…because your mama is a slacker.
You are such a booty scootin’ monster! Seriously? I’ll set you down on what used to be your little play mat. You know. The one that used to go with your Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Ocean Adventure Play Gym… the one that up until a few weeks ago? you’d plant your little katush on for hours upon hours, guaranteeing your mama that you’re safe and secure in a completely baby proofed environment. Now? Now you scoot here & you scoot there… you’re never in the same place that I’ve left you.
At nine months, you’re 28 inches tall & 20.3 pounds heavy… that puts you in the 70th percentile of all little baby girls your age. My perfect little munchkin. Although, I guess based on those numbers, “little munchkin” is a misnomer.
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You know, I wish that I had written down all of your milestones down in my 99 cent, college rule, spiral notebook that I purchased at Walgreens, because I can’t seem to think of one thing beyond your booty scootin’. If I had written things down like a good mama, perhaps I’d remember things like THE EXACT DATE that you reached up for me to hold you for the first time, or THE EXACT DATE that you threw your arms around me because you couldn’t seem to get close enough for the first time, or THE EXACT DATE that you opened your heavenly, toothless, slobbery mouth and bumped your face into mine to give me kisses (without prompting from me) for the first time… I’d be able to write about how chillax (chill + relaxed = chillax) you were during THE WORST MOVE EVER! And about your very first experience in your baby hippo pool.
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Instead, you’re just gonna have to read about random, dateless things that have happened over the past two months… like our brief 24 hour stop in Destin, Florida while on our suicide drive to Texas. You got to see your halmoni & grumpy AND you frolicked in the Gulf of Mexico with your DhDhDh, for the first time ever. The very next morning, your DhDhDh missed swimming in the ocean so much that he decided to go for a swim in the Poquito Bayou, just down the street from your grandparent’s home. And? because he loves him so much? daddy decided to take The Great Walithimo! with. As the horrifying story goes, your daddy swam out as far has he could go & was going to recover by floating on his back & then swim back in, after regaining some breath and strength… just as he always does. BUT. This time? Walithimo decided to follow DhDhDh all the way out, and because Wally is a little doggie, and LOVES his master (and was very tired & panty), as soon as he got out to where DhDhDh was, he jumped on him, and was all “Masta? You carry me back, please?” And DhDhDh was all, “Holy Frijoles!”
When your daddy came home, he was all covered in huge, red, welted claw marks from when Wally was clawing for his life and daddy told mama the scary story about how he had to swim back to the beach as fast as he could because if Wally had caught up with him? he’d surely have drowned :/ Life is a fragile gift, June… never take it for granted.
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After daddy skirted danger, we continued on our suicide drive to San Antonio, Texas
where both you & I loathed the new climate. We had gotten used to getting outside on a daily basis, but here? here, the temperatures got up to 115˚F. And for more than 30 days in a row, the heat remained above 100˚F, putting the kibosh on our outdoor pursuits.
Despite the harsh temperatures, your daddy & I started a new routine: we go for an evening walk around the neighborhood when daddy gets home from work and before we put you the bed. It’s become a ritual that we love! The neighborhood is beautiful, and on our walks, we look at all the big historic homes and wonder what it would be like to be ritzy enough to actually own one. On some evenings we walk through the campus of Trinity University. It’s so lush and green; a wonderland compared to the dry, crunchy brownness of the surrounding neighborhood. San Antonio is in the middle of a drought & there are many watering restrictions; but somehow, Trinity U (and a lot of the large haciendas) is still able to keep their lands beautiful. It’s a delight to walk through.
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You also do this thing, when you’re sitting, where you hold one leg up.
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And you’ve created your very own take on the “crawl.”
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There are many, many things that you do that make me go bananas over you, but THE one thing that gets me every time? is when you’re minding your own business, doin' your thang… and when I happen to walk into the room, you flash me The. Hugest. Grin. Ever! … it’s the smile that let’s me know you love me—makes me all high & fluttery! I’m looking forward to the day that you can comprehend my love for you in much the same way.
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XO, your mama!