10 months old and the first to wear the duck costume for Halloween
Leah was born after a long night of labor. What made it long is that she had some trouble on her way out, and was in distress. But she finally made it and I was excited to see that she had hair! I had been bald forever as a baby, and so had my husband. Little did I know that it was just temporary hair and that it would soon fall out and she would actually follow in her parents' footsteps hair-wise.
As Leah was my first child (and I was the baby of my family), I had no idea what to expect. My husband actually had to teach me how to change diapers. But I soon learned what people were talking about when they said you will love your children like nothing else. I remember just sitting there, holding her and crying because I was so overwhelmed with my love for her. It was pretty intoxicating.
I think she was objectively adorable. Sure, she had no hair and was often mistaken for a boy even while wearing pink from head to toe. But she had the sweetest, biggest grin and as it turns out, people love grinning babies. We would go out to eat and the whole restaurant seemed to stare at her (in a nice way). We would have people over and she owned the room. It was as if the only reason they came was to look at her, in her mind. And that became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I was so amazed by her and my love for her that when she was only 5 months old I knew I needed another one, and that's how Patrick came to be.
First Day of First Grade
Leah was a sweet young girl. She loved singing, and dancing, and princesses. Oh boy, the princesses. She had to wear pink all the time. She wanted long hair, poor thing. She was all girl.
She also loved to read and write and draw. She loved school in general. She was always so empathetic. When she started kindergarten and I was crying about her starting that huge new chapter, she cried with me. She was a social butterfly, which was truly baffling to an introvert like me. As she enters 5th grade this fall and her roster of former teachers grows, they continue to tell me that she finds them at recess to give them hugs.
Nine Years Old, 4th Grade Picture
I did write those last paragraphs in the past tense, and much of that is still true. At her core she is still sweet and empathetic, and she still enjoys clothes and fashion. But she hates princesses and pink and seems to have made peace with the fact that her hair will never be full and voluminous and long. She is very smart and uses big words and loves to write and create, and read. She still loves hanging out with her friends, but she has a very sweet, shy quality as well.
*But*...she is 10 now and has always been precocious, which means that she is basically in full-on teen mode. I've learned enough to know that I can say that and still have no clue what sort of trouble I'm in for when she actually is a teen. But wow, the drama. She can be so extremely sweet to her siblings one minute, and then scream at them the next. She has mastered the practice of unnecessarily slamming dishes when we make her do them, and stomping off to her room to slam the door.
Programming a NAO Robot at School
But that's okay. It's good to know that she's fired up, right? I don't know what the next few years will bring, but it will be fun to watch this one turn into an adult.
Often timid, but eager to try new things like jumping on a velcro wall.
I'm watching the Gilmore Girls series for the millionth time, but this time I'm bringing Leah along on the journey. I see so much of Rory in Leah, and lord knows I need a road map for navigating the teen years with my daughter, this amazingly complex creature.
No comments:
Post a Comment