Remission [H.S. MATURE AU]

52.

ONE YEAR LATER

SCARLETT

The first year of our lives with Mia couldn't have gone better. We had our ups and downs for sure, but we had loved every single minute of both.

After the first month, the most difficult part was to teach and make Mia understand that she can't sleep in our bed. She had cried a lot during the first weeks, not wanting to stay on her own in her room. We had done it gradually, by bringing her crib in our room and once she had eventually accepted that she had to sleep there, we had moved her crib back into her room too. She still wakes up in the middle of the night sometimes and won't fall asleep unless Harry's with her, or other times she's just particularly fickle about wanting to sleep in our bed, but most of the time she doesn't give us too much trouble on that.

She also talks — or tries to — a lot, in her own very special language, by putting together random syllables. She hasn't really said yet a complete word but she does use her voice a lot, making sure she has all of our attention all the time.

Another thing she's learned and that loves doing is crawling. She crawls around the whole house. She really loves exploring around and just grabs everything. Both me and Harry — definitely him more than me — are very apprehensive so we try to follow her around everywhere. She hasn't really walked yet without us holding her but the doctor said that it's not something we should worry about just yet.

We've also found out that she loves Disney animated films. The beauty and the beast and Tangled mostly, but she likes pretty much everything with princesses and bright colors inside. And songs. She really likes songs.

Now, she can pretty much eat everything as long as it's healthy and simple. I still breastfeed her in the morning, because she doesn't want milk from the bottle, but during the rest of the day we try to make her eat actual food. Vegetables and fruits at least once a day and then we try to alternate every day between fish, meat, eggs and cheese. Obviously, Harry is particularly committed to getting her everything organic and in the best quality. She rarely complains about the food and pretty much eats everything. Only when it comes to fruit she seems not liking it that much, but other than that we don't really have a problem.

During the first year her hair has started growing too and even if she has my eyes, the hair is definitely her father's. Dark and slightly curly, from what we can see so far.

"What?!" I ask Mia as she goes on and on in her imaginary language. We've both woken up not too long ago and I've just breastfed her, while Harry's still sleeping. He's always the one to wake up whenever Amia cries so I tend to let him sleep a little longer in the mornings.

I'm not sure whatever Mia is calling for her dad or for the television, since she keeps pointing her little hands all over the place.

"I'm afraid I don't understand you, honey..." I tell her chuckling, when it seems like she tries to explain to me again what's the problem at my "what". She furrows her eyebrows and slightly parts her lips, seeming as disappointed as I am by our miscommunication. Right after, she starts to whine, losing her little amount of patience. If I'm not giving her what she wants, crying is coming next.

"You want daddy or the tv, baby?" I ask her again, sighing in frustration when I remember that she obviously can't answer. I walk toward the couch to get the tv remote controller and I turn the tv on. She immediately stops whining, locking her eyes on the television screen.

Once that she completely calms down, I leave her into her walker, which is stopped in front of the television, so that I can make breakfast for me and Harry while she's busy with it. Every time she watches television she does a lot of noises, almost as if she's trying to interact with whatever she sees and hears on television and it always keeps both me and Harry entertained.