WordFull Wednesday: More Baby Thoughts

Blogiversary Week Continues…

As I review those very first blog posts from a year ago, one difference between now and then stands out like a sore thumb: photographs. More precisely, I didn’t use them in my first blog posts. Then, I figured out how to insert them, and how important they were to me, my blog, and my readers. Now I can’t imagine a post without a picture.

One of my very first blog posts to feature photographs was Help, I Can’t Stop Hitting Myself! (and other baby thoughts). This has become one of my most popular posts to date and is, without a doubt, my husbands favorite post. So, to reiterate the importance of photos in my blog, I decided it was time for an update post.

Enjoy!

With every new sight she sees, every new flavor she tastes, and every new sensation she experiences, I am watching and wondering. I wonder what she thinks, what she feels, what she likes, and what she wants. She is learning to communicate some of that. She can point and whine, clearly requesting a specific item, which usually seems to be my lunch. She can express her distaste by spitting out food and express her dislike with a temper tantrum.

Yet, there are those times when she simply stares, and I’m left to wonder what it means. Is she baffled? Is she in awe? Is she concentrating? Or perhaps she’s just pooping…

Take, for example, the first snow of the season and her first experience with playing in the snow:

Joy? Perhaps.

Surprise? Most likely.

Uncertainty? Absolutely.

But then, there seems to be a distraction:

And finally, she takes the plunge, with much urging from big sis:

Of course, big sister’s thoughts are never a mystery. Usually they sound something like this:

What’s a snow day without a bit of fort building? I wonder what the little one thinks of seeing the living room in disarray, every bit of furniture draped with blankets, every bit of floor space covered with pillows and stuffed animals…

She willingly shares her fort with me. Lately, she’s sharing everything with me: food, toys, books, stickers… Yet it seems she shares them ever so briefly before realizing she doesn’t really want me to have it for good.

What about her bad moods? What thoughts and frustrations lead to a whine, scowl, or a tantrum? Does she want more attention? More food? Or simply to be left alone for awhile because she just can’t stand one more moment of mommy’s incessant picture taking?

Whatever may be ailing her is easily cured…

… with cake!

I wonder how she experiences fun and humor. Why is it fun to climb inside the kitchen cupboard, close the door, and giggle by herself in the darkness? What’s so funny about smashing and smearing cheese onto the table? Why does she ignore that new $30 toy in favor of the box it came in?

With holiday season here, she’s in store for so many exciting experiences: turkey day, Christmas presents, Santa Claus, drunken relatives, and sober (yet equally strange) relatives. What impressions will all of that make on her? And what did she think of Halloween, trick-or-treating, or her mom’s insistence on dressing her as a strawberry repeatedly?

No matter what she thinks of her strange surroundings and novel experiences, there is one thing I KNOW she feels. Love.

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday with Live and Love Out Loud, Project Alicia,Parenting by Dummies and Seven Clown Circus.

Do you enjoy reading my blog? Well, I enjoy having you read my blog! In fact, I enjoy it so much that I hope you’ll decide to follow me on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or email. Find a way to follow by clicking one of those buttons near the top of the page!

Sincerely,

Christi