Finding Peace

My darling girl, your Mama is starting to break, just a little. Tonight before I rocked you to "sleep" (the time before you play in your crib for 15 minutes and then ACTUALLY go to sleep) I took deep breaths so that you couldn't feel my heart pounding. But that couldn't stop the tears from streaming down my face, I am quite sure an army of a thousand couldn't have stopped the tears from breaking through tonight. We had a hard morning this morning, your first morning at daycare. You started off ok, but then got taken down by a little boy and you hit your mouth on the floor. The screams started then, and your Mommy did her best to stand by as Michelle, your new Daycare Mama, tried to calm you and put you down for your nap. My darling girl you struggled for a long time before you settled in to sleep. It was so hard for your Mommy to not go in and "save" you, but Michelle thought it was best, and she has done this before. Your Mommy has not done this be...

As I sat beside you during bathtime tonight, the day before you turn 11 months old, I knew without a second thought that the theme of this last month has been determination and concentration. My sweet girl, during bath time tonight, a time I look forward to as you are filled with pure joy and pure craziness all at the same time, I watched you discover that you can not, in fact, grab on to water. Over and over I filled up one of your stacking cups with several holes in the bottom, held it in the air to let the water fall back into the tub, and watched your mind try and figure out why you could not catch and hold the water. Yes, that's right, I watched your mind. That has been the story of this last month for you. You have learned how to take the rings off of your stacker, and put them back on, not yet in the right size order, but pretty cool nonetheless. You can sit for so long trying to put your shapes in their proper slots in your shape sorter and you are so proud of you...

Darling girl, you have had a busy, busy summer. You started August off with a trip to Kelowna so that Mommy could visit her friend who was getting married, and to celebrate. You had SO much fun with your Daddy, Nana and Papa while Mommy was away. You dipped your toes in Okanagan Lake for the first time, while we were visiting your Daddy's (and Mommy's) friend Doug. You have always liked water, but usually we take you to a warm pool, or a warm bathtub, so we weren't sure how you would like the lake. You LOVED it, and before too long, you were waist deep in the water, and making a mess in the sand.     We took you on your first big camping trip this month. We spent 4 whole days camping at Monck Park, on Nicola Lake, in Merritt, with all of your Daddy's friends and their kids. We should have known that you would rock this whole camping thing, but you amazed even us. You slept straight through the night, down at about 8, and up at about 7:30, you napped like a ...