it's been ten months

which seems to have flown by
didn't I just give birth, like yesterday?

and then at the same time, feels like forever
I can barely remember life before her


ten months ago I didn't understand

     how my heart would slowly overflow with more love than I'd ever known

     what it really meant to be tired
     (thankfully by now the pure exhaustion is mostly a vivid memory)

     how beautiful she would be

     how my priorities would change

     how simple and repetitive our days would be, yet I wouldn't want to spend them any other way

it's been ten months

     since I've been to a movie
     (while kinda lame, this really doesn't bother me
     we still get out- I'd choose dinner over a movie any day and we do that a bit too often)

     since I wasn't woken by a crying squawking cooing chatting girl each morning

     since I spent an entire day clothed- how awesome is breastfeeding :)

over the last month Clara

     started scooting backwards on her belly, forwards on her butt, pulling up to stand, and rocking forward onto her knees (some hints of crawling)

     has been taking 2 naps (45 min at 9 am, 1 1/2 hours at 1pm)

     goes to bed around 7pm and wakes up around 6:30am

     has been sick pretty much every weekend (ugh)

     waves and tries to say "bye-bye"

     loves to eat her board books

     loves to eat any little bit of anything she picks up off the ground

     has invented her own signs- still not sure what they mean

     stopped needing her reflux medication (hooray!)

    has still been eating really well (she's discovered the goodness of bread- I'm afraid there's another carbaholic in the family)

    nurses about 5 times a day (would be much more often if I let her... obviously not showing any signs of stopping)

     loves being around other kids/babies

     has a moderate case of stranger anxiety
     (she's friendly and flirty with some people, bursts into tears if other people so much as smile at her)