Dear Scarlette,
It’s official. You’ve turned me into THAT mom, the one who effuses about her baby any chance she gets and pulls out photos the second she sits down to dinner with friends. I can’t help myself, people are like “Hi, how are you doing today?” and I’m all “LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY BABY, SHE IS A GENIUS AND ALSO LOOK HOW CUTE SHE IS, I’LL HAVE THE NACHOS WITH EXTRA CHEESE HOLD THE JALAPENOS, THANKS.”
Your great-grandmother called me this week and I spent an hour telling her about all the things you can do, never mind the fact that I just sent her a video of said accomplishments. Like about how I’ve read Llama Llama Red Pajamas (thanks Aunt Nikki!) to you so many times that you’ve memorized it and you turn the pages at exactly the right time. Genius. Or how you can show us your head and your nose and your belly. Or how you can do some of the motions to “I’m A Little Teapot” and I am slayed by the cuteness.
You graduated from physical therapy this week and we are so proud of you. All that time spent in a hospital bed + being born so early meant that your muscle tone was very, very weak. When we first started physical therapy, we spent the entire hour just trying to get you to open and close your hands. And this week you walked across the room and looked over your shoulder at Miss L like “Walking? I got this.”
She told us it was such a joy to see you doing so well because she doesn’t get to see that very often, working with micro-preemie babies. We watch you do a jaunty little stroll across the room and are continually reminded just how blessed we are.
Lately you’ve been testing your boundaries a bit and we’ve had to tell you “No Ma’am” quite often. For awhile it made you cry but now you stick out your bottom lip, toddle over to us and wrap your arms around our necks. You’ll hug me and say “Mama” and oh my gosh that sort of sweetness is killing me smalls! “Stay strong!” your daddy and I encourage each other, because really, you’re such a sweet girl even when you’re being a bit naughty.
Right now you love writing on your chalkboard wall, playing with your baby doll, and dancing around to your daddy playing Free Fallin’ on the guitar. You also love seeing pictures of yourself and you often bring me my cell phone so that I’ll take your picture. After I snap it, you’ll turn the phone around so you can see yourself. Normally I show them to you but this week you freaked me out when you took your little pointer finger and started scrolling through the photos on the screen yourself. Listen, if you can do that I think you can sit your bottom on a potty, that’s what I’m saying.
I love you punkin’ pie,
Mommy
