Dear Little Miss,
When you were an infant, you (like all infants, I’m told) hated loud noises. The coffee grinder, the vacuum cleaner, the lawn mower, they all made you cry. (Everyone mows the lawn with their baby in a stroller nearby, right?).
But today when I got out the vacuum to do a quick sweep of the kitchen floor, you came charging toward it in your best, most intimidating crawl. (You started crawling 3 days ago. It has been a looonnnng 72 hours.)
You shrieked the I’m-gonna-get-you howl you persist on using with the kitty cat (despite my patiently logical explanations that such noises deter rather than attract the object of your desire).
You chased me and the vacuum through the house shrieking. I stopped to take a picture.
Baby Vs Vacuum
I think you were after the cord. You adore electrical cables of all kinds, little rabbit. Life on the edge, I guess. It keeps Mutti hopping.
In the past few months, you have made it very clear that it would be better for everyone if you fed yourself. You loudly advocate for control of the spoon. You have been holding your own bottle since you were four months old, and pitching it onto the floor since six months.
You croon along with Mutti’s singing and clap joyfully when Mama comes home from work and light up like fireworks when we visit your mom Lisa.
More and more often, your moms look at one another and sigh and say: “there she is, our little girl. All grown up.” Overhearing us, strangers laugh, because they just see a baby. But we see YOU, little one, the fierce personality that has always been there, just waiting for us to get out of the way (and provide enough milk, thank you very much) so that you could emerge.
In honor of YOU and your fierce personality, Mutti got you this shirt:
Miss Independent
Almost a year old!
It was *technically* a size too small, but LOOK! It fits. Oh how it fits.
Here’s to you, little one: to crawling, to charging, to independence. We celebrate you and all you are. We LOVE being your family.
So charge ahead! But hang on to Mama and Mutti’s hands for a little while longer, ok? We aren’t ready to let you go into the wild alone just yet.
Much love,
your adoring Mutti