Dear Lina
You are thirteen months old! This post is a day late and a dollar short because, girl, you keep The Parents hopping these days. You don’t sleep, do yardwork, or make cocktails for us. You spend all your time and energy making noise, flailing your body, and flinging your toys. Sometimes all at once. Your father and I are trying to keep up.
You are eating! You like your vegies just as much as your fruit, and sometimes even better. You can feed yourself cheerios, although you still prefer to feed them to Lily. You’re not big on anything with a bread-like texture. You really like avocado, although I don’t really like sharing my precious avocados with you and will only give you supertiny bites. Sorry. You’ll understand this later in life. We are very supportive of your eating substances other than formula, though, since it is the most expensive food on the planet. We look forward to having our beer money again.
You are now a proficient scooter, and the other day you scooted yourself all the way down the hall, headed away from me. Since I am used to you having only the desire to come toward me, this was a wake-up call. There you go! We have redoubled our babyproofing efforts. We have lowered your crib another notch, just in case you try to fling your little body out of it. Not being able to get yourself out of your crib really, really pisses you off. We do realize that at some point you’ll figure out how to get out, and we’ll get to experience the “thunk†that every other parent we’ve ever met has deemed necessary to tell us about. All those other kids seem to have turned out just fine, so we’re trying not to worry about it. At least there’s a rug in your room.
You are getting taller! The doctor said you’d grow out before you began growing up, and we’re starting to see some of the “up.†Yesterday I packed a huge storage container of clothing, marked it “6-12 months,†and put it away for your little sister. Wow. Will I do this every six months? Where will we keep everything? When will you stop letting me dress you?
A few other tidbits before I have to wrap this up because you are STILL NOT NAPPING even though you’ve only had like one hour of sleep today. Good lord.
You love to hit the drum that Auntie Tuttie got you for your birthday. You like to touch our eyes and nose, and hear us say “eyes†and “nose.†We still haven’t found a water bottle/ sippy cup that you find as acceptable, and it’s not for lack of trying. You know how to blow your nose! (We hold the tissue for you.) You throw your ball instead of just rolling it. And I do mean throw. We have taken you snowshoeing! You rode in the backpack, and you loved it. Some of your favorite objects are the telephone, my car keys, and Lily’s lead. When we turn on the garbage disposal, you put your hands over your ears. You’re only interested in stuffed animals if we animate them and make them sing little songs. “Hi Lina, I’m Duckie!†You love that.
And we love being your parents, little punk. We feel lucky every single day.