August 13, 2008

• It happens so fast

  In a child’s life, things are always developing, changing
  and evolving.  When you finally make note
  of it, you realize that it’s actually been happening for at least a few days, a
  week, a few weeks!  It was that way today
  when I had just finished changing Baby’s diaper.  I put her down on the ground to
  wash my hands and the next thing I know, she has disappeared from the room and
  is wandering down the hall into the living room!  She used to stay put.  She used to only crawl. She used to only sit
  at my feet, very close to where I was. 
  Now she moves so fast.  Now she
  walks instead of crawls.  And now she has
  no fear of being in a different room from her mama! 

  The other day while I was brushing my teeth, she was playing
  in our bedroom on the other side of the wall. 
  I heard her crawl towards me and poke her heard around the corner.  She usually does this to check to see if I’m
  there.  Then she disappeared behind the
  wall again.  A few seconds later, her
  head poked around the corner again, but this time she was walking toward me.  It was like one baby left and another baby
  appeared. 

  When did it become so easy for her to walk?  One day, she was accidentally taking two
  steps on her own on the way to one of us. 
  The next week, she was taking 15 steps across our living room.  And then sometime after that, she just
  started walking from place to place whenever she felt like it.  These days, she seems to want to walk more
  than crawl.  And it all happened so fast.

  She has this way of carrying things.  She always rests things on her shoulder,
  leaning the object on her neck.  Curious
  George, a ball, a cell phone, a blanket. 
  Today she was carrying Curious George all around the house.  She used to not even care about stuffed
  animals!  Suddenly, she holds them
  closely and kisses them affectionately.
  

  Here’s what I mean.  (You can’t see her face…so I think I can post it here…:)
  

  And it wasn’t that long ago either that she loved to
  self-feed.  This was when she first discovered
  her pincher fingers and wanted to use them all the time.  Unfortunately, she would often miss her mouth
  and food would roll down into her bib. 
  Nowadays, her use of her pincher fingers is so precise.  She can grasp the smallest food bits and put
  them squarely in her mouth.  Today,
  however, she purposely pretended to miss her mouth and stuffed the peas down
  her bib instead – simply because she didn’t want to eat them.

  And if that wasn’t surprising enough, earlier today, she came
  over to me and put her pincher finger and thumb of one hand together to hold
  her other thumb.  She looked at me as
  though she wanted to tell me something but I didn’t know what it was.  Then it suddenly dawned on me!  She wanted me to sing “Itsy Bitsy Spider” to
  her.  I must’ve understood her right,
  because when I started singing and doing the hand motions, she smiled and
  clapped her hands with delight.  She
  remembered it from yesterday, and she was able to communicate what she
  wanted.  Amazing!  She clapped every time I finished the
  song.  Funny that just the other day
  (although I don’t remember when), she didn’t know that clapping communicated
  appreciation for something.

  She turned eleven months on Sunday, and it seems that we no
  longer have a little baby.  She can wave
  goodbye and hello, blow kisses, voluntarily give kisses and kiss on command,
  snuggle and hug and point to things that she wants (I remember when I would
  point to things and she would have no idea to look where I pointed).  She knows how to be defiant and how to be
  obedient, how to be affectionate and how to be distant, how to communicate
  happiness, boredom and displeasure.  It
  all happened so fast.  I didn’t even have
  a chance to record when it first began, but I’m so proud of our little girl and
  all the amazing things that she can do.  

  Happy eleven months, little baby!  Mama & Dada love you!
  

  • 7:14 pm
  • 5 Comments