Lemony Webbles

nine months in and out

Nine months in

(Here's me looking about to pop- Teresa was born six days after this picture was taken. As with all things Teresa, though, labor was a gradual process that started oh so gently about three days before things really got going.)

Nine months out

(As always, it's really hard to capture her smile because it's accompanied by a full body wiggle, but here's a blurry one.)

Teresa turned nine months old today, so following Suzanne's lead, I have a few reflections on her equal time in and out. She is, and has been from the start, very peaceful, patient, organized, and even-tempered. How can a baby be organized? Her movements can be purposeful, and her sleep schedule totally in sync with the family's. I see peacefulness in the way she eats just enough to satisfy her tummy- not begging to nurse endlessly. She's patient in that she accepts the fact that sometimes she has to wait for mommy's attention and she often decides that she might as well be happy and play while she's waiting. (I think people tried to get me to train my first two to act this way, but it just wasn't them. They have different strengths.) She's generally a happy person, pleasant and feeling good and right with the world from the minute she wakes up to when she gets sleepy at night. She's also very loving and encouraging. When she's been trying to communicate something to me and I get it right and understand her (like that she wants to nurse or needs her diaper changed), she gives me a huge smile and sometimes even laughs with delight. She seems to like people and wants to interact with them. She's doing a little stranger danger thing right now where she leans into me if other-than-parents get too close, but she's very mild about it. And there are some other-than-parents that she will happily go to, like Katie today. (I was afraid to make eye contact with her when this happened today because I thought it would jinx it.) There are lots of people that she will talk to from the safety of mommy's arms too, like everyone else on the Urbana LSA. She makes her voice heard there as the mini-member in training.

(Dressed up for the Birth of Baha'u'llah)

She's making lots of new sounds- da da da, ma ma ma, boo, sh sh sh, ba ba ba, na na na. I can't really say that she says words yet, but she seems to be gradually getting closer to her sounds being attached to meanings. That's the thing about her- she takes a good long time to do things gradually in everything she does, from learning to nurse to sitting up, so there's a peaceful feeling to everything she does. She's not rushed. It's really a blessing to live with a person like this because it makes me feel so...content with life and thankful for everything and everybody around me.

(Playing with a miniature white rose)

As a person, I really like Teresa. I feel like we will always be great friends. This child started out making me eat apples every day with really powerful cravings. How wholesome is that? I love this kid.

I've come a long way in my development as a parent over these six years and I'm really glad that I have a child that will get the benefit of that growth. Which is appropriate since her name means 'harvester'. I need to take a good picture of her while she's still little, sitting on top of a great pile of apples.

Posted by Bahiyyih at November 20, 2005 08:27 PM