Lily Bean,

You are now 10 months old, I have to “say” it again, 10 months old. I know I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again but it doesn’t seem possible that you are already 10 months old, and yet it doesn’t seem possible that you are only 10 months old. I have no idea how we lived a whole life before you. I didn’t know something was missing but I’m 100% sure now that you were and I am so glad you are here now.

You have really perfected pulling yourself up on things this past month. Its been sort of funny, you have been pulling yourself up in your crib for a while now but you have to be in a sitting position to get to a stand, you just couldn’t figure out how to stand when you were laying down. You could yourself up in the living room if you had been laying down but not your crib. So the other day I laid you in your crib so I could run down stairs to get the laundry. By the way this is really the only reason you are ever in your crib, laundry. Anyway I put you in there on your back so you wouldn’t fall and hurt yourself while I was away. When I got back you were standing up and so darn proud of yourself, as I was. I was also bummed because now I have nowhere to put you safely while I’m in the basement.

You are living through your first little cold right now. I’m sorry I think its my fault. We went to your first little birthday party for a friend and that was a lot of fun, but a couple of days later I got a sore throat and stuffy nose. Luckily it only lasted two or three days but then a couple of days later you started to get stuffy. You are a total little trooper about it though and hardly let it bother you.

As I mentioned we went to your first social event. One of the little girls from our Mommy group turned 1 and we all helped her celebrate. Well you pretty much clung to me 90% of the time because you are a very shy and sensitive little girl. You come by both of those traits naturally and all I can say is I’m sorry and its not the end of the world. Both your Father and I are shy and don’t like big social settings and I’m more sensitive then should be legal. But we both survive and so will you.

A couple of weeks ago you really proved how sensitive you are to Daddy and me. You were in your high chair showing off your two finger pinch skills; eating some organic breakfast O’s. When you smiled at us you opened your mouth and I could see that you had at least 3 O’s in there and Daddy and I started teasing you about it. See you choke on O’s or some other food at least once a week so we were telling you how you had too many O’s in your mouth in a very happy upbeat way. And you looked at us and your face did that heartbreaking, sweet melt into sadness and crying. Oh my god we felt so bad, I couldn’t get you out of that seat fast enough so I could wrap my arms around you and cover you in kisses. Waldo and I talked about it later and we swear that you understood the words we were saying because there was no way the tone could have upset you.

Nothing stands in your way anymore.

I would just like to point out that I don’t love any of your 10 month pictures and after looking at them I was telling your Daddy that I think its time to buy a new camera. All the pictures were just a bit fuzzy. He asked me if the lens could possibly be dirty so I grab the camera and do you know what I found? The lens was covered in tiny finger prints and smudges. You love playing with the camera. I cleaned off the lens and lo and behold the pictures are again as good as can be expected from my armature hands.

You are the light of our days and I can’t wait to see what you come up with next month.

Love,
Mama