Hiram: 1 Year + 4 Months

Hiram, my sweet baby. What a dear soul you have. Here are a few of my favorite memories of Hiram from the past month.

Hold my hand: The three of us have taken to walking after dinner. If it seems like Brad and I are going to forget our walk, Hiram reminds us by banging on the front door until we get the hint. Once outside, Hiram starts arranging our family formation, which usually ends up being Hike in the middle with the two of us holding his hands on either side*. One time though, he found a leaf that was particularly hard to leave behind and this left him with a conundrum– three things to hold but only two hands. Hiram solved this by holding both my hand and Brad’s hand in his left hand and the leaf in his right.

I love you: Like other toddlers, Hiram has started hitting people. Being that he’s about twice the size of other kids his age, this is a bigger issue for us than it might be if he was a pip-squeak**. My feeling (as his mother, mind you) is that most of the time he’s not hitting out of anger but because he’s feeling overwhelmed by emotions and isn’t sure what to do . (Yes, I realize that no one believes this but me.) At any rate, we decided to teach him to say “I love you” so that if that’s the feeling he has, he can say that instead of hit. And now he does say it sometimes– unsolicited even! It didn’t solve the hitting problem completely, but man it’s cute.

Let me help: Surprisingly, Hiram is already quite useful around the house. On CSA nights, Hiram’s job is to unload the potatoes from the bag and into a bowl. Last night, he spun the salad greens*** and then actually assembled our salads for dinner. Greens, carrots, tomatoes, peppers and cheese. Is this kid brilliant or what?

* This might sound cheesy but it is true.

** Hitting is never OK even if you are the size of a peanut.

*** Vigorously, to say the least.