Dear Syed Brian (Vol. 1 Iss. 11)

11 months. And everyone is still alive…and smiling (for the most part). You have given your mom and dad a run for their money in the past month, thus the fact that this letter is being written almost a week late. We have barely been able to keep up with you! You are 100% boy and are beginning to live on the mischievous side of life.

You managed to escape from your parents’ supervision more than once this month by being stealthy in your retreat. When silence rules the house, it is certain that you are in the process of learning a new task or exploring an area that perhaps is better left unexplored. Case in point: bathrooms.

You LOVE toilets and bathtubs. Apparently the water in a toilet bowl is just too much to resist. More than once we have found you dropping items into the toilet to see what kind of splash they make (Shame on us for not learning sooner to close the lid). And when we do remember to close the toilet lid but not the door, you find that unrolling the roll of toilet paper is great fun. The roll seems to spin endlessly and it provides minutes of sheer entertainment for you. When you are allowed entry to the bathroom for the obligatory bath, you are thrilled with the permission to play in the bathtub! If allowable, you would spend much of your play time in the bathtub, even sans water. Splashing and playing you’re your toys provides you with much entertainment. Thus, perhaps not surprisingly, the bathroom is now as secure as Fort Knox. Only humans with dexterity enabling the opening of the door are allowed to enter.

When you’re not playing in the bathroom, you can be found on the stairs. Not only are you extremely efficient at climbing up the stairs (mastered in previous months), you are now very skilled at going down the stairs. It only took a few instances of landing on your forehead to make you realize that perhaps going down the stairs in a reverse fashion on your belly might be less painful and more successful. This was reassuring to your dad and I that there might be some executive functioning happening in your cerebral cortex after all.

Further evidence of executive functioning is your sudden fascination with books. This is extremely pleasing to us as you will sit by yourself, look at your books, talk to them, and attempt to “read” them to us. You prefer some books over others; books relating to robots, monsters, and animals seem to be your preferred reading material.

Curtains are another source of fascination to you. You like to play peak-a-boo in the curtains and style them in different ways. Fortunately, you have not yet managed to pull the curtains down…However, I’m also fairly certain that now that I’ve written this, next month will be a follow up where you have successfully pulled down the curtains. *Sigh*

Upon the completion of any of these tasks, or any of the other that you have mastered, you like to punctuate it with a “high-five.” It’s as if you know that you’re growing, learning, and experiencing more each day. And everything is absolutely worthy of a high-five these days.

Until Next Month…

Love,
Mom