From the bottom of my heart

I know it's been awhile since I've last posted, but I've been quite busy lately. Busy spending countless hours cleaning, baking, cooking, cleaning, entertaining a 10 month old, cleaning, planning, and preparing Keeley for her crazy relatives (not you, of course). And, all that work? Was 100% worth it.

I had what had to be one of the best Christmas' ever. All because of my wonderful family. I couldn't have dreamed of a better first Christmas for Keeley. And that's saying a lot because I am ALWAYS imagining events in my head to be these perfect, wonderful things before they happen and they never quite turn out the way I imagined. But this Christmas was even better than I imagined.

I want to thank everyone who came over at the crack of dawn to be with us. It meant so much for us to have you here to celebrate such an important moment in our lives. It was amazing to have everyone together. The house was filled with family, presents, and happiness.

It was a lot of work to get it all together, but I am so glad we were all able to celebrate together. All because of Keeley. This was the first year we have all celebrated together. I know it was hard on everyone to change their traditions and move thier family schedules around. And I am appreciative and thankful for the efforts everyone put forth to make this happen. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful, loving family.

Keeley was wonderful all day. We actually were able to put her down for both naps. She opened presents in the morning (actually playing with most of them before we took them away and put another present in front of her to open), took a nap, woke up and opened more presents. Our home is merely storage for Keeley's things now.

I am just so glad we were all able to get together and have a good time. It means a lot to me that our home is comfortable to be in. It was nice that people felt comfortable to nap on our couches, put the casserole that wasn't cooking in the microwave, and just hang out and have a good time. When Keeley grows up I want to be the house that all the kids hang out at. I hope to create an atmosphere that encourages that.

Mostly, I want to thank everyone that came over for Keeley's first Christmas Morning Pajama Party. Luckily, I was busy enough while everyone was here to keep the tears in check, but after most everyone left and it was just me and Keeley for a while, a few slipped out. I am so happy my daughter is loved by so many. Thank you for making this Christmas so memorable and perfect. I love you.

It ain't a credit card ad

Cute, fuzzy Christmas dress: $40

Snazzy, no-slip hair bow: $3

Stride Rite Shoes (in extra, extra wide): $42

Family package of photos: $27

First time with Santa:

Um, priceless?

Month Nine was soooooo fine

Dearest Keeley,

This week you turned 10 months old. Ten months. Ten. You have officially been outside my cozy womb for longer than you were inside it. Ten. Double digits. You will never be in single-digit months again. (Sniff, sniff.) You will, however, be in double digits until you are, like, 8 or 9. Right? My math might be a bit off. Anyhoo, this has been a wonderful, wonderful month. Well, except for the part where you fell off our bed. That was bad. But you were okay and the rest of the month was just mah-velous.

We are finally on somewhat of a routine. I can pretty much predict what times things will probably happen during the day. I can tell other people what times to do things when you stay with them. I spent so long worrying whether you should be on a routine or not and here we've happily found ourselves in one without any sort of pressuring or crying or bribery. Of course, just when I think I might have things down, you like to mix it up. Apparently, you think it's much fun to keep me on my toes.

You have been napping well (thank goodness) and playing hard. You love crawling all over the house, seeing what there is to get into. You get excited whenever you find the Baby Bjorn. I think you try to figure out how to put it on. You love getting in it and going for a walk with Buddy. You kick your feet and laugh and laugh. I love it. It will be sad when you’re to big for it. (Which won’t be too long at the rate you’re going.)

There are so many things you love to do. You love playing peekaboo - both hiding yourself and when other people hide. You love it when people chase you around. You crawl as fast as you can then suddenly stop, sit, and look back like, "you there yet?" and then you get right back to crawling. You LOVE it when someone, anyone says, "I'm gonna get you." Love it. You practically start laughing the moment you hear it. You try as hard as you can to get away and laugh, laugh, laugh when you're caught. Oh, and not just a laugh, a squealing type of laugh that's part scream, part laugh. Kind of like a cross between a hyena and a screech owl. A sound truly unique to you.

Meal time has taken on a new degree of difficulty: you want to feed yourself. You’re actually pretty good at it. You know to dip the spoon into the bowl and bring it to your mouth. Of course, you like to stick your fingers in there along with the spoon so that makes it a bit messy. You’re really very excited about the whole event. I love how proud you seem of yourself whenever you do something new.

So far, you’ve met very few foods you don’t like. You eat pretty much any fruit and vegetable put in front of you. Also included in the fave food list are: Cheerios, yogurt, and anything you can pick up yourself. Cottage cheese and lumpy things aren’t your first choice. And you make that known. Loudly. With facial expressions. If you eat something with cottage cheese you make this gagging noise and stick your cottage cheese coated tongue out like, "Get this vile stuff OUT of my mouth."

Speaking of, you are developing quite the temper. If something isn’t to your liking - you let us know. Loudly. With facial expressions. If you are doing something and you don’t want to be picked up you slump over and go limp. I don’t know how you know, but it is almost impossible to pick you up that way. If we walk out of the room for a second you wail and cry. You have this high-pitched wail/scream thing that you’ll do if you’re even the tiniest bit upset about something. Usually you get over it pretty fast though, so that’s good. I have a feeling that there are some rough times ahead.

I still love going to get you when you wake up in the morning or from a nap. You are just so happy. You are practically jumping in your crib. When you see me you crawl from one side to the other as fast as you can. Usually you fall on your face a couple times because your limbs can’t keep up with your excitement. It's one of my favorite times of the day. And I find myself thinking this to myself more and more. "This is one of my favorite parts of the day." It only took me ten months to get used to this, but now? Now, it's wonderful. Whatever the possibly temper-filled future holds, I'll gladly face it with you.

Love you,

Mommy

Do you ever..

...get on the Internet for a very specific purpose and, 2 hours later, try to remember what you got on the Internet to do BECAUSE YOU STILL HAVEN'T DONE IT?

Well, I do.

Now what was I on here for????

Gimme three steps

No, make that five steps. Five steps that Keeley took last night on her own. Apparently, the bottle is a strong motivator since that's what she was heading for.

Steppin' out

Well, Keeley has taken her first wobbly, unsteady, trembly steps this week. She was playing with me and she saw her big, fluffy dog and must have been inspired to attack it because she just took off toward it. She must have taken at least three steps before she fell on top off it, rolled off it, bonked her head on the floor, and started crying. Needless to say, it was time for a nap. But those steps were amazing.

After Donald got home we sat across from each other and Keeley would "walk" between the two of us; first lunging for one of us and then the other. Each and every time she would laugh. She loved it.

I know it's all the rage these days to be all, "We're not encouraging [insert baby name here] to walk yet" but, um, WHATEVER. How can you not be excited about such an important milestone? I know it'll be more work and blah, blah, blah, but I'm excited, dammit! What part of a baby's life isn't more work? It just goes with the territory. It's a baby, not a cat. Sheesh, when we leave for the weekend I just throw a bunch of cat food outside and make sure the cat's not in the house. The baby? Not so much. So, anyway, we're excited about the walking and, yes, yes we do encourage her to walk. She is our child. We are so proud of her and we will continue to encourage her to grow. Even if we're totally uncool.