dear Naima, 9mo old
10:30 p.m. on January 25, 2007
Dear Naima, my sweet baby girl.
you're 9mo today. a big girl. a baby still in my eyes but to everyone you're a big girl. growing, growing, growing as fast as you can. i'm amazed at how fast time has gone by. i'm always reminded of how i would pray daily for May to get here while i was pregnant with you. i wanted the time to fly by fast while pregnant, to fast-forward and get to the part i had been waiting for longer than the usual 9mo...the best part of all...to hold you in my arms...alive and well. and that time went so slow. it made it even scarier. it just wouldn't go by fast enough. and now, well, now the time seems to be going at warp speed. one minute i was holding you in my arms a teeny-tiny baby and now i'm chasing after you on the floor as you crawl to attack the dog.
speaking of crawling. you're doing the funniest crawl now. crawling on your hands and knees is so yesterday. now you like to crawl on your hands and feet. you prop your butt up high in the air and with your feet and hands crawl around the house like a little bear cub. it is quite cute. and i'm not just saying that 'cuz you're my kid but, really, it is cute. your dad and i first noticed you doing the cute crawl last week and when we did we started laughing. you stopped, looked at us, smiled and then kept on crawling. and you having stopped doing it since. maybe that's a sign you'll be walking soon? maybe you're getting used to those cute little chunky flat things at the end of your legs called feet and learning how to use them? or maybe you just follow the beat to a different drummer and prefer to crawl your own special way even if it doesn't follow conventional crawling. who knows. who cares...it's pretty darn cute!
you're still not liking the water or juice idea but we're still trying. milk seem sto be your absolute favorite. you will drink water from your daddy's water bottle because you like the way it comes flooding out into your mouth and you also find it quite funny when you let 60% of it drool out all over yourself.
but after going to your 9mo check-up and the doctor informed us of possible cavatis (how can a 9mo baby get cavatis already?) daddy and i made the decision to cut out your milk bottle before bed time and make it a water only bottle. we thought it was going to be an interesting bedtime that night but it wasn't. you drank your water bottle as if it was milk. you either had no clue or you didn't care. you just went right to sleep. and the water only bottle didn't bother you during the two times you woke up that night either. so maybe you'll just be getting your water during the night.
same picture zoomed in 100000 times to see the teeth...
now, about those cavities. your top front teeth look a little discolored. i've tried feeling them (but your biting instincts are much to quick for me) and from what i could feel they also feel a little chipped where they're discolored. they just came out like that. they didn't come out fine and turn this way. that's the way you got them in. and i find it very hard to believe that your teeth can come with cavities already. where's the fun in that?! you get cavities without getting to eat all the candy and sugar to get them that way? that sucks!
of course munching on the newspaper probably doesn't help either...
so the doctor said they could just be discolored or they could be cavatis. her instructions were to take away the milk bottle at night (check), brush your teeth more often than usual and after every bottle (check) and to keep a close watch on your teeth. if they start to change color as in brown or ugly black then they are definitely cavatis and we'll have to take you to a pediatric dentist. and here i thought your first visit to a dentist would be years away.
your 1st birthday party is also being planned and orchestrated. now, i promise i won't make it into a big crazy gala event with an outrageous budget (daddy wouldn't let me do that even i wanted to), but it is an important event i've been planning for the past couple of months. i would like something special. i know you'll probably be more interested in the paper plate than the cake and you won't even know what will be going on but i guess the party is more for me than for you. i didn't get to do a big birthday party for your sister...i missed out on that. i just want it to be special. just a little something that can maybe heal a little piece of my heart.
love, your mommy
