This Week in Mommyhood

Cati's first birthday is in 35 days. Each day I turn into more and more of a sentimental mess. It's kind of like having all those emotions right after giving birth but this time there are no weird hormonal shifts going on in my body. It's just me trying to deal with the mixture of happy (my baby's going to be a toddler!) and sad (oh no, my baby's growing up) emotions. I fully expect to cry on both the days of her party and her actual birthday.

I don't know why it took my so long but Cati tried beef this week. Steak to be exact. I seasoned it with a little bit of salt and pepper and cooked it in olive oil and garlic. I thought the steak was yummy and so did Cati. Lately, I have been giving her all her meats in chunks so that she can feed herself; I'll give her the veggies and everything else is put on the tray for her to get with her hands.

The drawback to this approach to feeding is that Cati loves to put the food in her hair and she loves to drop the food over the seat. The over the seat thing doesn't bother me because we have a mini vacuum cleaner in the shape of Perla but the food in the hair thing does because Cati's hair gets all pasty and gross. I can tell you now, if you are ever in need of gel but don't have any, just use a banana. I promise bananas are just as good and it smells wonderful.

For the first time this week I noticed Cati pointing. I don't think I have ever noticed her pointing at anything. Reaching for and grabbing, yes. But pointing, no. We were at Pet Supermarket and she was so fascinated by the gerbils that she pointed at them. It's little things like this that remind me of Cati's blooming personhood.

Teething. I can't say that I hate you because you haven't made Cati unbearable but I don't like how you make mealtime so un-enjoyable for my little girl. Cati barely eats when she's teething and you can tell that she's really hungry but too uncomfortable to actually eat. The little tooth is right there under the gum (it's the other bottom middle one) but it hasn't made it's appearance yet. I thought the little tooth make its appearance sooner but her teeth are taking their sweet time.

Walking is getting so much better.  She's getting more comfortable in her shoes and actually chooses to walk more than crawl at times, even if crawling is faster. She's almost running too! The only thing that stops her from actually being able to run is how excited she gets; she'll get so excited that she loses her balance and falls into a crawl. My favorite activity of the day has been walking hand-in-hand with her.

We got a new lovie this week. One of Alex's patients had advised us to get an identical lovie just in case something happens to her current lovie because when she went to buy a replacement lovie for her child the replacement could only be found on eBay for $200. Luckily, the identical lovie didn't cost $200 but it sure was hard to track down.

Perla got a haircut this week and Cati has been fascinated by her. It's as if we got a new dog. Cati follows Perla around and constantly wants to pet and be with her. It's the cutest thing ever.

My baby is growing up. Where did time go?