Because Jon doesn't hate cats enough already...

Dear Daddy,

Here's what I've been up to this week.

First of all, I've been perfecting my walking skills. Tonight while Mommy was teaching Young Women, I was walking all over the place. If Mom had to estimate, she'd say I was doing 80% walking and 20% crawling. Aren't you proud?

Secondly, I'm working on my climbing skills. Remember how I suprised you last weekend by all of a sudden climbing on Mom's bedside table to look out the window? Well, on Monday I was helping Mom load (and by that I mean unload) the dishwasher like I always do. She was busy washing things in the sink, then she turned around and guess where I was?Right here. Aren't I a good climber? If I keep this up, I bet our dishwasher will be just like Grandma Sara's old one soon.

Third, today I fought an epic battle with Marley's cat. I thought she and I were playing together, but then she turned traitor and swiped me good. I confess, I did cry a little bit. But not too much--I was very tough. The cat got it much worse--she was banished to the basement the rest of the evening and is in BIG trouble with Marley & Carlos. I learned that there are benefits to being wounded--all the young women were cooing over me tonight. They were obviously impressed with my mighty warrior skills.

And, lest you think I've been focusing too much on my physical skills to the detriment of my intellectual skills, I had Mom take this picture: I've almost got it solved. I'm determined to have it completed by the time you get home. You'll be so proud of me! Solving my first Rubik's Cube at 13 months old!

I miss you. Come home soon!

Love, Seth Setherus

PS--Some notes from Mom:

I already told Jon about these, but I wanted to blog them for scrapbooking purposes.

First, the phone. Jon calls every day (usually a few times a day) and if Seth's awake I'll let him talk. He's not a huge fan of the phone and keeps shoving my hand away. After Jon hung up on Monday, Seth grabbed the phone from me and started holding it up to his ear. He'd jabber, then put it on my ear. After I "talked" for a minute, he'd take it back and jabber some more. Adorable.

Second--We were hanging out in the kitchen/family room playing with his Memory Game & Rummikub (he loves dumping them all over the place). It was nice and quiet in the house. Suddenly we heard a creak from near the front door. Seth immediately perked up. "Dad?" he asked, looking around. "Dadadad?" It was so cute, and sad because Daddy wasn't coming home. Yet.

Last--We now limit Seth's pacifier time to when he's in his crib. When we put him down, he likes to have one in his mouth and one in his hand. Last night he was sucking on one and I put the other one in his hand. He immediately brought it to his mouth and was very perturbed when he couldn't get it in his mouth. Silly boy. My other favorite pacifier game is when I hand him the pacifier to hold, and he immediately swaps it for the one in his mouth. Apparently there's something to be said for fresh pacifiers...

And this is for Rachel Mae (who just had her own gorgeous little boy), who says I'm a "Ghost Mom" since I never post pictures of myself. Here you go, Raquela. Never mind that I look psychotic (Seth was exhausted and whiny) and that Seth is quite likely flipping off the camera. That's as good as it gets around here.