Dear baby girl,

You are growing up fast. Faster than your brother it seems. Everyone warned me that it would happen. That your second one goes faster than the first, and they were spot on. You are now crawling. You are now saying mama, dada, and bubba. You can pick up pieces of food and eat them. You can put yourself to sleep. You can pull yourself up onto almost anything and stand for a long time. 

Where have you gone? My baby, that is. Where is my daughter who was too small for newborn clothes? Where is my daughter that was swallowed by her car seat? Where is my daughter that needed me to hold her bottle? Where is my daughter? My baby? 

You are still here. Just bigger. And more full of life. And energy.

You are my little girl now, not my baby girl. You don't need me to hold your bottle anymore. You don't need me to hold you to go to sleep anymore. Before I know it, you won't be needing (or wanting) me to pick out your clothes anymore.

You are gaining your independence. Slowly but surely you are becoming an individual. A force to be reckoned with. And I can sense a bit of sass coming on...

But you are you. You are all smiles and giggles. You are my sweet girl. My little Presley Mae that will one day become my best friend. One day we will talk every day. One day you will ask me about the day daddy asked me to marry him and how I knew he was the one. One day we will talk about break ups and love. One day you will come crying to me because someone hurt your heart. 

But those days are the days long ahead. For now, I will marvel in the realization that you are mine. All mine. I sometimes have to share you with daddy and bubba. 

But that's okay. They are, after all, the first men in your life. For now.

Until then...