Determined

Dear Kate,

You are very determined, and I dare say stubborn.  You get the stubborn thing from both your parents.  You like things the way you like them.  In your mind milk comes from nursing and while you vaguely accept it from a spoon you'd rather not if you weren't forced to.  You know when the bib comes towards you you're about to be fed milk and you start complaining. You love eating big girl food.  You are trying to feed yourself- you try and grab the spoon from me when I feed you and you put it in your mouth. You don't particularly care for peas, though you seem to like them better when they are mixed with sweet potato.  We tried green beans last night, you seem to like them more than peas, but not nearly as much as anything else we've given you (thus far avocado, sweet potato, butternut squash, bananas, peas and green beans).  When you were being fed green beans you seemed to say you were done with mom feeding you and you wanted to feed yourself, but you still made the same faces when you realized that it was still green beans.  You like to watch people, and see what is around you.  You get bored at home with the same toys and people around and you do well out and about including at school. You love grabbing your feet (and putting rm in your mouth).  This makes changing your diaper easy and difficult.  Easy to clean you and nice because you don't put finger or feet in the mess.  Difficult because I have to attach the diaper which is hard with legs in the way!  You enjoy your excersaucer - now you are trying to put things in your mouth, probably because you are getting your first tooth poking through. (Actually on second inspection you have one tooth already poking out and one almost there). You've started to complain as soon as I sign you into daycare, and complaining might be too gentle a word for the head back, arms out, screaming that happens.  But you almost always need a nap at that point or if you don't you stop screaming when I've left.  But you make the biggest smiles and reach for me as soon as I show up to pick you up.  And that makes me feel pretty special - like I'm your favorite person. I'm certain that will change, especially when you're a teenager.  You can roll over, back to front and front to back, but you don't do it often. You really want to crawl. Those legs get going but you haven't figured out how to lift your belly off the ground.  I wonder if you'll walk before you crawl. You've loved standing for a months now, and you've had amazing head and neck control almost from the beginning, I feel like you didn't really have that newborn neck thing. You certainly have your own timeline. I'm curious to see how it changes, but I'm a little sad about how fast you are growing and changing., you aren't my little baby anymore.

Love, mom.