Dear Little Si,
You aren’t so little anymore, at 22 pounds on your first birthday! Happy birthday, baby! Where did a year go? Our cups are overflowing with thankfulness that you are in our lives. We are grateful for what God has done, is doing, and will do in our family because of you.
You are full of tons and tons of sweetness. You are beginning to copy our tone for “I love you” and you snuggle your head into our shoulders when we say it to you. You’ve been reaching out to us for months, but it still doesn’t fail to pull at my heartstrings that you desire to be held and cuddle and assured of our love for you.
You’ve been trying to copy our words and sounds more this past week. Here are some words and sounds that I know you know:
Da-da or Dadduh – dad
Ma-ma or mum-mum – mom
Ka-yee – Katie
E-yee – Ellie
E-gyee – blankie
Bo – ball
Boo – book
Boota-boota-boota... - I have no idea
Uh-Oh (I think this one is my favorite word you say; it’s just so cute the way you emphasize it)
A whispered hhhhhhooooo – hot
Woo-woo – dog
Buh - butterfly
In the past couple days you have started transferring toys in and out of containers. You will also try to put something in our hands; we’ll say “thank you,” and then you laugh and don’t let go of the object.
You sign “please” and “all done” very well. It’s funny to watch you whine and then realize that you cannot get what you want that way, and so you start signing.
You aren’t walking yet. You seem to be cautious about this learning process. Sometimes I will walk you around the house holding both of your hands, but if I try to let go of one hand to see if you can balance, you won’t let me. You have stood by yourself a couple times for a few seconds.
You love to reach out to objects, as if your hand is in a frozen wave in the air, and excitedly exclaim about them. It’s really cute, because sometimes it looks like you are trying to be exhortative.
Every time the back or front door opens, you crawl toward it as fast as you can. You will be so excited to run outside once your little legs cooperate. I’ve let you crawl around and explore or front porch and the bed of Daddy’s truck, but other than those, there aren’t really safe places for you to explore outside. You love it when I give you several large rocks to play with, but I have to keep a watchful eye, because they go right in your mouth. You also like to try to gather all the rocks into your hands. They other day, you aimed to hoard four rocks into your two fists. What fun to watch your concentrated face try to solve your dilemma!
Bath time is a big favorite! You splash and crawl around in there in a very unique and wild and crazy way. And, you LOVE it when the water is dumped over you head for rinsing. I always had to be, and still have to be, extremely careful with the girls on this, because they hate water in their eyes. Today at bath time, you actually put your face in the water and tried to take a drink. After bath, you like to try to comb your own hair.
I don’t know what you’d do without your sisters! They look out for you and entertain you, and you just adore them. You gleefully give them your attention whenever they give you theirs. Ellie loves to play peek-a-boo with you, and Katie loves to read to you, cuddle you, and hold your soft baby hands. Recently she said, “I just love babies so much. They’ve got the cutest hands.”
Right now, your poor little body is being subjected to three antibiotics. Last week, Dr, Jhawar discovered three bacteria growing in your throat, and he wants to try to get rid of them before they cause infection and lung damage. So, you are enduring several hours of breathing treatments, oral antibiotics, and one inhaled antibiotic each day. You are quite tolerant, I think, for being an active one-year-old. At times, you let your emotions be known, but for the most part, you put up with it, even cheerfully at times. We are praying for you to regain health and that the germs would be eradicated through this month of treatment.
We’ve learned so much in a year, Silas, about how to care for you, and what CF means for our family. We’ve learned a great deal about love and grace and trusting God through each step of the day. And by God’s grace, may we continue to learn and grow together through this. We pray the Lord gives you many, many years of quality life, serving Him and glorifying Him with your whole heart. We love you so very much! Happy birthday!
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