Double Digits!

Dear Cameron Kate,

Well, my dear, you’ve officially hit double digits – hellloooo 10 months!  I have to say that the past two months have been the absolute best, though with every new age and milestone your dad and I find ourselves saying, “This is my favorite!”  But these past two months have been even more special because we’ve spent pretty much every waking minute together.

You continue to bring so much sunshine into our lives.  Just last night your dad said, “Have you ever had more fun in your entire life?”  The joy that fills up our hearts is incomprehensible.  You are such a silly, wild, fun-loving little girl and we are already so proud to be your parents.

You’re still struggling in the hair department.  I had hopes of being able to clip in a hairbow AT LEAST by your first birthday, though it’s not looking like that’ll happen.  J  You have four teeth now – two top, and two bottom, which we brush twice a day.  You continue to get longer and leaner, though you’ve still got some chunky thighs (which I hope don’t go away anytime soon because I LOVE them.)  And your eyes – ohmygoodness, those eyes – they are the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.  Watch out boys.

You’ve forced us to go into full-on baby-proofing mode.  Two baby gates, the removal of some bookshelves and tables, and the hanging of wall shelves later, I can finally leave you in at least one room in the house long enough to run to the bathroom.

And man are you FAST!  I swear I’ll turn around for five seconds, and when I turn back around you’ve either pulled all of the toilet paper off the roll or taken your baby goldfish out of the pantry and dumped them all over the kitchen floor.  But not only are you fast, you are SNEAKY!  You already LOVE getting into things you’re not supposed to.  And it’s funny because you’re starting to learn the word “no.”  You’ll head toward something un-baby-friendly, and we’ll say, “no touch,” and you’ll stop in your tracks.  But sometimes, just sometimes, you’ll turn and look at us, give us that mischievous grin, and go right back to getting into trouble.  Or if you pick up something you’re not supposed to have, and we walk up to you or say your name, you’ll hold it out to us with a look of innocence, like “Oh here!  I found this for you!”

So far we’ve only had to dig pieces of rug, a piece of a rawhide chewy, and a piece of dog food out of your mouth.

Man oh man are we in trouble.

While we’re on the topic of what you like to snack on, you’ve made so much progress in terms of the foods you’re eating!  We are DONE with baby food, except for the few jars I’m trying desperately to spoon feed you so as not to waste it.  But because you’re so fiercely independent (hmmm, where’d you get that trait?), spoon-feeding you these days is like an epic battle of wills.

You’ll pretty much try anything we put on your tray, though we are starting to see some picky-eating tendencies.  You don’t really care for meat yet.  You LOVE fruit of any kind, sweet potato fries, tomatoes, and baby goldfish.

You’re on a pretty set schedule these days, and even if I try to take a step out of the box and be flexible, you won’t have it.  You wake up around 6:45am, nurse, breakfast around 8:45am, nap around 10:15am, nurse around 11:30am, lunch around 12:45pm, nap around 2:15pm, nurse around 3:30pm, dinner around 5:30pm, bath, nurse, and bed between 7:00pm and 7:30pm.  Your two naps have gotten much better, ranging anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour and a half.  Though every now and then you’ll grace us with a whopping fifteen-minute cat nap, then wake up fully energized and ready to play!

And by play, I mean go non-stop.  And I love it.  You are such a daredevil, loving to be thrown around and flipped upside down.  Just like your daddy.  We recently started our own version of hide-and-seek, which leaves us both giggling uncontrollably. J  You will also start dancing at the first beat of any music.  Let’s just hope you have my rhythm, and not your Dad’s. J  You’re also thisclose to walking!  You will stand by yourself, unassisted, endlessly.  You’ve attempted to take a step here and there, but will quickly fall down to your knees and speed crawl.  The thought of you walking is equally exciting and terrifying!

And though your separation anxiety from your mama is running full-force, you love to sit and play by yourself.  One of my favorite things to do is sit and watch you have conversations with yourself and your toys, babbling on and on about Lord knows what.  It is the cutest thing!

You also LOVE a little stuffed elephant we named “Ellie.”  It’s the first toy you’ve shown a special attachment toward.  And it’s so cute, because I think you’re really starting to feel love, ya know?  The way you hug and squeeze and love on Ellie is like the beginning of you realizing just how good it feels to wrap your heart around something.

Speaking of hugs, your dad and I LOVE them!  Getting a Cameron hug is all we need to turn a bad day right side up.

And oh how you LOVE to go swimming.  You’ve turned into quite the little fish.  You don’t mind being dunked anymore, love to splash in the pool, and “jump” off the side.  We’ve had so much fun taking you swimming this summer!

And I know I’m biased, but you are SO smart already.  You’re starting to point to things, and you especially love to point to the light, Dada, and Bailey.  You’ll pat me on the chest when I ask you, “Where’s Mama?”, and you’ll even pat your own chest when I ask, “Where’s Cameron?”  You’ve also mastered some sign language, making it much easier to communicate.  You know “more,” “milk,” and “all done.”  You always wave “hello” and “bye bye.”  In fact, if we’re out and about, you love waving to every person who walks by, cracking up when they wave back at you.  Such a ham!

You still love to go on runs in the jogging stroller, you LOVE having your wubbanub pacifier in the car seat (the only time you ever want a paci), you get a cold shiver every now and then and it’s absolutely adorable, you love doing this sniffing sound that is oh-so-cute, and sometimes you’ll get in such a silly mood and giggle and blow raspberries all day long.

And bug, your smile can light up a room.

But my absolute favorite thing right now is your new infatuation with books.  You prefer any touch-and-feel books or your colors book.  You will often sit and “read” a book, turning the pages, babbling, and pointing to things and clapping (because I’m always asking you to point to things and then clap when you do it!).  But what really melts my heart is how you’ll now crawl over to me with a book and dive into my lap.  You’ll sit in my lap and we’ll read books over and over and over again.

And I sit there and cherish every single second.  Because one day, Cameron Kate, though you’ll always be my little girl, you’ll probably be too big to sit in my lap.

One day, you’ll have your own little girl sitting in YOUR lap, reading YOU books.  Or at least I hope you do.

You see, that’s my latest wish for you, my dear.  That one day, you’ll have a daughter.

Because that is the only way you could ever know just how much I love you.  It is only in that minute, the minute when she takes her first breath, that you will realize how much my heart beats for you, what it feels like to love so much your insides threaten to bust at the seams.

Happy 10 Months, my sweet girl.