. I suppose you are what they call “a good natured baby” and love to show off that smile.

BUT you also let us know when you are ticked, whether it be because you want your ba-ba N.O.W. or that Emma just knocked you over for the billionth time. A piercing, high-pitched screech is one of your trademarks. I’m hoping this ends soon.

Your determined spirit is also very evident. You know what you want and will do just about anything to make it happen. This includes carrying things twice your size until you fall over, and running away from me when I try to get something out of your mouth. You find ways around any barriers we put up and manage to find every single microscopic thing on the floor to put in your mouth. You are hard to keep up with, and I really can’t turn my back for one second. Otherwise, you are doing things like pulling the floor vent out of the floor, or digging into the Cheerios hidden in the closed pantry door.

At 11 months, you are already a pro at walking. You’ve been doing it for almost 2 months now, so you have moved on to climbing. Emma wasn’t really a climber, so you are officially my monkey. My favorite so far has been watching you hang from the oven. How did you even figure out this was possible?

And it’s a good thing I have pictures of you crawling because I swear I blinked and you were on those legs.

It is so funny watching you walk around, especially because you are usually carrying something with you that is way too big for an infant to be carrying.

You LOVE to dance and bounce the second you hear anything that might sound like music. The other day the two of us had a little dance party while Emma napped. I can tell we’re going to have lots of fun together in the years to come.

I amazed at how much you have learned already. You say ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, maaah! (for kisses), and more recently, puh-puh for doggie. Most of the time you talk in this sweet little whisper — unless of course, you are hungry. Then that scream comes out.

You can wave bye-bye and hi, throw kisses, give hugs and kisses, do “So big!”, play peek-a-boo, shake your head no, and make car noises as you play with Uncle Johnny’s old cars. At first we thought this was a coincidence, but you have now shown us that you are in fact playing cars. You make a better “vroom” noise than I do!

You can roll a ball to me, and you even know to kick a soccer ball. I think this is all part of your trying to keep up with your sister!

You are sleeping better now that we have put you on Prevacid. It has been a miracle worker. You sleep through the night and take two 1+ hour naps. Well, that is before you started teething again. Today, your right top middle tooth popped through, and it looks like your right eye tooth is also on its way out. I’m sure this means the left ones are not far behind. Hopefully sooner than later. You are quite sensitive, so this has not been fun for you.

I find myself turning to Tylenol much more with you than I did with Emma, but it really seems to help you. And you LOVE it. I mean LOVE it. Anytime you see the Tylenol dispenser or your Prevacid syringe, you get all excited. I’m not sure what this means, and it is a little disturbing. I guess I should be thankful you are so cooperative???

You play by yourself so nicely and really are a very good girl. You are busy and curious like your sister, but you are very content most of the time. We are working on getting you to stay still for books, but right now I can only get you to sit through Where is Baby’s Belly Button. It’s your favorite.

You really like playing with Emma’s baby and Heidi the Hippo. When you were younger, you loved Heidi best, giving her loves, talking to her, and wrestling with her. The last few months, however, you seem to like baby dolls more. Emma isn’t so crazy about this, so it’s a good thing you might be getting one of your own for your birthday.

I can’t even believe that in one month, you are going to be one years old. I have enjoyed every moment of these last 11 months, and truth be told, I am sad that you are entering toddler-hood. I truly want you to stay little forever. I want to be able to hold you in my arms, hear that baby giggle, and tickle those chubby legs. Just for a little longer.

I plan to savor every last minute of these next 30 days because I know that after you hit that one year mark, all sorts of developmental switches go off and you start turning into a little person. But for now, you are my baby. My sweet baby Kendall. I love you so very much!