Five Months Old!

Dear Valerie,

You are five months old today! A lot of exciting things happened in you life this month. We took a trip to Canada to visit with the Davis relatives, and you seem to be starting to get the hang of long car trips. We celebrated Hanukkah this year, and you really enjoyed Mommy's slightly off-key renditions of the blessings. (The harder the song is to sing, the more you seem to like it. You love "Oh, Holy Night" and I swear it's just because you like to watch me squirm when it gets to the high part.) We celebrated Christmas about four times, and you didn't quite get the present-opening thing, but you really seemed to get the wrapping-paper-eating thing. That is the true meaning of Christmas, right?



That has been your main new trick this month. Putting things into your mouth. You do that thing I used to do where you hold a fistful of blanket and suck your thumb at the same time. It's adorable, and nostalgic, because I remember the feeling of comfort that brought. You still haven't cut any teeth, but you've been carrying on with the same "Now I'm teething, now I'm not" routine. Recently, you've started gnawing on things off to the side of your mouth, and when the thing you're gnawing on is one of my fingers, it sure feels like I can feel the nubs of molars hiding just beneath the surface. I may just be imagining things, though.



You're still growing at an alarming rate. I swear there's no bovine growth hormone in my milk*! I've had to retire all of your 0-3 clothes, and you're in the process of outgrowing many of your 3-6 clothes. Every other time I change you, the outfit I try to put you in doesn't fit anymore. It's a good thing your extended family keeps buying you lots of cute clothes!



You also lost all of your hair this month. It seemed like it happened overnight. One day I looked at you and realized that you no longer had hair. (Except for a little ring around the back of your head like an old man. A very cute old man.) Everyone kept telling me that you would lose that full head of hair that you were born with, but you held onto it for so long, I was starting to think that you might actually keep it. I miss styling your hair into a cute, little faux-hawk. I hope you'll still let me do it when you're bigger and have hair again.



It was very special for me to have all my siblings and their families together in Ottawa for Christmas this year. We went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service together, and it was just like all those Christmas Eves we celebrated when we were kids, but with more spouses and babies. I was holding you in one arm when I lit my candle, and you stared at it as I held it out of your reach, and it dripped wax onto my fingers as I jiggled you into a better position. (My child-self would have been so disappointed in me for not jiggling my candle a little more in order to make a wax finger cover. I'm sure I'll have to keep a close eye on you around candles, too, judging by that awed look in your eyes, and the pyromaniacal genes you no doubt inherited from your father and I.) I was glad we took the time to celebrate the Religious Christmas, because in all the rush of the holiday season, it's easy to miss the point. It's not just about presents, although you got a lot of fantastic presents this year (including an adorable dolly in a blue dress who could very well become one of those toys that gets dragged everywhere until its hair falls out).



It's not just about family, even though family is important, and I'm grateful for all of the quality time we got to spend with family this year. Christmas is about Jesus coming to earth. And I hope I can instill that important lesson in you as you grow up in a culture where the unspoken "true meaning of Christmas" is commercialism and the made-for-TV-movie "true meaning of Christmas" is a watered-down and secularized idea of charity.

Merry Christmas, baby girl, and Happy New Year.

Love,
Mommy.



*The FDA has determined that there is no significant difference between the milk derived from rbST-treated breasts and non-rbST-treated breasts.