Dear Scarlette,
Lately you are just a whirlwind of activity. It’s like all of the sudden you just decided to do everything at once.
Last week you finally decided to crawl. You still only go about three paces before you sit up and sort of turn in confused circles. And then you pound the floor with your fists and yell in frustration that you didn’t really get anywhere.
And okay, you don’t so much crawl as you do lunge your entire body forward and then use the momentum to sort of hop forward a couple more steps and then flail about like a frog. After that you need a breather. It’s pretty hard work.
On Wednesday your developmental therapy team came to set your new goals. They set a goal for you to be standing while holding onto something within six months. While they were here I wanted to show off your newfound crawling skills to your physical therapist.
And instead of showing her how you can crawl, do you know what you did?
You pulled up on a piece of furniture and walked around it.
You little stinker! We didn’t know you could do that! Your PT was all “That is really impressive, how long has she been doing that for?” and I was like, “Um, about ten seconds.” So then we had to set some more new goals.
NOW you don’t want to crawl at all, you just want us to hold you by the arms and let you walk everywhere. And we’re pretty obliging about that because we’re all “LOOK AT OUR GENIUS BABY!”
You have no idea, Scarlette, how big of a deal this is. You had everything stacked against you. The prematurity, the lack of muscle tone from lying in a hospital bed for so long, the fractures in your legs, everything. And now you are just this little bundle of energy that we can’t stop. I know we still have to watch for things, I know your statistics and risks for showing signs of autism or CP w/in the first few years. But that doesn’t make events like these any less exciting. I am so happy that we are able to rejoice over your accomplishments, little girl.
We’re focusing on your language skills a lot right now because you don’t seem to want to point or use real words yet. Sometimes you’ll sign “milk” to me but more often you just throw a tantrum for it. But you have developed your own “signs” for things you want. Like if you wet or dirty your diaper, you immediately lay on your back and stick both your legs up in the air to let me know you want to be changed. I can’t blame you, I wouldn’t want to sit in that either.
There are so many things that I don’t want to forget. Like how I constantly have to check inside the sling because you slyly grab things when I walk past and stash them in there. Yesterday you went all Baby Jason Bourne with a bag of unopened M&Ms that had been laying on the kitchen counter. Or how you strum the guitar when your daddy plays it for you. Or that you’ve mastered holding the bottle with one hand and pulling out the basket with your books in it all by yourself.
You’re also mimicking the dog. You think it’s hilarious to pant like Lucy and to carry things around in your mouth like she does. When I put you in the bathtub, you immediately get on your hands and knees, dunk your face in the water and come up grinning with a bath toy in your mouth. It makes your mother a nervous wreck but you love it.
My favorite time of day is when I bring you into bed with us in the morning and you lay cuddled up to us playing with my hair or your daddy’s beard. A week from now you’ll turn one year old and lately all I can think about is how happy I am that we have made it here together.
Love,
Mommy
