Dear Abigail {11+ Month Update}

Dear Abby,

Your first birthday looms large in my heart, as the days speed fast toward April 4. I would not hold you back, but my mama’s heart can’t quite relish the pace with which you are turning from a baby into a toddler.

Your world grows bigger everyday. You taste sand. Put your tongue out to catch snowflakes. Take your first steps (right before you turned 10 months). Cut more teeth (you now have five). Dance and “sing” along with music.

You live life with great gusto. You are – and will always be – my miracle baby. Your dimples still make my heart beat faster. People stop and stare at your vivacious self…and you gladly take in the applause – ever the performer.

You are precocious. Rambunctious. Outrageous. Loud. Opinionated. Silly. Smart. Adventurous. Ever exploring something new. Ever “helping” me unload the pantry, the refrigerator, the laundry basket, the bookshelves, the desk drawers.

You are my first little girl. The first child to open my heart to the power of motherhood. The first baby to bring me to tears with my overwhelming desire to give you the moon. You make long days and short night worth it.

You are the joy of your grandparents. All have visited in the past several months, and come as close to spoiling you as your parents would allow 🙂 They laughed as you threw food from your high chair, praised you as you learned to clap, and read book after book to you. Your Yaya and G-Pop from Texas took you swimming for the first time and couldn’t set down the camera. I can’t say that I minded.

I tell you these things, Precious Girl, not to put a silver spoon in your mouth or inflate your ego. No, I tell you these things to empower you. To give you a foretaste of your Heavenly Father’s love. To give you a reason to love others. An example to passionately follow. A dream to be born. You are smart and talented and a world changer. I would not have you ever deny that to fit in with your peers. I would not have you turn from your calling because you are a woman. I would not have you lose your vivacious boldness to fit into someone else’s box.

Live with the joy you have been given. And revel in it.

You are unique. Beautiful. Powerful. A world changer.

You have already changed mine.

On a family date several weeks ago, your daddy and I enjoyed coffee while you watched customers out the window and crawled around the floor, delighting in Starbuck’s decor. Then, we danced. The two of us. The three of us. We danced to slow jazz, and I wished time would stand still.

Stand still to let us soak in these precious days that we have been given.

We go on adventures – our little family. Maybe not vacations. Maybe not out of the state – or even the city much of the time. But, we turn park dates into times to celebrate. We turn dinner time into explorations into tastes and textures.

It’s the little things these days that make you laugh. That contagious laugh that causes your daddy and I to laugh right along with you. Sometimes you giggle. And sometimes a deep belly laugh emerges with your deep dimples.