Vida-Loo.
You are loved. Obsessively. Rarely do you have a moment when you aren’t being smothered in love and attention.
The life of a fifth child in a house full of mommies.
Sometimes I wonder what all this overstimulation is doing to your little brain. But you seem happy enough – I think you’ll survive. I think.
This month has brought all kinds of change for you. All of a sudden you’ve figured out that you can move. If there is something you want, you roll to it. If you can’t roll to it, you squirm to it. And, as the most recent development, if you can’t squirm to it, you army crawl to it.
First time in the swing! Sharing with your sister of course.
Five and a half months and you learned to army crawl. It’s like you have four sisters to keep up with or something. You also get up on your elbows and knees and rock, so I don’t think it will be any time at all until you are legit crawling. Let’s repeat this together, ‘stationary is good. stationary is good. stationary is good.’.
You’ve also started babbling this month! It’s adorable. No bias. Much to your Daddy’s chagrin, your first babble was not ‘Dadadada’ like it was with your sisters. It’s an unintelligible ‘Lablablabla’. Definitely not Mama, but it’s not Dada either. Ha!
One morning when I went in to get you, this is what I found. I think they love you.
You still do your awesome giggle. Anytime you get remotely excited about anything you start to chuckle. Huuuhhuuuhhhuuuhh. I love it. You’re a happy girl.
Essentially, as long as you are being held, you are happy. You’ll do a few minutes in your exersaucer every once in a while. But mostly you just like to be with Mommy, always facing out so you can see what’s going on. Maybe you’ve just figured out that it’s a safer vantage point than on the floor with your sisters – but if your being held you’re happy.
You love your sisters. You giggle at them at the drop of a hat, and (most of the time) you love it when they hold you or make some silly attempt at entertaining you. They love you too. So much. They are constantly singing to you, kissing you, hugging you, begging to hold you, and bringing you toys. If you are upset, there is immediately at least one little mama there to try to make it better. This morning when Naomi woke up, she crawled in bed with us and said, “Oh, I love you Vi-Vi. Sissy’s here.”, and gave you about 200 kisses. It’s adorable. Sylvia is always singing to you and entertaining you with silly dances and sounds. You think she’s hilarious. She loves that you think she’s hilarious. It works out well. Tootaw is so sensitive to your needs. She’s always telling me what you want when you’re upset. Bella loves to hold you. She looks out for you too, and is quick to reprimand anyone who isn’t treating you like a princess.
Oh, there’s that too. This month we found out that Bella and Tootaw will be your sisters forever. They were there the day you were born, and they’ll be there for your first birthday and every birthday after. You can’t talk, but I know you’re rejoicing.
Bella snuggled up reading to you.
I’ve not given you any food yet. I think we’ll wait a little bit. Although, holy cow, you’ve gotten grabby. I can hardly hold you when I’m eating because you pull anything off the table you can. I think you may start exploring food all on your own by stealing mine. Like last night when you stuck your hand in your sisters ice-cream cone and then put it in your mouth. You approved.
You’ve gotten a little picky about who is holding you. Right now you mostly like Mama and Daddy, which is just fine with me. Daddy and I are learning a lot about attachment right now, and I’m just fine with you being securely attached to us. I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’ll hold you all you want. We tried to leave you with our friends for the first time so that Daddy and I could go on a date, and we ended up picking you up about an hour into the date because you weren’t as gung-ho about the plan as we were. That’s ok, we’ll have plenty of time to go on dates without you. For now we’ll just soak up that you want to be with us.
We’ve started putting you in your crib at the beginning of the night and bringing you in with us when you wake up. You usually make it until about 1:00…which is almost too long for me. I love snuggling you, so don’t get too used to that crib! …mostly kidding, I don’t think you aim to stay in your crib all night for a while yet.
Your smile is contagious, as is your laugh. I can honestly say that you bring joy to each and every member of our family. We are so thankful that God gave you to us. Anyone who might think that a fifth+ child might get less love and attention has never seen the adoration that you get. We love you little lady. So. So. Much.
Love you, love you, love you,
Mama
