Give me back my baby smell

Maybe it’s because Kirsten is a girl. And my youngest (for now). And I’ve done this before so I’m not uptight about having my baby be way ahead of the pack in terms of milestone development. But I find myself babying Kirsten far more than I’ve babied Tru.

She doesn’t like tummy time and she can barely support her own weight for more than a second before her knees give way and crumble to the ground. So mostly she just rolls around on the bed or sits on my chest. Every time I think that she’s teething, it’s a false alarm and till this day, she’s still gummy and toothless.

Which is so different from Tru. Who sprouted teeth at 4 months. And started cruising at 8 months.

In a way, I’m less bothered about having them reach their milestones just because baby centre says they’re supposed to start crawling at 7 months. Or start to walk at 11 months. They’ll get there soon enough and I really do like not having to chase after 2 extremely mobile babies. Also, on the bright side, Kirsten’s lack of mobility means that she hasn’t had a single injury yet. No hard knocks or falling off the bed or massive bleeding. In my house, that’s a miracle.

Anyway, my point is that in the past week, she’s suddenly grown up. It’s like she just decided to stop being a baby. One day she’s helpless and immobile and then all of a sudden, she’s like “I’ve had enough! My life can’t go on like this.” She’s now sitting and crawling and playing with toys and making her presence felt.

I’m not complaining though. It’s just that this growing up business sneaks up on you like a ninja. 7 months in, I almost forget what it’s like when she was a newborn.

This morning, I picked her up and kissed her like I do every morning. Then I took a deep whiff and realized that the baby smell, the lovely smell that makes me go all mushy inside, it’s totally gone. I stood there sniffing her all over like a bloodhound like maybe a faint trace of it was stuck in her armpits but nada.

And the worst part? I can’t even really remember what it smells like anymore.