I am the Picture of Beauty… Thanks to my Daddy.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing that I wanted to do after getting dressed was the have my Daddy fix my hair. My Daddy is the hair-fixer-upper in the family. Mama says that she is worried that she will hurt me while pulling it up, so she lets Daddy take over on that one. My Daddy is so, so gentle with his soft brush that I hardly feel it, and he sings and talks me through while he is getting my hair all pretty. My Daddy, he can be magical sometimes, especially when he sings to me.

There he is working that magic. It may not stay completely put together all day (because really, I play rough, and when I am busy being a toddler hurricane, my hair is the least of my worries), but it still stays away from my face, and my Mama says I still look like a beautiful princess even when it gets a little messy. After all, isn’t that what life is? Getting everything all put together just so you can work to mess it up again?

There I am, already working to undo the beautiful work that Daddy did. Play hard, but always look absolutely gorgeous when you do. 🙂

Advertisement

“Chopsticks”… a Much More Fun Way to Eat.

It has been a big week for new things for me along with my this-little-piggy toe socks that I told you about yesterday. Mama and Daddy eat with these little designed fun sticks called chopsticks all of the time, and Daddy is so good with them that he can even pick up one little grain of rice at a time if he wants too. They are so fun to try to use, but they are so hard that I can’t quite do it yet even though Mama and Daddy have shown me how to put my fingers and they have let me take them to try to pick little things up around the house so that I can practice. My little fingers, even with little people chopsticks, can’t quite do it yet. They go all criss-crossed, and they are so slippery in my little hands.

Since I loved trying to use them so much, they ordered me small kid practice ones that are not slippery. They have finger holes where my fingers need to go on the sticks, and they help my little fingers stay in place when I am picking up food. Since I have had them, I have had them on my fingers almost all the time, picking up snacks and fruit and almost everything with them. I even picked up my entire English muffin this morning and took a bite. This is a good thing, because as you can see from the stains on my freshly washed hands, my eating generally tends to be pretty messy.

One day, when I am big, I will be a chopstick expert that can pick up a grain of rice like Daddy, and my practice chopsticks will help me to get there even faster. Thank you, little penguin chopstick buddy, for making eating food even more fun.

Dirt Baths… Nature Can be Wondrous.

I love outside. Everyone in my family does. I love it in a way that the rest of my family doesn’t understand, though. I love listening to the birds and seeing them fly way overhead. I love the breeze that hits my cheeks when the fall time is beginning. I love the way that the grass tickles my toes before I work to pull it out and crush it. I love the squirrels that come near me until I scream for them to come closer (they run away then, and I don’t know why… I just want to pat their fuzzy heads). What I love more than all of those things, though, is playing in the little herb plants that Daddy planted. I love the feel of the Earth in between my fingers. It’s squishy and soft and moist. I would try to eat it, but it crumbles in my fingers before I can, and then I have to go and pick more up over and over again.

My Mama is quite silly, and she doesn’t enjoy seeing me really dirty. Some of the people in my life like Daddy and Granny let me get food all over the place when I am eating, but Mama feeds me carefully. Daddy’s right, though, that is how I am going to learn one day to not be messy– I have to practice.

Playing in the dirt is like that. My Mama watches me and laughs, but she always looks a bit worried that the plants will suffer from my death grip hands or that I will take all of the dirt out of the pots and put it all over my clothes. I take some, it is nature’s Play-Doh after all. I can’t take all of it, though, and I leave plenty for my little friends the plants. I do like to rub it into my clothes and skin. It is like a dirt bath. Mama is not the biggest fan of dirt baths.

What she doesn’t understand, and what no one else in my family does really, is that dirt is meant to be felt. Everything (except for I guess the squirrels) is meant to be felt. It is a way to be close to outside. My Mama and Daddy sit in the sun and enjoys the breeze too, and they love outside. My big sister Addie and my big, big sister Lilli and my giant brother Jonah all like to be outside to run and play. They ride on those wheel things that they call bikes that I have but my legs aren’t ready for yet. They don’t stop though, to feel and to experience and to love the Earth as much as I do. Mama says that soon I’ll be so busy running and playing to remember, even before I am a giant person like her, but I hope that I don’t. Nature, at its finest, is still, and you can even feel God if you breathe the air in just the right way.

I am One! Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday to… Meeeeeee…

Today, Mama said, is my very first birthday. I wasn’t sure what a birthday is, but Mama explained that there are things called years, and when they come around full circle to the same date on a thing called a calendar, that it is celebrated as the day of your birth. She told me that I came into the world in the middle of the night, 3:24 a.m., and that at this time last year her and Daddy were in the hospital with me and that we were all busy getting to know each other.

Mama told me that birthdays were very special days, and even though it is kind of like every other day, that we need to stop and appreciate the person who came into the world that day—to show that person that we love them very much. Mama and Daddy have both covered me in kisses and told me “happy birthday” and “love you” a lot today, and they both have played with me, too. They do this every day, but they have spent special attention to making sure that I know how much they love that I have come into their lives. Silly Mama and Daddy—I know that already (but I do love the snuggles and kisses all the same).

We did a lot of my favorite things today… I got to play with my doggie Django, I got to ride in the jogging stroller while Mama and Daddy took a walk, and we went to one of my favorite places to eat (I even got orange slices at the end). One of my favorite parts of today, though, was cake. Mama and me went to have cupcakes at Nana’s house, and Nana told me that she loved me too and gave me a giant house full of “Little People” to play with. Then we went and got more cupcakes for after dinner from Pearl, a cupcake place in town with vegan cupcakes that are almost too sweet, if there is such a thing, for our Mama-Daddy-birthday-celebration with the Happy Birthday Dorian song. I got to eat all the cake that I want (well, not all the cake, because everyone else got some too), and I got to get sticky and messy and nobody cared… not even Mama, and she hates big messes.

Mama said that my birthday isn’t over yet, even after today, because we are having a “birthday party” in a couple of days and that I get homemade cake then, too. Mama said then I get more toys and that I am going to get to play all day long.

Mama and Daddy tell me to live every day of my life like it is my birthday, and to live with passion (which Mama says is a fancier way of saying live your life by throwing yourself into it). I do this already, but Mama says that some people forget later on how to live with passion. Mama and Daddy want me to always, always do this, and if I do, they say that I will have a very special life, and special birthdays, every year… even when I am very old like they are.

“It takes a long time to become young.” – Pablo Picasso

Baby Haiku: Little Mini Songs

Today Mama told me what Haiku is and how it works. I love word rhythms, and each one that she told me had a set sound to it. She said that usually they are about nature and help to teach us to appreciate the simple beauty in our world, but I am sure that I can bend the rules a bit.

I bend rules all of the time, like yesterday when Mama walked away for just a second and her fruit smoothie was right in front of me, looking so inviting. I knew that Mama wouldn’t want me touching it and that it was hers, but I took it anyway. It spilled all over the floor and on my little pink walker and even on me, but I could stick my mouth on the glass and taste it. It made a wonderful echoing sound when I shouted “Mama, Dada, Mama, Dada” into it. I couldn’t help but shout I was so proud to have made something so big happen in the house.

My Mama was not quite as proud when she came running back, hearing the splashing sound and the sound of my voice sounding like a microphone. Daddy scooped me up to change me, but Mama went away and was in the living room for a long time. When I woke up from my nap my beautiful smoothie painting was all gone.

So now I am thinking about fruit paintings, haiku, and bending rules. I will try some to see if I can make them work. Mama says that there are always five sounds, then seven sounds, then five sounds. She called them “syllables,” but I have no idea how big words like that work yet.

Little Baby Haiku
By Dorian Annabel Dean

Big, red smoothie glass
Sitting on the table’s edge
Want to drink you now.

My little walker
Lets me see the world a bit
Grab at tree branches.

Oh my kitty cats
How you tease me when you run
One day you are mine.

Little puppy dog
Come lick my face and snuggle
I want to take a nap.

Why can’t I walk yet?
My legs, they work against me
They are like Jello.

Little pack and play
Don’t you keep me in a “cage”
I want sweet freedom.

Mama and Daddy
You are full and full of love
Snuggle with me now.