Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The Boss At Sixteen

The Boss's baby book has not been updated since she was two weeks old. It would've been so simple for me to crack the pastel binding on a more consistent basis, inserting one-liners, dates and strands of my baby's fine hair. It would've been easy, in dribs and drabs.

But I've never been one to just fill in the blanks. Empty lines between pre-packaged words are too shallow for my pen. I have to start something, to finish it.

Because I have this blog, I'm not sweating the baby book. The milestones are here. It is the way I feel about life, as it happens. But in between the recollections, however complete I believe them to be, is a lack of some simple detail. The plain facts. Truth that has shed its clothes for some good, old fashioned fun.

So here are the things I've thought about putting in the baby book lately, but have neglected.

- At 16 months of age, The Boss begins to show an interest in books.

- They are balloons, but she calls them "balls."

- She wears her fork as a "hat" at dinner.

- Her vocabulary consists of the aforementioned "ball" and "hat," as well as "thank you,"
"hi," "dog," "that," "look," "eye," "head," "dad," and, finally, "mama."

- After 6 p.m. she tends to walk like a drunk.

- She gives and receives kisses indiscriminately.

- She shows culinary appreciation with a hearty "mmmmm!" after each bite.

- She terrorizes the dog.

- The dog terrorizes her.

- Her favorite food is broccoli.

- She sleeps till ten most mornings.

And thus, my posterity-driven conscience can breathe easier until next month.

9 comments:

Jocelyn's stories said...

Will is only 6 months old and already I find myself falling behind on good old fashion photo albums. My blog, the photos posted on the internet are great, still they seem ethereal somehow. Sometimes I wonder, will my interweb musings still be there when my boy is old enough to be interested?

Girlplustwo said...

10am?

if i didn't love you i might want to resent that a little bit.

lucky for you.

been working on something tonight for you. should be up tomorrow AM.

Jenifer said...

I know how you feel. I also let the baby book fall by the wayside, and as for the new addition? He doesn't even have one! However your list made me think of a few of my own.

At 2...

~She thinks penguins "Lallow!" instead of "Waddle!"

~She calls cheese puffs cotton balls

~ She talks to Jeff from the Wiggles even when he isn't there.

~ Dora the Explorer is her idol.

~ She LOVES to count.... in English AND Spanish.

and best of all....

~When I say "Good night baby girl!" after tucking her in she replies with "Good Night baby Mommy"

It doesn't get much better than that!

Kate said...

I can totally relate to the lack of baby book archives. My first son has a whole month by month photo album dedicated to his first year of life, and my poor second baby has been totally gypped (sp?) of so many pictures. The guilt runs deep with me, too and it's always something on my internal "to-do" list along with many other things. My creativity has been sorely lacking lately.

But let's address more important things here: Favorite food broccoli? Someone else just posted the same thing on her blog today. How do you all get your kids to like veggies so much?

Sharon L. Holland said...

Way behind on the baby books here, too. But I tell myself that it is preferable to being a mom who documents everything and has entire scrapbooks for single events. Where do those things go when the kids grow up?

My husband and I decorated our wedding reception (ten years ago) with pictures from our childhood. When I asked my mom-in-law for pictures of my husband as a boy, she went to a drawer and pulled out four photos. She handed them to me and said, shamefacedly, "He was the fourth child."

Chicky Chicky Baby said...

Are you serious? 10am?! I hate you, just a little bit.

I haven't opened up my daughter's baby book since she was a newborn but like you my blog has taken the place of the pink pages with elephants and monkeys with its too short lines and "insert photo here" boxes.

Blogs are more fun than baby books.

sc@vp said...

baby book, schmaby book.

Wendy said...

Amber's book stopped at 6 mos and Sam doesnt even have a book. My solution: leave the dates on the pictures I take (hubby hates it) and online baby books (at babyzone.com) I find the online baby books better, because I am on the computer more than anything else. :)

Amy said...

We can't be friends anymore. Broccoli and 10 AM? Try M&Ms and 7 AM.