19 Months

September 21, 2011

Usually I find the people in this world to be unkind, rude and pushy. My grandfather always told me the world is full of idiots.
Looking through my daughters eyes I see now that its more that people are afraid, shy or private. When we walk around our beautiful neighborhood, Franki smiling from the stroller, the dogs trotting along sniffing every shrub people of this planet have no problem at all smiling at us, sometimes even stopping to give a compliment and it cost them nothing but makes our day.

Children are such blessings, they make this world a better place, inspiring actions and feelings in people that in turn make others want to do the same. Never have I encountered so many lovely personalities that are complete strangers since Franki came into my life.

I am still not working full time, so we get to go to the childrens museum, science center, library story time, botanical gardens, aquarium and zoo with Owen and Wyatt and you point out the people as much as you do the animals. The animals are not strange or different to you, you are very matter of fact about them as if they're as common of a thing in your life as your baby doll. Speaking of which. You have suddenly grown attached to the "baby" you have 4 different kinds but the one in particular you insist on taking everywhere. You will not put her down, you always pass her directly to me to hold no matter where we are.

Firsts:
This month you put one shoe on for the first time with no help, it was the wrong shoe on the wrong foot but you determination and independence has grown in leaps and bounds this month. I watch you as you walk about, full of confidence, saying hello to people as they pass by and telling me all day about things you see.

You also went to your very first ballet class. Bri invited us to Shea's ballet class and I had no idea what to expect, half expecting you to cling to my leg, I didnt really think we'd be staying that long. I put a little pony in your hair, and since you dont have ballet clothing, I just let you wear pink tights and a little shirt with dancers. The studio requests the girls to all wear ballet slippers, well arent you a lucky little sausage that Nana brought you beautiful satin slippers from South Africa. All the teachers and other parents were asking where I found such beautiful ballet shoes! Boy-oh-boy did you surprise me! Off you went hopping and skipping, twirling and jumping, copying the other kids and all with a big smile on your face - it was a delight to see, my heart leaped for joy because ballet was mommy's first love.

You are enjoying stickers. You understand that they stick and then when they get dirty and stop sticking you lose interest in them. Not a day goes by that I don't have a hello kitty or bear stuck somewhere to my body.
True Story: You had been gifted a sticker of a banana kicking a soccer ball from Albertsons. Without my knowledge you had cleverly stuck it to my t-shirt. Since it was right under my boob when I looked down it was completely hidden, the only time I realized I had that sticker on me, was when I got in the shower at 9pm that night. I chuckled to myself. "The mom Life" :-)

You went through a period where you were obsessed with clothing, how they are put on and how the different pieces work so we went to Geppettos Toy Store to get you the doll with zippers, snaps and buttons...Whilst we were there, you tripped and fell. I noticed blood but knew you hadn't fallen that hard...I whisked you out the store and into the car to get a better look at your injury.

To my shock it appeared that your lip had pushed through the gap in your two top teeth. I was horrified. When you stopped crying, although still bleeding I gently tugged to see if I could pop your lip out. I had no luck. I called to make an appointment to see the doctor and they could only see us in three days, this didn't worry me because I thought by that time the swelling would have gone down and we could get a better look. On day two I lifted your lip to see what was going on...Still your lip was stuck, after careful investigation I realized it wasn't stuck but had grown this way! My heart sunk into the pit of my stomach. Not knowing what this was and what it would entail to get rid of it I got sad thinking of having to put you through surgery. You have been through so much already with your cystic hygroma.

It tuns out you have what they call a "Labial Frenulum". I called up a friend who is a pediatric dentist and he confirmed what it was, he said its nothing to worry about and very common and if it hasn't split and healed itself by the time you're a pre teen they would just snip it - no big deal. We then saw your doctor and he confirmed this all to be true. My sweet love, unfortunately you are like your mum with a few weird things to contend with as a child but with time and growth they will disappear and everything will be just fine.

When we were seeing doctor Frumin about the Labial Frenulum we also did your "18 month well check" these were se stats:
height: 34.5"
weight: 28.9"

Current list of words:
Bubble, bug, baby, bag, ball, nana, bear, bed, bike, car, truck, wo-wan (owen)cheese, chair, cheers, keys, cookie, duck, man.