16 Months.

My Naomi-Roo, you are 16 months old.

It hurts my heart a little bit, because already when I try to think back on when you were really little bitty, (although you are still pretty little bitty) it is hard to remember.  I’d be even more sad if you weren’t such a wonderful toddler, but you are.

 

 

It’s actually difficult for me to think of you as a toddler just yet, even though you are, because you are still so little.  You are itty bitty and petite.  People marvel all the time at the fact that you walk, because they assume you are less than a year old!  You definitely take after me, little one.

That’s ok, what you lack in size, you definitely make up in VOLUME.  As in, you are LOUD.  I think that part of it is being the third youngest, soon to be the fourth – you want to make sure you are heard.  And let me reassure you child, you are heard.

You also have absolutely no shortage of passion.  Everything you do, you do passionately.  When you are happy, you are exuberant.  When you are mad, you are furious.  When you are sad, you are so pitiful. 

 

 

And when you are dramatic, oh my, you could rival any drama queen I’ve ever known.  You have got the drama down.  Again, I think that some of it is survival instinct.  You’ve got to hold your own in a house full of girls – but you can go from giggling to bawling and back to happy like turning on and off a light switch.  You’ve actually got me a little worried about ages 2 and 3 – but I’m sure your just getting it all out now…….right?

Most of the time you are joyful.  So, so joyful.

 

 

You’ve started talking some, which I love.  You can say Mama, Daddy, Hi, Yeah, No, ippy-pup (sippy cup), owwww, and a few others that I’m sure I’m forgetting.  You understand everything we say now.  And one thing is for sure, it is always abundantly clear exactly what you want, and that you want it right now.

 

You’re still nursing, and you seem to be hanging on a little more than your sister did.  I think that you are more jealous of me that your sister ever was – which could make for an interesting transition when PoppSecret #3 gets here.  I’m not sure you’ll embrace being a big sister right away – but hopefully eventually you’ll be friends.

 

 

What do you love right now?

 

You’ve started playing with baby dolls.  You carry them around giving them hugs and kisses.  Very cute.  Although more often, you are being the baby doll for your eldest sister – which is also very cute.

 

You like to sit and look at books with me.  I soak it up.  It’s hard to find a quiet moment around here – but I love spending them reading books with you.

 

 

 

You love your Mama.  You are quite the Mommy’s girl.  You want me to hold you, well, pretty much all the time, and if I’m there you don’t usually want anyone else.  Although you do love your Daddy a lot, too.  Every day when he gets home from work you run to him yelling and give him a big squeeze.  You’re a snuggler for sure.  You love to snuggle.

 

What I find you doing most often is sorting things and/or stacking them.  Yup, I think you may have inherited your Daddy’s brain too.  You also love anything that resembles a bag, and you walk around putting things in your bag and taking them out.  It is obvious by watching you that there is some method to your madness, but I’ve yet to figure it out.

 

You love your sisters.  I think.  Sometimes at least.  But sometimes it’s hard being the little one putting up with your sisters antics.  Bella watches out for you.  She loves you so much.  And just recently you and Sylvia have started holding hands everywhere we go.  It is precious and makes my heart want to explode.

 

 

 

 

I wish I could keep going.  It just seems like there is so much personality pouring out of you right now, and I don’t want to forget.  Unfortunately right now you are yelling “Mama!” at me and holding up a princess shoe, because you want to wear them just like your sisters.

 

I love you sweet baby.  You bring me so much joy and I am so happy that God has trusted me to be your Mama.  I pray for you every day, and I pray to be the kind of Mama that God wants me to be.  I am sure I will fail sometimes.  I am sure I will require grace.  But I am also sure that I will love you forever, and that you will always be my little Roo.

 

Love you, love you, love you,

    Mama.

PoppSecret #2

  I can’t claim the fame on that name. (Whoah.  Just call me Dr. Seuss.)  Our friend Matt called Sylvie PoppSecret before she was born (since we don’t share names prior to the big introduction) and it stuck.

  Anyway, so I’m on my way to being 31 weeks pregnant.  I’m really not sure how that happened – this pregnancy has flown.  I hear it’s because of Sylvia, but we had kids 6 out of the 9 months of my last pregnancy and it didn’t go this fast!  The belly is definitely making it’s presence known in the way of running into unsuspecting passers by who underestimate it’s giganticness (probably not a word.) and by moving around violently like someone inside is doing the cha-cha.  I thought Sylvie was active in utero – but this child’s got her beat for sure.

We could be in trouble folks.

Not feeling gigantic, just, you know, 30 weeks pregnant.  After looking at comparison pics from the last pregnancy, I don’t feel too off the charts.  We’ll see, I have an appointment with my midwife on Friday where I will hopefully be told that the baby is petite like her mama.

Giving the baby kisses.

Sylvia points at my belly all the time and says, “baby?”  Of course, she also points to her own belly all the time and says the same thing.  She might be confused.  We’ve been reading lots of books about babies and talking about her baby sister, but I’m pretty sure she’s got no clue what’s coming.

 

Huugggss.

 

  After some of our good friends had a very scary experience with their little girl, Sylvie’s BF, this weekend – I spent Valentines Day so incredibly thankful for the loves that I’ve been blessed with.  It always sounds so cliché to talk about how things can change so quickly, but I will treasure every second.  Husbands don’t come any more valiantly on white horses than mine, and motherhood has been, by far, the greatest blessing in my life.

  Being a parent, the joy in it, is beyond my explanation.  Before Sylvie was born, my brother said, “It’s kind of like this huge party that you’ve always heard about, but have never been invited to.  And then you become a parent and you’re like, ‘holy cow, no wonder everyone shows up!’”  It’s like this secret that you can’t know until you find yourself holding your child – however they may come to you – and you think, how could I have not known this love before?  Incredible.

 

  Little baby in my belly, I cannot wait to meet you.  I cannot wait to see what changes you hold for our family.  I cannot wait to see what you look like.  Soon you will be here, and I will think, how could I have not known this love before?  We are anxiously anticipating your arrival.

                           Love you, love you, love you,

                                                              Mama

Paint? No EAT! Pt. 2

Sylvia and I recently had some fun with pudding.  It reminded me of almost exactly one year ago when I did the same thing with X-Man.  Still miss him, still think about him, still pray for him.

 

Sylvia agreed with X-man – eating the pudding is much more fun than playing in it.  I tried to smoosh her hands in it just like I did with him.  “See, look!  It’s so much fun to make a mess in the pudding!!”  But Sylvie was not so much into the painting aspect of this craft.

 

Nom-nom. Instead she just licked it straight off the table.  Who needs spoons??

Once she couldn’t get any more up, she grabbed my hand and used it as a squeegee and then licked it off to get the rest.  She’s resourceful. 

“Mom, you wanted me to waste all this goodness on finger painting?  Have you tasted this???”

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Yes.  That is another shiner on her right eye.  That would make for number 4.  If she just didn’t run so much – and in circles to boot!)