My Baby

Where have the past five years gone?

I remember the night before you were born.  We were washing the walls in your room, getting them ready to paint the next day.  You weren’t supposed to come for another three weeks.  We had plenty of time.   That was the first of many times that you showed me that you had other plans. 

You have learned so much in the past year.  You can count to 100, identify most numbers up to 100, you know all the letters and can write them, and you know most of the sounds that the letters make.  You know that the letter c and the letter k can have the same sound.  You like to write, especially notes to your friends, or invitations, and you’re beginning to read.  You’re riding a bike with training wheels and I wouldn’t be surprised if the training wheels were off by the end of the summer.

You definitely love people and social situations and I can see that your friends will be, and are, important to you.  You can be shy, especially when you’re put on the spot, but you also can play the shy girl.  You aren’t one to initiate friendship, but rather you wait to be invited in. 

Have I talked about how dramatic you can be?  You love dramatic play and one of my favorite things to do is quietly watch you as you talk to your babies, or play with your Barbie princesses, or play with your animals.  That drama comes out in temper tantrums, too.  They have gotten much less over the past year and you’ve figured out more effective ways of making your point known and getting what you want.  You’re learning the fine art of negotiation, but you also know when negotiating isn’t an option.  You’ve gotten much better at saying, “Okay,” or “All right,” and moving on.  You’re not a pouter and you don’t hold a grudge.  You don’t like it when someone is angry with you and you care how other people feel. 

You enjoy jokes, and sometimes it seems like you even understand the punchline.  You can be very, very silly, and you love having your picture taken.  You love the idea of being a princess, but you are not prissy.  Most of the time, you don’t care what you wear, and you don’t care if you get dirty.  You hair is usually in your eyes, which drives me crazy, but doesn’t bother you a bit.

You are struggling with the idea of getting older.  You often ask to be carried to bed.  I’m not sure how much longer I can physically do that, but I’ll do it as long as I can.  After crying jags, you’ll ask to cuddle.  There was a time a few years ago when I would tell you that you needed to calm down and you would respond with, “I can’t calm down!! Help me calm down!” and I would cuddle you.  It’s hard for me, but now I require you to calm yourself to a manageable level before we cuddle.  I want you to learn that you can control yourself and I don’t want to reward out of control screaming.  

Speaking of cuddling, you’ve never been especially cuddly.  It’s odd, because I held you nonstop for the first few months of your life.  You like the idea of cuddling, but the reality is that you get bored with just sitting in one spot.  You’re almost always on the go.  You don’t walk, you skip and hop everywhere. 

I am so incredibly lucky to have you.