Puddin Baby

 

Nolie can pull herself up into a sit now, and we're guessing it'll be any day before she's completely mobile.  Then things will get very, very busy.

I remember this age being most difficult with Addie.  The minute she turned 8 months, all she wanted to do was to be propped up so that she could practice her standing and walking.  Any minute of the day that you weren't holding her up by your pointer fingers was a minute she was squawking her head off.  In fact, I remember feeling that from 8 months until about 18, I felt very frustrated with the whole parenting thing.  Newborns demand a lot of attention, but it's a different sort of attention than a toddler.  Toddler attention felt much more frustrating.  And I couldn't watch Sex and the City the whole time, either, like I did when Addie was a newborn, being that toddlers are a little more impressionable and all.  So mostly I was just bored out of my skull, pulling this kid up, sitting her down.  Up, down, up, down.  Holy yawnsville.

With Nolie, though, it's different.  She's an easy-going baby, for one thing, at least around me.  She will sit by herself for pretty long stretches, playing and talking.  She loves to be walked around in the sling, loves to be played with, but doesn't seem to demand it the way Addie did.  She eats easy and sleeps easy.  I don't feel so exasperated with the age as I did with Addie.

I'm sure there are many reasons for this, not least of all is that we have just mellowed out ourselves, and aren't so over-the-top worried about whether Nolie is getting the exact number of minutes of attention per day that she's supposed to have, or fretting over every developmental milestone's exact passage.  For example, I gave Nolie a graham cracker today, and she ate it by herself, no problem.  "Huh," I wondered to myself.  "I wonder how long she's been able to do that," then shrugged and went on my way.  With Addie I would have been timing the cracker's exact moment of insertion and ingestion success rate. 

In fact, I'm really enjoying this age with Nolie.  I can't get over her roundness, her softness, her delight at seeing me.  I love the way she chases after Addie, belly laughing at her every odd expression.  I love the way she eats and babbles and plays.  Maybe it's because she's my last baby, or because she is an easier baby, or because I am a different person, but 9 months seems to me the perfect age.  I want her to walk, but not too fast.  I want to see her grow, but not too soon.  Her babyness, her babyness, slipping through my fingers, it is.  And then where will I be?