To Vivian, seven months old

We were a bit late but we finally had your sixth month check-up today. And you are 17 pounds (50%) and 27 inches (75%) with a head circumference of 17. Look at all those lucky sevens at seven months! I feel like I am the lucky one getting another great, beautiful, sweet amazing daughter.

You are continuing to grow and develop in all the ways you should. You are rolling over like crazy now. You always sleep mashed into the corner of your crib, lying on your stomach with your face buried into your little monkey. You love to practice your four point stance in which you lift your body into a plank or downward dog position.
Then you get onto all fours to practice crawling and inevitably manage to move several feet backwards. I always feel a bit bad when I put a toy in front of you to get you to crawl towards it and I see all the effort you put into getting to it but, instead, you get further and further away.

Daddy likes to play a game with you where he will make a sound over and over and then you will make the same sound back at him. You seem to love this game as well. In fact, you are so happy all the time with Daddy. You laugh and giggle like crazy or you sit totally silently and contentedly in his arms as he carries you about. He gets up with you in the morning a lot which has allowed you two to develop a really special bond. I think it is only fair for me to continue to allow him to get up - it wouldn't be right if I took over in the morning. Okay, David, Vivian is all yours from 6am-8am.

We call you Bebo and also Pepper. (Stella is Sugar, I am Salt, You are Pepper, Daddy is Spicy Sauce.)

You still wake up between 1 and 50 times starting around 3am.

You started eating solid foods. We started a little bit after you turned six months because we were taking our first family vacation to Jamaica and it seemed like a better idea to start this very long chapter of your life after we returned. So far you have had avocado, carrots and peas.
Carrots are your favorite although you don't like anything as much as you love love love water. Mostly you like to take the spoon away from me and feed yourself.
I am a firm believer in allowing you to play with your food, touch it, mash it between your fingers, put it in your hair, etc. This results in a very big clean up job for me. Food seems to go everywhere but in your mouth.
Please note: before I had kids, I did not think pictures of children with food on their faces was cute at all. I still have mixed feelings about them but for the sake of posterity...

It is a strange thing going from sustaining you solely on my breastmilk to adding food. I'm so happy with our breastfeeding relationship. It was a bit of a battle getting to this place and it is such a special and important thing to me. Now that you seem to get such comfort from it -- and clearly are getting great nourishment -- it is just a huge source of pride to me and I love sharing that special time with you every day. Even though we will continue for quite awhile, it is a big thing to add food to the mix.

You still have a great time in the bath.

You had your first vaccination today and you did not cry. Not even one peep. I closed my eyes. Seemingly nothing happened. And the nurse told me it was over.

You LOVE the swing and your big sister Stella LOVES to push you on it. You always have a great time and get so excited when we get close to the park. But really you laugh hardest when Stella is the one pushing you. I'm so thrilled that you guys already seem to be developing a very special relationship.

You are still the reigning champion -- smiliest baby of all time.

You are still the reigning champion -- most loved baby of all time.

My heart has expanded a thousand-fold since you were born. I just love you so so much.

Love,
Mommy

Dear Stella, 4.8

My dear, sweet daughter. Every day with you is such fun these days. You say so many funny things, have an incredible sense of humor, are so capable and yet still need your mommy and daddy every once in awhile. You are such a big help if we ask you to get a washcloth when we are giving Vivian a bath you say, "Sure!" and go run to do it. Once you even asked me to be the evil stepsister and you were Cinderella and I had to make you sweep the kitchen floor. I felt a little bad ordering you around but pretty happy to have the floor get swept.

These days your favorite game is to play pregnant person. Usually you are Maya and she has up to six or eight kids and is almost always pregnant. You stuff a ball in your dress and we meet and discuss your life as a mother and your upcoming labor and then you have the baby and you introduce her (you pretty much always have girls) and I say that I love her name (whatever it is -- Molly, Elizabeth, Laura). You also love to play out tonight which is where you put on my shoes and get one of my purses and fill it with my things like my cell phone and my wallet and keys and lipstick and get ready to go out for the night. I am your daughter and I really really really do NOT want you to go out but you have to and you explain to me why and I get very upset but you go anyway usually. Except sometimes you let me come at the last minute which is really nice to you since I, as your mommy, never do that when I am the out tonight person. You frequently ask in the afternoon, "Are you going out tonight?" and you are always very happy if the answer is no. It is cutest when you say, "Are you an out tonight person?" although you don't actually say that so much anymore these days.

Daddy frequently tells me really funny stories about things you say to him and I tell him that he should write it in here or we are going to forget but he never does and we forget because Mommy is always right. Because Mommy is also a great wife, she is now going to tell one of Daddy's favorite stories from a few months ago before we forget it. One time Daddy was trying really hard to get you dressed to go out and finally you were all ready except you didn't have shoes on. You were not interested in continuing to get dressed, you were interested in being a fairy princess complete with magic wand. You held up your wand to Daddy and told him that he could have a wish. He said, "I wish I had a daughter with her shoes on" to which you replied, "Not going to happen. Poof! You're a frog!" and waved your magic wand in Dad's direction.

You have been really loving your gymnastics class at Chelsea Piers and your soccer class and you are very very good at both of them. And that is not just a biased mom talking. At Chelsea Piers Daddy or I take you each week and we can sit upstairs and watch you do your thing. This is really great except for the number of times you look up to make sure we are watching each time. It's like if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears...you don't seem to realize that you are accomplishing something if we aren't there to witness it. But we are happy to be your biggest cheerleaders and it is really fun and gratifying to watch you because you are so amazing physically. The things you can do, your bravery and toughness are pretty incredible.

You have had a true art explosion in the past few months and you love to draw and paint. One morning you even got up and did a project for about a half hour before you woke me. When I did come out to the living room, I saw a snowflake that you had cut out and drawn rainbows and flowers on. You told me it was for me for my birthday, that you had the idea to do a snowflake and then realized you wanted it to be a present for me, even though my birthday was still about two months away. You thought it was okay because I would forget about it by the time you gave it to me. You are really really into rainbows and draw them all the time. You also like to write your name with each letter being a different color of the rainbow. And if you write Stella K you have the perfect number of letters to do just that.

Recently I had to go to Ikea to get a high chair for Vivian and I was thinking maybe I would just go by myself. But then I realized that it would be a fun adventure to go with you and I would so much rather do just that. I picked you up from school and we took the subway down to the South Street Seaport then had a long walk to catch the water taxi. We got there just in time, took the boat to Ikea, went through Ikea to find the high chair, took a shuttle bus back to the train and took the train home. We had so much fun. You were such a big help, you loved pushing the carts through Ikea and you were just wonderful company. I was really happy I had decided to go with you rather than by myself and was amazed at your stamina to be able to do all that after a full day at school.

You love love love "Into the Woods" and know pretty much every word to the whole show. It is so cute to watch you watching the dvd but you have also started just listening to it on your ipod in the morning. You will stand on your bed frame (your mattress is currently on our floor while we have no sex life try to get Vivian sleeping more or less through the night) and perform the show. Little Red Riding hood is your favorite part.

Today you and I went to the library and got your first NYPL card. You took out a few books and a Backyardigans DVD. You have such a passion for reading and books -- you are pretty close to being able to read yourself, you point out words you recognize all the time now -- and I hope this is the beginning of a really special relationship. Libraries are pretty incredible. But nothing -- nothing -- is as incredible as you. I feel like the luckiest mom in the world to have you for a daughter.

Love,
Mommy