- Mary provides an ongoing soundtrack for her life. She is always humming, babbling, blowing, cooing, moaning, squealing, "velociraptor-ing," whining, or giggling. Or crying--she does that too sometimes.
- Mary spends part of the night in her crib, part in our bed, and part in, yes, her infant car seat. (I think she may still be sleeping in her car seat when she's in kindergarten.)
- Mary loves the sweeper, but is scared of the vacuum.
- Mary's motto: Why allow someone else to put something in your mouth when you can do it yourself? This means, effectively, that if she can't feed it to her herself, she won't eat it. (Baby food is out--not that it was ever in.) Mary is also very particular about what she eats--she will try something once, and probably eat it with gusto, but she most likely won't eat it again, insisting on Cheerios instead. (David was an adventurous eater as a baby, and, of course, I took credit for this. Fortunately, I have Mary to humble me.)
- Mary loves to clap. Whenever she hears music, she claps her hands. (It's sooooo cute!)
- Mary has discovered new and exciting ways to throw around her 17+ pounds of body weight as a demonstration of her insistence to (fill in the blank). She can be stubborn, and I think I've seen the seeds of temper tantrums. (David's toddlerhood didn't include many tantrums--I have a suspicion Mary's might be different.)
- Mary is busy, busy, busy! She is cruising along the furniture, and she can walk holding just one of our fingers. We suspect she may walk soon. (But what do we know? Not much! We were way off in our predictions with David.)
- Mary is getting a tooth. Finally! It's coming in very slowly.
- Mary is helpful. Seriously. Often a number of her pacifiers will end up under her crib, against the wall. I hate climbing down to get them. But if I send Mary under there, she will retrieve them all for me. (Mary also likes to help with the laundry--but usually her "help" isn't so helpful.)
- Mary still loves her brother, tries to play with his trains and cars, and can still hold her own in a wrestling match. (In fact, these days, it's usually Mary who starts it.)
