Letters to Dannica: Beaches, First Steps, What Will I Be? (Month 12)

 

Dear Dannica,

You round out your first year of life, and we had an exciting month preparing to celebrate your birthday. Your father and I had envisioned a grand outdoor party with hired cooks for our summer baby, but like how the COVID-19 pandemic has altered many of our plans this year, we had to opt for a quieter and much smaller celebration. We took some family pictures at our favorite nearby park to commemorate the milestone.

Then Daddy and I decorated the house with a rainbow theme much like for your baby shower when we were expecting you, our welcomed and loved double-rainbow baby. We were rewarded for our efforts when you looked up in fascination at the decorations and reached up to touch the paper hot air balloons that dangled from the ceiling. Seeing the wonder in your eyes convinced us to leave up the decorations as a sort of entertainment for you even after your party.

On your birthday morning, I prepared a traditional game: you were to pick from a box filled with items that may hint at your future profession. I included things like a forehead thermometer (doctor), a toy "gavel" (judge), whisk (cook), book (teacher), pen (writer), paint brush (designer/artist), computer mouse (technology), ruler (architect), home magazine (real estate agent), and dance robot (engineer). After initial hesitation and very careful consideration as if your future really did depend on it, you picked the dance robot, so Mommy hopes you will rise to become a strong, competent, and compassionate female leader in a corporation, engineering useful products for the future generation.

We let you open your gifts and play with them, Luc leading the way with his expertise with how toys work.

 

Luc and Mommy spent a weekend baking rainbow unicorn cupcakes to share with your friends at daycare.

We spent the rest of the month taking you to a few local places, such as Stanford Shopping Center.

 

Visiting beaches became a favorite past-time for us, so that you and Luc could get some time playing outdoors. You love spending hours digging in the sand and quickly worked up the courage to chase waves with your brother, who in the last year has become enthralled with them.

 

 

We also visited Vasona Park and took you onto the lake for paddle-boarding.

We spent weekends off work relaxing into domestic life. You'd pull what we call a "Dannica-ism" by climbing into the slit between the mattress and the headboard and slip halfway down before we'd have to hoist you out. Despite being "stuck," you seem to like doing this, maybe to seek our attention.

We take walks to the park and watch our summer crop of sunflowers and dragon fruits grow.

You are now very steady on your feet and could stand for long periods of time, even on uneven surfaces like the bed. Shortly before your 13th month, you took your first few independent steps.

The year has become very different than what we envisioned. We thought we'd show you the world by traveling more with you, introducing you to many firsts in your first year of life. However, we've come to settle into a slower pace of living, happy to have extra time to spend with you, walking you to and from school, watching you grow, happy and content. Thank you for making our hearts so full, Baby Girl. We love you and are so proud of you every day.

Letters to Dannica: Daddy's Day, New 'Do's, and Assisted Steps (Month 11)

 

 

Dear Dannica,

This month, we celebrated Father's Day, and I was able to include you in the annual photo of dressing up my little ones in your daddy's dress shirts.

You continue to entertain us with your "hi" face, and most days, you come home from daycare with your hair in a different style, from pigtails to tiny buns.

 

 

Dannica's "Hi" Face

The tousled look

We spent the 4th of July relaxing as a family, and you discovered the thrill of reaching (and tasting) your toes.

My patriotic girl

You continue learning and thriving at daycare and love going there everyday to accompany your big brother. Before you came along, he would usually put on a show of crying and fighting to not go to school, but you would run right in, wave goodbye, and blow us kisses when prompted before joining your friends for the morning activity.

Letters to Dannica: Joy, Curiosity, and Life Unlived (Month 10)

We did a Memorial Day barbecue with a fire pit and s‘mores to give you and Luc some semblance of normalcy. 

 

In truth, I miss many things about our pre-pandemic life. You’ve never gotten to know how it feels like to sit on a swing or go down a slide. You haven’t been on an airplane to to marvel at the sights and smells of somewhere far away from home. Your first birthday is coming up, and we won’t be able to give you the big fanfare celebration traditional in our culture. I know you won’t remember back to this age when you’ve grown enough to retain memory, but I still mourn these experiences being lost to you.

In carefree fashion, you enjoy sleeping the day away, are fascinated by the softness of flower petals, and marvel at the way sunlight gets filtered through our blinds and dances with shadows. 

You examine any object you could get your hands on, and you are interested in repetitive gestures like Daddy’s coffee grinder. 

You like watching Odin; you especially revel in tossing your finger foods down from your high chair and watching him gobble it up. 

You learn more gestures, like rotating your hand for “no more,” shaking your head “no,” and pushing food away when you’ve had enough. You develop a fondness for bread and get a kick out of playing peek-a-boo. 

You love Luc just about as much as you love picking a fight with him over toys, and you take turns sleeping on each other’s heads, clamoring for the upper hand.

We start reaping the results of the labors in our garden: we harvest the potatoes that we planted at the start of shelter-in-place, and we watch our baby plants grow tall. The summer flowers bloom as we continue to cook and bake to pass the time. 

As the world gradually reopens, we take little strolls around downtown Willow Glen and Santana Row so you could marvel at small joys like water fountains. 

 

We cannot give you much else these days but hope that you will retain your infant optimism, and that nothing can dampen the joy in your heart and your sense of curiosity for the world.

Letters to Dannica: Self-Feeding, Balance-Standing, Hair, and Hiiii! (Month 9)

You’ve officially entered their double-digits, my girl. Your appetite for solid food has quite picked up, and you’ve transitioned to chunkier textures. Your favorites are still orange-colored food such as sweet potatoes, Japanese and garnet yams, butternut squash, and carrots. 

Though you don’t have Luc’s precociousness with words, you are very observant, watching what we do, and how Luc plays. Then you’d quietly crawl up when he’s abandoned his post and try to mimic him, everything from pretend-cooking, working the busy-box activities, and playing the toy xylophone.

You are cutting two more top front teeth for a total of six. You’ve developed the pincer grip and could feed yourself finger foods. 

 You have mastered pulling up to stand and are working on letting go your hands to practice balancing. 

You wave bye-bye when prompted and make this silly face by pulling down your upper lip when you try to say, “Hiiii!” In true lockdown fashion, your hair has gotten quite long and unruly, and Mama has been experimenting with a few up-do’s.

Entering our third month sheltering-in-place, in May we observed Daddy’s birthday, Mother’s Day, and your sister Thi’s would’ve-been second birthday. 

The neighbors put on a live concert for us, and you had a fun evening grooving to the music. 

We also took a drive up the hills near where we live to observe the springtime scenery.