Dear Livia,
Here are some more stories about you.
- It is impossible to sing you to sleep. When I start to sing, you perk up and smile. I guess you really like music. Or you think my attempts at singing are funny. Either way is fine by me. I just love to see you smile, even when I’m trying to get you to sleep.
- You’re not even 6 months old yet and you’re already mobile. You “swim” more than crawl, but you’re fast. You can make it across Marshall’s bedroom in under 10 seconds. Though you’ll explore anywhere, your favorite place to be is in Marshall’s room with his toys. You just can’t wait to put them all in your mouth.
- You have extremely sweaty feet. Seriously. They are always wet, regardless of the temperature and whether or not you’re wearing socks. The base of your bouncy seat gets damp from your feet rubbing on it. When I Googled “sweaty baby feet,” I found a lot of references, so it must be a common condition. Supposedly it goes away. We can only hope. 🙂
- You have the most adorable laugh. You still sometimes laugh when your clothes are being changed, but not as often. I miss it. I have found, though, that saying “Goggy!” to you in a rough voice as I lean toward you makes you laugh for some reason. I do it over and over again, and you keep chuckling.
- You are very vocal. Your father and I often joke that you’re going to speak before Marshall does.
- You are clever. Already I can see the signs. Yesterday, in my office, you were crawling around, looking for something to do, when you came up against my file cabinet. You looked up at it, thought for a moment, then very deliberately moved around it.
- It’s amazing that I have any hair left. You just keep pulling, and pulling, and pulling.
- Your first tooth broke through just a few days ago. Hooray!
- Having sprouted a tooth, you deserve some solid food. I want to make an occasion out of your “first cereal,” so it may take a while to get it together, because your father and I will both need to be present and to have a camera ready.
- You used to sleep from about 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., with just one feeding around midnight. That was great, but I wasn’t getting quite enough sleep, so your father took over the midnight feeding. As soon as we made that change, you started getting up at 4:30 – 5:30. So now I’m getting less sleep, not more. Little sleep thief!
- You are so adorable. Looking at you, I think how sad it is that we’ll never have another baby. But it also makes you that much more precious to us. Marshall was our first and always special for that reason. You are our last and equally special in that way.
Love,
Mom