Thankful for Growth

Lately I have been loving my Timehop app.  Each day I can check it to see what tweets and pictures I posted on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  It has been fun seeing what my little princess looked like one year before.

And it's been a little sad.

One year ago today, Millie Janalee was seventeen weeks old.  I was talking about all the cooing, growing, and giggles she had started doing.  She was so tiny!  And I thought she was a roly poly...missing my bitty baby. 

Ummm....HELLO!?  What is this? 

Exactly one year later, Millie Janalee is anything but itty bitty.  And she's certainly not roly poly.  She's doing much more than cooing and giggling.  And she's not drinking 7 ounce bottles.  Nope.  This girl hasn't had a bottle at all in over a week.  And some days I tear up over that.  I have never once been excited about the fact that we are finished with bottles.  In fact, I will not promise that I won't pull one out if needed. 

There are no more coos and baby giggles.  There are giggles...more like cackles.  There are squeals and screams of delight.  There are pitters and patters of little feet running through the apartment.  There is a toddler feeding our decorative reindeer her sippy cup and taking care of her baby dolls before kissing them and saying, "Bye" in the cutest little southern drawl ever.  There's a smart girl reading to herself and turning the pages all on her own.  Last night I paid particular attention to her little fingers and how they manipulated the pages as she turned them.  It was in such a big girl way!  I almost died right there over the cuteness.

This girl may be wearing the same little dress as she did when she was 17 weeks old.  But this year, she is wearing it as a shirt.  She looks just as precious...and double the size!  This little girl is growing up before our very eyes, and I love it! 

I am so thankful that I can look back at old pictures and compare them to her now.  There is no better feeling and no more overwhelming feeling and no more rewarding feeling and no more sadder feeling than to look back at just one year ago...and realize how much she has grown. 

I am so thankful.