Mia Bean,

You are ten months old today and leaving your babyhood behind you so quickly that it makes my head spin. In the past month, you have learned to crawl so fast that I sometimes have to run to catch up with you. You have learned to pull yourself up and can do it with the aid of the stairs, the wall, your highchair, a convenient leg or hip, the floor, or even a sturdy blade of grass. If you are awake, you want to be standing, you can balance with very little support, and sometimes you forget to hold on and teeter upright on your own for a few seconds before gravity kicks in. You love to walk, whether with me holding your arms or by pushing a toy or a stool or the laundry basket along ahead of you.

You eat! We still have avocado as a staple, but in the last month have added pears, apples, sweet potatoes, fruit puffs, cheerios, crackers, cheez-its and goldfish. (You don't eat many cheez-its, but you sure do enjoy them.) You still do not care for yogurt, pasta or tofu and banana is hit or miss, but after three solid months of nothing but avocado it is huge progress. You also, and I hate to say this for risk of jinxing it, sleep. You've have had the napping thing mastered for a while, but now you are actually sleeping at night too. Most nights you wake up twice, but the second time is generally late enough in the morning that I choose not to count it. We finally figured out that we were part of the problem, and decided to make ourselves part of the solution instead. You are much happier, and I am much happier too. Last night, however, was a major exception to this, so we are betting tooth number eight will be here any day now.

You have learned how to throw a temper tantrum if I prevent you from doing what you want to do or have the gaul to take my keys away from you so I can start the car. Your favorite things to do, other than standing, are pulling books off of shelves, dumping everything out of the pantry, pulling clothes out of drawers, pulling your toys out of their baskets, and dumping clean laundry onto the floor. Are you sensing a theme here? We have started to think you may have a career as an interior decorator.

You adore taking a bath. We started giving you baths at night instead of in the morning so that daddy can help, and when you hear the water running in the tub you crawl as fast as you can into the bathroom, pull up on the side of the tub and squeal with delight. You love to play with your bathtoys and to splash and be splashed and to crawl around in the tub until we pull you wet and wiggling and protesting out of the grown-cold water. Even when it is not bathtime, you like to pull up on the side of the tub and look at your toys and giggle.

Your favorite part of the day is when your father comes home from work. You smile and giggle and yell at him to get his attention and crawl all over his legs as soon as he comes in the house. Sometimes we go outside to wait for him, and as soon as you see him in his car your whole body starts to wiggle and if you could I know you would run straight to him.

We spend a lot of time having long conversations and playing peek-a-boo and hide and go seek. You like to sing songs and be turned upside down and thrown up in the air and spun around until your eyes get huge and mommy gets sick. By the end of the day, every square inch of floor is covered with toys or paper or boxes of crackers and dirty socks thanks to your day of exploration. You are learning so quickly now - you see something once and can remember or repeat it.

Early this month, we lost Pixel, and I have wondered how that impacts you. You adored Pixel and crawled along after him all day long trying to get hold of his tail or his ears and cram them into your mouth. I can't tell whether you have noticed that he is gone, that they are both gone, but I hope that in some faint way you will remember them. I don't think either of the cats ever thought having a baby was the greatest idea your father and I ever had, but Pixel especially became very protective of you and very tolerant of your "affections."

Mia Bean, Mia Monkey, Mia Munchkin, you are barely my baby any longer. You are my amazing little girl, and I can't wait to see where this next month takes us.

Love,
Mom