month-by-month

+ You get funnier, prettier, cuter, more endearing, more expressive, and lovelier by the moment. Oh my goodness Alice, you are intensely wonderful.  Every day your dad and I look at each other and shake our heads in awe of you. In dark moments, you shine a brilliant, unquenchable light.

+ You did beautifully with all the holiday traveling and hubbub- you're social, cuddly, chatty, and just altogether an easy kid. We take no credit. It all seems hardwired.

+ A couple weeks ago we realized your top canine teeth- your vampire teeth- were breaking through. Before your top, middle teeth! Hah! Our little vampire! Soon enough your top middle ones started pressing out too though, so it seems they'll all be completely visible around the same time. Incredibly, you have been unphased, nonplussed even, by getting FOUR teeth in at once. You haven't spiked a temp or increased drooling. Your sleep hasn't been effected. Who are you? How did we end up with such a chill, miracle, gift-baby?

+ You still haven't crawled in a forward motion, but you can go backwards and around in circles quite well. You can push up into a perfect crawling position and just last night I thought for a second you were on the true brink of really crawling for the first time. Nope. Not quite. Any second though.

+ You lean/stand unassisted. Maybe you'll just skip crawling and start walking? You really want to walk. You LOVE standing up.

+ During dinner you sit in your high chair and feed yourself- anything and everything, you are a fabulous eater- and do what I've deemed your "high chair dance." You smile and laugh and rock the whole table with your jiving. You've also facilitated the pups finding their true calling in life: licking your hands clean and eating every scrap of food you drop on the floor. You make a good team, the three of you.

+ You sleep on your side, just like me. It is instinctive and it happens as soon as I lay you down- you turn right over and bring your hands together, holding them as if in prayer. I want to gobble all your cuteness clear up.

+ Speaking of which, the other night your dad cracked up because I actually spoke the words "you're even cute when you're pooping!" Add this to the list of embarrassing, honest, and unsophisticated utterances of your mother. You have made a bumbling fool of me and I am so grateful.