It occurred to me recently that I write awfully much on here about the experience of being a mama, but I rarely write about the person whom I'm a mama to, her spirit, her physical character. I think I hesitate because as soon as I begin to talk about Baby Girl, Wanda One-Upper strides on up and pitches a gush grenade into the convo, "Well MY Baby Girl could do a triple toe loop in figure skates by eight months!" But I realize it's really not right. I should tell you all more about this VIP in my life. If I don't, it's like being President of the Fab Morvan Fan Club and just always talking about the club and never telling you how fab is Fab! So this is how fab is Baby Girl. She's a very emotional character. Her face can go from Walter Matthau to Abby Cadabby in the flash of a moment. She really allows herself to feel what she is feeling and while I know this is every baby, it really impresses me and I hope it continues as a theme in her life, except for when the cops pull her over for speeding. I'm not raising a girl who cries her way out of tickets. She is also extremely conscious of who is in the room. When my parents visited, my dad would be in the other room and my stepmom said she kept a lookey-loo eye out for him. She gets this keen observation skill from her father who will be walking out of a restaurant and say, That woman with the big dreads behind us had a twisted bra strap that was really bothering me, and I will be all, There were other people in the restaurant? She is also very very strong, and I have no idea what I am going to do with her when she cannot be thrown potato sack-style over my shoulder and ushered off to bed. Sometimes she grips her spoon and the Herculean strength that it takes me to pry it out of her little gummy bear hand is amazing. I fear the day when that spoon is a Coach bag in a store and ALL OF THE OTHER GIRLS HAVE THEM MY LIFE IS SO SAD WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER ASKING YOU YOU JUST WANT ME TO SUFFER.

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This one, she's got spirit, yes she does.