28th
You are your own girl. (E @ 10 months)
Dear Elise,
It has been a crazy month for all of us as we settle into the new fall routine with your sister back at Montessori School and travel through (until the holidays). Writing these newsletters has become just one more thing on my to-do list that never seems to get done. Here we are, already at nearly 10 ½ months!
I did, however, write a list of all things that you have enchanted us with these last few weeks. You are STILL not sleeping through the night, you little piglet. I nurse you to sleep at approx. 8p and “top you off” again at around 11 before I go to sleep. You STILL wake up at least once, anywhere between 2 and 4a. What is UP with that? Quit it! You are fat enough. My theory is that you like to snuggle and that your teeth are really hurting you. After months of just the two front bottom teeth, your top two front teeth finally poked through last Monday.
You are SO different from Hannah. You make a beeline for things that she largely ignored, dangerous things like outlets and nasty toilet brushes. You are fearless about falling off of and into things. With Hannah we barely had to childproof the house. With you, we have to childproof even other people’s houses. I can only say, thank goodness our current home has no stairs…
Here is my list:
- We love how you wrinkle your nose while inhaling and exhaling – a kind of snorting. It is so funny, and you always have a mischievous smile on your face as you do it. This started to happen during a recent cold as you tried to rid yourself of an annoying booger in there.
- Your super-speedy crawl: when you really get moving, your right leg sort of straightens in this hobbling, awkward-looking motion, but it is a sign that you are in a hurry to grab something within sight.
- Your bright blue eyes the color of denim, and your “dark blond” hair, which is starting to thicken, especially in the back. There are subtle curls that flip up near your ears.
- Your careful, delicate fingers practice your ever-more-accurate pincer grasp to grab food or small bits of things from our floor that likely should not be in your mouth… This skill is helping you with a skill you have always craved, and that is to feed yourself.
- Your sheer strength. Just like with your sister, changing your clothes or diapers is like changing a wild badger. You seem wildest with a really full, soiled diaper. If I use the changing table, you grip the round, Jenny Lind railing and use it as you stiffen your body into a plank and try to flip yourself. I keep a firm and desperate hold on your feet to prevent this flip as I try to clean your poopy butt and you holler at your frustration in this. I am sure if someone were watching, they would say you look like a trained gymnast, your body prone, hovering above the obscene diaper below.
- Your adorable clapping with those precise and precious hands. Pat-a-cake was the only “game” you really like. The whole “how big is Elise?” with the correct response being to throw your in the air is entertaining for you to watch as we try to coax you into it, but you have yet to reciprocate. You at least smile smugly at our show.
- Your response to any semblance of rhythm. When you hear music or one of my many strange rhymes, you MOVE. You love music and it trumps any other sort of distraction you may be facing.
- Your love for Hannah: when Hannah awakes or arrives home from school, I am NO ONE. The two of you play so well, even at your young age, together in her room. Papa and I love the fact that neither of you will ever remember a time without the other.
The biggest lesson for us: you are your own girl. You are the yang to your sister’s ying, both in appearance and personality. Everything we thought we knew about raising babies through our experience with Hannah has been modified or tossed out. We have an exciting time ahead of us, both challenging and wonderful, and I cannot imagine our family without you.
Love, Mama
