99.1

Dear ChellBell,

Today you are 99 months and 1 day old. Thanks to a blogging hiatus, you skipped right over 98 months, and here we are practically at the turn of a century.

Remember when you learned to count? I don't mean from 1 to 10, I mean BIG counting, when forty, fifty, and sixty were involved? Remember when you learned to count all the way to 100? This is how you always said it: "ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine.......One hundred!" You would always drag out that last nine until you were ready to move on to one hundred.

I kind of feel that way about ninety-nine months for you. This has been an amazing month of fun, of growing up, of losing teeth, of hanging out, of character-shaping discussions. And you have weathered it well. And I would like to freeze time here for a bit. To drag out ninety-niiiiiiine just a little longer, until we have to move on to 100. But unfortunately, life doesn't work like that, so I will snapshot the memories in my heart and look with anticipation to what comes next.

It's a lot like those teeth that you're losing. Like that one last front tooth that needs to come out. Do you know why it sticks straight out instead of pointing down like the rest of the teeth? It's because there is a grown up tooth coming in, pushing the baby tooth out of the way. I see the grown up tooth, and there just isn't room for both. And just like your teeth, you're losing a little bit more "baby-ness" every day. My prayer is that as the grown-up-ness starts coming in, it will reflect all the things God made you to be: kind, fair, inclusive, sharing, patient, and beautiful.

You know I love you with my whole heart, and then some. Happy 99 months!

xoxo,

Mama