Well, Rosemary, this is the last of your monthly birthdays before the big ONE. I can barely believe it. I’m going to spend the rest of this month holding onto my little baby as much as you’ll let me and trying to convince you to stay tiny forever. So far, it isn’t working!
Your nap schedule has pretty much stayed the same since last month, which is awesome. I feel like I have a different baby around now that you’re napping. You were always good, but we were both so exhausted. By the end of the day, you were crying tired little tears, and I was a zombie from trying to entertain you for that long without a break. Now, though, you are the happiest little baby. You wander around our den giggling up a storm, content to play with the same toys over and over and over again (sorry, baby, mommy got tired of them about a day after they entered our lives, so I let you enjoy them on your own while I watch more and more, ha!). I could not be more grateful for these naps!
Speaking of naps, one of my greatest joys is getting to cuddle you while you sleep in my arms. It doesn’t happen super often – maybe once a day – but when it does, I’m in heaven. If you do fall asleep in my arms, it’s usually while nursing, but yesterday you fell asleep after eating and I watched your eyelids get heavier and heavier until you fell asleep. It was the cutest thing I ever saw. I don’t know what will happen once I stop nursing you before naps/bedtime, but I hope you let me rock you to sleep sometimes!
The moment I’ve been waiting for finally arrived this month….you said MAMA!!!! I know you don’t know what it means when you say it, but I loved it. You do this thing where you practice different volumes of speaking, so sometimes I’ll look over and you’re just mouthing “mama”, and then next you’ll kind of whisper it, and then it’ll be a full fledged yell. It cracks me up, especially the whisper.
Another funny thing you do is play peekaboo in the car. You’ll make these little noises to get my attention and then lift something over your head (blanket, stuffed animal, whatever you have). Then once I say “where’s Rosemary?”, you’ll lower it and laugh laugh laugh. It’s adorable.
You started pulling up a few months ago, and I was convinced you’d be walking by your first birthday. But I think you have other plans. I try to walk you around holding your hands, and you just cry and dead weight. I think maybe it’s because it’s not on your own terms – you’ll walk behind your push walker just fine! Or maybe you just want me to pick you up for a cuddle. Who knows! You’ll walk on your own time!
You still just have the one tooth, but it’s been coming in more and more! Everyone gets so excited when they see it. People also get excited to see your smile because it is, seriously, so goofy. I got some good pictures of it this month. Everyone (myself included) reinforces the habit by making a squinchy face back to you. You have a “normal” smile too, but the squinchy smile is so Rosemary to me.
This month, you started swim lessons and you love them! I wasn’t sure what you’d be able to do at this age, but they already have us fully submerging you after just two lessons! At first, you are very surprised by the submerging, but after a second or two, you have the biggest smile on your face. In fact, you smile all the time in the pool! You splash and kick the whole time! I’m excited to join the neighborhood pool this year.
Chris has been traveling during the week, but we’ve been having a lot of fun over the weekend together. It’s been super warm for February, so we’ve been visiting parks each weekend. I think you like the fresh air, and I enjoy the change in scenery.
Rosemary, I can’t even believe you are almost a year old. I’m scared that we’ll blink and you’ll be leaving for college. I hope that you always know how much we love you and how happy we are that you are in our lives. Happy eleven months!
