A Few of My Favorite Things

Okay, I admit it; there isn’t a thing about Caroline that I don’t absolutely love. The more she develops and shows her personality to me, the crazier about her I become. At nine months, I am forced to pay close attention to her each day (altering my previous lifestyle in no way) or I’ll miss a new trick, a new tooth or some other wondrous milestone. It’s a great feeling knowing everything is growing as it should and I can’t even describe how amazing it is to watch as she learns and figures out how to do something she’s never done before. I spend my days staring at her every move or listening to her belt out the loudest and longest sound her vocal cords will allow as we cart around town together. My body can never resist the urge to break out into convulsions as I conjure up a laugh that comes straight from the bottom of my belly. In the midst of all this I sometimes remember that Caroline and I aren’t the only two people on the planet and notice we’re attracting quite a few stares. For once I am completely oblivious to how I may be affecting those around me and it is so liberating. If I knew babies were this much fun, I would have given up my hopeless plea for a dog years ago.

Just so I’ll never forget, here is the abridged list of my favorite things Caroline has learned to do in the course of nine months:

1. Chuckle. There is no better sound in the world, though she makes us work for it!
2. Use her voice…and I mean use it! The loudest, longest sounds come out…in the grocery store, at the library, in the middle of my conversation with someone. I admire how outspoken she is!
3. Scrunch up her nose when she smiles
4. Kiss the air
5. Dance (a.k.a. bobbing up and down)
6. Wave…though it is usually to herself
7. Sit up. Finally, after six months she was content playing on the floor by herself (until she quickly learned that she could hold our fingers and stand up)
8. Pinch tiny objects like crumbs to pick them up…though she hasn’t figured out that my freckles don’t come off…and that is a painful lesson for me!
9. Feed herself raisins. Once she gets them to stick onto her thumb, she just pops it in her mouth and slowly takes her thumb away. Sometimes the raisin even stays in there.
10. Blow. She inhales the tiniest breath and purses her lips ever so slightly to let it out
11. Shake the heck out of her stationary saucer. She grabs hold of either side of the top toy bar and once she gets it going there’s no stopping her. If those toys weren’t attached, they’d be launched across the room
12. Unsuction the bowl from her high chair tray. I let her have it as soon as she’s finished with her cereal. The bowl and any cereal particles that remain in it always end up on her head.
13. How could I forget??? “Mama” was her first word at 7.5 months. Of course she learned it at the time we were trying to let her cry herself back to sleep, making it all the more heartbreaking for me. Finally, she says “Dada” too with her tongue out to help her with the d-sound. It’s cute enough to have warranted the wait for Chris in my opinion.

And my favorite thing she has not yet learned is that she is the boss of her thumb. The minute she gets tired, it’s like a magnetic switch is turned and she watches as her thumb so slowly pulls itself towards her mouth. She fights it with every last ounce of energy, but when she turns her head away it only causes the other thumb to join in the game.

These are the simple pleasures that put life into perspective. There is nothing more entertaining, nothing more important, and especially nothing that can make your heart feel like it could just burst right open than watching your baby grow up.