Leap 9: Papa’s favorite leap

Kelsey (@kels.sib)(30), an American working at Heineken, living a chaotic and beautiful life in Amsterdam with her Dutch boyfriend Rolf (38), stepdaughter Lily (5) and daughter Charlize (born Oct 2017)

I’m not going to lie, Leap 9 is tough. Sure, I expected the broken nights, the whining, the clinginess. What I didn’t expect was that the clinginess was not to ME. 

In the Wonder Weeks book, it says for Leap 9: ‘Absolutely does not want to be picked up by anyone other than mom (even dad may be too much)’. Apparently Charlize did not get this memo because she decided instead to attach herself to Papa. Everything was ‘Papaaaaa’. Whenever she was tired, scared, hungry, happy…. It didn’t matter, she just wanted ‘Papaaaa’. 

I felt a teeny tiny bit jealous. Why did she not want me to hold her? I birthed her (without pain relief!), I nurse her every day, I work my butt off balancing working full time and being a supermom. But seeing how happy Rolf was everytime she called his name, and seeing the two loves of my life snuggling together every day, warmed my heart more than I  can say. And it even allowed me to have my hands free, which I was not used to!

This leap felt like it lasted months so I was glad when I finally saw that the countdown was over. I feel like Charlize has made some big steps in her development- she is interacting so much, learning all kinds of new words, and becoming more mobile. So the growing pains were worth it in the end! 

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