Eight

My Ashlyn, you have had so many new things developing this month. You have rolled over successfully on your own, grown one more tooth for a total count of two, you are eating at the table with the family for meals and learned about screaming. Out of all of your new discoveries, the screaming is both endearing and annoying.
You smile and laugh with your whole body. Every time I see you laugh like this I just want to squeeze you.
Here is your I am happy face. It is the same face I see when I wake you in the morning and it is tattoed in my heart forever.
Daddy and I have made a huge decision about our family this month. I always thought I wanted three kids, even the day I had you... I looked at you and said, I can do it one more time! But times have changed and I look at you and your sister and have finally accepted two is enough. So now everything is so much more special. It is the last time I will see tiny hands and toes, so I catch myself obsessed with your little piggies. (I have taken countless pics of them.) And when you wake in the middle of the night screaming, I pick you up, your sweet little head is placed on my left shoulder with your tiny hand on my chest...and I hold you just a little bit longer than I need to. I know I will always yearn for those wonderful baby hugs, and my heart and arms will ache for you when you get to big to hold. I am caught somewhere between wanting you to get bigger and wanting you to stay a little baby forever. So I will continue to cherish all the little baby things you do and just go day to day, tucking away those memories deep into my heart. So when I crave all those wonderful things about babies... I will pull out your happy face and it will be enough, because technically you both will always be my babies.