Ten Months Ago...

...today, Tilia came into the world, kicking and screaming and wide-eyed and bewildered. She has turned our world upside down in the very best way imaginable and made us gooey practically all the time. Although, to be fair, sometimes tired just feels like gooey.

This week she has been taking her first tentative crawling steps. Her world is about to burst wide open and we are along for the ride. She starts by sitting up and then dramatically throws herself forward onto her hands, just hard enough that she can kick both legs out behind her. That's where she had been stuck for the last few weeks -- the one leg was just stuck below her and she couldn't pull it out -- but as of a day or two ago, she got it figured out. Momentum.


She says "hi" and "hey," "adda" (which is dad) and "mama" and "night-night." She claps, she does sign language for "more" and "all done" and she dances....oh! the dance! It is the most precious, heartbreakingly adorable thing you have ever seen. I am working on getting video. Think Sammy Davis Jr. barefoot and in a diaper. Today, she also blew her dad a kiss goodbye as he left for work -- that's been another work in progress until now.

Ten months for her is when everything seems to be coming together. She gets it. She gets more than we can even imagine.

As for her dad and me, we are reveling in the little details (i.e. yesterday Jon witnessed her picking up one block off the top of the tower of blocks without toppling the tower. He called her accomplishment out to me as I made dinner and we all three clapped. Tillie wasn't sure what she did, but loves clapping anyway.) We're trying to do our best. Get her outside, take her places where she can see other kids and wave and clap and dance for them. Fill her up with things that are true and make sure she's safe and warm and fed and has some sunscreen on now that spring has made its presence known, and try to sleep when we can. We're still working on the sleep thing, but happily, sleepily, see it as another work in progress.