Ten.

Whew! Ten months. I know I signed up for this and all. And truly, I love every minute. But I'm here to tell you: 10 months = handful.

Hand.ful.

The older she gets the more this becomes a job of parenting, not just nurturing, and as we hit a new transition I know there are growing pains. We are both evolving. I'm always so daunted by the next big thing on the horizon, and as we cross it, it becomes integrated so easily as part of our normal life.

My little baby, it seems is growing into her own little person.

She thinks there's a new boss in town. And it ain't me. All hail Queen Eliza.

Don't worry, folks, there's a revolution underway to put the queen in her place. She's very happy about this.

Oh, bring on the lip! I've seen it all before! You won't break me, precious little miss!

Oh she's precious all right. I love her dearly, to the point it's almost too much to bear. But her new-found independence, which really took off with simultaneously crawling and cruising right at 9 months, is now in full-fledged testing mode. We are learning the word "No" and drawing boundaries all over the house. I've become a broken record of "Put that down, please" "Don't eat that, honey" "Let's be gentle with Georgia," etc. Lots of the time, she actually listens. She understands pretty much everything I say. I give her credit for understanding it, anyway.

Peek-a-boo.

No pack and plays or baby gates here, nosiree. Our little house would quickly become a full-on Eliza-land. Just a little bit of babyproofing, supervision and limit-making. Most of the day she's on my hip running errands, in front of me eating her meals, or being rocked and read to. We talk constantly as we move through the day - a little team we are. Lots and lots of mama time. I recognized awhile back that if I didn't make a conscious effort to separate us a little bit, we would soon have a big-time clinging problem. It's one of the hidden pitfalls of staying at home. It's not good for mama or baby - mama can't get anything done, baby becomes insecure, unsure of themselves without mama by their side.

Because we are constantly together, when she's playing, I try to busy myself, fade into the furniture and let her explore and play independently, save for when she's sticking her hand in the VCR (dearest husband and ruler of our electronics, why do we still have a VCR?) or attempting to chew on computer cables. I always sit on the floor with her for a bit, interacting with her and her toys, but then I back off. I have made independent play longer and longer as she grows.

(here are the little legs she is always getting compliments on. kind of a weird thing to compliment a baby on, but there you have it.)

And though selfishly it stings that she doesn't need me constantly, I am so glad that she'll happily crawl off to explore at a playdate, only checking in with me from time to time, or when she's tired or hurt. I intentionally back off and try not to hover, though sometimes it's hard. I'm so proud of her self-confidence, and I'm really proud of the easy bond we share.

I do miss my snuggly little lady. We're in the "put me down/pick me up/put me down" phase. Agggh. And she's never satisfied with the choice of story before nap (which is her own choice to start with). She's always better-dealing the book she's just chosen once we start reading, craning her head over the side of the chair looking for another book to read. Pointing at it - "dat, dat dat." She better deals everything right now - the bottle, a toy. And we point at everything. Me, all day long, as she points: "That's a light, that's a dog, that's a door, that's a flower, that's a tree." and sometimes, "that's the KitchenAid mixer. That's Tito's Vodka. That's Whitney Houston."

She's big into sharing these days. Here, have a triangle block. Here, I have this leaf to give you. Here, have some slimy, smushed banana and cheerio. We play the old "I'm pretending to eat this nasty thing you handed me" game, popular with parents around the world. Baby collapses into a fit of giggles. Oh my, hee hee. So funny. Repeat.

As her mobility kicked into high gear overnight (literally from inchworm to one-handed cruising in a few days time - who KNEW this happened so fast??) her incessant chatting continued but I can tell that her words got put on the backburner. She has little spurts where she's trying out new ones - "again" (hands me a book we'd just finished) "all done" "thank you" "light" "bottle" and "flower" aka "f-f-f" or "fada" all popped up this month in her own little language - along with animal noises - "moo," "quack quack quack" and howling like a wolf, which, obviously, her dada taught her. Important life skills we are learning here at the Miller house! Never know when that wolf call will come in handy.

We did have a communication breakthrough last week at lunchtime while I was feeding her yogurt. She kept turning her head away and saying something, but I couldn't understand (as I usually can't). I kept trying to give her a bite, because she typically could eat unlimited amounts of yogurt, and she was pointing at the cup and saying something like "ah-gah" over and over again. I started to repeat what she was saying, and a lightbulb went off. "All done? Eliza, are you all done?" I say "all done" after every meal. She broke into a huge, excited smile of recognition. It was such a big moment for us both, and she knew it. Though she has said recognizable words before, it was the first time she communicated a need to me verbally, and she was so proud.

Anyway, between the teeth (6 now, plus 2 more on the way, given the bite marks on her poor little hand), the bugs we've been fighting, and the spirited little child we have blossoming over here, I'd be lying if I said this month was a breeze. But it's been so amazing to watch her change and grow. By far, this has been the most rapid period of development and as we adjust to our delightful little whirling dervish (laundry swirling around me like a scene straight out of Fantasia), I am in disbelief that I am starting to see a real glimpse of the little being she is becoming. My goodness, it does go fast.

Miss Eliza, we absolutely love your spirited little self to pieces. Happy 10 months, precious girl.