To Anyah @ 10 Months Old

Oh Ani,

This may very well be a short letter. It's not my fault. You're suddenly into everything. Your cruising along the furniture and grabbing things off places you never even tried to reach before. You love to swipe unattended cupcakes or juice boxes and just this morning you dumped an entire bottle of water all over my carpet because it was fun. Good times.

You say a lot of one word phrases now. My favorite thing you say is "mom mom" but I am bias. You also do a tremendous job saying "ta da". You like to "ta da" whenever something unexpected happens. A few days ago you sneezed, then giggled, then yelled "ta da!".

You've become quite the little sister stalker. You follow Layla everywhere invading her tunnels, crashing the walls of her blanket forts and stealing pieces of her train track. You're not trying to make mischief but boy are you good at it. "No sister No Touch a Me!" is becoming a regular sentence in this house. Layla is willing to share with you, she just likes to be the one to choose what you get and you've got your own little opinions about that.

Your birthday is coming up. I've started planning and while I am excited about celebrating your first year of life I am also a little sad because I know you're probably my last baby and you're already so big. Now that your ears are pierced, you popped up 2 inches and your hair has gotten long enough for hair clippies I find myself wondering whatever happened to my sweet little baby.

Not that your not sweet. You're still a big cuddler and you love to snuggle up for naps or to co-sleep with us at night. You just take up more bed than you used to. Now I wake up to little legs sprawled across my tummy or a tiny arm flung over my face and I know the times they are a changing.

But, one thing will never change... you're a big part of all of our hearts. Your smile and crinkle nosed stink face crack me up and melt my heart every day and I am so glad I get to watch God slowly fill your cup with the remarkable things that make you who he has always invisioned you to be.

Love,
Mommy