10 month newsletter

Dear Beatrix,
Today you turn 10 months old! Now if years were metric, you would be a year old! But, gratefully they are not, and you are still a little baby, although in 2 months I may have a heart attack when I have to admit that my baby is a year old!
This past month has been busy for you, as they have been! You've learned to crawl and it's opened a whole new world to you, full of pet hair, dust bunnies and Mama's feet. You started crawl when we were in Wellington which is the capital city of New Zealand, you quickly perfected your crawling and when we got home a week and a half later you mastered pulling up to a stand in literally one pull up and now you boldly stand just balancing with one hand on something. Last Friday you learned to crawl up stairs, again with no learning curve. You tried a stair, tried again and then figured it out and climbed the whole flight right then, now when ever you are out and crawling around the house you make a break for the stairs, which do not have a gate on them yet! So, here I am, chasing you all over the house in an effort to prevent you from breaking your sweet little head.
Your babbling has become more complex this month. You have lots of bababas, mamamas, nanans, dadadadas and an interesting gnagnagna, along with many other odd sounds. You also love to sing. Oh child you love to sing. And by sing I mean yell, a lot, and loud, and long. But it means you are happy, so I let you. You call me Mama and you have said Daddy a couple of times, very purposefully and at Daddy. I think you're a genius.
I've realized that you're not my tiny cuddly baby, but you are still a sweet baby, you love to give me kisses and they are now transforming from open mouth drooly wonders to closed mouth MMMM kisses, where you will say mmmm and bump your mouth on mine and say mmmmaaahhhhh. It's quite sweet and it melts my heart every time.
The other day you started dancing, which was the cutest thing ever, but again everything you do is cute. It was odd to see you dancing 'cause I don't dance with you, so it's just something in you. Maybe you're the next big singer? But please don't be like Britney. (I'll tell you all about her when you're older.) When you started dancing you were sitting and just rocking your hips in an abrupt manner, now you'll dance standing which is a quick series of mini squats. It's awfully cute to watch your little cloth diaper bum bounce to some random song in your head, or my off tuned "Twinkle, Twinkle".
You still insist that my hair is the only lovie that you'll consider, and I've come to grips that I might be bald by the time you're two. When it comes to play time, you love plastic drink bottles, cloth blocks and balls. I love that you are fascinated by simple toys and I wish so much that you'll continue with that and really develop your imagination. You're also fascinated by books, which is also a blessing for me. Oh the fun we'll have with books as you grow up. I've already made plans for all of the books we're going to read together!
We continue to work on potty training with you. So far you've been really good, going on the potty and even the toilet several times a day, which is great for my laundry pile, YAY for less diaper laundry! I still have grand designs for you to be in training pants by the time you are one, now I just hope that I can find some for 12 month old babies!
Tomorrow is Christmas, and I am so excited to see you open your presents! We bought you some simple toys, and I've decided to wrap a box of Kleenex for you, I think that you will really love unwrapping it and pulling the tissues out and tearing them up. There will be many photos!
Good night my darling, I am so excited for tomorrow!
love Mama