Where has the baby gone?

My little baby is not such a little baby anymore - this is probably not news to you. What IS new is just how quickly it's been happening as of late. I swear from one week to the next, there is drastic changes in my child. It's amazing to see, and yet it makes me sad some days too. I look back at pictures of the tubby, wide eyed little thing that was wobbling around the house just a few months ago and I find it hard to associate that baby with the little boy that I now wake up to every morning.  He went from hardly speaking to now saying sentences. Not little two-word sentences, but real ones - like "more cookies please" and "where ball go?....oh, there it is."  He even has started counting. COUNTING. And thanks to a healthy dose of Dora every day...the first time he did it, it was in Spanish for Pete's sake. Just a few short weeks ago, I couldn't get him to even differentiate a number from a letter from a shape from his left foot. Now he can correctly identify a handful of numbers and letters and knows pretty much every shape you put in front of him - says them out loud too ("obal" is his favorite.) He sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I'm pretty sure Dora taught him that one too), constantly brings me things to 'open' and is deadly accurate with his Handy Manny hammer. He can stack a mean block tower, loves to dance and groove, gives plentiful kisses and hugs and will never hesitate to point out your eyes, nose, or any other body parts that catch his attention. He's also (thankfully) gone from a diet of still largely baby foods to a diet that is made up mostly of...well...potato products and ketchup (whatever works, people!) He's still not the best eater nor the best sleeper that ever graced this earth, but he is making huge strides in both departments. A very welcomed change!  He definitely knows what he wants, and how to tell us now...and that includes when he wants (or doesn't want) to go to sleep. One of our newer challenges is just getting him asleep and keeping him there. He'd much rather play....jumping up and down in his crib and demanding "Door - open!!" or "Out!"

Sure, every now and then in a quiet, cuddly moment I see a glimpse of that little baby I used to know, but it's so incredibly fleeting, I can't help but ask myself on an hourly basis...where did my baby go? I guess I didn't expect to lose sight of him so soon.