Dear Scarlette,
I can’t wrap my mind around eleven months. One year ago yesterday we found out you were girl. We all thought I was further along in my pregnancy back then. One year ago I was looking at you on a sonogram and now you are eleven months old. I can’t believe it. At eleven months…
– You can hold your bottle by yourself. Just the smaller bottle, actually, but you’re so fiercely independent that I end up just giving you two of those because you want to hold it on your own so badly. You only let me give you a bottle when you’re really tired.
– You can sit up by yourself! This means you hit your evaluation goal after six months of physical therapy and I am so proud of you! When we started physical therapy we spent a whole hour every day just trying to get you to reach for a toy. Now we’re working on crawling. You’ve come so very far.
– You like to put your arms in your sleeves yourself. You fuss at use if we try to pull your arm through, instead you like us to hold the sleeve out so that you can push it in yourself. Your daddy and I think this means you are a genius and we can’t be convinced otherwise.
– You babble all the time. You’ve just discovered how funny it is to yell for no apparent reason. You really like to lean forward, yell at Lucy and dissolve into giggles.
– You can say “hi” although you rarely do it, you little stinker. You can make the sign for milk and you know the words Mommy, Daddy, and Up.
– You weigh thirteen and a half pounds. You wear size three months clothes except I’ve had to buy you six month sleepers and roll the sleeves because your legs are so long. I don’t think you get that from me.
– You really want to feed yourself with a spoon. You can’t hit your mouth yet but that doesn’t stop you from trying to take the spoon from me every time you eat. Mealtimes aren’t at all messy in our house because of this.
-You love attention. You don’t want to just play in your exersaucer. You want us to WATCH you play in your exersaucer and then clap for you. I have no idea where you got that from. Your mother is not even the slightest bit dramatic.
– You know when you’re being a stinker and get a little impish look on your face when you’re doing something we tell you no about. You raise one eyebrow at us and smirk, while slowly continuing to do whatever it is we told you not to do. Like trying to eat your hair clip, as evidenced in the above photo.
– You’ve taken to propping yourself up on your elbows when we lay you down for a diaper change. You just push yourself up until you’re lounging on your elbows and raise your head up to intently watch what we’re doing. It is hilarious.
– You like to watch videos of yourself. I’ve been taking video on my phone and then playing it back to you. You laugh hysterically at the sight of yourself but if you hear my voice you startle and then look back and forth from me to the phone as though you can’t figure out how my voice got in there.
You are the best part of every day of my life.
Love, Mommy
