atomic mama

You are fourteen months old! Already obsessed with technology, I gave in and bought you your own phone. This is exactly the kind of thing I would have totally judged other parents for, before I had my own kid. “That’s ridiculous! A baby with a phone?” Yep. (And it’s a flip phone, folks. My kid has a nicer phone than you do, sucka.)

All you do with the phone is “answer” it by saying “HI!” five thousand times. The thing I love is that each time you utter the word, it sounds genuine. Like you’re really happy to be talking to the person on the other end. Your enthusiasm is something to see. And it makes the purchase of that somewhat repulsive plastic flip phone worth it.

You are finally appreciating your mother’s fashion-forward ideas for your dress. You think you look cool in those over-dyed purple jeans. You think you look cool in everything. I’ve started putting barrettes in your hair because it’s growing down over your eyes, and at this point either I cut it or pin it back. At first, the barrettes were pure torture. You screamed as soon as you saw them. But I stuck with it, as your mother is wont to do, and now you smile as I clamp the thing down on your head. I say “Pretty!” and feel a tiny bit guilty because I know I’m just trying to con you into wearing it. I’m not sure it’s pretty. It’s just a cheap plastic thing I’m using to get your hair out of your eyes. But you, my sweet, are pretty. And remarkably so.

Some afternoons I just look at you and marvel at your beauty. The weight of it feels heavy on me. All I can do is look at you. Everything about you is exquisite to me.

You are babbling and pointing a lot. I think that you have a lot to say, and am looking forward to your ability to say it. Right now it all seems very important, what with the hand gestures and such. Your babbling is quite emphatic at times. I believe I’ve seen you make a speech or two.

You are pulling up! You are crawling. You are eating pasta and chicken stew and spinach and potatoes and cookies. You are eating the yuppie/organic alternative to goldfish, a product that resembles goldfish in every way but shape and price, “cheesy bunnies.” You have accepted the Nuby sippy cup. Sort of.

We took you to see your one and only great-grandparent last week. It was pretty much love at first sight for both of you. You spent the weekend in many pairs of loving arms, and relished in the attention of Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, and Great-Uncle Jim. We missed Grandma. Mama had nobody to have gin & tonics with. So sad. You did well on the flight out, although I do remember hearing the business travelers in front of us saying something like, “that’ll remind me to use birth control” when you were screaming. Oh well. Even as I was listening to their comments and looking at your red, scrunched up face, I thought to myself, “what? And miss out on this?” with a total and complete (and surprising) lack of sarcasm. You are a treasure to me, Lina. Screaming or not. I wouldn’t miss out on you for the world.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 19:04 and is filed under stephanie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.