Ten

Photo by Jamie Turner

Dear Maddie,

What a busy girl you've become! You walk, walk, walk whenever you can. You took your first step on Easter, a few steps on your nine month mark, and by the time April 25th rolled around you were officially walking, taking between 10 and 12 steps! Now you're walking everywhere. You can stand yourself up without holding on to anything, so if by chance you do take a stumble, you get yourself right back up and you're off again.

When you walk you hold your arms above your head and you look like a little chimpanzee. It's the cutest little thing. That's not where the comparison ends, just like a little monkey you love to climb all over the place.  We have to keep an constant eye on you because you are quite the daring little girl. Sometimes you will climb onto kids chairs and then stand up on them.

You are quite the talker. You still say "Momma", "Dadda", and "Hi". This month you have started to say "ByeBye" when you wave goodnight and you even said "Boo!" when you were playing peek-a-boo with Daddy. You have started to make the cutest little trumpet sound lately. You also love to point at things and talk about them in your baby gibberish. It seems you have paid attention to all the pointing and talking Mommy does to try to teach you about the world. Today at the Zoo, you were pointing at the giraffes and saying "Dooo doo dooo bo la ba da da!" you were quite excited about it all.

Photo by Jamie Turner

You love reading books. Your favorite book is Goodnight Moon. You always point at the mouse when we get to the "goodnight house, and goodnight mouse" part. You love books so much, that we have started to keep a book with you in your crib. (This is after you managed to grab three books off of the bedside table near your crib and maneuver them through the bars when you woke up one afternoon from a nap.) You love to read on your own when you wake up in the morning or wake up from a nap. You don't cry to alert us that you are awake anymore, we finally just hear you talking jibberish and when we open the door you have a book open on your lap.

You love to copy whatever Mommy and Daddy are doing. If we are eating dinner you demand to sit at the table and eat with us. You also love to help with dishes and laundry. (Though you definitely prefer emptying the dryer than filling it).

It's so fun to watch you grow up baby girl. Thanks for making me a Mommy. I can't imagine my world without you.

Love,

Mommy