my baby is ten months old

I chose to use the word baby in the title because I'm realizing more and more that she's not exactly a baby anymore.  Let's just say I'm kind of sad about that.  I mean, she is a baby, but we're moving in on toddlerhood.  I saw a commercial recently that said something like, "You have a child forever but you only have a baby for one year."  *tear*  What about, "Forever and always my baby you'll be"? huh? What about that?!  (I always thought that book was kind of creepy anyway)

I miss my curls so much!

Obviously I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that my BABY is growing up.  Two more months and she's going to be one year old.  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!?  

Ironically, someone asked me last week (the day after I got back to my pre-pregnancy weight) if I was expecting... I'm not.  Just to clarify.

Madeline is very busy these days.  She can hear the dishwasher and the fridge opening from across the house and crawls just as fast as she can to get there.  As soon as she makes it to the open fridge she stands up with her hands inside the fridge and exclaims,"OH! OOOOH! ahoOOH!"  She's big on enthusiasm these days.

She can also hear the tub filling up each night from across the other room.  I'll go in to start getting her bath ready and turn around to see her bouncing up and down watching the water spew out.

Some of her favorite toys are tennis balls, our little DVD collection, my mascara, and just the kitchen in general.  The tupperware cupboard, the paper goods cupboard... She's a pro at getting all the paper plates unstacked and spread around the entire kitchen floor.  I even found her in one of the cupboards the other day.

She loves chasing her tennis balls around the house and saying, "go go go go go!" 

Madeline is starting to mimic animal sounds when we read her favorite book, "MOO".  

She still loves baby einstein.  I only let her watch it when I really need to get something done, like shower.  

She said her first words a few weeks ago, "Buh buh"  (bye bye) to her daddy when he left for school.  We didn't prompt her to do it at all.  She just knew he was leaving and wanted to say goodbye!  So cute.  

She's getting closer and closer to walking but we're not quite there yet.  No rush.

Madeline is really into nodding.  She just randomly "nodds" as if she's a part of the conversation and she agrees.  I'll be changing her diaper and she'll start nodding.  The funniest part is it doesn't feel natural to her so it's not a very smooth nod.  It's a little jerky and uncertain.  

She still likes pointing too.  I think it makes her feel grown up when she can point at what she wants.

She loves going for walks and really enjoys swinging at the park around the corner from where we live.

Some of her favorite foods are avocado (she can eat a whole avocado in one sitting), banana (eats a whole banana in less than five minutes) and for dinner she enjoys a little bit of whatever we're eating for dinner, in addition to her baby food.  She likes cheese, turkey, and peanut butter sandwiches are like the best thing ever.  The hardest part about feeding her is she gets really bored with snack foods so we have to keep switching them out.  She loves graham crackers but right now she's not interested.  But she likes Gerber "puffs" again.  It's kind of funny.  

I think most of all she just loves playing with her parents.   It's strange to think that when we do have more children our relationship with Madeline will never be the same.  And it's also hard to imagine being able to share the love with more than one little person.  One thing I'm learning about love is that it keeps growing.  There's not a fixed amount of it.  I'm glad.  But I'm also loving this time with the three of us.

{photo taken by Matt Shumate}

Check in later today for a VERY entertaining video of Madeline.  Here's a little sneak preview: