Dear Lili,
I have many nicknames for you. Lili. Lilers. Lils. Lilster. Lili Bird. Lil’ Lily. Sack o’ potatoes, mama’s little chunkster, sweetie, sweet pea, honey, baby and mommy’s little peanut. These may sound lame but I am your mother and it is never too early for you to be embarrassed by me. So there.
In other news you have become a real character this week. A real little person. You make these faces now that are very expressive and combined with that certain look in your eye I can tell when you are ‘not having it’ or happy or about to freak out or sad. Pretty big developments from your recent blob of a state as a newborn.
You’ve also managed to develop one distinct act worthy of an Oscar. I call it the, “I’M STARVING AND MY MOTHER NEVER FEEDS ME”
This begins with you on the boob eating with loud dramatic gulps that to anyone listening sounds as if I’ve never fed you in your entire short life – GULP gasp GULP gasp GULP gasp GULP gasp GULP gasp exhale exhale exhale (repeat).
This is followed by hysteria when I take you off the boob for one nano second to burp you. You stand stick straight like a board, pound your tiny fists on my shoulders or grab a chunk of my hair, throw your head back and scream until you are red/purple and contort your face into the most unflattering expression. It is hilarious and I love you.
xo
I love you are are back… boob talk and all.
On becoming “a real little person. ”
When Kristen was about the age of Lili we were over the Williams house and some of John and Jane’s acquaintances stopped by and in the course of the conversation Jane said to them, “Have you met Kristen yet?” It really struck home because had I (in my at the time lack of knowledge about babies) asked the same question it would have been, “Have you seen Kristen yet?” The distinction is telling and not one of simple semantics. Babies are personalities right from the start not simply objects to observe. Because there lives are governed by relatively simple wants and behaviors one can be fooled. I don’t think until you have had your own that the profundity of that is realized.