On Saturday we took August to her first birthday party, it was also her first time in a bathing suit and in a kiddie pool. She sat in the warm water with my help for all of 15 minutes then it was time to sing to the birthday girl.
I watched the birthday girl, sitting at her high chair, take her two tiny hands into the pile of frosting then into her mouth. Seemed to be her first time eating cake. Only a year old and still looked every bit a baby. I don't know what I expected. I seem to always be surprised at how teenie one year olds are.
Today we realized our four month old is sill a "baby-baby". Everyone keeps saying she is so big, growing fast, already getting teeth, ready to crawl, ready for solid foods... We even attempted to sit her in a high chair! The truth is: she can't get her legs up to crawl, she can only wobble, clutching, white fisted, for dear life onto our fingers. All that drooling still pours from a very toothless mouth. High chairs are on hold until she can sit upright, by herself.
These last four months have felt like a year already and I love that. It has been slow. I've been warned it all goes too fast. So, I take it all in, linger over her smiles, gurgles and laughs. I stare at her and can see her Papi's gestures and expressions. I swoon. I'll make funny noises and sing songs for who knows how long, I am not watching the time. Everything else just has to wait, housework is slow going.
All will come in time. My grandmother is the only one who keeps telling me, "Mija, she is a baby, baby, let her rest, she is in a new world."