Monday Morning Mia--Sunday Night Edition

We're heading out for Thanksgiving tomorrow, but wanted to put up our Monday post before we leave town.
Today is Mia's nine month birthday. She is 39 weeks old, the same amount of time I was pregnant. It is impossible how quickly this time has flown by. We drove by the hospital today on our way to lunch, and the shock of the nine-month mark hit us. Nine months ago we held a newborn baby in our arms, a baby just minutes old. We had no idea what to do, how to act, how to feed her, how to soothe her. In the hospital we just stared at the beauty of her, the tiny fingers, the perfect little mouth. We drove her home from the hospital at fifteen miles below the speed limit, practically with our hazard lights on, in abject fear of all of the things that could happen. The next few weeks after her birth are a blur, but they involved much sleep on her part and not enough on ours.
Eventually, we started to figure things out. She loved to be wrapped up tight in her swaddling blanket and rocked to sleep. Ben would stay up with her watching bad tv when she wouldn't go back to sleep in the middle of the night. We went for long walks once I recovered, just to be out and about. We avoided baths like the plague, as they were guaranteed to make Mia scream.
So much has changed since then. Baths are the best time of the day. There are no more late nights. There is much standing in the crib, pulling up on bookshelves, trying to walk by holding on to a hand or a couch pillow. There is much tickling and laughing and raspberry-blowing. There is even a little hair on her head. And of course, there is guacamole-eating.
Nine months. Who could have imagined.