Peanut Grows Up

This will be a Peanut heavy entry, so if you're not into the kid bragging, you may just want to skip this one. Warning: Upcoming adorable pictures to bore entertain you. (I finally had her picture taken again, something I had not done since she was 4 months old. Great mom, huh?) I've never been one to do the monthly letter to my kid but I feel as if so much has changed lately that I need to do something to mark the milestones.

But first, I've been thinking for awhile that Peanut does not seem like Peanut anymore. It's such a baby name, something we called her in utero because it was R's nickname after he born very prematurely. The thing is, my girl is no longer tiny. Well, literally she is small at just barely 20 pounds at 15 months, but what she lacks in physical heft my girl makes up for in attitude a thousand-fold. So I'm not going to call her Peanut here any longer. From now on she will be known as Parker. This is not her real name, but it was my first choice for a girl name, so I may as well get to use it somehow.




Especially in the last month or so I've noticed that my baby is gone. I struggled a bit with her becoming a toddler, but I did eventually accept it. Now it isn't even so much that she's a toddler, but suddenly she's this little kid. She doesn't really talk much, doesn't call us Mama or Dada, and probably only says about 8 words. Actually I should say she doesn't speak much English because the girl talks constantly, just in her own language. It's extraordinarily adorable and also scares the crap out of me because I am fairly certain that once she begins to speak our language, she is never going to shut up. Even though she isn't talking much, Parker understands more than I give her credit for. Nearly every day I say something to her without thinking then end up shocked when she responds appropriately to what I say.




Parker has become obsessed with books, which was to be expected in our family. Her attention span still isn't great because she has Things To Do, but we read and read and read all day long. She is adept at picking out the exact book she wants (we have enough to start our own children's library, I think), then she will walk over to you, turn around and back up until she is sitting in your lap, then wait for you to read. I love to watch R read to her every night at bedtime. Her eyes follow the pages and often her lips move as if she is reciting the words along with him. I am so happy that our girl loves to read and that I will get the chance to re-read all the books I so loved growing up.



The best new thing is that Parker gives kisses. As part of her bedtime routine, R & I kiss each other with an exaggerated MWAH sound just to be silly. When she kisses, the MWAH sound is at Top Volume with great gusto. She has begun to kiss random objects, her toys, and if in the proper mood will even give kisses over the telephone. The only thing better than her kisses is that briefly, each day, she slows down long enough to sit and cuddle in your lap while she watches a bit of tv. Parker has not been a cuddler much past the first month of her life and I love the moments when she will sit in my lap and I can inhale her scent off the top of her head. I want to remember that smell forever.