Letter to my Little Lily: 10 Months

Sweet Baby Lily,

Oh my goodness. I can hardly stand how fast you're growing. It's just too fast! I'm loving every single day of watching you become more and more you, because you are delightful.

Your everyday face. It's the best.

This past month has been a doozy! You have had all kinds of firsts. My very favorite one is that you've started waving! We went for family breakfast at Chick-fil-a a few weeks ago (February 2), and I glanced over at you to see that you were waving to a lady across the restaurant. It was so so sweet! You kind of roll your wrist around in circles (almost like a pageant girl) while fluttering your fingers. We love it.

You've become even more adept and proficient with your army crawl, meaning that we have to keep eyes on you at all times. You can get all around the first floor in no time flat, so I've had to start closing the laundry room and bathroom doors and blocking your access to the coffee bar. Oh, you also like to mess with the fireplace. I have to barricade it regularly. It's wearing me out, Lils. And hilariously, you've started shimmying up and over the lower level of the coffee table. 

Caught!

MUCH to my chagrin, you've started pulling up (February 7, to be precise). Why, Lily, why?? The pulling up phase is so stressful. But, it is really cute to see how proud of yourself you are. You pull up on the coffee table, the bottom step, the bathtub, your crib. Just...everywhere. Bless us all.

You've started sitting up in your crib when you're not quite ready to go to sleep or when you're mostly asleep but a little confused about whether you should be laying down or sitting up. When the latter happens, you sometimes just flop right over and fall asleep, all bent up. There is NO WAY that it is comfortable and yet, somehow, you'll sleep like that for long stretches of time.

 

Some other things you've been doing this month: 

1. growling when you're very happy and content

2. crawling over to our feet and trying to climb our legs when you want to be held

3. pointing at things that you want or like

4. holding a rather impressive "downward dog" yoga pose

A personal favorite this month has been your mimicking! It has been hilarious! We can prompt you to growl on cue, fake laugh after we do, and you studied Daddy clicking his tongue until you could do it. You watched him with such concentration and focus until you figured out how to click your tongue, too. We were so proud of you! Persistence and perseverance are some of your strongest character qualities. We hope that you're able to channel these qualities for good and not for the mischief that I can imagine...

Following sister into the tunnels! 

Oh! And baths are still your FAVORITE. You are a wild thing in the tub. We not only have to watch you in the tub, we almost have to have a hand on you at all times. It's a little frightening how much you love the water. But it's also super fun to watch. You definitely keep us on our toes. Whew.

Even though it feels impossible, we love you more each day, Lily-lou!

Week 40

Week 41

Week 42

Week 43

10 Months! Look, you're even pointing to the "ten."

And now, for some outtakes...because this month's photo shoots were WORK, girlfriend:

"Oh look! An intruder!"

"Mua ha ha! I know what to do!"

"I win!"

"You again?"

"I'm always winning."

"Gets easier all the time, y'all."

"This joker never learns, Mom."

"Koala, you're going down."

"Ta-da! Winner is my middle name."