Letter
10 Months Old
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Dear Carlita,
Being 10 months old is hard work. It’s even harder when you refuse to sleep! For the past two weeks you’ve been cutting back on naps, which is a rude awakening since the two weeks before that you slept more than you ever have before and I thought that you were finally getting the point with sleeping, that sleep is your friend and, ultimately, mommy’s friend, but no. You were just loading up your batteries..
Look out! She’s crawling! That’s right, on May 27th you crawled for the first time, and you made your daddy proud by letting him see it first. You’ve been able to get up on your knees for months now and whenever you tried to get forward your backside would collapse, but this time it seemed like something clicked in your brain and you staggered on forward.
And now that that milestone has been reached, picked up and tossed aside you’re aiming for the next one, which is pulling yourself up and standing without assistance. Girl, you are so rocking my world!
You’re absolutely in love with the radio, and you’re quickly getting obsessed with opening drawers and cabinets. You’re still not crazy about food but you’ll eat when I feed you and your favorite baby food is pasta. I’ve been trying to encourage you to eat on your own, but when I stick a banana in your little fist you’re more interested in painting your clothes and the floor with it than you are in eating it. So far banana is the only fruit you’re remotely interested in.
In a few short months it’ll be a year ago that we brought you home from the hospital. I still can’t get over how fast everything has happened, how much you change from one day to the other. Seeing you grow up is amazing and bittersweet. Being a mother is hard work, more work than I could ever have imagined and I have a pretty good imagination, but it’s also the best job in the whole wide world.
9 Months Old
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Dear Carlita,
You’re sleeping in our bed right now, finally, after a day full of non-nap naps. If it weren’t for that particular issue I’d say everything is just perfect. You are absolutely perfect my sweet little girl. Don’t ever let anyone tell you otherwise!
This month was another one full of firsts. First time sitting up on your own, first time kissing both me and your dad, first time getting a bloody lip because your mother sucks at helping you with your crawling (I’ve learnt my lesson, trust me, no more helping you out as I’m sure you’ll figure it out on your own eventually), first time visiting friends and letting yourself get hugged by two rowdy toddlers (who may, or may not, have given you a snotty nose..), and the first time where you actually enjoy sitting in your little baby-tub.
You’re not much for cuddles. You love being close, definitely, but hugs are just a bit too much for you just yet. So I couldn’t quite believe that the weird open-mouthed pecking you did on my cheek one day was really a kiss. I hoped, sure, but I didn’t dare put any money on it, I had to turn to your dad for confirmation. Not long after he got himself some wet baby kisses too, and I think we both got a little misty eyed. I know you love us, not just because it’s obvious but because I’m your mother and I know it in my heart, but having you show affection like that - words cannot express the feeling.
I know I had high hopes for your crawling this month, but I’m relieved anyway that it didn’t amount to full blown action. It’s a full time job making sure you don’t get your little chubby fingers into inappropiate stuff, so the backward crawl can stick around, I need a little longer to prepare for what you can manage with the real deal. Besides, who needs crawling when you’re close to cruising? You get very excited about trying to pull yourself up on furniture and/or my shirt. We got a little carried away by your prospective walking the other day and bought you a rake, so you can help daddy with the leaf in the fall. I couldn’t really wrap my head around the thought, but the months add up and by then you ought to be able to trottle around a bit, so I suppose we’re not totally crazy.
Another absolutely precious thing about you is that you seem to dig on music, just like your parents. You’ll wiggle your body to the rhythm of the radio, and you’ll squeel with delight when I twirl around you and bust out my 90’s dance moves. I’m going to keep this up for as long as humanly possible because I know there will be a day when you will attempt to combust me with your glare if I as much as nod to the music.
The bigger you get the more obvious it is that you are, indeed, our child and it feels like even though you’ve only been here for 9 months, I’ve known you for ever.
8 Months Old
Sunday, April 01, 2007
Where is my little baby? Where is she? That fragile little package we brought with us back from the hospital, that seemed too clean for this world with it’s polution and dust and germs. The poops that smelled of buttered popcorn, the breath that smelled of nothing at all, the skin that was covered in the softest fuzz..
Dear Carlita,
Today you’re 8 months old. You’re taller, stronger and plumper than ever. What an amazing month this has been! They all are very special, but they just keep getting better and better. This has been the month of holding out your arms to me or your dad when you want to be held - and what a trick that is! Your dad cannot not pick you up when you whine and stretch your arms out for him. He might have to go to school, or he might have to go to the bathroom, but if you’re begging him to hold you he will not disappoint you. This has also been the month of, what’cha havin’ there? Can I have some too, huh, can I? CAN I? whenever your dad or I try to eat a meal and the introduction of the non-spill sippy cup which you just absolutely adore! You’d drink toxic amounts of water from that sippy cup if I let you, so thankfully you don’t quite know how to hold it on your own yet.
You are on the verge of crawling. You push yourself up on your knees and rock your body back and forth. Night time is for sleeping, yet many times a night I will have to fetch you from the foot-end of the bed because when you rock yourself back and forth on your knees you end up pushing yourself backward. I’m hoping you’ll give me a couple of weeks to get this place cleaned up before you start your forwards crawl with purpose. It will also give me time to suggest to the cats that when they see you coming, they better start running. Oh how you love the cats, and what you love even more is pulling their limbs and whiskers and tails. Even so, they’ve all been saints around you. As of yet there is not a single scratch mark on your body and that’s pretty damn remarkable.
You’ve also gotten your big girl laughter going, but only for the truly - according to Carlita - hilarious moments. Watching the cats play tag, truly hilarious! Being thrown and caught in the air by mum - truly Hilarious, but only before meal time.
I love to sit and watch you pick up your toys and examine them, moving them from one hand to the other. Whenever you see something worthy of your attention you pick it up delicately and you’ll twist it around and around until you’re satisfied and then you’ll shake it violently. Most often what interests you is not a toy per se, but a bottle of lotion or your baby wipes or my hair - and remote controls! Lets not forget the remotes!
Now we’re not just taking care of a baby anymore. You’re fun and interactive and you have OPINIONS! Just a couple of months ago I couldn’t imagine you sitting up or crawling and now here we are, you’re on the verge of crawling. I’m blown away by the fact that, hopefully, sooner or later you’ll be TALKING to me and not long after that you’ll start YELLING at me and dating BOYS. Where does the time go?
7 Months Old
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Dear Carlita,
Your 7th month has been all about the teeth, and nothing but the teeth. And what teeth they are! I spent nearly 3 years in braces and if your mouth keeps doing what it’s doing now, chances are you’re going to do the same. It’s the one thing I absolutely didn’t wish for you to inherit from me, that and my extreme laziness. If this means you haven’t inherited my laziness I think you got the better deal.
You’ve been sitting great for what seem like forever by now, and you roll from your back to your front but that has been the extent of your acrobatics. You haven’t been much for lounging forward, and I’ve been more than ok with that because that means we can hold off on baby proofing just a little bit longer (again with my lazy genes - hoping you haven’t got them). Well, it looks like our peace is about to be broken because you’re experimenting with getting on your knees and I can imagine where it goes from there.
We’ve given the whole solids thing a try several times, but it seem to be hit or miss whether or not you’re interested. At least when it comes to baby food in a jar, but recently whenever I eat something in front of you you start to make seal-like noises. Why, just a couple of weeks ago I could’ve killed you when I fed you cold cuts which contained some honey (oh man, did you love that or what?!).
Your vocabulary is getting quite impressive, and despite you supposedly not being able to make sounds with a deliberate meaning I’m still wondering if your “ma-ma-ma-ma” crying at night isn’t directly aimed at my heart, because it sure does feel like it.
Despite the nasty teething you’re a happy, smiley, funny girl most of the time. I don’t know who you got that from because your daddy and I are both a bit under the weather at the moment, impatiently waiting for winter to be over with. I can’t wait for summer to make an appearance and I’m anticipating your first birthday with much glee, but I’m sure that by the time we get around to that I’ll be ready to turn the clock back a couple of months because you’re growing up a lot faster than ought to be legal.
Motherhood is still wonderfully scary. I’m loving every exhausting minute of it. And to be honest, I’m very surprised I haven’t managed to drop you one single time so far.
