Seven Months

Dear Rhea Sue,

You turned seven months old this week...and though I know it is near impossible to record every new thing you have been up to for the past month, I'm going to do my best to hit the highlights. Number one highlight, from my perspective anyway, being your Mama...it really does get better and better every day. I know I touched upon your blossoming personality in my last letter to you but man have you stepped it up a notch...you are one sweet and funny little girl.


This month could best be described as your "increased mobility" month...and with that newfound mobility came a lust for paper products that borders on obsession. Just this morning you were squirming your way past your brightly colored blocks and toys to head straight towards a small piece of paper on the floor (I beat you to it) then my Dwell magazine (again rescued without incident) then the subscription card that fell out of the Dwell magazine as I was taking it to safer and higher ground (You won with that one and managed to get a corner off and ingested before I realized what was going on). Yesterday morning your Papa had gotten up with you bright and early to give me a little more rest and he dozed off for a minute while you were playing together on the floor...by the time he opened his eyes you had managed to eat half of of one of the sweetest thank-you cards I have ever gotten (thanks to your Auntie Josie)...luckily he had woken up before you made it to the other sweetest thank you card ever (and a thanks to your Uncle Hubba). I think the days of being able to take our eyes from you for even a second are gone and the days of baby proofing the house are upon us. A final note on the paper consumption, shared at the risk of going too far with all of this, I even found a piece of paper in your diaper...having gone in one end and come out the other. Your first official food? Definitely paper. I have to try and just breathe with this one...because I watch you like a HAWK...you move at a snails pace...and still always with the paper.

Speaking of food, this was also your first month of solid food...and again you surprised me. Your interest in my food had been growing over the previous month so I expected you to welcome the world of solids with open arms. Yeah...not so much. You remain somewhat unimpressed unless you can eat whatever it is that I happen to be eating...somehow avocado from my burrito tastes better than from your little bowl...and who cares about fruit that has been mashed up in a safe and manageable consistency? Not you...you want the "real fruit" in all it's potential choking glory. Sweet potatoes? Boring. Pasta made with refined flour and covered with acidic tomato sauce? Bring it on! Oh and you are way too savvy to be fooled by me trying to pretend to eat your food and convince you it is actually mine...those lip smacking excited faces are lost on you. You just want the spoon so you can fling whatever pureed delicacy I'm trying to serve you around the room. The faces you make, when I do manage to get some food into you, are priceless...I don't know if I can capture it with words but you make these soft talking noises whenever I feed you something...and your little hands start moving at the end of your wrists in a wriggling open and closing movement. It kills me and I can never tell if you are enjoying the experience or wondering quietly to yourself what exactly it is that your Mama is trying to do to you.


As far as your expanding personality goes I am pleased to report that you are sweet to the core. This has been confirmed by friends (Hai Nhu waxed poetic about your lovely disposition in her latest post), family and even the passing stranger (I take the time to add that so you can know that it isn't just your Mama going on and on about how wonderful you are) The other day we were at the pediatrician's office and I had sat you down in the waiting room to play while I scheduled your next appointment...when I had to run out to the car to retrieve my wallet the receptionist, a lovely woman named Imke, offered to keep an eye you...when I came back you were surrounded by a circle of women who worked in the office who were all just watching you play. One of them asked me what I had done to produce such a sweet and calm baby. I had to tell her it was all you...that you had come into the world with this sweet disposition and the only thing I had done was try to create an environment in which that disposition could thrive (or at the very least wasn't squashed). She told me I was being very humble which made me feel good for a minute but honestly I really do believe you were born this sweet.

You have also increased your cute quotient by leaps and bounds...I think it comes from your increased facial expressions and a growing awareness of cause and effect (as in you act cute and everyone around you melts into a puddle). We have a visitor from Australia right now, Timmy, and he has commented that you should be in Nappy commercials (which is Australian for diapers) because your disposition in so pleasant and you have the added bonus of knowing how to work a camera. Of course your Papa agrees...he keeps trying to get me to submit your picture to the Gerber baby food company.


And as calm and good natured as you are...you are no shrinking violet...you have another side of you that is very physical you possess an intense focus and of late a burning desire to be locomotive. You have reached most physical milestones earlier than other babies I know and will practice your moves all day long. I think today was a turning point in that you moved forward almost as much as you moved backward and you absolutely perfected the task of sitting up from lying on your stomach. I literally can (and do) spend hours watching you.

Rhea I wonder if I will ever be able to capture for you how amazing it is that you are in my world. Lately you have been looking into my eyes with such love and recognition that it honestly takes my breath away. I think of how lucky I am everyday and remind myself to cherish each moment...


I look forward to seeing how you take on the world with your sweet and loving demeanor and determined and persistent drive. I imagine big things ahead for us....

All my love,

Mama