Personality Plus

Harper and Great Grammie Tiny

Harper is a 9.5 month old, petite little 15 lb 1 oz package of squirmy, drooly personality plus. When she turned six months old I wrote about how amazing it was that in just six months' time she could go from baby burrito to tiny human with a personality. Three months later she's she's still very cute, but she's also showing glimmers of a toddler personality that I'm not quite sure I'm prepared for. Here's what I mean:


When I'm changing her diaper she squirms with surprising strength so that it takes five times longer and ends with tears (hers), sweat (mine), and sometimes a diaper that's backwards, a onesie that's not buttoned or one leg left hanging out of pajamas that are only half on.



I'll give her a toy to hold while I'm changing her (trying to mitigate the scenario above) and after about 15

Great Grandma Ginny and Harper, about to chuck a toy

seconds of play time, she'll get very quiet, raise her arm above her head, look right at me, and then chuck the toy on the floor. The half-smile she has while doing this is kind of cute, but also proves that she knows darn well what she's doing. Or at least, knows what she's doing in the short term. She's clearly a little fuzzy on the long-term, because once she realizes she doesn't have a toy to play with she starts crying and squirming all over again.



We traveled back to Minnesota for a long weekend last week and discovered many variations on this toy-chucking them:

Dad and Harper, in the process of chucking a shoe

• Car Seat + Toy = Chucked
• Stroller + Toy = Chucked
• Lap + Toy = Chucked
• Dinner Table + Toy = Chucked, particularly if you are at a nice restaurant or wedding
• Airplane + Toy or Book or Pacifier or Food = Chucked

Of course, every time something gets chucked it has to be wiped off, hopefully with water or something with more cleaning power than a shirtsleeve. Which leads me to the next example...

While we were waiting for our flight home I let Harper crawl all around the gate area. There's no way I could hold her in my lap for 45 minutes and then hold her for the entire flight as well without causing a meltdown. She crawled around on the carpet, chucking toys and putting them back in her mouth, licking the chairs as she used them to stand up, sticking her hands in any available crevice and then putting them in her mouth and generally ensuring that we will all be sick by Friday with who knows what kinds of germs. I tried to keep up with her to wipe things off but since I couldn't pressure-wash the entire area, it was a lost cause.

A lady sitting near us was watching Harper and decided I had plenty of time on my hands for a conversation. She started with "She's really building up her immunity." I wasn't sure how to respond to that thinly veiled criticism. It's true, watching Harper lick an airport chair kinda made my skin crawl. But how am I supposed to prevent it? Would she rather listen to her cry because I'm not letting her play and burn off energy?

Maybe I was extra sensitive because I already felt kind of bad about all the germs she must be ingesting, but I really couldn't see any alternative. The lady went on to tell me about how her daughter adopted a kid from a third-world country and where he was from, they ate dirt and played in dirty conditions all the time. That really made me feel awesome.

Great Grandma Dorothy and Harper, looking for a toy she just chucked

By the time we finally made it home I already had the beginnings of another cold (the last one ended Wednesday). My sinuses were congested, I couldn't smell anything and I was exhausted. But Harper did very well on the plane and was her happy toy-chucking self all the way home. So far she hasn't gotten sick again and I seem to have headed off a major relapse through lots of sleep and chicken noodle soup. I just hope this toy-chucking and everything-must-go-in-the-mouth phase ends before I forget what it's like to be able to breathe through my nose.