Let me start by saying this post will have no puke stories...I promise...
With the holidays literally around the corner, writing has been pushed aside like most other aspects of my life. I'm looking forward to January's utter dullness to get back into a normal daily routine. I have so much to do this weekend; my head spins just thinking about it.
Tuesday evening was a bit exciting for Punky and I. While feeding her dinner, she was attempting to grab the spoon and do it herself. She has tried grabbing the spoon before, but I usually dodge her attempts because I don't think she's capable of being successful at it yet. Okay...okay...yeah, it was mainly because I had a vision of how messy it would be and didn't want to even go there...
For whatever reason, I threw in the towel and let her have the spoon. She's almost a year old now. Maybe she can actually do it...
The first two spoonfuls went well. She let me help her get the food on the spoon, and she managed to hold it relatively level while bringing it to her mouth. It went all downhill from scoop number three, and by the time we were done Punky had sauce from her left cheek down the side of her neck and into her shirt. The right side of her hair was clumped with it. She even had some on her eyelashes and up her nose. I'm not exactly sure if another spoonful even made it into her mouth from that point on...
I suppose there is no need to mention I actually let this happen on a day when dinner was lasagna with meat sauce... I have no clue what the hell I was thinking. As they say, hindsight is 20/20.
It wasn't bath night, but I quickly realized that baby wipes just weren't going to do the trick. Suddenly I had a brilliant idea: why not take her in the shower with me? It would be easier on my aching lower back, plus then I would be set for the morning. I could kill two birds with one stone, as they say.
I started second guessing myself right before we stepped into the shower. I mean, looking at her stained orange face it was clear that maybe I wasn't using my best judgment that day. She's not even a year old and she looked a little scared. She's too little for a shower. We stepped in...but I was prepared to regret that decision.
As soon as the water touched her, she was so excited. She loved it. She was laughing, and clapping, and babbling. She loves playing in the running water in the sinks, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.
The whole shower worked out wonderfully. I held her while I washed her up and rinsed her off, and then I sat her down on the floor of the shower while I got myself washed. She played with her bath frogs and didn't seem to mind the little splashes of water that would hit her randomly as I moved around in the stream. At the end, I picked her up and let her play in the water some more. When I turned off the water, she started to cry...which sort of sounded like, "Mama just created a monster and she will never get to shower alone again."
She only cried a few seconds, but it was long enough for me to notice another surprise: tooth number two has finally broken through...right next to tooth number one. It was roughly five weeks in between the two. I expected the second much sooner.
Punky is still on the small side, still fairly bald although her hair is definitely growing finally, and now has just one and a quarter visible teeth when she smiles. People still think she is much younger than she really is, and they are surprised at how advanced she seems for her age. Then, when they find out her true age, they are equally surprised by her size.
I experienced many of those moments last weekend when we attended Punky's first xmas party, provided for the children where I work. It was a nice party, and I'm sure she'll enjoy it more in future years. She was a bit too little to follow a puppet show and stuff this year, and her attention span wasn't long. Co-workers were glad to step in and walk around in circles with her to give my back a break. She got her first gift from Santa, and it was a good one, too. A busy ball popper, just like she has at her uncle's house down state, so she knew exactly what it was from the picture on the box. She loves it and has been playing with it all week.
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