Monthly Newsletter — Month 14

Imp, originally uploaded by JenSig.

Dear Isla,

This post is just a few days late, as our lives have gotten into the full swing of post-holiday, back-to-school and spring sports madness. With Owen and Edie both in sports (baseball and softball), our days and weeks are exceedingly full and busy. And you — you are just along for the ride.

You seem to think everything is a new adventure, and you happily tag along to wherever we need to be, fairly content to squawk and babble and take it all in.

Your newest adventure is that, at last, you are completely and truly WALKING. You're still just the tiniest bit unsteady, particularly on an uneven surface, like the bare grass, so it's definitely an adventure, but each day you get a little faster on those little feet of yours, and you follow me wherever I go throughout the house. And I think with the freedom of walking has come a new sense of mischievous discovery, and I often find you searching through the drawers and cupboards in my bathroom or dropping things into the toilet with glee. And when you are heading somewhere that you know you aren't supposed to be, and I follow you and say, "I'm gonna get you!" you squeal and giggle with delight and try to walk a little faster, which inevitably makes you stumble and fall.

We have decided that, of all three kids, you are the most independent-minded. Where Owen and Edie would parrot us and repeat things we would say or ask them to do on cue, you instead smile a cheeky grin and manage to look cuter than ever. If we ask you for hugs and kisses, you RARELY give them — you'd rather wait until you haven't been asked, and then spontaneously come over to me and lay your head on my knees and wrap your arms around my legs, preferring instead to give them to us on your own terms... which makes those spontaneous little hugs all the sweeter.

I know I say often how I feel so blessed to have gotten my little bonus baby, and I thank God every day for the miracle of you.

Love, Mama