Dear Charlotte,
You are 11 months old! Summer is flying past and it’s so strange to think back on this time last summer and realize you hadn’t yet made your entrance. You seem to be taking your first bout with the heat and humidity well enough. Maybe being born here somehow gives you a higher tolerance for this kind of weather? We can only hope, right?
We’ve been spending a decent amount of time in or around the water to help beat the heat, and a few weeks ago we joined a bunch of Emma’s friends at a cool kid-friendly water park at Moody Gardens in Galveston called Palm Beach. They had a splash pad with slides and while Emma went down over and over on her own, Daddy and I took turns sliding down with you in our arms. I wasn’t sure how you’d react, but the first time I watched you reach the bottom with Daddy and saw the big grin on your face, I knew we had another water baby in the family!
I also started bathing you in the normal bath tub this month, which was long overdue. I assumed you’d love it, but instead you scream like it’s the worst thing in the world! So pools are ok, but the bath tub is awful — I don’t really understand this, but I figure you’ll change your mind on the tub at some point. Maybe soon?
This month you also got to celebrate your first Independence Day. To be honest, we’ve never really done much in the past for this holiday, but something about having kids makes you want to celebrate anytime there’s a chance. We took you to see some local fireworks and I was happy and surprised to see that you actually noticed them and seemed suitably engrossed. It was a fun family evening for all of us, and it’s exactly the kind of thing I imagined doing when I had kids. Introducing you to the world is one of my favorite things.
I mentioned last month that one of your new things was pulling up, but that was NOTHING compared to July. I think you like to stand more than sit, and the only time you spend on the floor is when you need to crawl from standing at the coffee table to standing at the refrigerator to standing at the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs to…well, you get the idea. And in the crawling department, you finally graduated from army crawl to full-on hands and knees action. This move boosted your speed as well, and you can get from the living room to the kitchen in a flash.
I think you’re still several weeks or even a couple months away from walking, but last night you did take a few steps with your walker for the first time. It was pretty funny to watch it move away from you, and then you shuffle-step to keep up for a few feet before deciding it was easier to just fall to your knees. Daddy and I were both pretty excited though, so we’ll keep practicing!
Charlotte, there are just so many things that I want to remember about you right now. You clap enthusiastically, and love it when we do the same. You laugh heartily at your big sister’s antics. You greet me with squeals when I pick you up from daycare or walk into the house at the end of the day. You just learned how to wave bye-bye and it’s just about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Your hair is curly and wild and awesome.
But my very favorite thing of all is your big ol’ full-faced grin that goes all the way up to your eyes. I can’t get enough of it! Please promise me that you’ll keep smiling like that forever and ever and ever.
By the time you turn 1 next month, we’ll be living in a new house and I have to admit that it breaks my heart a little to think about leaving your first home. You won’t remember anything about this place, but I will. How you slept at the foot of our bed for weeks. How you learned to sit and crawl in the living room. How you liked to play with the springy doorstops and pull open the warming drawer of the oven. Rocking you to sleep in your first room. I could go on and on, and every time I look back at pictures from your first year I know I’ll remember this house too.
But I’m also looking forward for the change, and for the new things it will bring to our life. I know we will make many, many more good memories in our new home in the years to come. And I’m excited to do it all with you.
Love,
Mama