December 27, 2012
Sweet baby Kate,
You are growing up to be such a sweet little girl! You love giving kisses and are constantly bestowing them on mommy and daddy and Hugo and even occasionally on Nicky. You love to shower us with snuggles and hugs to show us your love and I’m taking as much as I can get! You give such dainty, adult-like kisses (no open mouth slobbery baby kisses for you) accompanied by a nice “mmmmm-aah” sound that I’m sure you’ve picked up from meticulously watching how we do it. You’re always watching and learning and have started mimicking so many things. You have so many words now and can repeat back lots of new and complex noises. You say hi, bye, ni-night, daddy, mama, kitty, doggy, hot and so many other words. I swear I’ve heard you say two to three word sentences already like “what’s that?” You know what a monkey, lion, giraffe, kitty, doggy and cow say. I’m so amazed at how quickly you’re picking things up. Even when you can’t say the word, it’s clear you understand very clearly what’s going on around you and you’re figuring out non-verbal ways to communicate the words you don’t know. It’s amazing!
You also love mimicking the way that we eat and you insist on feeding yourself, particularly when it comes to eating yogurt. You aren’t satisfied unless you’re holding the yogurt in one hand and the spoon in the other. Luckily, you’re not as into throwing your food as Nicky was; you opt more for dribbling it all over your clothes and then abandoning the spoon all together so that you can eat with your hands and smear it all over your face and hair. Needless to say, eating yogurt is a messy affair and is typically followed fairly quickly with a bath.
You love, love, love anything to do with the water, whether it’s taking a bath or going swimming in the pool. You are just like a little fish. It’s like it’s never occurred to you to be afraid of the water, which is a little worrying for me. I’m constantly having nightmares about you walking straight over the edge of the pool and disappearing underwater, or about you trying to dive to the bottom of a pool to get something, when I know you can’t really swim underwater. But I guess that’s why we’re taking swim lessons – so that one day soon I can relax a little bit when I see you eyeing the water.
After swimming, your next greatest love is climbing, which also gives me heart attacks. You are always testing the heights by climbing and standing on top of beds, couches, tables, and anything else you can find to scramble up. The funny thing is, I get the feeling that it’s not about the adrenaline rush for you with these things, it’s more that you think it’s such a funny joke. You’re very laid back about your risk taking, but you sure do think it’s funny. Silly girl!
Baby Kate, we so love having you here. You always make us smile and remember the sweet things in life. You are a precious little thing!
Love, Mommy