To Layla @ 9 Months Old

My darling daredevil daughter,

Tomorrow you will be 9 months old and the plan for the day includes Mommy's big yard sale and then a playdate and sleepover at our house with your cousin Nevaeh. Plus, Nana will be here all day to play with you. You and I are going to be much too busy for this post...so I'm going to do it now.

You are 9 months old and you have taken to keeping us on our toes. You are fearless, trying to get on and off the couch by yourself, climbing over daddy in bed and trying to pull yourself across open areas to get from one place to another. You can almost pull yourself to standing and I fear once you can do that you will be walking all over this house. After all you can already stand at an object if I stand you up against it and you crawl with reckless abandon over the mine field that is our floor covered in your toys.

I am not sure how someone who is only 9 months old owns so much stuff. Every button plays something different and you dance to the silly songs over and OVER and over again. You are one of the happiest babies I've ever known you flirt, talk to and dance for everyone.

You know SO many words it's baffling. I think you used all the extra brain power you could muster to get up your 20 word vocabulary so it took you until this week to master the pincher grasp you now use to feed yourself.

That is if you want to feed yourself. You have made it very clear that in some ways you are your parents child. Like Mommy you are very impatient and like Daddy you are very stubborn. Those two things combined mean that you NEVER do things you don't want to do.

But what you do do... you jump into with both feet. You are very impulsive about deciding something would be fun and then trying it. Usually you've already done something twice by the time I say the word "no".

You LOVE life and you LOVE people. You wonder around trying to get your tiny little fingers on new things, into new place and around new textures. You eat every food we put in your mouth including horseradish...well except those darn green beans but I don't even try that one anymore. You especially love watching people and playing with them.

Recently you had a week filled with people. You barely slept afraid you would miss something. But your Nana, Godmother, Papa and a few other people over the course of the week did their best to tucker you out. You bounced, peek-a-bood, rolled, tickled, screamed and giggled until they needed a nap...and then you just kept going. I wish I could bottle you up right now and save you this way forever.

You are perfect. I am bias. But, you are perfect. You are charismatic and your facial expressions alone are worth millions. I could type a letter to you that would take months and years and I wouldn't even begin to describe how awesome you are, how difficult you are, how magically life is with you.

I think at this point less words would be worth more. So I will say instead...

You are love. You are open mouth kisses, cuddling in bed, excited to see you, overflowing...undescribable love.