My 10 mo old.

(pic at 9 mo)

Dear Heidi,


You are 10 months old tomorrow. The time has flown by! You started crawling about a month ago and you are FAST. You practically swim to your dad when he gets home. You are such an active, energetic baby and are constantly on the move. You love music and will clap your hands wildly and grin like crazy if I sing you a song or if there is music on. You learned to wave "hi" and it's adorable. Tonight you said "DaDa" when he came home and you love to see him. You have said "Mama" too, usually when you want me to come get you out of your crib. :)

You LOVE bath time. We had your first "sister bath" last week and HOLY COW you were moving all around the tub jumping up and down practically and splashing like crazy. You have the best cackle and laugh and it makes everyone in the room happy.

Now that you are crawling, you are a very content baby and spend most of the day crawling and exploring the world around you. It's so fun to watch. Your favorite thing lately is to put the bath foam letters in your mouth and crawl around. Annie thinks it is absolutely hilarious and she says, "Heidi what do you have in your mouf?" You have figured out that her bins in her room have fun toys and you can pull them out yourself and explore. You can pull yourself to standing already. I hope you won't walk too soon because then you really won't be my baby anymore.

You are an amazing eater. You'll eat any food we throw in front of you and smile while you do it. You're not into purees though but finger foods are your jam. You are still nursing 5 times a day and still wake up once at night usually around 4:30 am, but I think we're going to try to wean you from that feeding.

You are very affectionate and will often come give me open-mouth slobbers on my face if I'm laying not the ground. You've also bitten me (affectionally) on the arm, leg, shoulder, face. You also swat incessantly at my face and hair and sissy's which she doesn't love. You just can't contain your excitement. You wake up crying every day but within minutes there is a smile on your face after you get some Mommy cuddles. I love giving you cuddles before bed time and usually take a few extra minutes after nursing to just rock you and you usually smile back. You are such a special girl and you bring so much light into my life. I love watching your personality shoot out of your fingertips lately. It comes with so much force and energy that sometimes that's what it seems like it's doing. :)

My 2 1/2 year old.

Dear Annie,

You just threw up twice after going to bed. I walked in and you were laying in a puddle of throw up. I took you out and we cleaned it up and then it happened again. The second time, I went to get a hair tie to put your hair in a ponytail so the throw up wouldn't get in it another time, but the box of hair ties fell out of my hands and all the hair ties were on the carpet (they are very hard to find when that happens because they blend in, and then Heidi puts them in her mouth!) Well, I was a little flustered and you exclaimed (even when you were feeling SO sick!), "It's ok Mom! I'll go get my broom [to help sweep up]." You're my little angel. You are so helpful and so in tune with the feelings of others. When I feel sad, you always come over and "comfort me" by saying, "Shhhhhh, it's okay mommy." You teach me every day what it means to focus outward. 

Sharing with your sister is hard, but you're doing such a great job. The first week of her crawling was rough! You realized that she would take all your toys. But then you took your first sister bath in the bath tub with her and it was SO fun that you realized having a sister isn't as bad as you thought. You both kicked and splashed each other and laughed wildly. You're such a sweet sister and you frequently hug and kiss her and laugh with her. I'm so proud of you. It isn't easy sharing your life, your toys, your space, your mom and dad, with another person. 

You do a great job at "quiet time" but lately you keep coming out of the room to ask me to help you put on/take off a dress of some sort that you're trying on. You're really into dress-ups and putting on and taking off clothes and probably wear at least 15 outfits a day. 

We've done a few lessons of "play preschool." The first was about apples and when I told you we were going to cut open some apples and look at the seeds, etc, you immediately ran into your room to find your play cutting board, knife, and apple to cut yours alongside mine. You're able to make so many connections and it is so fun to watch you learn and grow! You love learning and your brain is like a sponge. 

You're also so funny. The other day, I had my hair in a bun and you exclaimed, "I like the tomato on your head, Mom." You're calling me "Mom" lately and it makes me feel like you and I are both SO old all of a sudden! You told me randomly the other day, "I'm so proud of you." I try to remind you often of how much I love you and am proud of you, so I think you got that from me. :) Sometimes when I ask you to do something you don't want to do, like put on some pants, or clean up your room, you'll say, "You can siwwy (silly)." It's so adorable.

You love yourself some cookie dough. We've made several batches of cookies for our friends for Christmas in the past few days, and you love to eat the dough. Yesterday, Heidi was eating her lunch in her high chair next to us while we were putting the dough on the sheets to cook. You wanted a (fifteenth) bite, and you knew I would say no, so you got this sneaky look in your eyes and said so sweetly, "You tired Mommy? You need to lay down?" and then when I said, "No, I'm great." you said, "You gonna talk to Heidi?" (who was on the other side of me). You were trying to get me to look away so you could sneak another bite. Eventually you got a clump out and put it up to your mouth and looked away from me with your gaze averted. When I said I saw you, you exclaimed, "I'm just pretending!" bringing the clump closer and closer to your mouth until it was in your mouth. I let you eat it because you had the biggest grin on your face and I just couldn't resist. Hopefully that isn't why you threw up tonight... 

Today was our third day of potty training. You've learned it like a champ. It's pretty exhausting for me to try to watch you every second of the day to notice your "signals" or to make sure you aren't pooping or peeing in some corner of the house. But you've done amazing and could pee in the potty from the beginning. The problem is you sometimes don't want to yet. Because I've been trying to figure out your "pee signals" we've been hanging around the house and I've been giving you a lot of my attention, which is usually split with doing chores or other things. We've played a lot of the day and it's been so fun to really notice you and watch your personality. I can't help but be reminded every time I look at you how God has a special plan for you. You have such a unique and wonderful spirit that I love getting to know and see emerge, with so many talents and gifts. I'm so proud of you and so honored to be your mom, even on the hard days, my Annie.