Dear Great-Grandma,
I got your card today! It is so nice to know you are thinking about me. I have been thinking about you too, but I have not written in so very long! Well, I did get to see you recently, and that was so nice. I enjoyed untying your shoelaces again.
So you don’t eat my letters when you get them? My goodness! What DO you do with them? I really thought that was what they were for. I will have to think about that one for a while. I have noticed that Mommy is not thrilled when I try to eat the mail. She has started saying, “Not for eating,” and I usually understand her and sometimes I obey her. But it is hard when it looks so yummy.
Speaking of yummy, I am starting to realize that there is some really good stuff to eat, actually lots better than the mail. Yogurt, for instance. That stuff is amazing! And I like cheese, too. Mommy cuts it up and puts it on my high chair tray and I can pick it up and sometimes get it into my mouth. Mmmm! But sometimes she just feeds it to me. That’s easier. And I can eat it faster!
I should talk to you a little bit about things I should and should not do. I am starting to realize that there are things Mommy wants me to do and things she does not want me to do. One of the things she doesn’t want me to do is play with the little metal things on the floor. They are by the front door and I don’t know what they are or what they are for, but every time I go over there to check them out Mommy stops me and says NO. So I know I shouldn’t play with them but I am just so overwhelmed with curiosity! Sometimes I wait until she is not looking and then I make a run for it, but she always catches me. Other times I don’t care if she sees me or not! I just have to go look! But I never can.
What do you think I should do, Grandma? I just don’t know. What does it really mean when Mommy doesn’t want me to do something and I want to do it? Sometimes I listen and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I don’t think I hear her because what I am doing is so interesting. It is all rather puzzling to me.
I am not walking yet. I think it will be a while. I am still getting used to these legs of mine, and it is all I can do to stay balanced on them without holding onto anything. I can only do that for a few moments at a time. I am getting pretty good at getting around while holding on to stuff, though. If you don’t mind, I think I will just take my time and make sure I have really figured things out before I try any walking.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything interesting! No, indeed. There are all kinds of things I can do.
-I can stand up at the coffee table and shake it or bang on it.
-I can pull open the drawer in the end table or take things off the top of it.
-I can open the cupboards (some of them, anyway–others of them have gotten more difficult lately–they only open a little bit) and pull stuff out. There is one cupboard with double doors that has my stroller in it. I love to play with the wheels and spin them!
-I can pull books off of the bookshelves and eat them. Or look at the pictures.
-I can open the curtains in the dining room and look outside.
-I can open or close any door if it isn’t latched. It is especially fun when I am in my room and Mommy forgets to close the door the whole way while she goes and does something else. I can still get out!
-I can shake my shelf in the kitchen. Except it seems to have disappeared, come to think of it. (I used to have two shelves for toys. Now I guess I only have one, and I can’t shake that one because it’s next to the floor.)
-I can stand by Mommy and Daddy’s chairs at mealtimes and beg for food.
-I can stand at my crib rail and rattle it until somebody comes to get me.
Okay, so now you have a good idea that I can do plenty of stuff without knowing how to walk, so I don’t feel like I am in any hurry to do that. I have lots of things to practice right now!
Oh, I talked about looking at the books, already. I should tell you more about that. I figured out how to turn the pages in books. It doesn’t work for all of them, just some of them. I think the ones with thicker pages work better. Anyway, I can pull a book off of the shelf and open it up and then there is interesting stuff inside it to look at! And if I get tired of one page, I can just turn to another one and look at that for a while! Sometimes I get frustrated if I can’t get the page turned, and eventually I get tired of looking at the pictures, but it sure is nice to have something new to do. I was getting kind of sick of baby toys. They are all the same.
Well, I should go to bed if I am going to get up at 4:30 tomorrow morning like I usually do. It’s a tough schedule but I figure if I’m going to get anywhere in the world, I’d better stick to it! It is hard to convince Mommy and Daddy that this is what I should be doing, but I’m sure they’ll come around.
Oh, one more thing. One time when I got up extra early Mommy took me outside and I saw the moon. I know it was the moon because she told me so and also because I have a book about “Goodnight Moon.” Anyway, I haven’t seen it since then because I am not up late enough to see it and nobody wants to take me outside early in the morning. So could you please say hello to the moon for me? Tell her I thought she was very beautiful and I would like to see her again sometime.
Love,
Isaac