Dear Mara,
You turned eight months old today. And today is your first Christmas. This is your mom and my first Christmas with “children,” and it’s made it that much more of a special holiday for us. We’re so blessed and thankful that you were born, and you’ve reminded your mom, sister and me how precious life is and how farts at inappropriate moments are awesome.
You’ve learned and accomplished a lot of things this month. Most notably and most recently is your penchant for clapping. You’ll crawl around the house with no real motive, stop, sit up and clap. You’ll then look at us and anxiously wait for us to join you in clapping. And then we clap and cheer and everyone smiles, laughs and says, “Yaaayyy!” And then we do 400 more times in a 10 minute time span.
It’s this month that your personality has become such that I’ve decide you take after your mom. You’re perpetually happy, you smile at people and you’re bubbly and outgoing. You really only get upset when you’ve been stewing in your own deuce for too long, you’re really hungry, or your mom drops you on your head. Other than that, you have such a cute and infectious smile that melts hearts.
And speaking of smiles, this month you cut your first tooth. Actually, you cut your first three teeth. Given our limited experience, we knew that one of your bottom front teeth was coming in. We could see it breeching your gum line, and then one day, there it was — it made it’s way through and we could feel your new tooth with our fingers. And just the other night while we were poking around in your mouth we found a fang. And not but a few seconds later we noticed your other fang. You look like a little copper-top vampire, but you’re still so stinkin’ cute.
You growl. When you crawl around, you growl. When you’re trying to pick something up, you growl. When you’d rather be doing anything other than having your diaper changed, you growl. Right before you cry after you’ve fallen, you growl. When you’re trying to figure something out in your head, you growl. I take it as a sign that you’ve identified challenges and frustrations in life, and you’re verbalizing it.
You also started cruising this month. You pull yourself onto anything and have started walking while you support yourself on anything that’s Mara-level. We weren’t really expecting this mode of transportation so soon, but we’ll take it. And while you were quick to teach yourself how to pull yourself up onto your feet, it’s been amusing to watch you try to figure out how to get back down to the ground. You’ve endured your share of head bonks, face plants and ground-level barrel rolls, which, of course makes for lots of growls and tears, but you’ve learned fast and you’re persistent as all get out. It’s always so much fun and so cute to witness you teach yourself how to do new things, like crawl or cruise. In that same breath, it’s bittersweet to witness you grow up so quickly.
While we’ve provided you with all sorts of new toys and a wealth of hand-me-downs from your sister, your absolute favorite toy is a stupid charger cord for my Macbook. We have drawers and closets full of toys that are perfect for a baby, and yet nothing gives you more hours of enjoyment than your charger. I learned the hard way that baby saliva renders an expensive laptop charger useless. You’ve taken the magnetic Mag Safe end of the charger cord to your tongue and gums and have since ruined my computer’s cord. So the charger is now yours. And you carry it around with you all throughout the house. You lovingly hold the MagSafe end of the cord and drag around the power brick end of the cable like you’re taking it for a walk. I’ll always stop and ask, “you taking your charger for a walk?!” And invariably you’ll look up at me and smile and clap. It’s not the toy I’d expect you to take such a liking to, but it’s cute and you love your charger. By the way, you owe me $79.
You’re growing so fast and your personality continues to grow and shine through at each passing day. Thank you for sharing your ear-to-ear smiles, and reminding us of how good it is to smile and find the happiness is most everything.
Thank you for being you.
I love you, Mars.
Love,
Daddy