10 months old

Dear Livy Riley,

You have become quite the voice in our house. We love to hear you trying to say new words and babble so loudly! You can say dad(you say dad more often than dada--probably imitating your sister), mama, baba, hi, bye bye, thank you, and meme very clearly. You are trying so hard to Ingrid and Gammy. You make sounds for their names but they aren't matching up yet. You put together hi dad and hi mama all the time. Sometimes you say meow for a kitty. You love to laugh and squeal at the top of your lungs. I love it when we tickle you and you laugh so hard you go silent. Then we all start laughing right along with you. You always laugh at everything Ingrid does. You think she is absolutely hilarious. Liv, you are just such a bright light in our lives. I can't imagine a day without you! You are very steady on your feet. You can stand up anywhere in a room, on your own, without holding on. You are so very close to walking everywhere. You can take about ten steady steps on your own before you bend down to crawl again. I can't believe you are walking so much. You just look so tiny to be doing all this big girl stuff!! You love to play with all your toys. You give babies and kitties kisses and hugs. You take the pieces out of our "baby puzzles", as Ingrid calls them, but haven't started putting any pieces in yet. You are beginning to love books! You will sit in our laps and listen to two or three at a time and you love to turn the pages and look at them by yourself too. It is getting harder and harder for you to take a bottle because you are too worried about missing out on something. You still take a bottle in the night, though, and usually drink about 4 oz. I haven't mentioned your sleep habits in a while because they're still pretty rocky. You just cannot stay asleep for a long period of time. We rock you to sleep and lay you down around 7:30 or 8:00 and you usually wake up twice before midnight. I give you a bottle the second time you wake up and rock you back to sleep again and lay you back down in your own bed. Around 1:30 or 2:00 you're up again and once again, I rock you and put you back in your own bed. At the 3:00 and 4:00 mark I'm usually exhausted and just let you sleep the rest of the night with me. Sometimes I stand my ground and make you go back in your own bed for the whole night, but most of the time I'm just so tired, I give in. You love to snuggle up right beside me with your face pressed against my cheek. I do love snuggling you, but I will be very happy when the time comes that you sleep through the night! It's hard getting up and teaching my little six year olds all day with just a few hours of sleep each night! You wake up each morning rearing to go! You crawl around the house at the speed of light. The other day Ingrid was asleep in her room for nap and you kept trying to crawl into her room and wake her up. You would not play with me in the living room! Finally, I shut the door to the living room so you couldn't crawl into the hall and open the bedroom door. I hadn't even finished shutting the living room door and you took off--you went the other way, through the dining room, kitchen, and computer room to get to the hall and to Ingrid's room. You are a smart girl Liv Riley! You outsmarted me that day. You are going to nursery at church for Sunday School and church--over 2 hours! You usually cry a little bit when I drop you off, but then you do great. I'm so proud of you. In just two months we will be celebrating your birthday with a poodle party! Since we call you poodle or Livy poodle most of the time, this will be the perfect theme. I can't wait to see your face when you see all the decorations. I know you will love it. Until then, I am going to savor these last few days of being "zero!"

Love you to pieces,
Mama