Hello Darling,
I read a blog post recently about how children thrive on quality time, how their little hearts overflow with joy and rightness when we play with them. (I'm paraphrasing here.) It reminded me of our play time. The adorable little jokes we share, the smiles and giggles and games. We play especially in the car when I sit next to you in your carseat. I've noticed I've set up a lot of silly cause and effect games and you seem to love them. You've also become really interactive. Today I put your sock over my nose, and you took your other sock and put it over your nose! How funny! You also have always liked holding your hands up while I bounce my hand back and forth between them. But today, for the first time, you took that beloved hand and gave it a huge hug. What a sweet gesture!
You walk all over, well, and fast. It is hard to remember a time when you didn't walk. I can hardly remember those newborn days now. You like to sit on things - pillows, boxes, anything really. You like to put toys in things and take them out. I've found all sort of things in the pots in the (forbidden) island cabinets. One of my favorite walking memories was when I got an idea that you would like a walking trip and we got some food from Wawa and went over to a park with a big grassy knoll. It was kind of chilly, but you loved standing by the side of the picnic table and having lunch and then you were delighted as we explored on your terms, letting you walk through fields and across baseball diamonds. You got awfully dirty, black lines under your nails and across your bottom (you were falling pretty frequently then - you hardly ever fall now!). But you were so delighted, your eyes sparkled. You picked up sticks and rocks and black walnut fruits. You ran around a fence. And then I picked you up and galloped around and you loved it so much you bobbed up and down when I would stop. There was so much laughter, Baby Girl. It was a very good day.
You added Mama to your vocabulary recently. In an overnight where you struggled with sleep, you just kind of said it. I was pretty blearly-eyed then but you've said it often enough since then for me to appreciate it. You've added other things since then and seem to copy words and phrases we say, as if trying them out. You say Amen at the end of prayers. And today after I nursed you, I asked if you wanted more (sign for more) milk (sign for milk) or if you were all done (sign for all done) and you said, "All Done." I was amazed. You do seem to like your signs. You are even interested in ones I haven't gone out of my way to teach you, like those in your Bedtime Signs book. You sign Moon and Stars and Light pretty unprovoked when we read it. Are these the things you like?
But it is clear you understand so much more then what you say. I am always kind of awed when you do what I say - when I tell you to put the block in the box and you do it, when I tell you we are going to go get some water and you walk with me, when I tell you the fire is hot and you waggle your finger at it and (usually) back away. How did this happen, darling one? How did you go from that new baby to someone learning language? I guess it shouldn't be a shock (we have all done it, right?) but it is so amazing to me. Without forcing, without hardly trying (though I did take the advice to heart to narrate everything I do in the early months and did it compulsively), you have learned language. It amazes me. I wait for your words, Dear. I wonder at the person you are showing us, word by word and gesture by gesture. My heart bursts to be a part of this adventure.
You had your second Christmas. You loved the tree and pointed at it over and over. We bought candy canes for you to hang on lower limbs which you really enjoyed. We bought an advent book and did 3ish out of 25 days. At that rate, in 8 years we will be doing all 25! Your Daddy is planning to make ornaments for our advent remembrances, one for each day/lesson. I didn't grow up with an Advent celebration and neither did your dad, but I wanted us to have a way to center and focus as a family. You sort of got the unwrapping of presents part. We would have to pull an edge of wrapping paper off and you would finish the motion, but you aren't yet in the frazzled wild animal stage of unwrapping that some kids get to. And you want to sit down and play with each and every present. We had to urge you on or take them away - otherwise each Christmas would have taken hours! My special present to you were two dolls I made out of yarn. You seemed to like them. I was far more pleased with the color and style of the girl doll (I almost didn't give you the boy and considered making him in to a girl), but you have a strong preference for the boy doll. (The differences are the colors and that his bottom half is braided in to legs instead of left loose in a dress.) Last I saw you play with the girl, you were shoving her in your play microwave. Oh well! I guess that shows me. I also went out last minute with your Grammy and got you a car. You seem to really love playing with cars. I want to try to be open to your preferences, instead of assuming things, like that you will like the girl doll better or that you will not like playing with cars. I am sort of looking forward to your clothing choices when you are old enough to dress yourself. =) One of your favorite toys was one your Aunt Beth spied at a thrift store and is the same toy that they have in the church nursery. I didn't get it at first and we went back the next day to pick it up. You accidentally saw it and pointed at it emphatically. Problem is, I sprayed it severely with disinfectant. All. Over. On every surface and in every pore. Not considering that it had holes for the speakers (it sings Sesame Street songs when you manipulate levers to make the doors/windows/trashcans pop open), I shorted something out and was devastated to find out that only half of the characters worked on Christmas Eve. And it leaked disinfectant spray. Ick! Christmas morning, one more character worked. And by Christmas Eve, by george, Oscar the Grouch was back with us as well. I guess it was sort of like Mommy's little Christmas miracle.
It's getting late, but I just wanted to quickly capture some memories. The time goes so very fast. It is dizzying in the grand scheme. And I pray that every day I cherish the small moments and, as the title of this blog suggests, capture them for the future.
I love you.
Mama
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