Dear Little Princess,
You are growing so very fast, Mary-girl. You weigh 17 pounds, according to Papa & Nanna’s vegetable scale a few weeks ago. But those thighs are simply adorable. And you are still quite the petite little princess.
Tooth #5 (upper left side) came in right before you turned 11 months, with little to no problem. But Tooth #6 (upper right)? It’s giving you a terrible time. Making you look rather sad and sick in your 11-month pictures with Piglet. I’m wondering if perhaps it’s a bit of a flu bug that Aunt Mouse had a week ago, too. But I know your tooth is hurting you. You don’t want to chew on anything hard. You bite on a teether and then start crying. And the numbing gel gives you a brief respite, creating moments of happiness and even some smiles.
You’ve always been our serious girl. You’re a tough audience when it comes to making you laugh. You don’t like to fly in the air or do anything daring. You’re happy and content, you’re just not always laughing and smiling about it. You enjoy life, you just take a more serious and contemplative side. Perhaps you’ll have a more melancholy/analytical personality, and those tendencies are already showing up!
Last night you had a fever of 100.9. You didn’t want to eat or do anything. I couldn’t comfort you at all. Or get you to fall asleep, despite the fact you were exhausted. Finally, I decided to give you another bath, because a bath always makes you feel better. Sure enough, it did. You quieted instantly. And I think you would have fallen asleep right there in the kitchen sink with your duckie. But I decided to get you out before Mommy fell asleep. You weren’t very happy about that. But clutching some clothespins made you happier. You adore clothespins. Finally, you ate some “nummers,” relinquishing the clothespins as you ate, and fell asleep soundly enough that I was able to lay you down in your crib so we could all get some rest.
You’ve finally done a bit better about sleeping again this last month. You’ve even been known to sleep from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.—except when your sister wakes up and wakes you up!
You and your sister are quite the pair for getting into trouble. “What’s Mary up to?” is Ruth’s “code” phrase to tell us that you are into something you shouldn’t be. Such as your favorite: pulling CD’s off the rack or emptying the DVD’s out of their basket (and taking the DVD’s out when they aren’t in latching cases!). It took a lot of hand-slapping throughout the last month, but you’ve finally learned to leave my cookbook shelf alone. You are learning respect for the rest of our bookshelves, too, after getting in trouble many times for ripping a bit more of To Kill A Mockingbird’s dust jacket! You are fine with board books now, unless they are already ripping—then you try to finish the job. And, when your teeth really hurt, chewing on a board book sounds like the best thing ever.
Your sister has a lot to learn about sharing with you, so most of your cries throughout the day have something to do with the fact that she’s just grabbed a toy from your hands, put a toy away so that you couldn’t play with it (she’d rather not play with her toys than let you play with them!), or pushed and pulled you away from whatever she didn’t want you doing. She has a lot of lessons to learn right now, too—mostly about being gentle and sharing. Some days are better than others. This morning, she walked into Mommy’s room where you were snuggling with me, and quickly ran back to her room, returning with her beloved “yellow flower blanket” (that was mine when I was a baby!) to share with you because “Mary likes snuggling with my yellow flower blanket.”
Daddy is your favorite person. You light up at the mention of his name. And when he arrives home, oh your day is made! You hold up one hand (like the Indian sign “how”) to say hi. You always wave bye bye, especially to your daddy. And oh what a snuggle bug you are! If anyone gets at all close to you, you lean over to them, trying to lean into their shoulder to snuggle. You give the best little hugs and the sweetest little snuggles. You make our day and make us melt into a puddle all at the same time.
You are our precious little princess and our sweet little snuggle bug. We love you, Mary-girl.
Lots of love,
Your Mommy
Isn’t it funny how different our children can be? It sounds like my middle daughter was a lot like Mary. She didn’t cry too much when she was a baby, she just wasn’t easily impressed! When she was getting her one year pictures last year, the photographer asked me if she knew how to smile! She isn’t quite so serious anymore, in fact she’s full of giggles and mischief now, but she was definitely full of serious thoughts that first year!
Totally loved reading this blog post.
I have two nephews, 6 and 2 and little ones are sooo adorable. Gotta love Ruth’s code for Mary doing something naughty. 
Precious!
Your girls are growing up so fast… where have the days gone? I’m sure you cherish each one; even the hard days of fussiness and teething. Hopefully that 6th tooth will make it’s way in soon and give little Mary a respite.