Skip to main content

My daughter gets equal time

Cole has been getting a lot of press on the blog lately so it's Leda's turn. She's no less amazing. In fact, she's sort of sneaky like that. Cole is in your face. Just today I said we may be hearing from him as he hikes in Peru and talks with local tribes about the best way to cook exotic jungle animals. He's physical and over the top and a bit rough. He's Teddy Roosevelt.

Leda just stands up, smiles, and quietly forces her way into a situation because she will not be ignored. At lunch time, I have to restrain her because she won't let her brother sit in his chair and eat without her stealing cups, silverware, food. She laughs. A lot. And gets into a lot of places she knows she shouldn't. (Cole, for his part, has figured out that his sister isn't supposed to be in the dog's water dish and tries to stop her.)

We're giving Leda a marathon-themed birthday. It's entirely appropriate. This is, technically, the first race she's been around for and her birthday falls near Chicago Marathon weekend. Although she really has done one before--or part of one--since about a week before she arrived her mom started Twin Cities Marathon with me. The next week, I had just returned home from volunteering at the Chicago Marathon and we'd gone for pizza when Leda decided to come early.

If her year of life were a marathon, she'd be running negative splits...she's a slow starter. She's gone from being ripped away immediately for care with no chance to hold her--to a bubbly little explorer who thinks nothing of climbing over me to reach a toy. She spends the first month of life with tubes and wires all over, an IV in her head even, regular alarms that brought nurses running. Now, she chases her brother around and laughs with evil joy as she pulls baby wipe after baby wipe out of the plastic box.

She's now eating significant portions of whatever we're eating. She's standing. She sometimes says things we think could be real words. We just bought would could be our last can of formula for her ever.

What a crazy year of Leda.