💾 Archived View for alioop.flounder.online › motherhood › 11months.gmi captured on 2024-08-31 at 12:02:47. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2024-06-16)
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She is my big girl.
The way she moves so fast
Still crawls in her silly way
her one bear leg
usually holding something in one hand—
some fuzz, a leaf, a bit of apple—
but now she is so much quicker.
She will scale a tall flight of steps,
no problem.
Her feet are bigger now,
preparing to hold her weight
as she practices standing,
always on the tippiest of toes.
She is not ready to walk,
sitting down whenever I hold her hands;
she is welcome to take her time.
She holds her sippy cup with both hands
and actually drinks the water sometimes,
though she usually ends up soaked
either way.
Now when she smiles
it is a toothy grin
despite still only having two little teeth.
But they have grown in further,
and I can envision her smile to-be.
You can practically see the other teeth
about to break through
her top gums—white and swollen, alien-like—
when you dip her upside down
as she giggles.
She knows how to play now
Will crawl away and look back at me
with an impish smile
and I stomp-crawl towards her
and she squeals with delight—
the best sound in the world—
and turns away
sometimes crawling a few paces before turning back again
sometimes too excited to move
and will flop forward
overwhelmed with giggles
and I’ll catch her and tickle her belly
and snort in her ear and kiss her cheeks:
caught by the kissy-monster.
Waving and clapping are still regular mannerisms,
but peek-a-boo is all the rage.
Whether I am hiding behind something
and popping into view with a gasp,
or a blanket is placed over her head—
“Where is she?”
—and her yanking it down with a smile—
“There she is!”
again and again.
She has enough hair to brush
and to add a small clip
with tiny matching bows.
When I don’t know what to wear,
I pick colors that match the baby:
jeans and a grey sweatshirt,
purple t-shirt and bright pink scrunchie,
green flannel to complement her green overalls.
Food is an adventure.
Aiming for three meals a day
by a year,
we eat breakfast in the morning,
heavy snacks for a lunch on the go,
and sit all together for dinner.
Always messy,
always funny,
always exhausting,
always wondrous
to watch this tiny person
explore new tastes and textures,
a baby bird,
biting and pulling with her two new teeth,
reaching for anything that looks better.
She smiles and throws and drops it all
when she’s done.
She still drinks from the bottle before sleep
Now sitting up taller
and leaning back on me like a recliner
as she eats.
More decisively pulling away
and popping the binky in her mouth
when she’s done.
Her teeth don’t let her sleep 11 hours
anymore.
She wakes at 3:30, or 4:30, or 5:30
or somewhere in between,
just once,
but early in the morning,
so that it’s difficult
for me
to fall back asleep.
I can see more and more of her face
peaking over the railing
when she stands in her crib
waiting for me.
These days, her little nose pokes over,
and then her mouth when she stands
on tiptoes and lifts her chin.
Now that the weather has turned
for the best
with sunny days and blue skies
and big puffy white clouds,
she will only entertain relaxation in the stroller,
talking to herself
and munching on snacks
as her father or I push her
street after street, and around the park.
We will sit outside on our blanket,
in our shorts and short-sleeves and bare feet,
an island of bright orange fabric spotted with warm red Om symbols
in a sea of rich green grass.
She will stay on the blanket, but
wander to the edge to tug on the stems,
or pinch a maple seed from last season
or pick a tiny purple flower or yellow dandelion.
She has discovered dirt!
She has discovered that it does not taste very good,
but it is very good for throwing
and for submerging tiny fingers, which can
wiggle and grab
and can always be washed clean later.
She crawls after friends,
she smiles at grown-ups,
she reaches for her family.
She wanders away and looks back,
and wanders some more.
She searches for beauty
and follows her curiosity.
She holds up what she finds to show me.
It is time to discover the world together.