Ayden updates - 1 year 1 month

Recent photo of Ayden at 13 months, sporting his mini mohawk!

I've been extremely busy juggling work and family and myself (have been feeling a little under the weather lately because I'm just tired all the time) that this blog has been seriously neglected. Everytime I feel the urge to write, I'm just too whacked out to even start typing! My work requires me to type quite a bit (since I write speeches and press releases) so when I go home, the laaast thing I want to do is..you guessed it, type.

But when Ayden gets older, I really do want him to go back to this blog and read about his milestones, so I feel I owe it to him and to myself to update from time to time, as his baby months fly by faster and faster and he tumbles into toddlerhood. So here goes! Ayden at 13 months: This boy is SO full of energy. Whew, Ayden bear you can barely sit still unless you're watching your cartoons or sesame street! The other day, Yasir, mama, kakak and i went to Ben's at Pavillion for a Mother's Day brunch...

...you see those lemons in the bowl right there? You, mister, proceeded to throw them everywhere after this photo was taken! You just love throwing things, you get a kick out of it, but for the rest of us, it's having to constantly pick up after you. But well, I guess I do get a bit of exercise from doing that. By the way, in this photo, your mameena is 7 months pregnant and we're sooo excited for your little boy cousin to pop out!

Me trying to make you sit still for a photo. 

 Teeth-wise, you now have two prominent teeth on your lower gums, and are sprouting two more on your upper gums. You've got a wonderful appetite, but what you love the most is stealing 'adult food' from people. Whenever you see people around you eating, you'll practically jump on us for a bite! This morning i had to let you have some of my french fries! You're still eating your porridge because you don't have that many teeth yet. Oh, you LOVE fruits. You're the total opposite of your mommy. Haha. Whenever your mameena sits down in front of the tv with a plate full of fruits, you'll come crawling right across for some fruit lovin'. We feed you apples every morning too, it's your morning ritual. The other day Baba bought you some peaches and you savoured every bite. You're a little fruit monster!

You're still mostly crawling so that puts you a wee bit behind in terms of walking, but baby bear, I'm in no rush to force you to do things you're not ready to do yet. Plus, although you're still crawling rather than walking MAN you're fast! You crawl at lightning speed! Whenever you play ball with baba you dart across the room like you're on wheels. You stand up a lot though, with support from tables, chairs, doors and humans. Slowly but surely, you're learning to walk. Last night I watched you walk (correction: practically run) with your toy walker  across the room without help from anyone and I felt so proud of you. I have no doubt that you'll be standing on your own two little feet anytime soon, sweet cheeks. Take it all in stride :)

Behaviour-wise, you're still a hoot. You developed this habit of growling - I don't know where in the world you picked up that habit, but you'd go "ahhh" in a very low toned growl and you crack people up when you do that! You sometimes imitate cat noises too. You're still clingy to your momma bear, and I'm soaking this phase in for as long as it'll last :) You're pretty possessive. Sometimes when I'm carrying you, you won't let anyone else touch me - if someone does, you're quick to push or smack that person's hand away! I'm not talking about weak little pushes, my man, you are STRONG! You can push a human adult with such force! haha. I keep on telling baba how you're such a 'boy'. Even your voice is deep, to go with that boyish personality of yours. You still say mamama a lot. And you call anything and everything "mama". I don't mind that one bit, but I'm waiting for the day you'll fully understand that you only have one "mama"!

Alright, as I'm typing all this, I can hear you downstairs and I miss you already so I'm going to stop here. I love you boo boo. I don't know when or where you'll be reading this in the future, but know that if you're reading this as a young adult or a full grown man,  that I'm so proud of you, even at 13 months old when you first started walking with your walker all by yourself...seeing your little feet pitter-pattering across the room, so gung-ho and carefree with a huge smile on your face. Even when the world falls down on your shoulders, I hope you'll always find that bright light that you have inside you.That's the little man you are now, and the man I hope and know you still are years later.

My strong, gung-ho, Ayden Hood.

love,
your momma bear.