bella beana: 18 months

Dear Mirabel,

You are 18 months old today.



You continue to delight and daymake and charm. But you've got this new 'tude, and it slays us every day:


It's this under-the-brow, pout-lip, all-knowing heart smasher that you've perfected so well that it has *almost* replaced your sunshine smiles. I'm not quite sure when it started, but by now just about everyone who knows you has had the pleasure of being on its receiving end.

Physically, your biggest accomplishment is the ability to scoot in a circular motion when you're seated on your bum. You've started bending your knees while seated, which is huge -- one step closer to putting those fat little hands down and actually covering some ground. But other than that, you are still unable t sit yourself up from a reclined position, and you're not mobile other than rolling. Little steps have taken on such greater significance; your development is just on hyper slooowwww mode. Which only means we get to delight in every little milestone for weeks.


You finally got your first teeth - four at once! - at 16 months old. One of the typical developments in babies with Ds is a strange tooth eruption pattern, but your first four were split in the middle top and bottom of your gums. Luciya's first emerging teeth were named Pokey and Buddy, but yours seems a bit more aggressive, so they were named Jagger and Friends (one of whom was Keith, to be sure).

You've now got no less than 7 of Jagger's pals pushing their way in, and consequently we've had to stop nursing. July 1st was officially our last day (sigh), because, without going into too much unnecessary detail, you left some painful bloody gouges in a place where painful bloody gouges should be illegal. But we made it nearly 18 months, and now I'm officially free to get wasted every night. Just kidding.

You continue to be a sweet, snuggly, nuzzly beanie baby. You refuse to put on weight very rapidly, and you're still hovering at around 19 pounds. You sleep well through the night, waking around 6:30 a.m. and usually giving me a half hour of babble before our bright morning bottle. You still take organic formula, because milk still doesn't seem to agree with you.


We are starting Month Three of Nexium for your reflux, and while I won't say the spit-up phenomenon has been eliminated, it is dramatically reduced, which means we can very well get through a day with one or two bibs. Your feeding specialist is thrilled with your progress, as you've learned to chew with up-and-down AND circular jaw movements (another milestone on which I never would have thought to congratulate my "typical" child.) You have feeding therapy every other week and physical therapy every week. We are going to begin speech therapy, as well, as soon as we get back from next week's summer road trip vacation to California.

Sweet girl, I am looking forward to the day you become mobile and can force me to re-babyproof the house. Until then, you are a true heartstring-tugger and gentle-soft milky monkey. I adore you so much it sometimes makes me ache.

I love you, Mirabel!!

Love,
Mama