You share the same birth story as your brother pretty much. And when I saw two of you on the sonogram, I knew which one had to be you and that you were a girl. You were the one that wiggled a little, but otherwise seemed content to just float there and grow. As you did, and the sonograms revealed more, every person giving them would comment on how lovely a profile you had. In the last few months in utero, you were on an opposite schedule than Jack, we called you the late night party girl as you were always dancing between 1am and 4am, and would fall asleep just as Jack woke up for his morning soft-shoe at 5. You were always the first one at the door and did not budge the whole nine months, you were determined to be first. On Valentines Day you were faced the wrong way, but turned nicely on the way down and out. You let out a few squeaks but lay patiently with arms and legs in the air on the baby warmer while your brother was born.
Since you have been born, you have stayed the 20 minute napper and always wanted to go to bed late and sleep in in the morning when you get your beauty rest (just like your Mom). Whenever you are held, you never look at whoever is holding you, you turn your head and your gaze away and focus on something else. You will look at someone across from you though, and you have no trouble focusing on objects in front of you. If you are kissed on the cheeks or chin, you smirk as if you are pretending not to notice but could not help but smile. At first we called you the Pleko, as you were such an efficiant nurser. A pleko is a type of fish that sticks to the side of a fishtank and sucks the algae from the sides…but you looked nothing like one. But one day when you were about 2 months old and you were in the baby bjorn, we were walking into the house and I called you “Toonces” from the Saturday Night Live skit Toonces the Driving Cat. You have been called “Toonces”, or “Toonsie” ever since. Although you have these cute downturned ears, so that may soon change to “Baby Spock”.
You have a cute raspy voice, but it is also kind of smokey like a blues singer. And you make little grunting/throaty noises when you are excited or upset. The pediatrician says that it is just weak cartilage at the back of your throat and that you will grow out of it. Sometimes it is pretty loud and you sound like a little warthog. Whenever someone looks at you they always remark on how pretty you are. You have the longest eyelashes, Nana Ferrie’s eyebrows and a little rose-bud of a mouth. Tom and I just stare at you sometimes and say that we can’t believe how beautiful you are. You have a really cute personality, when you are startled you slam your arms down and look around with a look of concern. You love to smile a lot and right now have two teeth on the bottom and two poking out a little on the top.
When you were born, one of your feet had been squooshed in the womb so your pinky toe rested on top of the one next to it and the other three followed that pattern of overlapping the other. In time it has straightened itself out, especially now that you are standing a lot, and you can hardly notice unless you point it out. We like to sing:
“Marlowe Rose is a girl I knows, miss Marlowe Rose, the girl with the crooked toes”.
We also call you “The snatcher” as you will take Jack’s toys from him, or grab at anything within reach. In the grocery store you walk with your arm out stretched and grab onto anything and we will look down and you will be holding something that you snatched without us knowing. You do it all with a straight face too which makes it even cuter. We have sun and moon wind-chimes by our front door and you always reach for them when we are unlocking the door, so when we go to walk in there is a loud clanging noise.
You are so sweet to hold, and fall asleep in my arms and on your Dad’s chest. You can be completely asleep but will wake up the second your hand touches the crib mattress. When you sleep you often hold your little flannel blanket. You loved visiting the community garden, but wanted to grab every flower and leaf and taste it for yourself. You always light up and flap your arms and legs in excitement when you see Ruby. You usually insist on standing but also insist on sitting in the tub. You loved swimming in the pool in your swimmer but cried when your feet touched the waves in the ocean. You are usually pretty mellow and observant, but every once in a while you get a little nutty and will be super squirmy and flap your arms and legs like crazy. Or you will sit in your bouncer or car seat and make all kinds of crazy pterodactyl noises: a creaky voice you can make yourself do. Out of the blue you will bat at something or grab someone by the ears and try and bite them like a wrestler. You are going to be the rough one, not your brother and I predict he will be running to us saying that “Mom! Dad!….Marlowe hit me with my bionacle…” and you will stand there in your pretty skirt, blinking your pretty eyes looking innocent.
You are going to be tall and beautiful with a great sense of humor, and I can tell you will be a lot of fun. You will be soft and pretty on the outside, but will be able to play rough with the boys when you need to. The boys will all fall hard for you, but you will not give them any attention. And you will be beautiful but really smart and will be able to do anything you set your mind to.
We are so proud to have you as our daughter, and love you so much, and look forward to every day we get to watch you grow.
