seven months

dear claire,

oh baby girl, i really love you. i loved you before you even did anything. i loved you before you moved, or took your first breath. i loved you with all my heart. now you have all these things you do. these things that beg for even more of my love. you are becoming this sweet silly, funny, loving little girl and i'm just totally obsessed with you. you have such a wonderful personality. you seem so smart and observant, always checking things out. inspecting, touching, learning and appreciating. you are never careless or clumsy. you do mostly everything on purpose.

i know that through the years you will do many things to brighten my life. lately i've discovered the biggest compliment i've ever received is from you. you look at me and you smile, and i can see my own characteristics in your smiling face. then i realize that not only have i done something to make you smile... but i made your actual smile too. and it's just so beautiful.

this month you've made a transition from a baby baby to a big girl baby. you've learned to sit by yourself, you dance, you smile when smiled at, laugh when laughed at, and your obsession with the cats has grown to an impossibly unhealthy level. it's really all you care about. lucky for you - YOU are all the cats care about... right back atcha. especially ava, she teases you with the flick of her tail and the rub of her nose. she gets just close enough to where you can ALMOST grab her tail - but ALAS - she has moved just barely one step too far away, one second too soon. she loves you back, but she loves you back from afar.

you invented a new game this month. its called "naptime is a good time for spitting out the pacifier, rolling over and singing like a tortured bird until mama comes to your rescue, and then smile... and then repeat". long title i know, but it really sums it up quite nicely. you may think you can wear me out, baby. you may think you can win, but you will never win. i need the exercise and i will gladly get up over and over again to retrieve your pacifer and flip you back to napping position because i have an advantage. i have a secret weapon. my secret weapon is called "i'm the mama and i always win". i know, not nearly as impressive as the title of your game, but it stings with truth and longevity. ALWAYS a winner = mama. be prepared for this to never change.

month six has been a month for hating strangers. and by "strangers" i mean anyone who is not the cat, your parents, or your own reflection. your pouty bottom lip shoots out at the mere SIGHT of an unauthorized individual attempting to acknowledge you. "don't even LOOK at me you ugly man", you say "...don't even PRETEND that you have been given permission to know me....". it's both hilarious and embarrassing. hilarious when you unleash on the creepy guy at starbucks, embarrassing when you cry at your papa. apparently the agonizing task of prioritizing your fans is scheduled for next month. what a tedious to-do list you must have.

the featured talent of the month is kicking your legs. last month you discovered their existence, this month you figured out what they're good for. turning the kitchen into a water park during bathtime, kicking your mama dead-center on her c-section incision (LOVING this one), kicking your legs so kung fu quickly that its almost impossible to grab them for a diaper change, avoiding socks, avoiding shoes, sometimes avoiding pants all together, dancing, kicking air, kicking ground, kicking god. mainly - kicking. kicking is fun. you encourage everyone to quit their job and sit at home and kick their legs all day long. kicking is neat. kicking. kicking. kicking is the new black. we embrace the kicking.

do you have any idea how gorgeous you are? i dont think we've EVER left the house and ventured out into to public without being stopped and told how beautiful you are. there have been many days when not a single person passed you by without smiling. you brighten peoples' lives by merely existing, by just being yourself. i know this will never change. i can already see your beautiful personality that pours out of your big blue eyes and i know that you will be loved. not a single person can even LOOK at you without their day improving, if only a tiny bit. you pass by them and instantly they catch a glimpse of pure beauty and the sweet innocent bliss of a baby. now, just imagine how i feel... i made you, and i get to hold you all day, every day.



snuggling you, kissing you, and loving you forever.

mama