To the baby who will eventually read all these posts about her development over her first year:
I’m sorry this is going to be a short summary of all the stuff you’ve been doing. You are currently napping in your swing*, and I have no idea how long your slumber will last. Writing about you during your waking hours is out of the question, as you are in to everything and love to have my full, undivided attention.
*Which, incidentally, you totally busted out of a few days ago. I heard you screaming bloody murder and when I went to go check on you, you were dangling by your leg from the strap. My apologies for not buying you that baby straight-jacket that could have held you in place.
Crawling has given you a new lease on life. There is no turning back from your semi-independence. I think back on eight months ago when you were smaller than the throw pillows on the couch and could barely latch on when I fed you. Now you can make it across the entire apartment in about 15 seconds. You are growing too fast. You’re killing me, C. I want you to stay small, but with each new syllable that you utter, you are romancing me with the more mature you. You’re coaxing me with your delicate movements and I am beginning to wonder if all that time I was pregnant with you and when you were a newborn was just a figment of my imagination, since the child I have now is more a girl than a baby. These two yous can’t exist within the space of one year.
I am resigning myself to your 12 month old outfits, even though you’re only just now beginning your ninth month outside of me. I’m putting the clothes you’ve outgrown in a bag in your closet. It’s a big yellow bag they gave me at the hospital when I had you, a space to put all the personal effects of my pregnancy. Now it holds the footie pajamas I can’t pretend you can still wear. My organized self used to like cleaning out your drawers of the clothes you had outgrown, but now it makes me sad. Just one more night in your tiny green pajamas? Just one more morning with a long sleepy nursing session?
No, you have places to be and toilets to inspect. I don’t blame you for it, but I am already missing the girl you were this morning, only a few minutes ago. Yet I adore the girl you are now. You are beckoning me forward and holding my hand as I become the mom you need me to be, all while I hold you up right back.
All about the paci
Is it possibly that I’ve never put a picture of C in the bath tub on the blog? Oversight remedied.
We finally found the best remedy for achy teething gums: partially frozen zucchini.
This is the one and only outfit I bought for her before she was born. Good purchase.
She loves her blanket forts.
The magic of a blanket fort.
Time to lower the mattress.
The Waiting 
“You are beckoning me forward and holding my hand as I become the mom you need me to be, all while I hold you up right back.” – that sentence is so perfect! It really is the essence to good parenthood.
By the way, my two-year-old son is totally into C. Just sayin’.
Once they can read and write, we should get them to be pen pals!
THAT’S AN AWESOME IDEA! TOTALLY!
Only problem is that my son probably won’t speak English until he’s at least 8 or 9.
Then we will teach C Dutch.
This was so sweet, I am now a diabetic.
Seriously, beautiful post.
Aww shucks. Thanks. Now go eat an apple.
Just a whole bunch of sweetness right here!
She is a very sweet girl. Thanks, Red!
A lovely way for you, and C to remember this time by posting. It’s all so fleeting, as you say, and you forget the special details just as quickly. Enjoy it.
Thanks, iRun! I am enjoying each moment as much as I can…she for sure keeps me on my toes.
She will keep you on your toes in all her stages. I thought with a 6 and 9 year old I could sit down, but now they need to be driven everywhere.
Tania
Emily,
C is adorable! I love her facial expressions. What a wonderful way to record her childhood. Beautiful…
Cathy
She is becoming extremely expressive. Today at the doctor’s office, she was making faces and screaming at all the other babies in the waiting room. Who is this little girl with such a loud voice?! Surely not my quiet little newborn ;) Thanks, Cathy!
Aww, I love this, Emily. You did such a good job of capturing the emotions you experience when you have a kid who is not a baby, not yet a toddler. It’s such a whirlwind, but it’s like they just get cooler every day. I already want a second one, and I never thought I would.
I am beginning to want another one too. Who the heck am I?
I’m telling you, these kids have magic powers. They’re bewitching our ovaries.
She is getting so big. Love the pictures, and I can relate so much to the packing up of outgrown clothes. K had one pair of pajamas with feet that I couldn’t bear to let go of; when she outgrew them we cut the feet off so she could wear them just a little longer.
That’s actually a really good idea! I may have to do that! Mostly because I’m such a tightwad.
Me too, they grow out of those clothes entirely too quickly. It felt a little goofy, but she wore those pjs a little longer, and we laughed :)
This is so beautiful! I cannot believe how grown up she looks! I remember when you bought that dress ;) Time flies, doesn’t it?
That’s right! You were with me when I bought it! It’s pretty much the cutest thing EVER. I can’t wait for you to see it! Also, check out my About page because I updated the picture of her and she’s wearing the outfit y’all sent.
Part of the joy of reading parent blogs is watching the parents grow too. Now that I’m on my 3rd (child… not parent blog) I have a pretty good idea what’s headed your way with little C. Here’s looking forward to your posts about the first time she rides off on a bicycle without training wheels, or when you look back at 7 years of Santa pictures taken at the same place every single year.
-DD
We are actually taking her this weekend to get her picture with Santa! I am pretty sure I will cry, which is somehow becoming more and more common these days with all the milestones she hits.
I love her expression and gesture in the tub photo! How awesome that the two of you will be able to look back and read these memories.
That’s what I’m hoping for! I think I am going to write her a Christmas letter each year and give them all to her when she’s 18.
So cute! So big! I never realized how quickly time passed until I had kids.
Me neither! Earlier this year seems like a lifetime ago, though. Sometimes I look at the pictures of her when she was born and wonder where the year went. Babies are an excellent time suck.
This is beautiful. And, really, who doesn’t love a good blanket fort?
Certainly not me. I usually get in there with her.
Can you be my mommy too?!
Haha no, I’m already being your online bridesmaid. I think there would be some conflict if I were your mom and I were liquoring you up and buying strippers for you.
Ew, good point.
She really is gorgeous, Emily. :D
Thanks. We make pretty babies.
C has the most wonderful expressions. She is growing up so fast. :-)
She is super expressive now! I’m around her so much that it takes me looking through all the film we’ve taken of her to notice.
One day, when she’s a teen, you’ll look back on this blog, and be glad you took all the time to document the adorableness of little Miss C.
And then you can use it to embarrass the stuffing out of her!
hehehe
Oh man, I totally believe it. We already have enough nakers pics of her to hold over her head all through her teen years.
You are the best Mom ever ~~
Takes one to know one ;D Love you!
These pictures are gorgeous. Reading your blog always makes me wish I had documented my own kids’ early years better.
I’m really glad I’m doing it. I know eventually life may get in the way of writing all these, but I just want to remember her when she was a baby.
Such a fun age. The last months of baby. Hold on to them before they are little kids.
Last months!? Now I’m really going to cry! Please tell me that smell won’t go away too.
Don’t worry they will smell like baby poop for years :)
Baby pics – Aaaaaaaaa!! So cute!
Hehe she is super photogenic! I used to be…then I had her ;)
Haha! You’re too harsh on yourself! You’re a beautiful mother!!
Haha! You’re too harsh on yourself! You’re a beautiful mother!!
— so not to be redundant but she is so adorable.
I love your posts.. you make me flashback to my daughters as these cute adorable beings– I need these flashbacks as I deal with them currently as teenagers :0)
I bet it feels like they were babies only last month. It kills me how fast it goes.
She is so beautiful. I LOVE that one day she will read this and know without a doubt how much she is loved and blessed.
You are one lucky and loved little girl C. xoxo
Y’know, it’s funny you say that. When I first started writing these when she was a newborn, it was really kind of compulsory because I didn’t really see her as a human yet. Now that she’s getting bigger and becoming so expressive and independent, I can’t wait for her to read them someday. ;)
I think it’s time for me to see Wee Cee again, she’s not so wee anymore! We are traveling to Raleigh for the weekend of the 14th-15th for our adoption “intensive”, want to come meet us perhaps?
I think that should work! I’ll give you a call and we’ll work it out ;D
What a cutie pie!!!
Thanks! She’s not too bad ;D
Totally adorable pics. What more can I say?!
She’s cute and she knows it. I am trying to teach her not to use her powers for evil.
Rots-o-ruck…feminine wile comes with the X chromosome :D
Can you make me a blanket fort please Mum? Mum! Mum! Pleeeease! Mum can I have a blanket fort today? Can I? Please can I? Mum!
I usually get in there with her! How can I not? They’re so cozy.
I can only imagine. My brother and I once made the most amazing den from blankets and pillows and chairs. There were different rooms and a sleeping bit and a ‘games room’. It was phenomenal.
I so much wanted to write a really insightful comment but all I’ve got is “ALL THE CUTENESSSS!”. She’s precious and it’s distracting :)
You are telling me! Most of my day is spent distracted by how cute she is. I am mostly in awe that my husband and I managed to make such a photogenic child, since the two of us are not exactly the most gorgeous people.
I’m with Tori. No insightful comment, just she’s adorable!
Haha that’s ok. My head explodes if I’m insightful too long. Or I just start crying. I prefer to just look at cute baby pics.
Whoa – total cuteness overload! Before I had kids and I heard people say that kids grow up too quickly and that time just simply flys I had no idea how true this was. It is crazy. I can not wrap my brain around the fact that after the next group of birthdays in the spring, I shall have a seven and a five year old. It stuns me.
Oh goodness, she looks so grown up!! WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN SO FAST I CAN’T TAKE IT.
I sound like a broken record but I just think C is beyond beautiful. Why do I feel that this child will never have an awkward stage? Too precious. Lily lived in the bath. Some of the best video of her is a running monologue where she talks to Ursula, from the Little Mermaid. She calls her the Water Wee, because she couldn’t say water witch. It’s all very cute. Keep filming and taking photos – she’ll die laughing in 12 years when she watches them with her friends. And, you have this blog so she’ll be able to see that she had a major fan club and following at 8 months! Cool!
Oh, the pain of separating from our babies… It’s so sad. I feel ya in this one. It goes fast.
[…] in a way that has served her well in her blogging career. When she writes about trying to blog, her daughter’s 8-month birthday, or finding your people, Emily does so with empathy, frankness, and humor. You get the feeling that […]