To Layla @ 8 Months Old

My Daring Darling Daughter,



In just one short month you have made the tiny step and giant leap from my baby to your own little personality. Don't get me wrong, you will ALWAYS be my baby but, suddenly you have become someone all your own. I always had little peeks and glimpses of the person you were becoming but within the last month those little windows into your soul have outshined the most delicate and ornate stained glass I have ever seen.



You are constantly curious. Just today you spent 30 minutes of a car ride meant to put you to sleep staring out the window from your new "big girl car seat" and waving at any person you saw. Of course, you have not figured out that you have to lift your hand up when you wave so you waved at the toys on your lap while I watched your eyes search the people on the sidewalk for signs they would be waving back. Lucky for you, you are so adorable, that two little old ladies waved at you all on their own and you giggled at the thought of it.


You LOVE people. You are a bigger people watcher than myself and your daddy put together. You will sit in a stroller for untold amounts of time watching people walk around you and attempting to talk to them. That's another thing you love to do. You talk CONSTANTLY, it's a wonder I get a word in edgewise and you've already got a decent little vocabulary that you use pretty accurately to describe the things you want. Unless you are overwhelmed in a large group of people you are usually a big flirt (see picture above). You definately know how to work the crowd. You talk and make faces and smile with you toothy little grin and I know in my heart that while they are won over by your outer charm your inner beauty far surpasses what little piece of you that you have chosen to give them.


You sit up so straight and sturdy that other people admire how strong you are and while you haven't mastered crawling you have developed your own system of rolling, scooting and stretching to get from one end a room to the other should I dare to leave you to go pee. This tactic is used for 3 things, getting tapes/dvds/cds you aren't supposed to have, touching the buttons on the radio you aren't supposed to have and stealing the remote/cell phone/calculator you aren't supposed to have. Okay, maybe it's for one thing...something you aren't supposed to have. At least we know that for the most part you have gotten smart enough to try when no one is looking. Now if only mommy could decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

You know that when we say "sit up like a big girl" that you are expected to sit up and behave. You of course have started to associate this phrase with sitting up and getting cheerios and graham crackers (your new favorite food). So you are more than willing to entertain us. You will eat almost anything. The other day at the Outback you ate creamy horseradish (internet people do not comment about this or I will stab you in the eye with a fork), mommy let's you eat whatever we eat because she thinks it will teach you to try diverse foods and prepare your tongue for the things we really eat. So you will not be a picky kid. Just as long as I don't try to get you to eat green beans. For those your hate is unwaivering.



One thing you are not is a performing monkey. I can ask you to say something or do something a thousand times, and you WILL NOT be doing it. Until of course I stop asking and then you will do it for 3 hours straight. You especially like using the following phrases... "hi dadi" which wakes up Daddy in the morning (or perhaps it's your finger in his nose...but either way he gets up), "i didait" which is small child for look I did something (usually putting your finger in a small hole or touching some sort of button), "ahha gonna getchu" (look out I'm about to poke you with my finger). Notice anything?



Fingers... pointing is one of your other new favorite things. EVERYTHING must be touched. And, like your father as a child you will touch it 30 times while someone says "no" and corrects your behavior until you finally whine while you touch it. Because you just can't stop. It's not in your nature. I do believe everything in the livingroom and office that can be poked from your vantage point on the floor has officially been pointed at and then poked until it cried for mercy.

I like that about you. Your curiousity. It is teaching me to appreciate the small things and to notice when there is lint on the carpet before you point out ever little piece to me. You have shown me the humor in pushing down on a cheerio so hard it pops into the air like a paper football. You have shown me the joy of squishing your hands into an unsuspecting banana that never knew what hit it. You have shown me that I still have a dashing reflex for catching you as you try for the 300th time to leap off the couch/bed/seat/pillow (you get the point). Fearless I tell you.

You are always moving, you take great joy from things other children would find absolutely terrifying. You like to bounce, wiggle, dance, jiggle, jump, be thrown, flip and do high flying tricks like no child before you. At least once a day I find myself on the office floor with a giggling ball of baby on my knees which is being bounced about like an 8 year old on an indiana jones ride and then tossed into the air like a pizza pie, flipped upside down like a gymnastics trainee and then plopped onto the floor in a ball of laughing hysteria until you stop and stare at me with that "well what are you waiting for look" and just to be sure I just sit you upright until you begin to once again bounce yourself on my knees... that's all systems go... and we're ready for lift off...wheee.....


You are enthralling, enchanting and even entertaining... sometimes all three at once. Which is a lot considering you've only been around for 8 months and you only weigh 17 pounds. I can't imagine how wrapped I'll be when your 8, or 18, or 28 for that matter.



But I know one thing, no matter how enthralling, enchanting and otherwise entertaining you may or may not choose to be, I will always love you. I will love you more than these words can describe.