Lilli looked at me this morning and said, "Mother, soon, as you know, I will no longer be ten months. My eleven month birthday is just around the corner, and that means I will be wanting to do grown up eleven month old things." Well, at least she's not wanting to wear make up and date boys. But all of a sudden she's doing all these things that are so toddleresque rather than babyish. A new era has begun. For example, this morning rather than gaze admiringly at the sensuous curves of the telephone, occasionally taking a little nibble, as a baby would do, she pushed violently at all the buttons and delighted at the raucous beeping in her mother's sensitive ears. Rather than just look at the books on the bookshelf and maybe pull to a stand, this morning she attempted to climb the bookshelf in order to get those hard to reach volumes. And she's so independent! Rather than check with me before heading into another room, she'll just barrel ahead with hardly a look backwards.

I understand those stories now I've heard about mothers crying on their child's first birthday. My baby is growing up :(