scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

2.10.08

one year - Happy birthday, sweetie!

I got you a pair of socks with little tractiony bits on the soles, and there you are taking them off and chewing on your toes again. You were fussing because you unwrapped one present this morning - it was a sorting block set, stars and crosses and triangles and circles and squares - and you can see another present still wrapped up in the playpen and you had so much fun tearing the wrapping paper.

You are one year old and it wasn't a goal of mine to get more than a thousand pictures of you until i looked at Flickr last week and we had nine hundred and twenty-seven. So then i had to get to four digits. I think at baby group on friday i'll print out pictures of the other kids and give them to their moms, too, since i've taken so many pictures and a couple of them are pretty good.

I am pleased with how well i know myself, how well we know ourselves. We have done most of the things we wanted to do, as parents: i am working part-time, and so you are with the tagesmutter part-time, two days a week, and that is going very well for us. We are still breastfeeding a great deal, but you eat solid foods like in babyled weaning and also babyfood purees like in, i guess, traditional american whatnot, and are not picky about not eating things, and you will easily take a bottle from anybody, and that is going well for us. You will take a bottle of expressed milk, or a bottle of formula, or (as of yesterday!) a bottle of cow's milk, perfectly fine, so that is good. You get mostly organic baby food. When you eat what we eat, sometimes it is very healthy (steamed broccoli! whole wheat dark rye artisan bread! salmon! avocado! Gouda!), and sometimes it is not (sweet, delicious, chocolatey pastry). We use the babywearing Ergo quite a bit, and we use the stroller a lot, too - we use the Ergo when we go on the streetcar, or when you go to daycare, to the point that the other people in baby group were surprised that i had a stroller at all; but i feel like i use the stroller almost every day. You for a long time weren't Ferberred and now you are, and it wasn't inhumane really, and by now, at one year, that is working out okay for us, but really working well, i guess i should say. (You were really absolutely textbook Ferber.) You have your own crib in your own room, and that is good. You have a lot of toys, and a lot of clothes, and you like bathtime and going to the zoo and going swimming, and you are a pretty good traveller i think. Some of your toys are plastic, and most of them are not, and it's a decent balance, i guess, and i don't think any of it is really cheap plastic crap. You are well attached and confident and can wander off on your own if you're not tired or hungry, and can also smile and wave at people on the street, and the people on the street really like that. You play nicely and cuddle the dog and don't usually poke her in the eye. You have a bedtime routine that is working. You really, really like to read books (though reading, in this case, means turning all the pages, and then starting over and turning all the pages again, without waiting for anybody to actually say all the words on the page). You are up to date on vaccines and milestones, we've had your eyes and ears checked and they're fine and functional, you're not Spectrummy, and you have shown no signs of food allergies. You sleep through the night. You have no slutty Bratz dolls yet, though you do have a couple of shirts that say Princess from the relatives, and, yeah, you still wear them, because they are soft and warm and maybe even cute. You have some pink things, but i try to get you things that aren't completely baby-pink and frilly - so the other moms say i don't dress you like a girl, because there's just one ruffle and a couple of flowers on your magenta shirt instead of a lace-covered dress. (Or, when you are wearing something baby-pink and frilly, i try to pair it with something army-green. My baby wears warm, fuzzy-on-the-inside combat boots. Anyway, people think you're a girl more than half the time, these days, though i think that's because they think boys aren't friendly, here.) You know how the television works - you can turn it on, with your fingers and the buttons and you know exactly which button to push, and i'm not sure i even know which button to push - but i've got it set to digital radio, now, so there's no picture, because Mama is a dirty cheat, but anyway you haven't ever seen an entire TV program even halfway through, with the possible exception of when we're trying to distract you so we can cut your fingernails, but it doesn't usually take that long. You are the most beautiful thing i have ever seen in my life.

So i am happy and comfortable with the decisions we have made. And so far we haven't had to change our minds a whole lot; though i feel like we have chosen the Middle Way for almost everything: the babywearing/stroller thing, the breastfeeding/bottle thing, the working/SAHM/daycare thing, the babyledweaning/babyfood puree thing, the avoiding all sugar and juice/Coca-Cola Baby thing, the learn-a-few-signs thing, the cloth diapers at home/plastic when we're out thing, the sleeping by us for months/and then Ferberring thing, the your own room/in our tiny apartment thing. That feels about right, the Middle Way. And some days are postpartummy, when i'm depressed and missing your cues and doing everything wrong, and you are angry and fussy when you're teething or overtired, but most of the time, you're happy, and i'm happy. And Daddy is happy, too. And the doggie.

We were going to go to the zoo today but i think we'll go again on the weekend anyhow if we don't leave soon: we're waiting for a package from the grandparents that is listed on post.at as being out for delivery, but it hasn't arrived yet, and if they really sent that box they showed me a picture of then there is no way i can lug that home from the two-miles-away post office. Maybe we can make it there. But i'm going to try and make you a cake, too, so anyway we'll see how it goes.

And now you are waking up from your nap, and talking to the two plush dolls in your crib - one is pink and has a rattle; the other one has a beetle-and-dragonfly pattern and says Love Bug on the belly - and, happy birthday, Little E. Big E.

Labels: baby, milestones, toddler

scrawled @ 07:30