© 2008 denise

Letters To My Daughter: Month 13

We just blew way the heck past your actual thirteenth month birthday. How did that happen? YOU’RE NOT OLD ENOUGH TO BE ASKING SUCH QUESTIONS.

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Right now, we’re more like thirteen and a half months into the writing of this Letter. We have a lot to cover, so I’ll summarize in a nice and tidy list:

What’s AWESOME This Month

1) The relationship you have with my boobs is NOW OFFICIALLY OVER. It’s done. I was afraid I would miss nursing you. Isn’t that crazy? That I would miss being the one person who could instantly smooth over any bad mood AND put you to bed in a comforting way, who would have guessed? So far it’s only been 2 weeks of booblessness, but you don’t really to seem to miss it much at all. (I won’t mention the part where you yanked my shirt down this morning and giggled at my right boob.)

Now I’m going to share something dreadfully adorable with my readership that may embarass you when we bring this up in dinner conversation when you’re sixteen: Do you remember the moments just before I would nurse you? You would giggle. No, really. You did. You would get really excited and giggle in anticipation of boob. It was so odd, but it always made me feel like my heart would burst with happiness that anyone would be so glad to see my boobs.  Now that I don’t nurse you anymore… you have transferred that special giggle to other things. For example, you giggle in anticipation for breakfast in the morning. Specifically, you giggle for bananas. We’re not talking about that Gerber-fied mush in a jar.  We’re talking authentic Chiquita bananas. YOU LOVE THEM. YOU LOVE THEM MORE THAN MY BOOBS.

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2) Do you even realize how cute you are when you talk? I mean, I don’t know if you’ve actually said much more than “Bisshhh bissshhh” or  “Bay Bee Buh Buh Bah Buh” but I think we had a “Dah Dee” last night. Oh, yeah, and on occasion I have heard a “Mahmahmahmahmah” out of you too. You seem to understand a lot more than you can say right now, so I’m not concerned. If you take after your Mama in any way, you most likely won’t have a problem with talking.

Really, take it from anyone who knows your Mama.

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3) Walking! You’re not doing it yet! But you are TRYING. You love to practice walking. I love to practice with you, although I have to take breaks to wipe tears of laughter from my eyes because when you walk, you have the determined gait of a besotted sailor.

4) Crawling! At high rates of speed AND daring heights! Currently, you have become bored with the pedestrian “flat” landscape and have opted to scale the graduated terrain of the central staircase at the Winthrop Manor. It would be irresponsible of me to suggest that you scale the mount unescorted, so to ease the concern of our dedicated readership I will assure them you never climb them alone.

5) One more thing: You’ve started eating WAY more food than before. I think the uptick in eating is related to your imminent growth spurt and your walking practice.

What’s NOT AWESOME This Month

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1) The sheer size and volume of your waste output has increased THREE FOLD. And by THREE FOLD I’m referring to the number of diapers you can soak though in a single night.

2) TEETHING. Oh My Dear Goodness, teething is such a bad time. Between the fever spike, the loose stool, the resulting diaper rash from the poopy diapers and then the pain…damn molars!  The only upshot to the teething is you’ve found a way for us to reuse the endless political propaganda mailers IS BY CHEWING THEM INTO A PULPY MESS. Take THAT John Patrick Carney and your NON STOP JUNK MAIL!

Uhhhm… That’s pretty much it. I really can’t think of anything that was NOT AWESOME this month. I mean, aside from me not getting around to writing this two weeks ago.

What’s AWESOME Right This Very Minute

You sit about 6 feet from me, sitting with your Fisher-Price nursery rhyme radio. You are wiggling back and forth in time to Pop Goes The Weasel, and it is ridiculously sweet. You got moves, girl.  That will come in handy if you’re ever challenged to a street-hop dance off.

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Love,

Momma

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