WATCH EVIE GROW • NINE + TEN MONTHS

9 months old.

Evie Idella. . .

I don't know where to start.

9 months old.

Where have the months gone?
How am I already the mother of a 10 month old little girl?
It doesn't feel like 10 months should have already passed since I first held you in my arms. At the same time, it feels like you've been here much longer, like you've always been a part of me. Since the day you were born, I've called you my best friend and that rings even truer these days. You've become quite the Mama's girl, but I know this is going to be short lived. Each day your independence starts to overshadow your need for me more and more.

10 months old.

You continue to blow my mind each and every week.
Between the eight and nine month mark, you started pulling up on things around the house and that's now in full swing. You stand up anytime, anywhere, on anything you can. It will only be a matter of time before you're walking. In the last three weeks or so, you've become so much more vocal and have started using more varied sounds. You say "Mama" and "Papa" regularly, and I'm fairly certain I've heard you say "Hey" and "Banana." You scream at the top of your lungs when you need something, which isn't nerve wracking and embarrassing at all in public. (I hope you sense my sarcasm.) You're making tons of different, mostly funny facial expressions. When you get frustrated, you grit your teeth (well gums, really because you still don't have any teeth), poke your bottom lip out, squint your eyes, clench your fists together and shake. Sometimes you only squint one eye shut and cock your head to the side a little and Papa swears you look like Popeye. You never fail to make us laugh. It wasn't long ago that I told Papa that I smile more in one day than I probably smiled in a whole week before you were with us. You've brought so much joy into our lives.

10 months old.

Your appetite really increased between the 9 and 10 month mark. We're up to three meals a day, but a lot of times it's more like three snacks a day. You don't eat as much as the books say you should, but you're healthy and seem to be enjoying food so I'm not worried about it. I haven't really found much that you won't eat. You love vegetables, fruit, pasta, rice, anything - even olives. You haven't really had any meat up until now - I let you try turkey, chicken, and fish this month and you cleaned your tray of all of them. The stats from your last baby well appointment were that you weighed 17 pounds, 7.5 ounces, were 28 inches long, and had a head circumference of 43.6 centimeters. You're becoming a lot more adventurous in the ways that you play. I think your favorite things to do right now are open and close the doors around the house and play with the locks at the bottom of the French doors. You also love zippers and buttons and snaps, so I'm banking on you being the type of kid that will learn with your hands and love to figure things out. You're always unscrewing the emblem on the front of my Kitchen Aid mixer and you even managed to twist one of the screws on the bottom of the island off.

10 months old.

We've noticed that you really love animals, so we attempted to own a dog, which lasted just a few days until we realized it was going to be too much for us to handle. We may try again later with a smaller dog (this one was a Saint Bernard named Lyric), but for now, we're sticking with chickens. Papa has almost finished the chicken pen, then we're going to get some chicks this Spring (and maybe a pig too!). We took you on your first plane ride to Alabama this month (November). Honestly, I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but you did wonderfully. You nursed when we were ascending and descending and had no problems with your ears hurting. You slept most of the flight and when you weren't sleeping, you were entertained enough with some new toys I bought you. [One of the toys, a book called 'Tails' has become your favorite! You love to touch the warthogs tail.] We celebrated your first Halloween in October - you dressed up as Pebbles (your Papa and I were Fred and Wilma Flintstone, of course).

10 months old.

You're becoming quite the little girl. There are times when you still need me and the baby in you is still apparent, but I've found myself looking at you often in awe of the beautiful child you're becoming and how quickly it has happened. You've really started to lose your baby fat this month - you're growing longer and leaner, but you're still short and small for your age. You're wearing a lot of 6 to 9 month outfits, but can still fit in most of your 3-6 month pants and onesies. We still don't own a pair of shoes that fit you either. You have some teeny tiny feet that I swear, haven't grown much since you were born. You're beautiful and I hope you always believe me when I say that. I still sit and stare at you as you sleep, mesmerized by just how breathtaking you are. This love between you and I is magic and I'm so glad I get to experience it. I'm so glad that God chose you for us.

I love you, Evie Idella.

Mama