Dear Cecily,
Tomorrow you are one year old. I know it's a bit of a tired trope to say how fast it's gone and how it seems only yesterday you were a little red screaming thing. But it's so true! Well, mostly. You are a baby with many feelings and as such you are still often a bit of a red screaming thing. But you're much less little now. And you have a lot more hair.
There are some ways you suffer by being the third child. I warned you early on that you were going to get short shrift in the blog entry department and man has that been the case. You've gotten less individual attention and more hand-me-downs. Your parents are more tired, more stressed, and often have shorter fuses. It's hard being the youngest.
But there are benefits, too! You have a brother and sister who love you fiercely. Your sister, especially. Nobody can make you laugh like she does. You walked earliest of all our kids because you were so eager to join them in their adventures. The other kids got foods slowly introduced to them over time. Not you. You eat (and love) just about all foods. Your favorite is apples, which you usually call 'bapples'. Your favorite method of consuming a bapple is finding a discarded core your brother left somewhere long enough for it to get brown and then quickly stripping it to nothing while your mother gags. So I guess that's another benefit: Lots of leftovers to scavenge.
Those things are good, but they aren't the best part of being the third. This one is so good your mom is probably going to tell me I'm not allowed to say it, but too bad. I'm a rebel. Alright, are you ready? Here goes:
You will always be our cutest baby.
Oh, I thought Maddie was the cutest baby when she was born. I probably thought Simon was cuter. That's how it works. But you, Cecily, you are what they should put on probes they send out into space to prove to aliens that our young are too cute to eat. Your six-toothed smile is a killer. And because you're the last, you will always be the cutest. There's nobody to break your record!
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you other kids. Except...uh...don't smoke.
Here are some other awesome things about you as you complete your first journey around the sun:
- You know so many words! I couldn't even list them all and you pick up new ones every day. You say 'cat' and 'apple' and 'dada' and for some reason you insist on calling your mom 'baba'. I think you do it just to mess with her.
- When it's time for you to go to bed, you angrily demand that your poor mother give you 'boov' to eat.
- Your favorite thing in the whole world is babies. That's your favorite word, too. You love baby dolls, pictures of babies, babies on TV, yourself in the mirror. Basically any excuse to say 'baby' in the cutest way imaginable.
- You are an absolute champ at going up stairs and total rubbish at coming down them.
And oh, Cecily, how you are loved. Nobody could love a baby more than we love you. And not just us! Your brother and sister think you're wonderful. Memere and Granny Jill visit you every chance they get! You have friends and neighbors who care about you and a whole wide world waiting to know you.
Cecily, you are only a year old and already I know you will make us proud. You are smart and funny and fearless. I can't wait to find out who you become. Well, maybe I can wait a little. Don't grow up too fast, okay?
Love,
Dada
