Hey ma watch me grow!

Our little angel turned 21 weeks old today. In the 21 weeks that she has been here she has doubled her weight and added 6 inches in height. Gone is the fragile looking little scrunched up package we brought home from the hospital that I could hold for hours without noticing the weight. In her place is a sturdy infant who always has her hands stretched out towards the world and weighs enough to cause a perpetual back ache for Mom.

I'll be honest I miss the newborn sometimes. I miss holding my cuddly girl who snuggled perfectly into my neck, and would happily spend hours there asleep. Now though I get to hold a wriggly girl who won't sit still on my lap for longer than a few minutes. I miss the quiet time where we could spend an hour just looking at each other. Now, though I get to watch as she spends hours looking at the world around her and reaches out to take an active part in it. I miss the tiny little mews that she would make while she was sleeping. Now I get to hear as she mimics the sounds of the world around her and rewards me with a laugh and a grin or chastises me with a holler or squeal.

For every thing that I look back on fondly there is something new and wonderful to take its place. I would not trade my wriggly little girl who is stretching towards the world to keep my snuggly little girl whose entire world comprised of me. Soon, I will loose that little girl on the world and watch her first toddling steps turn into a run. I will not stay those running feet, no matter how much I will want to hold on to her. I will instead let go and rejoice in the progress that she has made. My job as a parent is to help my daughter to push her limits and by doing so expand her horizons, and I take my job very seriously. Hopefully I will be able to teach her that when she runs into a wall she needs only to find a way over or around the wall and her world will be bigger for it. Every day she has a new and different skill, and with each new skill my little girl changes. Each change leaves something behind. So I watch with delight as she learns new things, even as I sigh every now and then missing what is now memory.