February, 2016 Archive

Months in Double Digits and Almost a Single Year

by Alison Friedman in Amazing Arielle, Monthiversaries

Arielle got her big juicy recap and then even more time flew by. Seriously. Why does time do that? I am not capable of accepting this reality.

But here she is at 10 and 11 months and only a few days shy of turning ONE!

31 days and a zillion heart beats of love between these two photos.

31 days and a zillion heart beats of love between these two photos.

By 10 months, she had both her bottom teeth finally in and the Niagara Falls of drool told me that her top teeth were near.

Crawling became a regular thing, with unequal leg strength giving her a funny waddle to her scoot. But nothing stopped this rugrat from wanting to grab her favorite things like iPhones, uncapped tubes of diaper cream, and dirty shoes on the floor. The toys and other baby-approved items? Pish posh. If it didn’t have germs or danger or inconvenience all over it, she didn’t want it.

Ten months is also when she picked up on similar eating habits of high school football players or the guys at the Coney Island hot dog eating contest. Arielle has become a bottomless pit for food. She can go through puffs and bananas and blueberries and pancakes and yogurt and roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli and scrambled eggs without even taking a breath. I am getting tendinitis from the constant mechanics of the feeding motions. If I don’t spoon something in fast enough, I see steam come out of her ears like she’s doing her best Donald Duck impression. I would say I have no idea where she gets this, but I’ve spent 10 years with her father, so I know where her love of food comes from (and who am I kidding? I have a strong, um, appreciation for food, too).

Arielle, 10 months

Arielle, 10 months

By 11 months, Arielle was mastering what she started to discover at 10 months.

Her crawling really finessed and her weaker leg seems to have caught up a little more so that her leg work is more balanced.

Diaper changes are officially wrestling matches. All she wants to do is roll over. Right now, she is small enough that I can hold her down with my one palm spread out on her belly to stabilize her, but if she keeps growing like a weed (all thanks to her eating frenzy), I’m going to need to call in for reinforcements. The absolute worst is when she has a diaper blowout situation and I have to manage her rolling while trying to avoid a mess. This is especially fun when we are on the go. I think that the evolution of man should include extra arms for moms. Ya hear, Darwin?

We are also now giving Arielle standing ovations for standing! She pulls herself up onto anything just to get a better view of her world around her. When she first started doing this, it was darling to see how proud she was of herself. I think her mastery of standing up has also helped to strengthen her legs for her expert crawling status. Developmental milestones working together for the win!

She also has her party tricks that are fun. In addition to doing “The Face” on command (when she wants to), she also loves to clap hands, wave hello and goodbye, and give kisses. Her wave is borderline Rose Parade Queen-worthy and her kisses are more like a mouth-to-mouth press (Dear Strangers: Please do not ask my child for a kiss), but with every new trick, I realize that she’s becoming more of her own little person.

Arielle 11 months

She’s almost 12 months old, and I’m having a hard time letting go of this “baby” stage. The problem is, is that I think she actually looks much younger than her other 12-month-old counterparts. Maybe she’ll enjoy looking young when she’s 45, but for now, I am tricked into thinking that she’s still only 8 or 9 months old. The calendar says she’s basically 1, my eyes say she is more like 8 months, and my heart says she’s forever my little baby.

She’s had quite a few adventures in recent months that I can’t wait to write about, and with the first birthday coming up this Friday, I am thankful for this special year as a mom. It was the fastest one ever, and bittersweet to boot. Everything this year was “the last” — the last first time trying new foods, the last time carrying an infant car seat, the last time a favorite hand-me-down from Madelyn gets worn. Everything with Madelyn was always about her firsts. Everything with Arielle has been all about our lasts. Her firsts are our lasts. These feelings parallel my feelings in the final days of what we knew would be my last pregnancy, so while it’s all happy things that we are fortunate and lucky to enjoy, they’re also fleeting. That’s hard for an emotional wreck gal like me.

Next time I update about my baby girl, it will be about her 12th month and a whole year that’s zoomed by. We say “this too shall pass” in regards to difficult phases and stages (“I’M SO TIRED OMGGG” — this too shall pass. “MY BOOBS ARE KILLING ME!” — this too shall pass. “SHE WON’T STOP THROWING FOOD ON THE FLOOR. STAAAAHP.” — this too shall pass.). But all the happy moments pass, too, before new happy moments happen, and they shall, but not without me being a little weepy and sentimental about it.

  1. 2/28/2016 5:44 PM

    I can’t believe she’s going to be one so soon!! Ahh our babies will be toddlers!