Dear Delilah,
You have been ten months old for over a week now and I swear you even look more grown up! It's like you have suddenly decided it was time to become a kid instead of a baby.
You did the most amazing thing last night, you walked to me. It was amazing, and you laughed and smiled and I cried and cried tears of joy. I was so afraid I wasn't going to see your first steps, and it felt like you had saved them just for me. I seem to have been there for all of the nasty first things you did, but none of the fun ones. Your daddy missed it because he is gone to Craig for basketball games, and Nana and Poppa missed it because they left the day before to visit Auntie Erin, GG and your cousins in Hawaii. Nana talked to you the night before she left, asking you to please not walk until she comes back, but I like to think you did it while she was gone because she had the audacity to leave us here in the 13 degree snow storms instead of going to Hawaii when we could go too.
Daddy gets home in just over an hour and I have finally talked you into taking a nap. You and I have had a hard time today, mainly because I am so tired and you are becoming such a clingy baby. All you want is to crawl all over me like a jungle gym, and all I want to do is take a nap. You know, they tell you to "sleep when the baby sleeps", but that is mostly impossible to do because when you are asleep is the only chance I get to do anything. It doesn't help that Daddy has been gone so much. Being a parent is hard, but being a single parent is really, really hard. But your Daddy misses you so much when he is gone, and I know you miss him too because you say "Daddy" and look around for him, like he is hiding under the couch or in the bathroom closet.
Last night, in the bathtub you looked at the door and said "Daddy" four or five times. You also are becoming rather good at what I call "Advanced Standing". You stood in the bathtub, a rubber ducky in each hand and yelled at the ceiling for almost the entire time. You fell down a lot though, but you didn't seem to mind unless your head when underwater. If that happened then you would launch yourself at me, getting me all wet, before remembering that you had a hairbrush in there to play with.
I swear, you have an entire room of toys and your favorite things are hairbrushes, and coasters. You may also be part goat, since you have yet to meet a piece of paper you didn't want to eat.
I love you more than books and Chinese food,
Mom
I did order this key chain because mine has lost a magnet and must be replaced (see, if I keep telling myself that it must be done, then I am replacing something, not frivolously buying...). The one I ordered has "Lucky Us" stamped on it and has 3 pennies from 1994 (the year J and I met with a heart), 2007 (with our wedding date stamped on it), and 2011 (with Delilah's birthday on it). 
I also got some decapitated Zombie Garden Gnomes, because isn't that what everyone needs?
And finally, I ordered this bracelet for my sister's upcoming birthday. When we were little kids we spent every summer at my grandmother's house and in the back yard was this huge dogwood tree that my grandfather had planted when they moved to the house. It was always something special about that place, and I just knew she would love it. Of course, she is in Hawaii for the month with her brood, so she will be getting it late. But that's what she gets for not being home at her birthday (and for going to Hawaii the one month a year I can't take off...)
