Cute things Millie Claire is doing

Some of my favorite things Amelia has been doing lately:

Saying "good girl" when she pets the dog... Or cat... Or person.. It started with the dog though. 

When I tell her "no" at first she laughs, naturally. But then if I say it again. She lays face down and starts to fake cry, as if it's just oh so terrible. 

Jabbering just about constantly. "Grablubadubagahbligub. Ohbilah. Gogovim." And that is a direct quote. 

Yelling "I'm a good baby!" When she wants to be held and she's in her pack and play. Like she's letting you know she doesn't deserve in there. 

Wanting to flip the light switch off every time she sees one. 

When trying new foods she doesn't like, instead of making a face or spitting it out, she just opens her mouth and sticks her tongue out and let's the green pepper or blueberry or peach just fall right out. 

I have a seriously strange little girl. 

My baby is turning one

In exactly nine days my tiny baby will be a year old. I don't know that I've fully grasped this though, as I've yet to have a complete emotional breakdown.

It seems like literally yesterday I was using about eight pillows to get comfortable while lying on the couch to watch hours upon hours of Grey's Anatomy on Netflix and feel Amelia shove her head into my ribs and stomp my bladder. Yet here I am with practically a toddler smiling at me and saying "good girl" when she pets the dog. 

I'm trying very hard to focus my energy on planning a birthday party instead of spending every moment remembering that this photo was almost a year ago. How I miss the days where Amelia would spend hours napping and nursing and then napping some more while I stared at her waiting for her to smile in her sleep (which I am beyond grateful that she still does.) Early motherhood was so calm. 

But maybe I'm not having as hard of a time with this as I expected to because I'm having so much fun every day watching Amelia become more independent and learning new things. Every step of this journey has been a wonderful and fun blessing. 

So even though the first year of my life with Amelia Claire is almost over, being a mother isn't. It's only going to get better and more fun and I think reminding myself of that is going to soften the blow on July 8th when I official have a one year old. 

I've got a blog!

As many times as I've considered starting a blog, this time I'm actually doing it. I want to blog for several reasons:
To document our daily adventures for Amelia to look back on when she's older and know how her life was as a tiny baby. She won't remember these things, but she'll be able to read about them happening.
To document our daily adventures for family members who want to know what's going on. I don't like posting detailed status updates on Facebook for people who don't really care that much to skim over, and my regular pictures on Instagram only tell half the story. A picture is worth a thousand words but usually I could say a thousand more.
And last but not least (actually the opposite of least) because I like to write, so this is for myself. I missed the boat on the whole baby book thing (although I have two beautiful ones that are half-filled out in Amelia's ever growing stack of books) but that's not enough for me. Sure I'll remember her first birthday party and her first steps. But what about that time she said that really funny thing or that time she stuck macaroni up her nose? This has happened. What if those memories aren't as clear?
So I'm writing a blog. Whether people actually read it or not isn't something I'm worried about. Because like I said this is for me. I've been reading other people's blogs about their families and every day lives and being entertained by them for a couple of years, so maybe someone will be entertained by mine? Maybe not.
It'll be mostly baby ramblings, obviously. But also my thoughts on other things. My relationship. School. Food. Movies. Art. Clothes. Makeup. Things that matter to me.
I'm new to this, but I'm excited about this.