Cheerios...
One thing that just makes me smile now is the familiar feel and sound of the cheerios "crunch" as I'm walking through the house and suddenly the bottom of my foot comes into contact with a stray cheerio which has been so carelessly flung from Annie's hand. I sigh, and then do a half frown/half smile as I move into the laundry room to get the broom and clean up the mess.
This experience is all too familiar to us now, and is something every parent understands.
It's little things like this that you don't write down in the baby book, but they really are the iconic images of babyhood and the first chapters of parenthood. And for that, they are treasured and lovely.
Stolen Moments...
I can't say it's a new feeling to be overcome with sentiment randomly during the day... it's been happening to me since the pregnancy. I'll be doing something during the day and then will stop in my tracks, suddenly, and realize how fast time is slipping by.
I've started calling these "stolen moments".
One of the times this happens most frequently is when I'm putting Annie down for a nap or to bed. After I change her diaper, I put her in her swaddle and then nurse her. Sometimes she falls asleep in my arms while nursing, and then I carry her sweet sleeping body to her crib and lay her down. But before I lay her down, I just hold onto her. Just for a few moments. I feel her gentle sleepy breathing on my neck, and I take in as much of her sweet baby smell as I can. And I imagine that for a moment this has all passed me by already... I imagine that a few years have gone by (or many years) and that I've been given the gift of going back in time for a few stolen moments, to feel her again as a baby in my arms. And thinking of it this way... in the past tense... almost always brings tears to my eyes and helps me really realize how awesome and spectacular this time is. This has been an amazing "lens" through which to view these experiences.
Crawling (backwards)...
Little Miss Boo is SOoooooo close to crawling... it's adorable. She's getting more and more comfortable being on her hands and knees and she'll rock back and forth, and then push her lower body backwards and walk her hands back, then get back up on all fours again. So I guess it's more of a backwards squirm than a crawl. But I've heard lots of babies start crawling this way, and I know that once she gets it right she's going to be all over the place and we won't be able to contain her. It's been so nice these last few months, being able to sit her down on a play blanket somewhere, then walking away for a few minutes to brush my teeth or put laundry in the dryer, and knowing that she'll be in about the same place I left her when I return. But again... the timer is going tick-tick-tick... before we know it she'll be really crawling, and then walking. Some of our birth class friends have babies that started walking at Annie's age, though I suspect she will wait a few more months for that.
Annie is getting so vocal...
She goes through these phases where she'll get stuck on one sound and just repeat it over and over for weeks. Right now it's "Bah". So Johnny and I say, "She is the Boo who says, Bah!". (like from Monty Python and the knights who say "nee"). Ha ha. She also likes to show off and scream as high and loud as she can. Then she looks at us with this surprised look that says, "Oh my Goodness! Did you hear how loud I was? Wasn't that great!?!"
After doing some research which told us that she's too young to really understand discipline at this age, Johnny and I have taken to carrying ear plugs around with us and just ignoring her when she screams. It seems to get the point across... she doesn't carry on when she knows she won't get a response from us. But still... this girl has some lungs on her! Yikes!
Since the last blog entry we have made two big trips with Annie and we've got another big trip planned for the summer.
In January we went down to Texas for Johnny's Dad's surprise 60th birthday party. It was Annie's first plane ride and she was, as always, absolutely wonderful. She was able to take a few short naps during the rides (30 minutes or so) and the rest of the time, Johnny and I just took turns trying to entertain her with toys. Thank goodness there were two of us... I couldn't imagine having to do it alone.
Johnny's dad was so surprised to see us, it was awesome! I'm so glad we were able to go down and surprise him. I made this little shirt for Annie to wear that had a big birthday cake on it and said, "Happy Birthday Papa" on it. He loved it.
Then in February Johnny and I went up to Victoria for our anniversary, and we took Annie and my Mom with us. Mom's job was to watch the Boo while Johnny and I got to spend some time alone for our anniversary. And for the most part the plan worked really well! Except for one thing... poor little Boo was suffering from her first cold that weekend. Poor thing... having a cold and being away from her own house at the same time. But, as usual, she was a trooper. After about four days she got over the cold and we all breathed a sigh of relief having lived through the first of many colds that I'm sure we'll have to experience as a family.
Annie's repertoire of foods is growing fast... she's now able to share food from our plates as long as it's not too spicy and I know what the ingredients are. So I'll break off little pieces of chicken or fish from my plate, or give her little bits of mashed potato or other vegetable from my meal. It's great being able to share with her... I just love introducing her to new foods. I'm still making all of her baby food at home, so she routinely eats homemade sweet potato, butternut squash, carrot, peas, green beans, edamame, avocado, yogurt, cheese, garbanzo beans, pureed chicken soup, apple, banana, pear, grapes, blueberries, rice cereal, cheerios and raisins. I haven't found anything that she refuses to eat, though she's not crazy about the chicken soup for some reason.
I'm so excited about spring! Yesterday we had a nice warm day where the sun was actually visible in the sky (after the coldest and rainiest March on record). It warmed up to the low 60's I think... and my enthusiasm should tell you just how cold and rainy it's been.
Anyway... I took Annie outside and took her little booties off so she could feel the soft cool grass on her feet. Sooo cute.
The tulips are in bloom and I might take her out to a Tulip patch tomorrow to try to get some pictures. They're so lovely.
We're planning a big trip down to Texas for Annie's 1st birthday and we'll be stopping in Las Cruces on the way to see my grandparents, Mimi and Papa Joe. It'll be the first time for Annie to meet this set of great grandparents and I'm really excited about the visit!
I'll send details about the Texas trip in the next month or so... it would be great to see the TX crew while we're in town. :)
Well, I'd better wrap this blog entry up... Annie is waking from her nap and it's time for me to go pick her up and cuddle her some more. (ahhhh...)
With love -
Boo's Mommy
