It's hard to believe that nine months ago you were still just a crazy alien baby in my tummy. You make me laugh and smile more than anything on this earth. Some days when we just sit and play together, my cheeks hurt from all the smiling!
You are such a little lover! This month you started kissing things. Yes, things, not just people. You love kissing Daddy and I, and even Daisy, but you also love kissing the mirror (vain, much?), your dolls, and pretty much anything that you hold in your hands. Of course, that has nothing to do with us constantly saying, "awww, give it a kiss!" Isn't that why people have kids? So they can tell them to do funny things?
The first few weeks of this month, I was busy finishing up my student teaching, and you were busy causing havoc at our apartment while Daddy was trying to work. So, to help us out, we brought in the Grandmas. Each Grandma stayed with you during the day for a week so that we could wrap this crazy chapter of our life up and remain sane. During one of these weeks, while I was at school, you decided to pull yourself up for the first time on our footstool. Again, I missed a milestone, but again, I was so happy and excited that you had Daddy and Grandma there to cheer you on, I didn't mind much. Besides, I was the one who walked into your room a few days later to find a smiling baby standing up inside her crib begging for me to pick her up. That might've been one of my favorite moments with you ever. You were soooo proud of yourself standing there all wobbly and slobbery. You were all like, look out world - here I come....once Mommy gets me out of here. Now, you pull yourself up on everything, but it's more like look out Daisy - here I come. Poor Daisy.
Not only did you start pulling yourself up, but you started walking behind push toys without any help from us old people. While visiting the farm for Thanksgiving, you even created your own push toy by standing behind an overturned laundry basket and pushing it across the floor. Who needs fancy toys when you're got an old household item and a big imagination. It's so fun watching your brain work. Sometimes it looks like maybe you are sitting there solving quadratic equations or finding the square root of pi before you make a move. While visiting your little buddy Austin, somehow between the two of you, you unscrewed two door stoppers and were having a little sword fight with them. While crawling at the speed of light across the wood floors of our apartment, you will stop suddenly and become lost in the pattern or irregularities of our old wood floors. I'm just waiting for the day for you to sit up and tell me it's time that I do a little better job dusting.
Thanksgiving was probably the favorite day of your life so far. You got dressed in a lovely fall ensemble, played with other kids, and ate a lot of yummy food. Those are probably your three favorite things to do. You are just in absolute awe when you see other kids. Maybe it's because you're not around them often, or maybe you're just going to be a social butterfly like me. Whatever the reason, you just totally light up when you see other human beings close to your size. You even love the creepy toddler sized doll, Crystal, that lives on the farm. You guys have some sort of connection because whenever she's in the room you just can't keep your eyes off her. After playing for an hour in a toy tugboat, you sat down to eat a Thanksgiving feast of sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, turkey, and rolls. You were in heaven. Somehow a piece of watermelon made it onto your plate which led to a complete meltdown midbite (so dramatic), but other than that, it was a good day. It was so strange for me to sit at the adult table with you and Daddy after sitting at the "kids" table for so many years. I guess you finally made me grow up...a little.
Not every meal this month was so pleasant though. You're started to recognize food by color or smell or some other keen baby sense and have learned to intercept any spoon carrying unpleasing bites on it. Your put your hands out and grunt like "no way - no how, mister!" You mean serious business. Your eyebrows get all frowny and you scrunch your nose up. I know I sometimes throw you curve balls by serving up strange things like kiwi and whole grain pasta, but why after three months of loving green beans are you suddenly denying them entrance to your mouth? I wish you could just tell me that you're in the mood for Mexican and that's why you tossed the green beans to Daisy. I would be on board with that because 99.9% of the time I'm also in the mood for Mexican. Also, you were with me at the animal clinic when the vet told Daisy she had to lose some lbs. Quit feeding her so much or you will have to get up and take her on those extra long morning exercise walks in the nice cold January mornings. I don't think you were really paying attention to anything other than how much the other dogs perked up when you squeaked Sophie the Giraffe in the waiting room. Remind me to never bring that toy within twenty feet of an animal clinic again.
Sometimes I watch you sleeping and search your face for the tiny infant we brought home from the hospital so many weeks ago. You may not need me every 20 minutes like back then to feed you or change you or swaddle you tightly, but I realize now that I need you every minute of every day. I love you, sweetie.
xoxo,
Momma
p.s. Obviously, I am not a world class photographer, but these outtakes from your photo session make my heart happy. So much sunshine - so many smiles. You are my sunshine, Gracie!
