My baby girl is 17 months old today.
I've been looking through her book and reflecting back on my huge pregnant days and the first moments of her life outside the womb and I wonder...where has the time gone? It's like I blinked and my baby girl went from being a beautiful little being in my arms to this beautiful independent little lady who can ask for things, go down the big slide by herself and tell me "no-no" if she doens't want something.
As of late, I have been asked many times when (and if) we're planning on having a second. If you had asked me about a year ago, I probably would have said hopefully sometime soon and that we were thinking of three or four kids. You ask me today, and I'm actually hesitant on the answer because in my heart, I know I want at least one more, but I just don't know how soon. This year even seems too soon...I just want more time with Tay before I have to shift my focus to a new little being. The question still remains, though...will I have enough energy and love for a new baby? I am told by many many other moms that love just multiplies...it's not an exact amount that must be divided from a whole. How will I be sure that the love that mulitplies, then, won't be redirected to a newborn or away from the newborn (if there is a newborn, God-willing). I guess the reality is, I shouldn't worry about such nonsense until Jeff and I are faced with the possibility of a new addition in our lives. In the meantime, we should just shower Tay with the love that we have in our hearts and enjoy that time with her.
Tay learns and adapts so quickly these days...it's absolutely amazing to watch her. Her vocabulary is increasing at an incredible pace...she has a few new words every day. She doesn't seem to go through the repetative phase much anymore with single words, but she does practice frequently at every opportunity of the new words she has acquired. As of late, it has been her body parts such as 'koh' (nose), 'ghee' (ear), beh (belly), 'bah' (foot) and 'bot-bot' (bottom). It's funny because she has known these words for a while by hearing them, but she wasn't able to actually say them until recently. Now she points to said body part and says the word over and over again. It's absolutely adorable...and amazing. Jeff and I have also reached the stage where she knows she can communicate with us by talking, but 50% of what she says, we can't understand exactly, so she gets a little frustrated if we can't figure it out quickly. For example, we were at the pool yesterday with Tay and after swimming a bit, we were resting by the pool and she kept pointing to my backpack and making hand gestures and chattering away, and neither Jeff or I could figure out what it was she wanted...quite interesting. She clearly wanted something from the bag, but nothing we pulled out was what she was asking for so she was getting quite irritated...poor thing. If only I had a toddler translator near by...
Speaking of the pool, we have been taking Tay to the pool almost every day for the past couple weeks because the weather has been so unbearably hot these days. We'll just swing by the pool after work for about 15-20 minutes so she can get a little refreshed and relax a bit before dinner and wind down for bed. After work, obviously, we haven't needed sunscreen, but Sunday, when we went during the day, the sun was so hot, I was thankful for the sunscreen I did have for her from
California Baby because she (nor I) burned at all and it has no strong fragance like many sun blocks today. It's pretty thick, but Tay and I make a game of it - while she smears my face with it, I cover her legs and belly, and then I cover her face while she points out the parts of her face and body that have been missed. She's a sport about the whole ordeal because rubbing a second layer of sun-block on an impatient toddler next to a beckoning pool is not an ideal situation...
In other news, Tay's favorite show these days is Pororo (bo-bo), and I think after her afternoon naps at Beth's she watches Elmo. I kept telling myself that I didn't want TV to be a constant in Tay's childhood life, but that fight has been more difficult than I suspected. I just keep trying to keep her engaged throughout the show so that she doesn't get into that "glazed over" look...luckily, her attention span is still too short for her to really get into a show for longer than 10 minutes at a time...maybe that's a good thing...I dunno. I still want to reduce the amount of TV she's being exposed to at this age...::sigh::
As for me, I am psyching myself up to get restarted on my Master of Education program. I have been out of it since the month before Tay's arrival, but now I feel like I am ready to start back up again. I was thinking of starting this month, but then realized that in two weeks, I'll be in traveling on vacation for about a week and then my mom will be visiting, so I decided to set my start date for 21 Sep. Here we go!
Well, I believe this is enough rambling for one day. I want to celebrate Tay's 17 month birthday...maybe we'll have dessert at dinner tonight. :)
Love,
Rosa
