Dear Anna,
One more month until the big first birthday! Time flies when you’re having fun!
You haven’t tried too many new foods this month, let’s see…tuna fish, raspberries, yellow beans and sunbutter (like peanut butter, only made with sunflower seeds). But you’ve tried many new table food versions of things you’ve had before. You adore Grandma’s mini-meatball soup (aka Italian Wedding Soup). Actually, you adore anything I let you have in a suction-bottomed bowl with a spoon – you just think that’s the coolest thing. Especially when you eventually pry the bowl off of your tray!
I think your first official word is “book”. You say “boo-uh” and lunge towards the pile of books on the shelf next to the chair when we sit down to nurse in the morning and at bedtime. And you say it consistently enough that I think I’m going to declare it your first word. You also say “dis!” and “dat!” when it seems like “this” or “that” would be appropriate, so I’m wondering if you actually are saying those words too…?
You’re not walking yet, but you are climbing – stairs, that is. And you know you’re not supposed to, because you look back at me with your stinker-pants face like “See, Mom? See what I’m doing?!?” You do that a lot, really, and one of your favorite games is to crawl away from me into a room you’re not really supposed to be in, look back to make sure I’m following, and then crawl as fast as your little hands and knees will go until I pick you up from behind and you squeal with glee.
Speaking of squealing. Baby! You and your sister need to tone down the high-pitched shrieking! You would make most opera singers weep with jealousy – I’m shocked we haven’t actually had any broken glass yet. You know, everyone always waxes poetic about the pitter-patter of little feet, but nobody warns you about the high-pitched shrieking and squealing of little girls…
In a few short weeks we’ll be celebrating the fact that we all made it to your first birthday – and I have to be honest, I think we kind of got off easy. You’ve been, so far, an extremely easy baby. You slipped into our lives and it wasn’t so long before it felt like you’d been here all along anyway. I’m sure we’ll have challenges and changes ahead, there always are, but this part where I’m your mama? That’s the easy bit. Thanks for choosing me to be your mama, thanks for choosing us to be your family.
Love, Mommy