Dear Maddie,

Today you are 10 months old. 10. 10 months old on the same day as your Uncle Bubba's birthday and 10 months old on what was your Papaw Helderbrand's birthday. So your 10 month birthday brings alot of emotions to your Momma.
A little bit sad, and a lot of happy.
A lot of sweet, and a little bit of tears since today is alot of things.

Where there haven't been many firsts this past month, there's been alot of working on what we know. You can officially take ONE step. Unassisted. You are pretty proud of that, and so are we.
You LOVE playing at the end of the bed. You scurry as fast as you can and slip down between the end of the mattress and the footboard and you play there..it keeps you occupied..so we don't mind.
"Woof" is still a word (I mean, I guess it's a word, we all know what it means) we hear alot. And just this week another word came about...a very definative word....not a babbling Mama or Dada...a plain and very "I know what I'm talking about' work-
Dog.
Leave it to our kid. Not Mom, not Dad, not Cookie, or Baby, or Ball....Dog...your first official word...is dog.

Goofball, seems to be a word we use alot. We've heard actress lately too...

We discovered Madeleine's this month...I've got to get a real pan so I can make them more formal, but you sure like them when we are on the road! You also got a new car seat...one you like far better than your 'baby' one!

You aren't always happy. Especially this week so far. It took alot of self control from me to not start this letter describing you as "cranky, tempermental, anxious, angry, hard to please"...it's you for the past couple days...but it's me alot of the time.

You really like your new chair. You don't quite like rocking backwards, but you like that when you rock forward you can touch your toe to the floor.

This letter wouldn't be complete without this face....we see this face alot. This is the I'm interested, I'm not sure, I'm liking this face...only interpreted by the posistion of your eyebrows.

Where you still get mistaken for a boy sometimes, your hair IS growing. It's starting to whisp over the tops of your ears, and it's quite the mess in the morning when you wake up.

This month also brings something great! Mommy gets to work part time...so that means that I'll be home with you more! Granny Nanny gets to go visit Indiana, and your Daddy and I are watching you all the time! I think that I'm probably most excited, b/c I miss you a lot when I'm at work!

It's hard to think that in just a couple short months I'll be writing your Happy Birthday letter...but I won't get too far head of myself.

We love you baby!

Mom and Dad.