Mr. Knox and The Holiday Season of 2020

Hello Mr. Knox,

You are now almost 14 months old. We have had a lot of fun these last few months. You have such a cute little personality. You can be quite the poophead at times too. You still love your books, Blues Clues, music, dancing and Baby Shark . You are eating pretty much whatever mom and dad are eating, but you love cheese. We have to bribe you to eat the rest of your meal when there is cheese involved. You are about 24 lbs and 33 inches. You will pretty much go to bed on your own now, but we still like to cuddle you before we lay you down to sleep. You love walking around and exploring. You love to come out in my craft room and throw my stickers and washi tapes everywhere. You also enjoy going into mom and dads room and listen to moms Catbug music box. You love taking showers with Daddy. We block the drain in our shower and let the pan fill up with a little bit of water and you really enjoy splashing and playing with your toys. Your favorite part is splashing water at me onto the shower door and I pretend like you get me. You still also want your binkies or bibis as we call them. You don’t really care when I take them and hide them, but when you see them out on the counter you want them. You are starting to babble and talk at us more. You say blue and clue when watching Blues clues. You say momma, dada, nana, baba, and no. You know what everything is, but you just don’t want to talk yet. I can sit and ask you to point at something or to go do something and you know exactly what I am talking about most the time. You have 10 teeth now. You like to go on walks around the block in your stroller or wagon. You don’t really have any small friends other than Rory and Everett. You have only got to play with Rory during this whole Covid thing. Hopefully we will get to make some more younger friends soon.

October came and left. We went down to San Diego for Ciocia’s wedding shower. Granny Sue bought a big carpet for the living room which turned out to be so nice. We could block you in the sitting area and you could just run around and play without any of us worrying about you hurting yourself or getting into anything. October 7th we celebrated Nana’s 94th birthday. We went over to our friends the Brickeys house to carve pumpkins. Mommy brought you Halloween coloring sheets so you could color. We got your wagon out and strung up orange lights on it. We would go for walks around the neighborhood to see all the Halloween decorations. You loved it. Especially the big black cat in Grandma’s yard. You would always want to give it pats. At first you were a bit apprehensive of it because its head moves, but once you realized it wouldn’t hurt you you loved it. Grandpa would also drive us around in the golf cart to show us all the decorations. You love riding in the golf cart. You ended up with two Halloween costumes. Mommy originally ordered you an Ewok costume but it didn’t seem like it would make it in time, so I bought you a pumpkin costume from Party City. You were so cute in both of them. You mainly wore the Ewok one and I will save the pumpkin for later use. Granny Sue and Ciocia got to come up for Halloween and we all had a lot of fun. The day of Halloween we went to Grandma’s to carve pumpkins. You played with Granny Sue. Then we went back to our house and Memaw and Papa came over to see us and eat dinner. Mommy made beef barley stew in the crockpot like Nana did every Halloween when Mommy was little. It turned out to be really delicious! We had a fun time hanging out with Memaw and Papa. Once it got dark and Memaw and Papa left, we rode on the golf cart to see all the decorations with Ciocia and Grandpa. You trick or treated at your first house. Then we went back to our house and the Brickey’s came by to trick or treat. It was nice to see them. After that we pretty much relaxed at home until your bedtime.

November came fast and the Halloween decorations came down. Grandma went out and bought a bunch of turkeys to put up so you had some decorations to look at when we went on walks. We went down to San Diego again for Ciocia and Chico’s wedding on the 14th as well as Granny Sue’s birthday on the 16th. We had a lot of fun hanging out down there. The wedding went off without a hitch. You were their ring bearer. You didn’t actually carry a ring though. Mommy carried you down the aisle. Mommy was also in the wedding as the Matron of honor. You did a good job of being quiet during the ceremony. Daddy held you off to the side and fed you snacks. At the reception you were the life of the party. You were out on that dance floor the whole night dancing. You LOVE dancing and music. The next morning we all had a breakfast for Granny Sue’s 80th birthday. It was really nice. The Hofmanns and the Drummonds also came to celebrate. We also found out that month that you love Baby Shark. Anytime we put it on the tv you dance like crazy. Before Thanksgiving we had Memaw and Papa over for tacos to celebrate with them since we were going out of town on Thanksgiving. You always enjoy spending time with Memaw and Papa. You guys have a lot of fun playing together. The night before Thanksgiving we drove up to the condo with Grandma and Grandpa. Ciocia and Chico met us up there for the weekend. We woke up the next morning and watched the Macy’s Day Parade. Wasn’t as good this year, but it was nice to spend the time together watching it. There was a Blues Clues balloon! We also had a delicious breakfast and early dinner. We really enjoyed just relaxing up there and spending time together. We walked up to Snow Summit to check out the snow machines making snow. It was freezing! We watched a lot of cheesy Christmas movies, worked on a puzzle, colored and played with all your toys. The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Big Bear Zoo. The facility is new and super nice. You enjoyed seeing all the animals but you liked the bears especially.

December finally showed up. I couldn’t wait to see if you would enjoy Christmas this year. We went to Bass Pro Shops to meet Santa! He was behind some glass and looked super silly because he had a mask on, but you still enjoyed meeting him. You mostly enjoyed walking around the store and looking at all the animals and the big fish tanks. The Christmas decorations went up inside our house and outside. You really liked looking at our tree and your favorite ornament was a train with Santa on it. You would help Mommy turn the lights on and off on the tree. You also liked putting up the bells on our advent calendar every morning. I also hung up the felt Christmas characters in the dinning room and you liked pointing them out while we ate. I put up your felt tree your Grandma made you out in the craft area. You didn’t really ever decorate the tree, but you sure enjoyed tearing everything off of it. Once again we went on nightly Christmas decoration viewing rides on the golf cart. Grandpa added a seat on the back of the cart so we could all go for rides. Normally Grandpa, Nana, Daddy and I would ride with you, but we also got to take Granny Sue, Ciocia, Chico, Grandma, Memaw and Papa too! We would wrap you up all snug in a blanket and keep you warm. Your favorite house had a blow up of a chimney and Santa would pop up and down in it. You loved it! We went over to Memaw and Papa’s for Christmas Eve. Nana Margie, Grandpa Bill and Grandpa Jack were there too. We all ate a delicious ham dinner and opened presents. Auntie Krystal showed up for a minute and you got to go out and hit all of Memaw’s blow ups with her. We all had a very nice time. After Memaw and Papas, we drove back to Grandma’s and had dessert with everyone to celebrate Granny Sue and Grandpa Studs 60th Wedding Anniversary. You enjoyed the cake and ice cream. The next day was Christmas. We had Grandma, Grandpa, Ciocia, Chico, Nana, Granny Sue, Grandpa Stud, Shayann, Shelby, Steven, Julie, David and Ben all there to celebrate together. We had a nice breakfast and then everyone went on a hike. We went back to our house and opened our presents. Nana, Granny Sue and Grandpa Stud watched. Santa brought you a Blues Clues coloring book, a sloth Slumberkin and some Blues Clues mystery figurines in your stocking! You got a slide, some Blues Clues figures, a Baby Shark towel and some Little People from Mommy and Daddy. Chico and Ciocia gave you a mini Blue, some dino monster trucks and a paper Handy Dandy notebook. You got a Thinking Chair and a farm animals toy from Aunt Gen and Uncle Cory. You got a Baby Shark for the bath, Josh’s Handy Dandy Notebook, and a read along Blues Clues book from Aunt Krystal, Uncle Doug and your cousins Cy and Icarus. The Brickey’s gave you a fox blanket and some Blues Clues bath toys. Joe and Rachael brought you a fun dinosaur cup/plate/bowl/utensil set. Damon and Morgan brought us a little walrus pot that you grow mint in, which will be fun to do together. David, Julie and Ben gave you some fun Christmas books, some Christmas toys, a bell from Santa’s Sleigh, a puppy lunchbox, a sippy cup and some utensils. Granny Sue and Grandpa Stud gave you a train top, a wooden train, Peter Rabbit book series, a xylophone, and outfit and a dinosaur night light that changes colors. Nana gave you a big dump truck and a piano. Memaw and Papa gave you a Police car you can ride in, some Mickey Mouse training pants and a shark backpack. Grandma Margie and Grandpa Bill gave you some hot wheels, a Christmas book and some super cute clothes. Grandma and Grandpa gave you some wood puzzles, a Baby Shark puzzle, some Blues Clues mystery figures, some puff snacks, squeeze pouch snacks, veggie/fruit purees, formula, an owl fluffy and Grandma made you a cool patchwork fleece blanket. There are probably more things that I can’t think of but you were very spoiled! We are super thankful for everyone’s love and generosity! New Years was uneventful. We just stayed home and enjoyed each others company.

Covid is still a thing. It always will be. Everyone has altered their lifestyles, missed important milestones, haven’t seen loved ones, etc. all because of a virus that will never go away. We have pretty much not changed the way we do anything other than having to wear our masks out in public because its required. We made the decision we wanted to keep life as normal as possible. Hopefully when you read this when you get older you’ll look back and not even remember the whole thing. I hope that it doesn’t affect your relationships with people.

This year a whole bunch of crazy things have happened. I have my own thoughts on all of it. I hope that your future is not altered for the worse because people have made decisions based on emotion instead of fact. I feel quite helpless really because there is nothing I can do at this point to make things better. I pray that God will protect us and give us the right answers. We can discuss all this more in detail when you get older if you are interested, but I’m not sure its appropriate for now.

I just want you to know you are the light in many peoples lives and you make everyone so happy. Keep being the awesome kid you are. Mommy and Daddy love you so very much.

Love,

Mommy

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