Dear Hedgehog:
First off, I have shared this set of statistics with friends and loved ones already, but it tickles me to no end, so I'm going to share it here as well, so that someday I can call it up and fondly recall your first baseball season of life.
Your rookie baseball season (which started when you were 6 weeks old) you:
- Attended 17 baseball games
- At 7 stadiums
- In 4 states (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Wisconsin)
- At 5 levels of play (Major League, Triple-A, Single-A, Short-Season-A, Rookie)
- Including an All-Star game (Triple-A)
- And post-season play (NWL Championship)
and by the end of the season you actually seemed to be paying attention to what was happening on the field of play, and not just the sights and sounds in the stands around you.
You are, indeed, your parents' child. I wouldn't be surprised if next season you were teaching people the infield fly rule.
The intensity of your baseball life this year mirrors your intensity of development this month. We've still got a ways to go, but much progress is being made.
Your first tooth has broken through. I have very mixed emotions about it, as you like to give big, open-mouthed kisses, which equates into biting me on the nose or chin. Your favorite thing to do when you want to express your love to me is to give me a big hug - grabbing fistfulls of my hair behind my neck, and plant a big "kiss" on my chin - digging that one tooth right in. Hurts like hell, but it's also about the sweetest thing ever.
You are oh so very close to crawling, it's getting almost humorous. You can roll just about anywhere you want. You can scoot yourself backwards. You can lie on your belly and pivot yourself a full 360 degrees (at a rather rapid pace). It's just the forward motion that eludes you. Interestingly, you seem to develop many of these skills at night, well past your bedtime. It's frustrating, although it does make it a bit easier to stomach the late bedtime when you're whipping out a new skill to impress me with.
You've also started babbling quite frequently. You started with blowing raspberries. Then added the motorboat trilling of the lips. And then added actual vowel and consonant like noises. Your favorite is dadadadadadada. To which I generally respond "Dada's not here right now, but I'm mama." I am coming to terms with the fact that Dada will probably be your first real word.
Finally, you've developed quite the palate. I know a lot of experts say that when feeding infants you need to start with the vegetables because babies like sweet things and if you start with fruit they will never want to eat anything that isn't fruit. These experts have obviously never met you, as you adore vegetables and really want nothing to do with fruit much of the time. Asparagus or green beans? Bring it on. Blueberries? Couldn't even get you to open your mouth to try them. And while you liked banana once upon a time, now that you know you have options you'd really prefer something else thank you very much. However, your favorite might be bread crusts. You are now sitting well enough that you can ride in the cart when we go grocery shopping. And the stores that we shop at tend to have bread samples out on a fairly regular basis. I have taken to grabbing us a sample, eating the soft bits out of the middle, then letting you gnaw on the crust (with close supervision). My goodness do you love that! If I pull the crust out of your reach I can get a bit of a snake-charmer effect going on as you try to reach for it with your whole body.
It has become so much fun to parent you over this last month. It seems as if your personality and skills are really starting to develop, and it's a joy to see what directions they take you.
Love,
Mama
You are one adventurous-in-baseball-season mama! Go you! :)
Posted by: Melissa | 03 November 2009 at 06:12 PM