Number Two at Ten Months

Second baby, your months go so much faster than the one who made me a mother. I never expected how quickly and bittersweet-ly the stages would pass the second time- what dragged and dragged before is now flashing by. You are already done with your morning nap, crawling, babbling, and signing a bit. Before I saw the transformation from helpless newborn to strong-willed preschooler, it was hard to imagine or believe. With you, I feel the inevitable certainty that your cute habit at three months, of rubbing your hands together as though plotting, will be a distant memory by the next doctor appointment. Your little adorable bald head already has adorable hair, your heart-melting gummy smile has been replaced by a heart-melting two-toothed one, and you have gone from contently observing in your bouncy seat to In. To. Everything, all the while smiling over your shoulder at us. All too soon, it feels, you will be defending your toys and demanding your way and busy, with arms and legs too long for squishy milk-drunk snuggles. I remember how the last layers of infancy fall away so quickly after the first birthday, and I wish I could sink my soul a little deeper into the babyhood of my baby before it's gone.