my baby.

this is my baby.  hi, baby!

except...  she doesn't look like this anymore.  this is how she looked back in may.

back when her pink squeaker shoes were all the rage.  with her.

except...  they don't fit her anymore.  it was a sad, sad day.  i don't know if it was sadder for her or for me though.

this is my baby fast asleep.

except...  this was how she looked fast asleep back in june.  that shirt, which used to be allie's, doesn't fit her anymore either.

this is my baby "waked up".

except...  you guessed it, those jammies don't fit her anymore either.  they did back in august.  which is when i took this picture.

but the good news is that this pillow with this pillowcase is still her very favorite thing in the world.  she never took to a lovey like her big brother and sister did.  no, but she laid claim to this particular pillow that i had originally bought for phil.  it's memory foam and squishy yet supportive.  just what a two-year-old needs.  when i tried to do the switcheroo on her and replace it with a regular pillow, she'd do the push-down-hand test and know right away what i'd done.  and immediately switch it back.  phil (who had declared it to be the best pillow he's ever had) willingly gave it to her and she's had it to sleep with ever since.  the pillow even comes with her when we travel.  and when she's feeling a little low, she'll bring it out of her crib to lay her weary head down.  wherever the mood happens to strike- be it on the bedroom floor, the hallway, or in the middle of the kitchen floor while i'm cooking.

and the pillowcase?  that's one of two that phil made for me (hand-sewn even though he doesn't know how to sew) back when we were dating in college and he had given me two down-pillows for christmas (cuz i said i'd never had one before).  the other pillowcase was a print of little doggies all over it.  he went to joann fabrics, found prints of two of my favorite things, and made pillowcases out of them.  eleven years later, that thought still makes me smile.

this is my baby showing off her new shirt.

except...  though the shirt still fits, it won't apply for very long as she'll soon be both a lil sis AND a big sis.  she doesn't know this yet.

this is my baby who makes me smile and laugh and brings me so much joy every single day.

except...  maybe when she's crying and whining and pouting.

but this is how she looked last month.

this is how my baby looks today.

and it would be perfectly fine with me if she stayed exactly this way forever.

forever my baby.