Thursday, April 15, 2010

She Was Special From The Beginning

While at my lovely pretending we don't have children and enjoying some time by ourselves while we chat and drink wine once a month babysitting co-op meeting (ironic, no?) meeting last night, the topic of baby books came up. I was relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one who didn't have a completely up to date baby book, including a calendar marking every major milestone.

Me?

I've got a book.

I think I have a few things written in Mister Man's. Little Miss's is a blank book.

I've saved the strands of hair from the first haircut and the hospital bracelets. I've taken the pictures - although I've yet to print anything since 2001 (two years before Mister Man made his appearance), but yay to Costco for having unlimited $0.09 prints right now. Ambition. It's a scary thing.

I don't have the dates of any milestones written down, nor do I have their specifics recorded. That doesn't mean that I don't remember the important ones very vividly.

I know Mister Man's first words were a screamed, "nonononononononono" when he was in the hospital for rotovirus and was finally feeling well enough to recognize that he didn't want the nurse messing with him anymore.

I know that Little Miss was crawling at six months and running at nine months. I may not know the exact dates, but really - who's going to know if I fudge them a little bit.

Some memories we have on video, which makes pinning them down even easier. We recorded Mister Man's first (disastrous) haircut. It was the only one that we ever did at home, and my husband and clippers are forever banned from being in the same room.

But the one that most sticks out in my memory is Little Miss's first words. She never babbled, as she couldn't hear due to her constant ear infections as an infant. We finally had tubes put in October of 2006 when she was 14 months old. From there, she was finally able to hear, and she quickly began speaking.

I remember her looking up at my while I was changing her diaper. She was laying on the lilac changing table cover, and her skinny little chicken legs were waving in the air, finally free of her sleep sack.

She looked up at me with her eyes far wiser than her years, and her legs suddenly stopped moving. She stilled, which is something that she never did - nor does she now. She slowly reached up towards my face, an intent look upon her face.

Eye-bow, she said, as she gently stroked my right eyebrow. Eye-bow.

As proud as I was, I couldn't help but giggle a little. Eyebrow? Really, eyebrow was my daughter's first word? I mean, I get the "no" from Mister Man. I totally do, and I'm ok with it not being mama or dada, but eyebrow? Apparently we reviewed our body parts a little too frequently with her.

Ahhh, my little contrarian. Some things never change.

10 comments:

septembermom April 16, 2010 at 8:34 AM  

That's funny! You're more organized than me. Four kids and no memory books. Hopefully, my memory will stay for a while. I better start remembering...

Megan (Best of Fates) April 16, 2010 at 12:13 PM  

Best first word story I've ever heard.

I'm going to try and force my first child to start with "ridiculous" - just because.

Anonymous April 16, 2010 at 2:49 PM  

That's awesome! I have to agree with Megan - perhaps the best 'First Word' story ever!

Much to my surprise, I have done okay with keeping track of milestones. I have their heights and weights on a spreadsheet on the computer and have everything else jotted down on a calendar of their first year. I hope they aren't curious about what they did after the first year, because it stops there.

Melisa Wells April 16, 2010 at 7:43 PM  

I LOVE that.

I have a scrapbook that I made for each of my boys from birth to 2 years old in which I did not (yet) journal ONE WORD. I left it for "later", and that was about 11 years ago. Boo.

Claudya Martinez April 16, 2010 at 11:17 PM  

That's a fantastic first word. She might be the one and only to say that word first.

Pat April 17, 2010 at 9:37 AM  

"Eyebow"--I love it! She's possibly the first person ever to utter that as her first word!

I've heard that you can have your blog pages made into a book, but I know that's not the same as having a baby book. Plus, I'm guessing that you weren't blogging a whole lot during your kids' early years.

Debbie April 17, 2010 at 3:46 PM  

Baby books are so overrated. At least that is what I tell my kids:)

Michelle April 18, 2010 at 9:00 PM  

Kelly - Oh no... there are no memory books. I'm just going off my potentially shaky memory. It's on the ummm master to do list though.

Megan - Fun, isn't it? I love the idea of starting with ridiculous. Let me know how it goes!

Nichole - Ok so I have their heights and weights from the doctor. That part is easy. I'm just really impressed you have the first year captured so well. That would have been so easy to do had I actually gotten a calendar to do that. Great idea.

Melisa - Ahhhh, I feel so much better now.

Unknown Mami - I think so, too! We weren't trying to get her to say it, but how funny (I think).

Pat - I've heard that, too. I will do that someday, although I'm not fully focused on the wee one, and I didn't blog at all until they were past all the major milestones. Except Little Miss's first haircut. And Mister Man's first lost tooth!

Debbie - Annnnnd do they believe you? :)

Karen April 19, 2010 at 6:22 AM  

Your kids rock the First Words department. And baby books are overrated. Micah's is my blog - I'm guessing your is working well for that too.

Michelle June 26, 2010 at 10:46 PM  

Karen - Someday I'll want to look at baby books, or they will. I'll get to it eventually. :) In the meantime, yes the blog helps tremendously!

  © Blogger template 'Solitude' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP