that tongue...

hi baby=) look at what a precious little goof you are...i can't remember what you were reaching for, but it must've been pretty important!!! it was probably a syringe or something. those are your favorites. no worries-the syringes that live in our house don't have needles on them...


mommy had GW 2009 last weekend. that stands for girls' weekend. i'm a little embarassed to admit what a bunch of geeks your mommy and her friends are, but the weekend was full of shameless merriment. daddy was at a conference in pennsylvania so you stayed with gigi and grandaddy for the first time overnight. mommy was experiencing MUCH anxiety over this when plans were first made...not really because i was worried about you-i knew you'd be fine and my parents would watch you like hawks for the whole day and a half they had you by themselves...i was just anxious because i knew i'd miss you so much. i knew that day had to come, and needed to come for the sanity of us all, but i didn't know if i was quite ready. without sounding too ridiculous, i'll just say that up until last weekend, i had seen you every day of your life. this is only a big deal because you'd been in a hospital an hour and a half away for about 6 months of that life, and for a good portion of those 6 months i was working full time. i guess i should just admit that i was feeling pretty proud of myself that i was able to still see you for at least a few hours on each of those days. all that said, i figured it would need to be a significant event for me to tear myself away from you for a whole 24 hours plus...GW 2009 was indeed a worthy event. i almost cried a few times on friday as the time was approaching for the girls to pick me up, but i managed to hold back any and all tears. the girls were very sweet and understanding (there are 4 new mama's in our bunch) and didn't make fun of me one bit. have i ever told you what great friends mommy has? they're super great. many memories were made that i'll tell you about in 20 years or so...it'll probably take that long for you to think we're funny...anyway. here's a picture of me with some of your goofy aunties=)

again, much fun and merriment. the most important part of the weekend, aside from me meeting bon qui qui, was that you and gigi and grandaddy had such a great time and all went well without mommy around! when i got back sunday afternoon you were napping and i went in there and laid down beside you on the floor and stared at you for a little while. i love you and i couldn't help it.

so guess what. you might walk sooner than i thought. or maybe not, whatever, but you're getting so close!!! lately we've been standing you up and then letting go to see how you'll do. hehe. that sounds kind of mean but you usually stand there for a second and laugh and just plop down when you realize what you're doing all by yourself. well tonight we were playing on the floor and all of a sudden you just stood up by yourself and hung out for several seconds without holding onto anything. you had a most hilarious grin on your face and i could totally tell that you were proud of yourself. like you knew i would be so excited about what you were doing. and then all of a sudden you took a step towards me but i don't think i can count it as your first step because i scooped you up so fast so i could love on you and kiss all over your face and tell you how proud i was of you. so we'll wait on the official "first step", but tonight was a definite move in the right direction! it really does seem like every time we take a trip and let you see more of your world you end up taking a relatively large stride in advancing along your little developmental milestones. keep it up sweet girl. we love how you're reaching them at your own pace and we couldn't be more proud of you=)

love you babe. you're sleeping like a little angel so i will go do the same.

mommy