it's beginning to look a lot like...

our ghetto xmas tree

The holidays, a very mobile baby, and work have kept me MIA from the blogosphere. Fortunately, I was able to catch up with both work and my holiday shopping over the past few days and I feel much relief. Online shopping, that is. I actually, hadn't left the Shack for 3 days until today. It's so bitter, bitter cold outside. And the wind! If you know me, you know I have absolutely no tolerance for cold. I seriously have been misplaced in Virginia. I hate to admit, but it's nice to have The Baby as an excuse not to have to leave the house for days on end.

The Baby! Speaking of Kaellyn, I can hardly believe that she is now 9 months old! She is 19 pounds (about 50th percentile) and 29 3/4 inches long (>98th percentile). This means 2 things - she is on track to be tall and skinny, and she has nearly outgrown the convenient snap-and-go car seat. Unfortunately, our snap-and-go has a weight or height limit of 30 pounds or inches. Oh how many dinners out we enjoyed thanks to the ingenious snap-and-go! Sigh.

You know, each month, I write a post filled with happiness and pride in my little baby's growth and accomplishments, but part of me actually feels anguish that my little baby isn’t so little anymore. I know I have said this before, but I never imagined how bittersweet it is to watch a child grow up right before my eyes. I actually feel like a glitch in the Matrix has occurred when I think about the fact that she’ll be a year old in less than three short months. How is it even possible that this first year of her life has slipped by so quickly?

On a lighter note, Kaellyn has had a lot of "firsts" this month! She can clap her hands, high five, raise her arms in "touchdown" (as my dad says, she's obviously not watching the Redskins!), and make a kissy face. She now has six teeth, several "words" in her vocabulary, and is cruising. Her hair is almost totally straight now and only sticks straight up if she sleeps a certain way. She has also experienced her first injury, one which I feared would become a black eye, but the experience wasn't as bad as I expected.

touchdown!

It has really hit me that the things Allen and I do and say today and in the future will shape the person Kaellyn becomes when she’s older. While I wave to her, thinking nothing of it, she was watching and absorbing, only to emulate me a few weeks later. She’s a sponge taking it all in, and I became really aware of this after she waved to me for the first time. But what about other things I say and do? I'm not perfect (shocking, I know!) and I (gasp!) make mistakes. I will have to choose my words and actions wisely, because clearly everything I do and say as a parent stays in her brain today and shapes her tomorrow.

In theory I already knew all of this, but to see it in action — to see her repeat something I had done, like clapping my hands — really put it in perspective for me. I know I will most definitely mess up as a parent and set the wrong example many times in the years to come, but I hope that being much more aware of the things I do and say will lessen the magnitude of my mistakes.