valentina at 10 months

It's been a while since I did one of these "updates." I'm sort of awful at this whole documenting thing it turns out. I have a baby book with approximately three pages filled in (that's probably being very optimistic). I missed one month of her "growth" photos and I never write in the pretty mummy diary I bought myself. I genuinely wish I was one of those people that was on top of things like this but instead it always seems to slip my mind. I wish I could hire a "scrapbooker" of sorts that would create all these fantastic mementos for me that I don't have the willpower to do myself. I don't know if lack of willpower is the right term... scatterbrain perhaps??

Anyways, a few weeks ago, by some cosmic miracle I actually remembered to take her ten month photos! When I started these back in January the owl pillow was a random prop that happened to be on the chair I was using for taking the photos. I'm so glad I ended up keeping it in because it's become a wonderful tool for seeing just how much she's grown. Folks I have a big girl. The newborn days are long gone, the infant phase passed almost imperceptibly and the baby stage is slowly on its way out. Sometimes when I'll catch her from afar, standing up or playing by herself, I can hardly believe this is the same baby girl we brought home ten months ago. I've had Belle since she was a puppy and a bevy of kittens but never have I seen change take place so rapidly and with such definition. 

There are certain mornings when I'll go in her room to get her from her crib (lately she's taken to standing, clutching her dog, waiting for me to get her) and I immediately will notice that this is not the same baby I put to sleep last night. There will be a certain look, a slightly different arch to her eyebrows or a subtle sound that will become yet another new piece of the growing Valentina puzzle. 

And then I will scoop her up, smooth her darling cowlicks and kiss her on the forehead and make her promise to always be my baby...