Elvie Kathryn turned thirteen months on April 3rd.
This girl is something else. She sashays when she crawls; sometimes when she crawls she raises her hands way, way up and slaps the floor in a fashion that can only be called dramatic. I call it her Spanish Walk. She has the run of the house–probably against my better judgement–I won’t say that she rules the roost, but she definitely makes her presence known.
She wakes up every morning before the boys do, and it’s her greatest joy to be able to go into their room and harass them. Once she knows they’re awake–and sometimes before–she’ll go up to their door, sit up on her knees and beat on the door until I either hustle her away or turn the knob for her. In the case of the latter, she’ll open the door herself, pushing it aside with her chubby little arm. Then she cackles, throws her head down and does her Spanish Walk into the room slap-slap-slap-slap, just like that. They are glad to see her and she is glad to see them–or maybe she is glad they are glad to see her. Sometimes it’s hard to tell.
She is quiet like Clive was at this age. She doesn’t really babble too much. She speaks in sentences instead. She points and murmurs and then expects you to respond. This was Clive’s method also. Her particular language sounds like zhi-zhi-zhi-zhi with different tones and inflections. There is also something sounds like “Oh, I see!” and “There it is!” She points things out with her fat little pointer finger. Every time I get her up from her crib, she immediately starts to point and zhi-zhi-zhi. First she wants to poke the butterflies on her mobile. Then the pictures in the hall. Then the nose of the deer mounted on the wall. Everything gets a point and a poke. She’s a creature of habit.
We call her Cakies. That name evolved from Elvie Kay to Elvie Cakes to just Cakies. I’m afraid the name is rather stuck. This makes the family nickname train Biggie, Tiggy, Momo and Cakies. (In case you’re trying to keep track.)
I think I can really say that she’s the most sensitive of the children. It takes but a stern word from Daddy to make her burst into tears. Sometimes just a sideways glance will do it. She’s more tough with me, though maybe that’s because I scold her more often. She still scratches though. We are working on that. She’s got a temper, that one.
She’s starting to sit still for books, which is lovely. She does like to sit occasionally, just quietly sucking her thumb, her my curled up in the same hand. She’s enamored with her dollies–the only toys she pays very much attention to. Her very favorite thing, though, is for me to pull out the drawer with all her bows and bonnets and to set it on the floor so she can pull each one out and “put it on”. She will do this, contentedly, for quite some time.
She is still scarce on hair and completely lacking in teeth, though judging by the state of her gums I’m certain we’re going to have a tooth poke through this month.
She likes to “sing” and will sing along with you when you sing to her. She’s also something of a Dancing Queen and will drop whatever she’s doing to bust a move when a good beat comes on. She’s especially fond of Mama’s Salsa Loca Pandora station.
It’s hard to imagine the family without her. When we found out we were having a girl, I was both excited and apprehensive. After three boys, the atmosphere of the family felt pretty set. What would happen when we brought a girl in? Would our equilibrium be lost? What if I failed her miserably? I felt I was more likely to do that with a girl than with the boys.
The truth is she made the household sweeter, more gentle, yet more dramatic and determined and with something like the nonchalant toss of a head at the world. Elvie Kay is the sweetest spitfire we’ve met…yet.
ephraim’s thirteenth month
clive’s thirteenth month
anselm’s thirteenth month (missing)
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