Vivienne at Eleven Months

Dear Vivienne,

I’m definitely starting to get emotional. We’re closing in on your first birthday, and I’ve found myself clutching you a little closer, hugging you a little harder. You’re getting so big, and I kind of can’t understand how that happened so quickly.

The other day, I was hanging out with you for a few extra minutes, lying on the floor of your bedroom while you sat there playing. It was after bath—you were in your jammies, and I had just brushed your hair. You reached for the brush and grabbed it, running it over the side of your own head. You were trying to brush your own hair. You knew exactly what it was for. This is just one example of the things you do now that make me think, “Wow. She’s actually becoming a PERSON.” You’re getting familiar with the world around you and how it works. I’ve been through this incredible development once before (with Nora), but it isn’t any less amazing with you.

You’ve had your two bottom teeth for months now, but any others have been slow to follow. But guess what? We’re welcoming two top teeth now, finally. And they are apparently bothering you because you have been biting me while nursing. A LOT. It hurts like hell and I’ve made you cry a few times now with my startling gasps of “Ouch!! No!” I’m fighting through it, as I hope it will pass.

Overall, you seem less interested in nursing now. You eat quickly, and you don’t dilly-dally. The minute you’re done, you sit up, roll over, or wiggle away to move onto the next thing. With the exception of the morning feeding (when you’re starving), I could skip or forget about a nursing session and you probably wouldn’t even notice. You’re much more into real food these days. You’ll gobble purees, but now you are LOVING fresh fruit as well. You eat strawberries, blueberries, banana, watermelon, plums, nectarines. You’ll shovel it all in faster than we can cut it up for you, and then you yell for more. We’re working hard on teaching you the sign language for “more,” but you choose to be vocal about it instead. We’ll say “More?” and give you the sign. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” you’ll say loudly in return, waving your arms wildly or hitting your hands on your tray. OKAY THEN. It’s not sign language, but you’re definitely communicating.

You’ve tried vegetables, too. Sweet potatoes, peas, carrots. We’ve tried little bits of meat. You seemed to like egg. At this point, we’re giving you samples of pretty much anything that’s soft enough for you to eat. By next month, I’m sure we’ll have expanded your horizons even more. We have to try yogurt and more cheese! By this time, your sister was eating dairy regularly but we delayed it with you because you had such problems with it when your reflux was bad. Speaking of your reflux… you barely ever spit up anymore. It just seemed to fade away. Crazy to think about how we used to be cleaning spit up off of everything all the time and now we just… don’t have to. Just another sign of you growing up.

You love baths and the baby pool. You have learned how to SPLASH, and you do it well! You don’t care that it gets water all up in your face, eyes, mouth. You’ll take a quick break to blink or cough and then you’re back at it again, getting everything around you all wet.

You crawl on your hands and knees exclusively now—no more belly crawl. You’re pulling up on things, but again, just on your knees, or kneeling on one knee while the other foot is on the floor. If we stand you up and put you up against something you can hold on to, you will stand there for a bit if you’re in the mood. If you want to be picked up, you crawl over to me or Daddy and grab our legs and pull up. It’s terribly cute, and pretty nice to still feel needed by you sometimes.

Nora is good at watching over you. She’ll tell us if you’re getting into something you shouldn’t. She’ll grab things away from you if they’re too little for you to play with (even if “it’s too little for her” is just an excuse for her to take something away from you because she wants it!). But she’s pretty good about sharing with you, too. You think she’s SO FUNNY sometimes, and reward her efforts with the greatest belly laughs. I pulled your hair up into your first “ponytail” the other day, and as I was doing it, Nora said to me, “That’s going to be so cute!” She and I laughed really hard once it was up and we saw how different you looked. Then she couldn’t stop talking about how cute it looked on you. You and Nora are lucky to have each other, and I can’t wait to see how your relationship continues to blossom as you grow.

This month marked your first real illness—with antibiotics to boot. You got a double ear infection. You were pretty miserable for a few days with a high fever. You gave us a lot of problems getting the Amoxicillin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen into you at first, but you eventually got used to it and accepted it more readily. I tried to hold off on giving you meds until you really needed them. But you were just burning up so hot and acted so miserable that we had to turn to the medicine. All better now, though!

The next few weeks are going to be busy. We’ll be going on a couple of vacations, we’ll be enjoying summer, and… well, we’ll be planning a party. I’m certainly going to cherish these last days of your infancy.

You’re growing up. But I hope you don’t mind if you’re always my baby.

I love you so, so much.
Mommy