This letter is nearly two weeks late, but here it is, anyway.
Sweet Hallie,
I cannot believe this is my penultimate letter of your first year. I've known for years now just how fast the first year goes, but it never ceases to amaze me. I'm just so thankful that I know not to rush any stage, even the parts that are hard. And thankfully? Very little about your first year has been hard. You have truly been a delight.
True to Boswell Baby form, at nearly a year old, you are still not walking and still have no teeth. Neither of these things bother me. I've learned. I'm not going to lose sleep over it. You, like Claire and Brynn, have not had any interest in crawling. You will scoot for things that you want, but you're still pretty calculating on how much effort you'll put into even that. I've had to instruct your sisters not to hand you everything you want, because you do actually need to have some motivation to move. (Although, it is still really nice to trust that you won't travel far if I step away for a minute.)
You've decided that you like sleeping on your stomach. Even though the sleep sack that you wear to sleep in says- right there on the front- that "Back is Best," you throw all caution to the wind and flip over onto your stomach. It's fine. I check on you regularly.
We are LOVING the tricks that you've been rolling out lately (and you do them often, as you know we will all drop what we're doing to watch and cheer): clapping, waving, fish faces, and throwing your hands in the air. We love them all and insist on seeing more.
Daddy and I think your honk-laugh is the very best sound.
We've done some traveling this summer, which has stretched you a bit, as a person. Given that you were born and have lived all of your life in the pandemic, you have spent very little time with people outside of those of us who live in this house. You've had to work through quite a bit of alarm and fear of faces that aren't as familiar to you as ours are. You're getting there. It won't always be so scary.
You've been to the beach on Topsail Island, and you discovered that you really like floating in the pool. It makes you very happy and relaxed. We also traveled to Alabama for a visit after a lapse of 2.5 years. You're a great car traveler, by the way. Given that we hadn't been for a visit in so long, we did A LOT during our visit, and you were quite a trooper, as we dragged you from pillar to post. After Alabama, we stopped in Tennessee for a flying visit (and to remind you of that part of our family and our life).
My favorite story from the past month: your name has a lot of meaning to our family. I wrote the story of your name down before I even wrote down your birth story. My friend, Brittani, read the story after you were born, and a few weeks later, I got a package in the mail from her. It had a sweet board book for you and a kitchen towel for me. She'd chosen the towel because it had the lyrics to "All Creatures of our God and King" printed on it:
All creatures of our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam!
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
She wrote in her note that she realized it says "Alleluia," not "Hallelujah" but that she thought of us when she saw it. It hangs in our kitchen full time now because I love it so much. A few weeks ago, we sang this hymn in church. I watched as you perked up, started wiggling and wanting to dance, and you SANG YOUR HEART OUT. I couldn't finish singing the song because of how much it meant to me that you seemed to know this was your song to sing. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment.
Over the last few weeks, I've been remembering this time last year, and I still cannot believe how different it is this year than it was then. In all the best ways. I was so excited to meet you last year, but I was also physically struggling and miserable and barely holding things together. And this year, I just can't believe how much better my life is because you are here with us.
I love you so much, Booshy.
Love,
Mommy
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