I've been looking at baby pictures of you.  Of all my children, you are the one who looks the least like me.  Sometimes it makes me feel funny- sort of surprised that I can possibly have a child that looks as stinking cute as you do.  Which is not to say your siblings are ugly.  Anywho.  It  just gives me a small shock to watch you do the cleverest things and think at the same time that you came from me.  I may not understand it, but I'm grateful.  You are so funny and smart and pretty and I really hope that happy will stay attached to that list for as long as you live, because I love you.

Amazed at her daughter,
Mom

Quotes

The other day Poppy was home, and it was just you me and him getting ready to leave. You and I were waiting at the bottom of the stairs. You looked up at me and said "Poppy always says he's in charge"

"Uh huh"

And the you whispered "But really, I'm in charge."

And you smiled.

How precocious! You're four, and you've already figured out we won't leave without you, hence your preparation is the deciding factor in our being ready to leave.

You are one smart bugger. Everything you see is caught between the brackets of "How is it doing that?" and "Why is it doing that?". You love wearing dresses and looking in Poppy's microscope. You're lonely because the Bean is at school without you.

I Love you,

Mom

Notes for Posterity

You're a year and a month old now. You've finally gotten the hang of walking. We'll tell people you walked at a year, but it was probably the very last day of that last month before you started to take a few steps by yourself.

You love fuzzy things. Hand you a stuffy and you'll plop flat over so you can smoosh your face in it, then you'll waggle your head back and forth so you can really enjoy the soft. Oh, the soft.

You've got Four teeth on top, three and half on bottom, and one molar's worth of prickles in the back. Three more molars are about to come through.

You have quite the vocabulary- "Moooommm-my!" (ascending pitch) means food, me or Poppy. SooSee! (Descending pitch) Means Lucy doggie. "Hi" is self explanatory, and rare. "Uh Oh" means you're enjoying throwing things off your highchair. "Gank Goo" means Thank you and is spoken after every bite of food. You also spend a lot of time saying "BaaaBoo!", but I couldn't say why.

Just this week you've been spending a lot of time learning how to walk whilst holding something. It's proven to be very tricky. You've also been devoting a lot of time to Sip, your sister's stuffed guiney pig. She is less than thrilled, so we've been trying to convince you that Cookie Monster is a suitable alternative. You usally agree, because he says things, like "Dumdeedumdumdum" and "Cooooookie" and he burps. Sip never burps.

Your brother noticed that you are very photogenic. He's right. Seems like all the pictures we have of you are good ones- big smiling baby face. Everyone should be so lucky.

Nothing much else to say, I just wanted to make a note of how wonderful and fun you are right now, because it all goes by so fast.

Love,
Mom

Party Foul

So Poppy was giving you a bath, and he hollered down that he needed me. I assumed the bath was over, so I toodled around and grabbed some diapers, your nu-nu, some PJ's. He hollered again, and I told him I was just getting stuff together. As I came up the stairs he asked what was taking so long, and I told him I was getting the bedtime neccesities, wasn't he calling for help getting you guys to bed?

And then I heard you grunting.

Sure enough, you'd laid a log the size of your leg in the tub. I sit down to start clearing out the toys. Poppy starts the water draining. Your sister sets in with a running commentary. It's all very exciting. That's about the time you realize the poop might touch you, and you set in screaming. I rescued you by moving you upstream. By the time the water runs out, you're staring bug-eyed and your sister is hanging over the edge of the tub to gawk at the baby ruth. You guys are watching it like it's going to hop up and dance, or lunge and bite, or turn into an oracle. I've never seen anyone so fascinated by poop.

And then Poppy grabbed it with some toilet paper and it was gone.

Not much of a story, really, but it will have to do, because I didn't have the camera.

Love,
Mom

10 Months

Aren't you the big girl! I was sure you'd wait till you were a year old to walk, but I think you're going to prove me wrong. You can already pull yourself up, and you're starting to think about cruising around furniture.

You've also decided to eat. You eat cheerios and rice cereal and baby food and lots and lots of floor fuzzies. I think you're mostly filling up on floor fuzzies and (sadly) floor crunchies. Good stuff, apparently.

You spend you day revolving around the rest of the family- playing with your sister, fighting with your sister, dinking around on your own for a minute before you notice your Poppy and orbit around him for a while until you notice me or Bubba.

You haven't lost your screech, although no one here would mind if you did. And you've still got plenty of chubbs, although you are thinning out a little. God I love to squeeze the chubbs. They're just so cute.

Your favorite games are "Ba" and "No". "Ba" is a fascinating game where someone, your sister for instance, says "Ba!". It becomes your turn, so you say "Ba!", at which point
(you'll never guess...) it becomes her turn and so on. Hours of fun. You also like to play "No". Not that you know what it means yet, but you love to shake your head "Nononononono" as fast as you can and then grin as we nod slowly and serenely "Yes Yes Yes".

You have figured out that if you pull up on the rim of the toilet you can reach into the sweetest little splashing pool- it's just your size. You can't figure out why I'm forever thwarting your efforts to play there.

You may be my third, but you're as precious as if you were my only,
Love
Mom

Another Tooth!

Your second tooth came in. Apparently it was a doozy, because you fussed muchly. And how.

All the fussing didn't stop you from learning a whole mess of new tricks though. You're starting to figure out how to get up on your hands and knees. You can't get anywhere like that yet- for now you get around by rolling over and over, or inchworming around on your back.

You can really, really suck on your toes. Sometimes you suck your thumb, but I think you prefer your big toe. I cannot tell you why.

You've pretty much gotten the hang of sitting up. Sometimes you'll start to fall backwards and I have to laugh because you go over soooo slowly. You can do one hell of a sit up, and as you tip back you pull harder and harder to fold in half. It almost works.

You love to growl. You've turned this skill into the most grating cry I've ever heard. Please stop:) You make up for this by singing. Perhaps you've learned these sweet little songs from your sister. The are remarkably similar ditties.

You have hit twenty pounds. You are a most delicious baby to hold. You squish when squeezed, which makes us want to squish and squeeze you, which makes you giggle.

You and your sister share more giggles everyday. You guys never tell me what the joke is, but it sure must be funny.

Love you so much,
Mom

A Tooth

You've really gone and done it now. It wasn't enough to roll over from front to back. It wasn't enough to roll over from back to front. You couldn't be satisfied by holding your head up, grabbing toys and putting everything you touch into your mouth- No, you had to go and grow a tooth. A little nubbin pushing up on your bottom right.
I suppose you're going to grow up too, huh? I suppose I'll let you. Just lay off my nipples, ok?

Feeling very very proud of you,
Mom