Hello sweet sleeping bunny, and Happy 17 Month Birthday! We just tucked you in after a nice bath and you seem to be sleeping soundly. Your bath went well – they’re going much better now that we’ve figured out how to help you endure the trauma of hair-washing. Several months ago, out of nowhere, you started crying every time we’d wash your hair. You seemed panicky about it, signing the word “done” almost as soon as we’d gotten you in the water, because you knew the hair-washing was coming. As I’d lean you back, you’d start to squall, and wouldn’t stop until you were out of the water and bundled in your towel.
But one night, we decided to shake things up a bit and started singing “Elmo’s Song” while we washed your hair. You seemed so startled, you forgot to cry. For a week or so, you still whimpered through the hair-washing, but without the screams. Then, you began to relax even more.
Tonight, as I leaned you back to wet your hair, you matter-of-factly stated, “Melmo.” It was one simple phrase, but a very clear demand for us to sing the Elmo song. So we did, and you grinned all the way through your bath.
Songs seem to have that affect on you often, which is nice. When you get upset, we’ll burst into a melody and it can radically change your demeanor. I’m glad you like music – your Mama and Daddy do too!
Know what else you like? Having your feet tickled and nibbled. But you’re so coy about it! Your Daddy loves to pretend to eat your toes whenever you’re lying down, and you’ll snatch them away and laugh. Then slowly, they’ll inch their way back toward his mouth, like “I really want you to do that again, but I don’t want you to know that I want you to!” So he’ll eat your feet again, you’ll snatch them away, then slowly bring them back again. It’s adorable. I love to watch you two play. Makes me feel like a very lucky girl.
About a week ago, your Daddy taught you something new – he taught you to stick out your tongue. He’ll ask you, “Where is your tongue?” And you’ll grin and stick it out. Except this can go on and on, which is why last weekend I got lots of pictures of you with your tongue out.
Can we talk about something a little more serious for a moment? Mama’s still sorry about popping your hand the other day. This month, you’ve started pushing boundaries more, and we’re going to have to figure out this discipline thing together. Me, you, and your Daddy. You’re still pretty compliant most of the time, but you’ve thrown a few little tantrums too. Most of the time we just try to ignore them, even though I still hate to hear you cry.
Last Sunday, I was trying to fix your lunch as your Daddy packed the car so we could begin our 7 hour trip home from Tennessee. You were wandering around Nana’s kitchen, and started opening and closing drawers like you’d been doing all weekend. And all weekend, we’d been telling you no and trying to redirect you to something else. I told you no several times, but you just stared at me with your hand on the drawer. Open. Close. Open. Close. I walked over and got down at your eye level and told you sternly to stop. You did it again, and I popped your hand for the first time.
You froze, looked at me, and then the corners of your mouth turned down. You started to whimper, and my heart broke. I scooped you up, close to tears myself, and told you I was sorry.
The thing is, I don’t think hand-popping is bad. It won’t be my first choice for discipline, but there may be times when it’s appropriate. But what felt wrong about this instance was that I got impatient. I didn’t feel well because of my oncoming cold, I was stressed about our long car trip, and I was feeling emotional because I’d lost my wedding band (only temporarily because Nana found it – thank goodness!). Popping your hand wasn’t totally reactionary. I thought about it before I did it. But I still think there were some other tools in my disciplinary toolbox I could’ve used before resorting to that kind of punishment. But I was in a bad mood, and I took it out on you. And I’m sorry.
I’m sure there will be more hand-poppings and maybe even a few spankings to come, and it’ll probably upset me every time. But I just wanted to tell you again that I’m sorry I got impatient, and thank you for forgiving me.
Okay – after all that seriousness, I want to get back to the fun stuff and tell you about two of my favorite things that you’re doing this month.
You have definitely become my lovey-dovey little girl. You’ve always enjoyed getting hugs and kisses, but now you really enjoy giving them a lot. Before, you would pucker and make kissing noises from afar, but you didn’t seem to relate that to actually kissing my cheek. This month you’ve figured it out, and you LOVE to lean in and kiss my cheek. My head. My leg. My foot. You walked over to me the other day, picked up my hand and planted a sweet, tender kiss on the back of it. You’ve also figured out how to blow kisses, and it’s adorable.
I’d like to say you reserve all this sugar for just your family, but you like to share your sugar with the world. Your teacher at school says you kiss her all the time, and that you even like to kiss your classmates. No wonder we are always sick. That’s okay, I’m glad you love people.
The other thing you started doing this month is feeding your stuffed animals, and I freak out every time you do it. It began at Nana and Granddaddy’s house last weekend when you got your play kitchen. You’d been cooking all day, and we were upstairs in the playroom where you were busy stirring pots and pans. Then without prompting, you walked over to a big stuffed bear and held the pot up to his mouth and smacked your lips to make eating sounds. It was so cute! You walked away, cooked a little more, then suddenly stopped and looked back at the bear and asked, “More?” Then you walked back over and gave him a second helping.
I melted into a puddle on the floor.
It’s so cool to watch you begin to play pretend. It’s also neat to see you thinking about giving to something or someone in that way. Now it’s a regular part of your play routine. Every night when you cook, you make the rounds of the room to give everyone a taste. Your Daddy and I think it’s some of the best cooking we’ve ever tasted.
A couple of days ago, I wanted to see what you were doing this time a year ago, and re-read the letter I wrote to you at 5 months. You’d just rolled over for the first time, and were beginning to get good at eating out of a spoon.
What big changes you’ve made, little girl! I was just starting to feed you, and now you’re feeding your bears! I’m excited to see what you’ll think of next.
Thank you for a terrific month, full of kisses and hugs and lots of Camille-goodness. Sleep well, little peanut, I’m looking forward to more adventures with you tomorrow. I love you so much.
There have been many moments when I’ve thought to myself, “I wish we were on a reality TV show so camera crews could just follow us around.” I say this for two reasons – 1.) because Camille is always doing something cute or hilarious and sometimes I’m too lazy or too caught up in the moment to go running for the camera, and 2.) I’ve really been wanting good pictures of all three of us. Usually, one of us is behind the camera, so family pics are hard to get.
Thankfully, Camille’s baby school fundraiser was finally worth something to us! We’ve had to sell wrapping paper, etc. to raise money for her school, but this latest fundraiser gave us an opportunity to purchase photos of the students taken by a professional photographer. For some extra dollars, he was also willing to take family portraits.
It was a gamble, because I wanted family photos, but I knew nothing about this guy. And could we really get any good family pictures at school? I’d imagined we’d have them taken downtown or in one of Savannah’s trademark squares or in the comfort of our home.
But I was pleasantly surprised. The photographer was so easy to work with, and took us out onto the school’s playground for our shoot. The problem is, there are so many good pictures I don’t know which ones to post. Or to print. They are all my favorites!
We got several good family photos. I love the one above with us on the slide, and I also really like this one of her crawling through the tunnel.
This one of her playing on the playground is just breathtaking to me. I love that little smile and those bright eyes.
This next one was one of the photographer’s favorites, and I love it too (of course!). But I didn’t like his interpretation. He said, “The photo says so much. It’s like she’s walking away, and it’s time to let go, mom.” No way!
That’s one reason why I like this next picture – because she still looks little in it, flanked by Mama and Daddy.
But – sigh – the picture that makes her look the most grown-up of all is the one he took of her inside the classroom against his black backdrop. It just looks so much like a yearbook photo, and I’m totally not ready for that. She’s so beautiful, but she’s gotta be my little baby for a while longer.
Those are some happy faces, and I don’t think the smiles were just for the camera. We celebrated Christmas in Tennessee last weekend and had a blast.
I took a lot of pictures to make up for my camera battery dying at Thanksgiving, and I think I got some good shots – like this one of Jeff, Michelle and Baby Stella on Sunday morning.
It was my turn to have a bad cold, so I had to keep my distance, but still managed to zoom in for some nice photos of little Stella Bella.
Camille still isn’t too sure what to make of Stella. I think she finds her interesting from a distance, but is not pleased if Mama or Nana holds her. Camille is starting to learn Stella’s name, and it comes out as something like “Te-la.” We were upstairs playing Sunday morning when Stella started crying downstairs. Camille stopped what she was doing and listened intently for a moment, then asked, “Te-la?” Smartie!
People keep asking me if Camille is getting excited about Christmas, and I still think she’s too young to anticipate some big man in a red suit breaking into our house Christmas Eve and leaving gifts. But, I do think she is really enjoying all the gift-giving and surprises. She absolutely cracked me up over and over again whenever she’d get a new toy, because as soon as she saw it her eyes would get big and she’d say either, “Ooooohhhhhh” or “Whoooooooooa!” She’d even say it when she saw a wrapped gift, even if it wasn’t for her.
She got a lot of fun presents, but her favorite was the play kitchen from Nana and Granddaddy. She’d say, “Cook! Cook!” and stir imaginary food in the bowls on the stovetop. Much of the day Saturday she carried around her toy blender, and my usually generous baby refused to share it with any of us. If we’d ask for some, she’d shake her “no” and clutch it even closer.
It turned pretty cold on Sunday and we even saw a few snow flurries. The snow was so light that when we were walking to the car to go to church, Lee looked down at his black sweater and said, “How did I get lint on my sweater? I haven’t been holding anything white…” Then he realized they were snowflakes, not lint. I still enjoyed seeing the little bit of wintry white, and the chilly weather gave Camille a chance to show off her new red coat.
And I just loved this picture. We were all in Granddaddy’s office before church, and sat Miss Camille in Granddaddy’s big leather chair. We handed her a phone, and she was ready for work. We’re so silly!
I’ll be the first to admit that I was out of control. I’m just getting over a recent obsession – the obsession to find the perfect Christmas gift for Camille.
I know it’s crazy, because I should enjoy these last few years where she’ll be happy with whatever Santa leaves beneath the tree. She’s not firing off letters to the North Pole demanding a Nintendo Wii or a Tickle Me Elmo Xtreme or a pony. I should relax.
When we were visiting Nikki last month and we saw how much Camille LOVED the kids’ playhouse, Lee and I knew she needed one. Seemed like the perfect Christmas gift. I wasn’t too worried about finding one because I knew I’d seen displays in our local toys r us with plenty of playhouses – so closer to Christmas we would just go get one. Right?
Wrong. Apparently, as we found out last week, our local stores don’t stock playhouses this time of year. Since most of them are designed to be outdoor toys, I understand that they might be more popular during the summer. But this is Christmas! A time for toy stores to stock up on their big toys! And it’s Savannah for-crying-out-loud where the temps have been in the 80s for the last week.
Ok – no problem, I told myself. We’ll just order one online.
We did some browsing and found out Amazon.com doesn’t offer free shipping on this particular type of item. Great. Neither does Toys R Us. Neither does Target. Oh wait – WalMart does! But only on the super-expensive playhouses. No thanks.
How bad could shipping be? Well, we selected one $99 playhouse and calculated the shipping… a whopping $117. For shipping alone. More than doubling my $99 purchase. I mean, I understand the item is big, but does Santa have to add another reindeer or something? Or have the prices of corn gone up so much he has to pass the expenses for feeding his reindeer on down to the parents? Bah humbug!
That’s when my obsession began. I HAD to have a playhouse, and I HAD to have free shipping or find one locally I could pick up. I called every store I could think of that might have one in stock. No luck. Not in Savannah, not in nearby cities either.
Every spare moment I had was spent on the computer searching for 1) an awesome playhouse, 2) at a good price, 3) with free shipping.
Finally, amid one of my bleary-eyed google searches I stumbled upon allchildrensfurniture.com. They offer free shipping on items over $39, no apparent strings attached.
They had several cute playhouses that were, of course, out of stock. But there was one – one glorious playhouse – that just might fit our needs.
I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite of all the choices I’ve seen out there so I hesitated for a moment, but realized my obsession needed to come to an end. It’s a good price and shipping is free and I think she’ll enjoy it.
So I made the purchase, feeling quite relieved when I got the final confirmation screen with no shipping surprises. I kept waiting for one of those last second messages like, “Sorry! This item no longer qualifies for free shipping…” But that didn’t happen, thank goodness, so I’m feeling much better about life. Unfortunately, the playhouse may not get delivered in time for Christmas morning, but at some point I had to be at peace with the purchase. We’re not even going to be at home Christmas morning, and I’ll take advantage of the fact that Camille won’t know if she gets her present a few days late.
I can’t believe I let myself get that stressed out over a Santa present for a 16-month-old. Next year, we’ll start our Santa search much earlier. Lesson learned.
We started off our Christmas revelry a little rockier than usual. I typically love picking out our tree and wanted to take Camille along for a big tree-picking adventure. But the weekend we’d planned to decorate, she was sick and we weren’t sure when she’d feel better, so we left her at home with Grammie while we rushed through the tree lot to pick one and hurry back. It sat naked in our living room for a couple of days before we finally got around to decorating it. Not my usual m-o.
But the tree looks great and is sparkling at me now, and last weekend, my holiday spirits were lifted. It finally felt like Christmas-time (although no thanks to the 80 degree weather!). Camille is feeling much better, so we got to re-enter society and enjoy some of the holiday happenings around town. We went to a Christmas party Friday night at a friend’s house and she was awesome. Then Saturday, we went to City Market for the Christmas festival and got this pic of Camille with Santa.
She wasn’t too sure about the guy, but seemed ok as long as Daddy was holding her. There were a few animals kids could touch – nothing big, but some cute bunnies and lizards and such. Camille couldn’t decide if this mouse was ok, but she finally touched his soft little fur before Mama broke out the hand sanitizer.
Sunday night our neighborhood held a Christmas party, and rented a trolly you could ride around to look at Christmas lights. Everyone on board sang Christmas carols, and Miss Baby seemed to enjoy the view.
This weekend we head to Tennessee to celebrate Christmas with Nana and Granddaddy, and I can’t wait! There’s a 50% chance of snow on Sunday – maybe we can get snowed in a bit…
Lee and I received several sets of beautiful crystal glasses for our wedding. They have a wonderful weight and feel, and I felt it would be a shame to only pull them out for special occasions. So we made them our everyday drinking glasses and have enjoyed them for 6 years.
But what I didn’t know was that those glasses could have been slowly poisoning my family.
As part of my job, I just happened to drop by a local seminar about lead poisoning prevention one recent day. I wasn’t there for the whole event but did catch a portion of the presentation during which the state expert described a child who’d been lead-poisoned because his mother served him orange juice every morning in a leaded crystal glass. I thought about our glassware – but it’s new, and I rationalized that this unfortunate scenario probably involved some antique glasses. Glasses made before we knew any better.
But the Health Department held a free lead screening for toys this weekend, because we’d gotten so many calls from concerned parents worried about lead in toys. I was walking out the door to go to the grocery store, and at the last minute decided to grab one of our double-old-fashioned glasses to have it zapped. Just for peace of mind.
The lead technician performed the test and said, “Oh yes, it has lead in it. But I can’t tell you how much because it’s off the charts. More than my machine can register.”
What the hell?
I was mad. Partly I feel stupid for not having known better. I’d always heard the term “leaded crystal,” but again, I assumed that was an old term and no longer applied. Why would manufacturers still put lead in a product that is designed to go into your mouth, knowing of the potential risks? Am I missing something here? As part of my job, I’ve written press releases about the dangers of lead poisoning, written web articles, created flyers – all trying to educate the public about the dangers of lead in toys and lead in paint. And then I’d go home every day and drink a glass of lead-laced coke or sweet tea. I did it while I was pregnant. I’d make lemonade and let it sit in my refrigerator in a crystal pitcher for weeks, soaking up all that metal. I’ve even let Camille drink out of the glasses a time or two. But not again, that’s for sure.
I googled it when I got home, of course, and quickly found a warning not to use leaded crystal as everyday drinkware. Why didn’t I know this?
The one comfort I have is that Camille was screened for lead poisoning 4 months ago because we live in an older home. The test didn’t reveal any concerns, and I don’t think she’s had enough contact with the glasses yet to do any real damage. And I guess what scares me (and makes me feel fortunate at the same time), is that I almost didn’t catch this. If I hadn’t shown up at that presentation at that exact time and listened to that precise story, it’s likely I would never have known to check the crystal. Our whole family would have continued drinking out of the glasses every day, doing potential damage to us all, but especially to Camille.
It reminded me of moving into my dorm room in college. Not only were we hauling a mini-fridge and microwave up the elevator, but we were settling into the first office space we could call ours. I remember feeling the excitement of ownership of my dorm room – it was mine to decorate, to trash, to clean, to live in without anyone looking over my shoulder. Of course I didn’t OWN it, but it felt like mine.
Thursday, Lee signed the lease on his first office space. Until now, he’s operated his business out of our home. But that business is growing, and he needs a professional space to meet clients. He also needs that valuable separation between work and home. Clients call and email at all hours, and it’s hard to get away from the work when his office is also in his living room. His computer stares at him all evening, reminding him of the unfinished projects. Now, hopefully he can shut it down at the end of the work day, close the door and walk away.
I think it’s really cool to set up an office space. Instead of your employer dictating how it will look and feel, it’s up to us. We can arrange and decorate however we please. Beer in the fridge? Why not? There’s no one telling us we can’t.
The office is in a great location in Savannah’s City Market. It’s a suite in one of the historic buildings, with two walls of exposed Savannah gray bricks. The biggest danger is that it’s a half block from the Savannah Candy Kitchen, where you gain ten pounds just by walking in the door. Mmmmmmmmmm. Caramel apples.
One negative about working downtown is parking. But there is a hotel parking garage directly across the street from his office, and we were able to snag a monthly spot. I was super psyched! We can park downtown whenever we want (even holidays!), and don’t have to circle looking for a spot or dig around in my wallet for a quarter. I was almost as excited about the parking pass as I was the keys to the new office.
Unfortunately, Lee hasn’t been able to enjoy the new office space yet. Camille got another TERRIBLE stomach bug Thursday, so we were pretty consumed with that. We moved a few things in over the weekend, and Camille seemed to be improving, but had a setback Saturday night. Sunday morning, we had one of our worst visits to the doctor’s office yet. I don’t even want to talk about it. By the time we left, they felt she was just still working through the virus, but it took several tests to reach that conclusion and lots of tears (almost as many from me as from her).
Today, Camille seems to be doing better, but poor Lee is sick. I’m just waiting for my turn. The good news is, Lee appears to be through the worst of it, so hopefully he’ll be in his office tomorrow. So jealous!
Camille seems to be learning more and more words every day, and is getting really good at understanding what we say to her. I think we’re getting better at understanding her too, and it’s been really cool to actually communicate with her.
Last night, I tucked her in and told her night-night, and came downstairs. I was listening carefully on the monitor for some sign of dissent, because we just cut out her nighttime bottle two days ago. All seemed well, and Lee and I were just settling onto the couch for a little tv when we heard her on the monitor starting to wiggle. Soon she was saying, “Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama,” into the monitor.
Hmmm… what to do? As usual, I started going through a mental list of what might be wrong. It’s so often a guessing game. Should I go in there? Let her work it out on her own? Did she need something? Was she wanting her bottle?
She wasn’t talking in a frantic way like she does when she’s really upset. It was a very matter of fact “Mama.” Like, “Mama, I need to tell you something.”
Then she said, “Mama. Mama. Mama. Diaper. Diaper. Mama. Mama.”
Did she really mean it? I had to know. Sure enough, her diaper was wet. I changed her, put her back in bed, sang her a song and walked out.
And she went to sleep without another peep. It was really neat not to have to guess, but to have her actually tell me what was bothering her.
Now if only she would tell me why she still wants to get up so early.
It was a picture perfect Thanksgiving, which is why I was quite upset with myself for not bringing a back-up camera battery. I was able to snag this cute photo of Camille and Granddaddy snuggling for warmth during a quick walk around Jeff’s neighborhood.
But then my camera died. I brought extra lenses. But no extra battery, and no charger. How could I let this happen?? My first chance to photograph Miss Stella, and I really blew it. Not to mention the fact that I have no pictures of the rest of my family from this Thanksgiving. Real bummer.
But, despite that malfunction, it was a great trip. Stella is SO CUTE. And so tiny! My heart just melted when I saw her and I was in love. I didn’t get to hold her a whole lot because somebody was a little jealous. I don’t think it would have been so bad if we hadn’t been trying to keep Camille away from Stella because of her cold. If Cami spotted me with her, she’d run over and immediately be intercepted or I’d jump up and try to move Stella away. This understandably hurt her feelings. That’s okay, I didn’t mind handing Stella off to any of the many eager arms and giving my baby extra cuddles to make sure she felt loved. I still love holding her too.
I did bring my video camera though, so I at least have some kind of record of our holiday. Here’s some video of Stella Bella, followed by some clips of Camille at the playground with Michelle’s niece and nephew (who were so GREAT with Camille!)
World’s Smallest Sneeze and other Thanksgiving Day Excitement from Ginger on Vimeo.
The trip went really well except for sleeping at night. Miss Camille would go to bed perfectly, but wake up at some point in the night very upset. We’d struggle to get her back to sleep, and she’d still wake up between 5 and 6, ready to go.
Friday night was the worst. She was sleeping in the pack-n-play in our hotel room, and woke up around 1 a.m. crying. She usually cries a combination of “Mama-Daddy-Mama-Daddy,” but not this time. I don’t know if she had a bad dream or what, but she started sobbing and yelling the name of every Sesame Street character she knows. It went something like this:
“Melmo! Bi-Bur! Na-nee! Burt! Ooki! Go-go! Melmo! Melmo! Melmo! Melmo!” (Translation – Elmo, Big Bird, Ernie, Burt, Cookie, Grover, Elmo, Elmo, Elmo, Elmo). She doesn’t watch the show very often, but she has several books and LOVES all the Sesame Street characters. Apparently, loves them a whole lot.
I laid there in bed thinking, “Well, I’m not going to get up and go get her because she’s not calling for me.”
But it went on for a while and I knew the puppets weren’t coming, so I put her in bed with us. And she screamed so loud I knew we’d woken all the hotel guests. She finally settled a little, and then started pushing my nose and saying, “Mo” (her version of “nose”). We’ve been teaching her about body parts, but that was not the appropriate time for a review.
Then, the smoke alarm started chirping at us. Thankfully not to alert us to a fire, but to the fact that it’s battery was low. I tried to ignore it, not wanting to get Camille stirred up, but the noise was like fingers on a chalkboard. Finally, when Camille started crying again anyway, Lee unscrewed the alarm and removed the battery. And it kept chirping. So I threw it under the bathroom sink. I could still hear it, but at least it was faint.
Nana and Granddaddy were in a room across the hall, and said we could bring Camille to them after 6:30. I was tempted to knock on their door, say “Konichiwa,” hand her over and remind them that it was at least 6:30 in Japan.
After about an hour of all this, Camille finally went back to sleep. I don’t know what it was about that hotel room that kept her up – probably just the unfamiliarity of it all. But enough time has passed now that I think the whole Sesame Street thing is pretty funny.
I am thankful for my family. And Camille is thankful for Elmo.
Hello sweet sleeping Princess, and Happy Month 16! You finally seem to have quieted down after another coughing fit. I’m so sorry you’re still going through all these winter/childhood illnesses, and I wish there were more I could do for you. This cold is pretty nasty, but somehow you still manage to be your sweet perky self (aside from your weekend napping lapse), and for that I am grateful. We’ve had a good month, little peanut.
I mean, even in the doctor’s office, look how sweet you are. Your Daddy took this pic with his cell phone camera during a recent visit to our pediatrician. We were back in a room, waiting for her to come in, and you were sitting in the kid’s chair reading a book. Chilling. I can’t say this lasted for long – soon you were bored and ready for the next thing, but it was super cute.
Not even your cold will keep you from wrestling with me every night. After dinner, when we’re playing on the living room floor, at some point you’ll start crawling all over me, sitting on my head, laying across my stomach, and just generally wrestling. I love it. Then at some point during our tussle, you’ll pull my shirt up and point to my belly button and say, “butt.”
And I laugh. We tell you over and over that it’s a belly button, but why waste all that energy when it’s more fun to call it a butt?
I’m amazed every day by the new words you’re learning. You’re still a voracious reader, but your favorite thing to do these days while reading (or maybe it’s our favorite and you just play along), is to point to things. We’ll ask, “Where is the ball? Do you see a bird? What does a cow say?” And you answer so well!
You’re getting really good at animal noises. So far you seem to have mastered dog, cow, sheep, duck and horse. Just last week, I realized you had learned another one -my favorite by far. We were at Nikki’s house and I was changing your diaper in Nate’s room. You kept pointing across the room and making this bizarre gurgling noise. I couldn’t decide if you were feeling congested or had a lot of drainage or what. I picked you up and headed around the room trying to figure out what you were pointing at that caused you to make such strange sounds. Finally, we landed on a ceramic pig and you got all excited. You were snorting! IT CRACKS ME UP! Every time. Every single time you do it I laugh. It’s hilarious to me. Thank you for all those good belly laughs!
You really enjoyed hanging out with your friends Nia and Nate. It’s so much fun for me to see you interacting with other kids. One day, you and Nate were playing in his room when he suddenly took your hand and asked you, “Walk? Walk?” Then he started walking with you around the house. I swear, it was so cute I actually teared up. Yes, your mama is a softy. I manage to compose myself quickly enough to grab the video camera and capture this bit of your stroll.
Cami and Nate from Ginger on Vimeo.
I do believe you are starting to develop little friendships. There is a mom at baby school who’d been telling me for a while that she thought you and her daughter Christina were friends. I thought it was a cute idea, but I wasn’t sure if you were old enough to really start preferring one child over another. But now I feel differently. Last week, I walked in to your room at baby school at the end of the day. You and all the babies were in your chairs in the table while the teacher cleaned up the room. You didn’t see me at first, so I quietly watched as you turned toward each other, and you stretched out your arms and she did the same. You folded into each other in an embrace and giggled. It was ADORABLE. The teacher was watching too, and said, “they’ve been doing that for the past 10 minutes.”
Unfortunately, I also think you may have some foes too. Earlier this week I found what looked like a bite mark on your back. Alarmed, I asked your teacher and she seemed shocked, and said she didn’t see it happen. Then she made me feel worse by saying, “What we’re having a problem with is hitting.”
I asked, “Is Camille doing any of the hitting?”
She said, “No, but sometimes I wish she would. Not that I want her to learn to hit, but we have some bullies in this room.”
I was horrified. I know kids hit and bite at this age, and I don’t want to be a parent who overreacts to every little thing. It’s part of growing up and learning to co-exist, right? But the way she said it, I just pictured you being terrorized by these “bullies” all day. I wish you could tell me about it so I’d know the extent of the problem. But for now I guess I will just keep a close eye on you, and if we find more marks we’re going to have some decisions to make about daycare.
Meanwhile, you really seem to have a handle on this walking business, and are setting your sights on running. You do this cute thing that is somewhere between a walk and a run. It’s kind of like a gallop. You know you can move your legs in a different way to go faster, but you haven’t quite figured out how it all works. You are precious!
And when did you get so big? Just look at this pic of us going down the slide in Forsyth Park yesterday. Your legs looks so long! Soon you’ll be zooming down that slide on your own.
I love this picture of you and your Daddy. I took it by the fountain yesterday when you were getting tickled. You liked it.
Are you excited about this Thanksgiving holiday? I am! We’ll leave Wednesday to visit Uncle Jeff and Aunt Michelle and meet your new cousin!
I showed you this picture the other night, and said “This is Stella. Can you say Stella?”
You said “Ella!”
So smart!
I’ve been worrying about your cold, and wanting to be sure we don’t give it to Baby Stella. So as much as I’d like to watch you interact with your new cousin, I’m afraid you’ll only be able to watch from afar this time. But soon enough, I hope you’ll be great playmates.
I love you sweetie pie. Thank you for being the kind of girl who makes me laugh and warms my heart every day. Thank you for being my daughter. Sweet dreams.
