son, hero, legend

Well, you can say “dah-eeeeee” which is good enough.

Seriously you were adorable today, which is true for most days, but I figured it should be written down somewhere. You did have to go to timeout twice, though. Stop messing with that Leela so much!

You just happened to learn to blow kisses for Valentine’s Day! It makes me so happy. I am very sappy this Valentine’s Day. You are so cuddly and sweet and communicative all of a sudden and it’s so fun to watch you learn how to say new things every day. You especially love to say animal noises and you said please for the first time the other day. You are eating your oatmeal every morning with a spoon all by yourself. You are climbing EVERYTHING, even trying to climb from the floor onto the dining room chair and then the table. Scary! You sing your Toys Away song with me “aaaaway” You are obsessed with Buzz Lightyear and are showing growing interest in Clifford the Big Red Dog. You still adore Yo Gabba Gabba and books, especially any book with Peek a Boo games in them. We go to the library and the park for picnics and we took you to the art museum where you made your first collage. You like to climb all over your dad and you want me to hold you all the time. And if my back could do it, I would hold you all the time. You looked over at me and just blew me a kiss this morning and it was the best Valentine’s day gift ever. We love you, Jhonen!

Boy in Blue on Boat, originally uploaded by bburbank.

You loved our Disney Cruise so much. You loved running all over the deck. You loved going up and down in the elevator. You loved the gingerbread cookie house (probably more than anything else) as well as the nightly dance parties with the band Midtown (where you totally hit on a little girl in while Midtown sang Lady in Red…amazing moment). You loved our waiter Ludo and the constant stream of junk food. You loved the constant stream of Disney movies and television programming in the room as well. You loved the framed picture of the song “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” that your Dad sang to you every time you pointed at it. You loved your Woody and Buzz toys we got you on the ship. You especially loved access to the splash zone by the pool. When we got home and walked in the house, you cried.

Windows, originally uploaded by bburbank.

You love looking out at the world. I love this picture of your big beautiful curious eyes.

Christmas Night 2009, originally uploaded by bburbank.

I am really enjoying you at 15 months. You have become a real boy! I know I keep saying that, but it’s really true this time. You run around pointing at things and showing me with your sign language and your facial experessions exactly what you want and need. You joke around, hug and kiss, dance and keep rhythm, make baskets in your new basketball hoop and then clap for yourself, get excited when we provide the thing you ask for whether it’s a banana or a TV show or pick you “up!” You had a great Christmas opening so many packages and visiting all your family who loves you so so much. You got many new books because, really, they are your favorite things. You got blocks and rubber balls and a comfy beanbag chair and blanket and your b-ball hoop and your shopping cart. For Christmas dinner you dressed up in your vest and tie and you Great-Grandma we call Oma couldn’t stop laughing and smiling at your tie. You are such a handsome sweet cuddly boy with the most expressive face and so serious sometimes! You know the signs for up, banana, eat, drink, more, kitty-cat, dog, and bird and are learning a new one every day these days. I am so excited for everything this new year has to teach you. I want to take you on more day trips this year and I want to pay close attention to your diet. It has been an amazing 2009. I’ve watched you grow from a helpless four month old to a pretty independent little 15 month old and it has been quite a journey. Thanks for making this year so amazingly special for me and for your Dad.

That’s sort of the theme for you these days now that you’re fourteen months old. You are constantly trying to be the big kid, to see who is in control, to test your boundaries and your own limits. You love walking the dog, climbing on furniture, pointing at new objects, and communicating your desires with a point or a yell. For example, you will now go to the door and grab onto the leash hanging on the hook and bang it against the wall until I take it down and hook it to Leela’s collar. Then if I try to intervene and grab Leela’s leash to direct her, you start yelling and crying. You want to walk her yourself! When you are tired, you walk over to the couch so that I can nurse you and put you down for a nap. Yesterday you walked over to the pantry, opened the door (a skill I’d hoped you wouldn’t learn so fast) and pointed to the giant jar of animal crackers. You also think you can go up and down the stairs like a grown up does and, unfortunately, you can’t. Yesterday you fell and I felt like I’d really failed you. You are a daring kid and capable of much more these days requiring me to be quite the lifeguard, so to speak. I have to make sure you’re not walking me sometimes! Whenever I get stern or tell you “no” you get a very mischievous face and laugh! I never know what to do when you do that! It seems the best course of action is just to direct you into doing something else…to get your mind off of the thing you’re not allowed to do and focus on something else. Those times are rare, though. Most of the time you are easy breezy and so much fun to be around. The other day I was taking a shower and keeping an eye on you as you played in the bathroom and your bedroom (the rooms are connected) and the minute I lost sight of you and didn’t hear you I got scared and ran out of the shower to find you reading a library book by yourself on your couch! What a grown up boy!

Your Dad’s favorite new development is holding his hand when you walk. It melts our hearts when you reach up and grab our hands to walk down the driveway. My other favorite moment recently was taking you to the Orlando Museum of Art, a place that has been a big part of my life for seven years with people who have known me since before I was married to your Dad, and with art that I’ve known and loved and shown to lots of children, some not much older than you. To see you walking those halls and looking at the art (which you did! You looked at everything!) got me all teary.

Your favorite things at the moment include: your Ming Ming robot toy which you point at every night so I’ll play it before bed, tomatoes in any form, hugging for awhile when you get up from a nap, looking at lit lightbulbs, flipping through your books, climbing onto the couch to cuddle with people or watch the Wonder Pets or Yo Gabba Gabba, any sort of ornamentation or grate on the ground, turning the XBox on and off, putting objects in and out of containers, placing magnets on and off of the refrigerator, any sort of rocks or gravel, your shoes…for some reason you are fascinated by them and try very diligently to suck on them, rolling around on pillows and blankets, and walking walking walking walking as fast as you can.

We are approaching your second Thanksgiving and Christmas. I remember last holiday season so well thanks to you. I remember you nursing under the dinner table at Thanksgiving dinner so that I could eat with everyone else. I remember setting you up on your Kota dinosaur for the first time and watching you try to eat it. I look forward to this year’s memories which will include a trip on a Disney cruise next week. I can’t wait!! Your father and I are celebrating our fifth anniversary. Five years! I can hardly believe it. I feel so fortunate to have such an amazing, strong family and marriage. I want our relationship to be an example of everything a marriage can be so that you grow up to make wise choices and to look for a relationship full of mutual respect, friendship, and love.

Pappy Peek-a-boo, originally uploaded by bburbank.

I knew that I wanted to have a boy someday to carry on the Burbank name. I knew that was important to your Dad and to your “Pappy,” too. I know that desire because I have that same wish for your Uncle Adam: that he will have a boy someday to carry on the Randolph name. Both your Dad and your Uncle Adam are the last in their respective family lines.

I love this picture with all three Burbank men together and enjoying each other’s company. We went out to your Dad’s old high school to watch the Deltona High Wolves play football. It made me feel like I’d accomplished something special by helping to extend the Burbank family and I can see the pride in their eyes when they see you and that makes me proud, too. I hope you three continue to have fun together. I hope you inherit their calm, level-headed, patient demeanor, their kindness and loyalty, their strong work ethic and their enjoyment in the little things life has to offer. Those are the qualities I love most in them.

DSC_0010, originally uploaded by bburbank.

One year old Jhonen is a lot of fun! I can set you down on your feet and you can walk along with me. Today, you even took my hand and let me help you over the front stoop! Here you are with your Dad who took your hand to help you walk down the sidewalk at Wekiva Springs Park. He took me there to try out my brand new birthday present, a gorgeous new camera (Nikon D40 digital SLR). This blog will definitely benefit from that new addition to the family. This photo was taken with the camera and it’s so pretty.

You have been busy since your birthday. We went to Disney Hollywood Studios with your Aunt Jenny for her birthday. We had so much fun. You met Handy Manny and you loved the Playhouse Disney show, especially when bubbles, paper leaves, and streamers fell from the ceiling. Halfway through the show you stood up, stared at the stage, grinned, and pulled your t-shirt up, flashing everyone onstage. It was hysterical.

We went and saw a marionette show at Jack’s puppet theater and you liked crawling around onstage even more than you liked the actual show. After that, we went and got you your first big boy shoes. They are so cute! Now you can really walk around in style.

I’m not positive, but I think you are trying to say the word book which, seriously, makes me so happy. I say “book” and then you say “bup!” Might be a stretch….but it’s adorable. You are starting to mimic me when I make faces or wave my arms. You try to match a tone when I sing. I think words might be in our near future. I can’t wait! I think you are going to continuously crack me up when you start talking. You see, like your going to have a really fun sense of humor. I hope you make me laugh like your Dad does. It’s one of his very best qualities. I hope you inherit his intelligence, integrity, and loyalty, too. You can have my curiosity, friendliness, and love of fun, travel, art, and books. No pressure. We’ll love you no matter what.

You just had such a fun birthday party with all of your friends and family. Ever since, I swear you SEEM older, too. The night before your birthday I got a little sad thinking about my little baby being one year old already! I think I was just completely overwhelmed by just how much I love you, little man. We’ve had such an amazing year together and you have made us into such a cool little family. I’m so proud of everything you’ve mastered and the sweet, fun, happy guy you’ve become. Your second year, I’m sure, will prove to be even more fun. It’s hard to see the time pass and each new iteration of you pass, too, but it’s also exciting to anticipate and appreciate each new stage.

Your birthday was at our house. I made birthday posters and we put up balloons and birthday banners and Melanie and Melinda made such good food. Aunt Jenny hired a friend of hers to make you an adorable cupcake tower with banana flavored cupcakes and you LOVED eating your first cupcake. You had green frosting up your nose and you massaged the cupcake through your fingers. You had so many presents to open and you LOVED parading around the house bopping a big red balloon over your head. You got a fire engine you can ride, and clothes, Yo Gabba Gabba toys, bath toys, trucks, a tunnel, and books. You were spoiled thoroughly.

The Great Outdoors!, originally uploaded by bburbank.

Well, mister, in one week you will turn one year old. Since I last wrote you have learned to walk and crouch and stand up on your own without pulling yourself up on anything. You can feed yourself just about anything if I cut it up really small. Today you helped me take Leela outside. You walked right down the sidewalk, but the big plant near the doorway distracted you. When you got to the grass you bent down and “swished” it back and forth with your hands. It’s a whole new world of freedom for you, inside the house and out.

At almost one year old you weigh about 28 pounds and are about 32 inches tall. You have long golden curly hair that everyone greatly admires. Your feet are too fat to get shoes on them and you are wearing 24 months clothes. You still don’t sleep through the night very often, but you take good long naps during the day. You like to “play” with Leela and with Calina. You chase Leela around to try and get her little egg toy. When you get the toy you show it to her and wave it in front of her face. You like to swing Calina in her swing and grab her legs and feet. You are swimming pretty nicely, kind of crawling through the water. You have no fear of swimming and will jump right in from the poolside. You like to play with my piggy bank and can even put the coins in the slot. Pigeon is your very best friend. He goes with us everywhere we go. You like to flip pages in any book, whether its your giant Baby Einstein picture book or one of your Dad’s sci-fi novels. You entertain yourself very nicely with toys and exploring. You aren’t really speaking any discernible words yet, but you do bob your head and say “yeah yeah yeah” and when we say nooo you shake your head back and forth. You say a lot of syllables, lately “eesh eesh eesh.” I love it when you pick up something new and interesting to you and then hold it up for me to see. You ride in the little cart behind my bike. We went on a long bike ride with your Nana the other day. You have eight big teeth, four top, four bottom. You still like to put things in your mouth, but you will often explore them first now by looking instead of instantly shoving them into your mouth. You like funny games like when I poke my finger through the rungs of your crib and than pop my head up over the top of the crib. You like to throw yourself onto soft pillows and rub your face on them. You like to stand up in front of the TV and watch Yo Gabba Gabba and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. You like to go do things with me, especially if you can ride around in your Ergobaby carrier on my back. You really really love bubbles and balloons, too.

I’m getting ready for your birthday party. We are all really excited to celebrate with you. The theme for the party is Jhonen’s favorite things from A-Z. Aunt Jenny got you an amazing sounding cupcake tower with letters of the alphabet on it. I’m going to decorate the house with your favorite things. I will write all about it in a week!

Happy almost birthday, Jho. This year with you has been the biggest adventure. You are so special….so curious, so loving, so aware of the world. I am so proud of everything you’ve already accomplished in such a short time and can’t wait to see what the next year holds. I love you, little man.