10 Months Today

walked to Starbucks

Wow, this is exciting.  The home stretch to the end of the first year.  I heard someone saying the other day that they've been having more bad days than good lately.  Oh, that's right.  It's not about being happy or getting it all right all the time.  It's not about balance.  The only thing I can balance is Starbucks on my head.  It's about having more good days than bad.  But, sometimes, I don't know that it's actually a good day until I look back on it and it's over.  And, a good day can totally include a freak out by Mommy or Daddy.  I have started pausing to appreciate the good moments in the day and the small victories amongst the chaos.

Lily is closer to walking than crawling. Watching her learn to walk has been amazing.  We have been kind of desperate to get her to crawl or move on her own.  She hates trying to crawl, though the last few days have given us a couple of good scoots towards a toy.  Even though everyone says we don't want her to be moving around on her own, we disagree because she so very much wants to move around.  She doesn't sit up well, doesn't play on her own much anymore (this because she wants to be WALKING all over the place to play with everything).  So, she drags us all over the place.  She's sitting up better this week.  However, if she sits herself down, she will still keep a tight hold on your finger so that you can't get away.  I'd much rather be running after a hyper baby with a coffee in hand instead of hunched over a determined, curious, playful baby for hours glancing towards the other room where my coffee sits on some table yonder.   All of the adults in this house agree.

She's happy, she's learning a broader spectrum of emotions.  She clearly knows what she wants, but she struggles when she can't have it.  It's hard to explain to a 10 month old baby why she can't walk around a restaurant when she has free reign at home.  Or why she can walk down the stairs when grandma's watching her, but we don't want to go down the stairs when I'm watching her.

Just when you think you figured it out, that you're just struggling to find your own space in this crazy existence of Parenthood, something funny happens. I start to appreciate moments that used to drive me crazy.  Last week was really hard for me.  It was emotionally draining in a way that hurt my soul.  The thing that got me through was curling up with my baby girl. It was the thing that healed my spirit.  It was all I wanted to do.  I knew it was a rough week for everyone, so for a few nights, I just brushed my teeth when I got home and fell asleep with this precious little girl.

Here's what happened this month:

play date

splash fountain

crunchy play date

visit from Texas

Elevation Burger

Port Discovery

play date

library storytime

first metro ride

first museum

splashing in water

retrying cloth diapers

now walking

loves beets!

Hanging in Old Town

elimination communication play date