Christopher boy, you are now eleven months old! How can it be that your next month update will be your first birthday? You are such a precious addition to our family and while you bring a lot of noise and craziness to our house, you also bring so much joy. Here is what you’ve been up to this month!

• You are now walking everywhere! You love to walk around with your hands in the air and it’s pretty cute. You will still occasionally crawl to something that’s really close to you, but anything more than a couple arms’ lengths away and you’ll make the effort to get up to your feet first and then walk. You’re still a little wobbly – a definite toddler – but you’re walking!
• While you’re still a terrible nighttime sleeper and spend entirely too much time in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, you’ve at least been taking much better naps lately. You usually take your morning one in your bed, and then a late afternoon one in your stroller – first walking and then parked out on the terrace, regardless of the weather. You love getting all bundled up with just your eyes, nose, and mouth poking out. You actually take better naps outside than anywhere else!
• While we haven’t had as much snow this year as we have in years past, we had one big one at the beginning of the month that lasted a few days and you loved it! We put your wool sleeping bag on our sled and you have loved being pulled for long walks in the snow. Also, you’re the cutest little snow-baby I’ve ever seen.
• Being the little Latvian that you are, you celebrated your first name day this month. All Latvians named Kristofers celebrate name day on December 18. Mommy and Daddy actually had some things we needed to do in Rīga that day, but we took you on a little breakfast date while we were out!
• One of your new favorite activities this month is throwing small objects down the stairs – or down the little opening next to the stairs that happens to be right above Daddy’s desk in the basement. Your favorite things to throw are the little figurines from the Fisher Price nativity set we’ve had out for Christmas. We’ve joked that whoever is working at the desk needs to wear a helmet if you’re awake!
• You have really impressed us this month with how smart you are. One morning I was folding laundry and you really looked like you wanted to help. All on your own, you started picking up the rolled-up pairs of socks and pulling yourself up to standing so that you could throw them one at a time in the tall wicker laundry basket. This was no easy task as you really had to reach to be able to get them in. But you stuck with it for several minutes until you completed the whole job!
• Another day you were in the kitchen getting into the cabinets (another favorite activity) and I wanted to distract you with a better activity. So I asked you if you wanted to go read Brown Bear, Brown Bear as soon as I was done with the dishes. Without any help, you went into the living room, around the couch, opened your little book cabinet, and found your Brown Bear, Brown Bear book in the middle of your basket full of 15-20 books. And then you brought it back to me! I was pretty amazed. You’ve done it several times since then, but only with that one book. It’s definitely a favorite!
• You really love both the English and the Latvian versions of “Pat-a-Cake”/“Cepu Cepu Kukuliti”. You just bounce your whole little body and clap your hands and immediately forget about whatever else you were doing!
• You got your first little haircut this month! I’ve been noticing that your hair has been getting a little long and scraggly around your ears and I just mentioned to my friend Sigita that I’d have to trim it soon. She told me that she actually worked for a number of years as a hairdresser and she’d do it for you! So at our next baby club meeting, she brought her hair trimming scissors and cleaned you up. You weren’t super cooperative, but with me restraining and Sigita trimming, we got the job done. And you look very handsome, if I do say so myself.
• One of your favorite activities this month has been pulling lights, ornaments, and needles off the Christmas tree. We’ve been keeping our two ottomans and a chair up in front of the tree to keep you away, but you still manage to get around them! Lots of the pine needles have gone in your mouth, but you’re pretty good about taking them out and handing them to me when I say, “Give Mommy the skuja (Latvian for pine needle)!” 
• A couple days before Christmas, you came down with your first ever big sickness – what we are now calling the Great Flu of 2019. It hit Eleanor first and then you. You were totally miserable for several days and your poor little cough has lasted quite a while. You were pretty pitiful and we actually took you to the ER Christmas afternoon. They checked you out really well, confirmed that you had the Flu, but sent us home to recuperate as you weren’t showing any signs of distress or complications. In fact, you charmed the nurses and doctors so much that they couldn’t believe you were as sick as you were. We did discover, though, that you do NOT like medicine (of any type) and will immediately throw it up. It was a rough few days. But we are so grateful that the Lord healed you and you are finally on the mend.
• In the midst of the great flu, we did enjoy watching you on your first Christmas morning as you opened your presents. Some highlights were a wooden toy stacker, a rocking Moose, bath toys, and some big boy clothes. 
• Also at some point during the great flu, you cut your seventh tooth! You truly were miserable for multiple reasons for those few days! But your smile just keeps getting cuter and cuter!

Christopher Luke, we love you with all of our hearts and can’t wait to see what the next month will bring!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy