Happy birthday little man! You'll be 10 months old in only a few days, I can't believe it. Yes, I realize I say that every week, but it's true! It hasn't taken you long to master crawling and this week you've had lots of fun -- and kept me on constant watch -- exploring your world. You've started crawling from room to room to explore and have some favorite spots like: the TV stand, where you put your hand in the vcr and pulled the whole machine off the shelf; the kitchen, where you like to splash around in Herky's water and shove magnets under the fridge; and the bedroom where you try your hardest to reach under the crib for the midnight diaper bucket. It's fun to see you gain some independence, but it sure makes things a lot more busy!
You're doing a great job trying new foods again this week and have been eating more table food. You tried corn this week and potato smiles at Faye's. Tonight you had zucchini both raw and cooked. You loved it! You like straws a lot too, and spaghetti sauce. You only have a bottle in the morning and in the evening at home. You usually wake up once in the night and are satisfied with about 4 ounces. I think once your teeth finally pop through you might actually sleep through the whole night. They're so close we can see white now, but they just aren't coming in. You cried through your bath tonight. You don't seem to like the bath or shower unless your sister is with you.
My favorite thing to report this week is that you have started waving. It is adorable. I mean, you're totally cute anyway, but seeing you wave hello and goodbye to your friends just melts me! You're such a smiley happy boy. I know you will have lots of love to share with the world!
Lyla has had a good week too. She so shoe bruised her cheek, but it must not have phased her because she can't remember how. She moved up to level C in reading this week and we chalked up 180 minutes of reading on her ice cream sheet for I Love To Read Month. We're hoping she wins the button tomorrow for most minutes in her class. Today I joined her on class field trip to Richardson Nature Center. We didn't get to snowshoe since it was super cold, but we saw and touched some great animals like a snake and a toad. Lyla liked when they brought out a red tail hawk at the end and was very excited to spot three different kinds of woodpeckers at the bird feeders. We decided we will have to go back on our own sometime.
Play therapy has been going really well and Lyla has made good progress during her three sessions so far. Making the drive to St. Paul mid week is a little taxing, but she's been able to talk through a lot of things in her sessions and is doing a much better job opening up about her feelings and learning it's ok to feel the way she does. She told me this week "I don't like you right now" and that "sometimes I just need a break from moms!" While it stings a little, I'm proud of her for sharing how she feels and for asserting herself as an individual. She is suddenly asking about things like sleeping in her own room and what it's like to have your ears pierced (wait until Masud hears that!). In other words, regular kid stuff! She's always been so compliant through everything and has obviously been conditioned not to question when we tell her to do things. It's nice to see her explore her world as her own emotional person just as Amir is exploring his world by crawling.
This week marks four years since her tumor diagnosis. Next week with be four years since surgery. Everyone else marks this week with Valentine's Day, but for me the holiday pales in comparison to remembering the week we waited to put our little girl through the biggest, longest, most life-changing day of her life thus far. You'd think I'd be over it by now, and I'm certainly grateful for everything we have and how far she has come, but in a way it's still the anniversary of when I willingly left my perfect girl in a surgical suite promising her pizza when she woke up and having no idea how much she would endure, struggle through, and ultimately overcome -- not to mention that she would lose her taste for pizza almost entirely. Seriously, she doesn't eat pizza.
Love is a crazy thing. I have justified many things I am not proud of in the name of love, health, and "what's best". I try not to think about them, because in most cases there was no choice. At the same time, I know there is nothing I love more than these kids. I know that Masud and I can weather anything because our love has been questioned, tested, and proven repeatedly. I know that I am fortunate to understand love in its simplest forms. Love is laughing with your kids as they dance around in their underwear during reading time. Love is 15 hour days peppered with text message I love yous and pleas to "drive careful pls", waking up every morning ready to hug your baby brother, and crawling into the living room to wake up your daddy with a "Dadada!" and a slap in the face. Love is eating straws in the hospital lobby and calling from the store to check sizes when you happen upon a sale.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
And now I will remind myself that Love is also when your six year old not only steals your blanket, but also takes up two thirds of the bed you share just because she still likes to snuggle. :)
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