Dear Jude,
As of 5.41am on September 10th, you turned 18 months old. That’s a whole year and a half you have spent with your Daddy, Mabel & me.
When I last wrote a letter to you, you had just turned one year old and I reflected on how vulnerable and small you were when you born; so tiny in our arms. Already that moment almost seems like lifetime ago.
You could not be more different now.... although until last week we’d seen the return of the mullet because Mama couldn’t bear to lose those beautiful bouncy baby curls you had grown.
By the time your first birthday rolled round, you had said your first few words and had taken some steps all by yourself. You had your first pair of grown up shoes and already you seemed like a grown up little boy.
But looking back on photos taken at your party, I see that you were still very much my baby... just a taller and chunkier, and more upright version than the 5lb 1oz dot who was first placed in my arms.
No, it is the last six months that have really seen you start to grow into a little boy, and a time that has seen massive changes for all of us.
It often seems like you have taken everything in your stride, going from strength to strength, and I am the one struggling to find my feet. You have taught me so much more about embracing the world with your whole self than you can ever know.
Shortly after your first birthday, we said goodbye to our home in Manchester and drove across three countries to our new home in Switzerland. While the transition has been tough on both your Daddy and me, you instantly loved it!
Goodbye to baby gates and small rooms, and hello to open plan living! You became obsessed with plants, kitchen cupboards and drawers (you have your own now!) and jumping up and down on the beds. You love to skip up and down from one end of the apartment to the other and have (thankfully!) just started to ride the bike we bought you for your birthday.
Outside, you have loved playing in parks, learning how to climb and exploring all the things you find on the ground: drain covers and holes are your favourite.
You have enjoyed sunny days at the Lido, eating pizza, pasta and gelato & have even made a new little best pal, Jacob.
Above all though, you love to run... and from those little shoes you took your first tentative steps in, you now run in shoes which are three sizes bigger.
On the flip side, you hate shopping - especially the supermarket. You don’t like getting food on your hands, although you still haven’t quite got the patience for cutlery yet, and you hate being stuck in your buggy unless it’s in motion.
Your screams when you want to move onto the next activity are phenomenal but even without them, my darling boy, your presence is unmistakably entangled throughout every aspect of our lives, and we would not have it any other way.
I love the way you have started to chatter with us, and the new words you choose to say. Mostly they are on the subject of food, but my favourite of all of them is ‘star.’ Especially when it is combined with pointing them out in your favourite stories while you snuggle on my lap.
Each day you show us more and more about the comical little boy you are, and each day, you somehow manage to capture our hearts even more.
With love always my little star,
Mama xxx