The girls had a ton of fun playing in the leaves with Brian this weekend.
Ugh. Getting so tired of having to pixilate their little faces. Maybe someday I won’t. But their smiles are so beautiful.
This is the part where Sylvia got leaves down her pants and decided she’s just go sans clothing.
Fall!
Although at this point, the girls are pretty much just obsessed with when it’s going to start snowing.
My little Naomi Rahab, you are 18 months old. Most people who see you guess that you are about 12 months old and are shocked at all you can do. At 17 months you weighed a whopping 17lbs., so it’s no wonder people get confused. I’m not sure you’ve grown a ton in the last month, so I’d say you might be pushing 18 pounds.
You’re itty bitty.
You are absolutely not itty bitty when it comes to personality though. I think that mostly in an effort to keep up with your sisters, you live up to every definition of spitfire. And I’m not sure that descriptor even quite covers it.
You already have an ornery look that makes me nervous. Your joy spills out of every pore. But when you believe you’ve been scorned? You let everyone know. You have developed a pretty bad habit of scratching, biting, pushing, and any other form of forcing your will to be known. We’re working on that. You’re also very daring. You’re a climber, a tester, and a dare devil. You make your Mommy nervous.
You work very hard to keep up with your sisters. I’m not sure you’ll be so passionate about the little baby that is going to enter your life in a short 2+ months – you are the baby, and you like it that way.
You love your sisters so much. You get so excited when you first see Sylvia, Bella, or Tootaw in the morning, and you want to be in on every little thing they do. And as long as they aren’t taking up room on your Mommy’s lap or playing with something that you want, you are just excited to be with them.
You’ve had your ups and downs in the sleep department, but things seem to have leveled off (at least for a week or so) and you are sleeping very well. Your Daddy rocks you down at night and sings to you, which I’m sure will make for the same sweet bond that Sylvie shares with him.
You have lots of words now – but you have figured out that you can usually get away with a grunt or a pointing finger – so you don’t use them all that much. You can say Mommy, Daddy, yes, no, up, baby, ball, book, thank you, sorry, shoes, that, water, dog, and cat ….I’m sure I’m leaving out a few. You know several of your animal noises. You love to read books, and you like to “read” books to me too. You love, love, love to play outside, and I think you’re going to be sad in a couple weeks to find out that your whole life won’t consist of summertime.
You are still nursing, and I’m not sure your going to be weaning yourself all too soon. It seems like you know it’s the one thing you have with me that the other girls can’t take. I’m ok with that, although you will have to get used to having another little baby around before too long.
You are a Mommy and Daddy’s girl. Anytime I take you to a nursery or leave you at a friend’s house, as soon as your realize what we’re there for you squeeze my neck and lay your head on my shoulder. You’re very hesitant to leave my side. You do great while I’m gone – but when we get back to pick you up you light up, get an excited look on your face, throw your hands in the air, and run to us! It’s wonderful.
You, little lady, have enough personality for three or four kids. I can’t wait to see how you grow and change and how that personality is expressed as you get older. You may be in the middle of a big huddle of sisters, but you will not let yourself go unheard. And that’s good. God has given you that voice for a reason, little one, and he will use that passionate exuberance in wonderful ways (after some refining. you do have to stop scratching.) You look a lot like me, and got a dose of excitement and exuberance from both me and your Daddy.
I love you more than you will ever understand. I pray for you every day – and I also pray, basically all day long, that I can be the Mommy that you and your sisters need me to be. I love you, even when I need grace. You are a light, sweet one. And I cannot wait to see how you shine as you grow.
Love you, love you, love you,
Mama
I think it’s the suspense at the end of a pregnancy that kills me. Maybe today? Maybe tomorrow? How many contractions has that been? Consistent, or just in my head? And then I remind myself, ‘Maggie, do you remember what labor was like with Sylvia? You WILL KNOW when you are in labor, for real.’
My midwife reminded me yesterday that God has a thing for waiting. It’s strung throughout the entire Bible – wait. patience. He could have made pregnancies a specific number of days long, take away all this anticipation. But he didn’t. So I guess I’ll just … wait.
Apparently I’m not the only one who is ready.
Sylvia’s all, “Mom, do your pregnancy exercises, go into labor already.”
I’m also excited to be able to start fostering again. At this point in the pregnancy (actually for a few weeks now) we decided it would be best to hold off till post baby. Cause really, can you imagine?
Here’s your new foster home. I know your foster mom looks like she’s about to explode. Actually, she is.
And then two days later I go into labor, and then bring home a new baby.
Traumatic? I think yes.
So, lots of things that we are really, really, very much so, holding our breath kind of looking forward to. Can’t wait! (But I guess we will.)
The next time I am faced with the number 18 in regards to your age, I imagine it will be much scarier.
On second thought, at 18 months I still have the monumental task of raising you ahead of me, and at 18 years I’ll have done the majority of that already – so maybe 18 months really is scarier.
With that said, 18 months is wonderful. We have so much fun together. You love to be with me and your daddy – which I am soaking up, because I’m under no preconceived notion that that will last more than a few short years.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if I were to describe your personality in one word:
joyful.
You are happy about everything. And everything is very, very exciting. And when the joy is just too much to contain, you start spinning in circles and giggling – because apparently spinning in circles only makes good things better.
You are very, very good at letting us know what you want. When your words fail you, the tantrums strike. But you’re getting much better at using your words. You’re daddy didn’t start talking until he was three. Me? They were teaching me to try to use my inside voice at your age. Now your daddy is ridiculously loud (he wouldn’t deny this) and I’ve quieted down a bit. Somehow in there, I think you got just the right mixture of both of us that you are loud and verbal now, and I don’t really see you slowing down any time soon. You are saying new words every day. Yesterday we saw a peacock, and you think that is a very fun word – every once in a while you just yell it. You’ve started putting two word phrases together too (Mommy, eat? More water? Diaper poop?). You like to try to sing your ABC’s – which comes out sounding mostly like “A, B, C, eee, eee, eee, eee” – but you get the tune pretty well! Verbal, you are.
Your new favorite thing in the entire universe is Elmo. I’m not sure how this happened. We don’t have a t.v. We don’t have any Elmo books. We have one toy with a small Elmo face on it. But you are in love with Elmo. (Lovingly referred to as ‘Melmo’, a name that is only yelled excitedly, never spoken in a normal voice.) When I finally figured out who you were talking about, I made the mistake of showing you an Elmo video on my phone to see if I was right. Now any time you see my phone you start asking to watch Elmo. If we see him at the store you yell his name at the top of your lungs until we go see him. Obsessed doesn’t quite describe this love you have for the little red guy.
You’re also still very into your baby dolls, and you are a very good mama. You wrap them up in their blankets and walk around the house bouncing and shushing them, and before bed each night you put your baby doll ‘nigh nigh’. Your other favorite thing is swinging (singing), hence all the pictures of you swinging lately.
Oh yeah, and now that you’re 18 months old – we’re gonna rock you’re world. Cause any day now, you’re going to be a big sister. I cannot wait for the moment that you meet her. I also cannot wait until you fit on my lap again. You are going to be a great big sister.
I love you baby girl. You have brought more joy to me than you will ever know, and when you are 18 years old, I am sure I will say the same thing. I thank God every day for the blessing that you are. I will always love you.
Love you, love you, love you,
Mommy
