Every day in every way, they're getting bigger and bigger

I put away all the tiny baby clothing last week.

Oh wow. Ouch. How did she get so big so fast?

Watching my children grow up is such a complex thing. I love seeing them change, seeing them learn and grow. It's so wonderful to watch them learn to exercise more control over themselves and the world around them, and I rejoice with them with every step they take.

Mmmmm, but I so miss the stages past. I remember sitting up all night long my first night as a mother, stroking the hair of my oldest, amazed at how soft she was. I have never felt anything so soft in my life. I held her and cuddled her against my chest all through those dark hours, in love and happier than I've ever been.

With this baby, I remember sitting in my hospital bed a few hours after she was born. I was going over some paperwork they'd given me, the baby lying beside me, fast asleep, snugged up all warm against my leg. I was exhausted still, but very happy and loving her with all my heart. The sun was bright and the sky was clear. It was a perfect first day for her.

Now my once little Slumpy can't sit still for five minutes at a time, and wakes up if you so much as walk past her room. She loves to play and to meet new people. Her vocabulary is taking some enormous strides lately. She begs for stories constantly, climbs like a mountaineer, and loves with all of her little heart.

The baby is growing out of being our little Snork. Her constant congestion, and the snorting that accompanied it, is finally going away. She laughed for the first time yesterday, and has barely stopped laughing since. She especially loves being sung to, rewarding the singer with smiles and dimples and loving looks. Her eyelashes have darkened to black, like her big sister's, and her eyes have turned a darker blue to match her siblings and Daddy.

... and as I've been getting rhapsodical, the toddler has been sticking Play-Doh to the television screen. Gotta run!