Dear Reese,
Today your teacher gave me photographic evidence that you can, in fact, hold your bottle on your own. It wasn’t for long apparently, but it was long enough for her to get a picture. You have the dexterity and strength, just not the will — unless your teachers are too busy taking care of other babies at daycare and you’re hungry enough. With me, your hands stay limp at your sides.
They also sent me this one of you pushing fruit around in the high chair (very little, if anything is making it to your stomach still). It’s wild seeing you in that chair. When we first toured daycare a few weeks before you started there were three little girls in a lineup of high chairs like that. I remember how they all looked over at us as we entered. They were probably about your age now but they seemed giant to me at the time — five months goes by too quickly.
In your booster seat tonight you fling sweet pea puree around on a spoon, getting green goo everywhere and mixing it with a buttered noodle before bringing it to your mouth. There’s something about the scene that feels cliche: green baby food tossed around a kitchen. But here we are, kid, living it (and loving it — after all, kitchens wipe clean).
Love,
Mama