Baby no more

I knew this day would come. It's bittersweet. It came sooner for me than it did for Ben. My baby no longer seems like a "baby" to me. She's becoming more of a little girl than a baby.

For me, I think it was the first time I saw her smile with two teeth in it. It wasn't that I didn't like it. I just didn't like it as much as I had without the teeth. I grew to love it just as much, but she was never quite the same to me after that.

For Ben, it hit yesterday. I was having a really bad day, so Ben took Julie with him to choir practice. As she stood up holding onto the chairs, walking back and forth with them, he looked at her and realized something had changed. She didn't look like a baby anymore...she was a little person.

Indeed she is. She's developing quite a fun little personality. She's starting to grown outside the limits of normal progression where she rolls over, and then learns to sit up or scoot or whatever the next milestone is. She's still hitting important milestones, but she's doing other things too.

• Julie has three signs that she knows: milk, all done, and more. She just started signing "more" on Saturday night. We've had the first Baby Signing Time DVD for a week and a half or so now, and she loves watching it. "More" was a sign that I'd been doing with her already for a little while, though.
• Julie has two words. Her first was "Dada," but she now says "Mama" as well. She prefers to say Dada, though. The only time she really says Mama is when she's mad or tired.
• Julie gives us hugs when we're holding her, but we haven't yet taught her to give hugs or kisses on command. However, she does have her own way of showing affection. We'll say to her "Give Mama a kabonk!" and she'll tip her forehead to mine and gently head bang me. It started when she would do it to herself in the mirror, and now she does it to us.
• Julie loves her newfound independence. When she was jsut scooting, she was pretty fast, but she mostly stayed in one room. Now that she's up off the floor on hands and knees, she goes all over the place, and she loves it.
• She's also climbing, which is kind-of funny. She figured out how to get up on her knees and then her feet, holding onto (whatever) for balance, but she hasn't figured out yet how to get down on her own. As a result, she'll get into a standing position, and after being there for 10 minutes or so, she'll start yelling for us, because she's stuck. We help her fall backward onto her little bottom, so that she'll start doing that on her own.
• Julie was sick about a week ago, and in coming out of it, has developed "Mommy separation anxiety." She wants to be held or at least touching me all the time. It was cute for about two days, until I figured out that that's what it was. It's more than a little taxing, because she's always RIGHT THERE. She doesn't want to play with her toys in the living room while I make dinner in the kitchen. As annoying as this little phase is, "the books" tell me it's a good thing, because it indicates that she trusts us and has a good relationship with us.
  

Pictures and video to follow in another post.