My Darling! My Baby! My Sweetheart and the light of my life! Look at you go!

I want to scream with joy and capitalize every word of love I have for you. You are four -months-old now ("Four and a half, Aunt Mary!" I hear you say, though for words you only have shrill dinosaur squacks), and already you are army crawling! How is this so?

You seem so quick to grow up! First, I get a video of your father holding you in his arms for the first time, and now I see you trying to stand up! What happened? you even astound your doctors, who can't, for the life of them, seem to figure out just how you are capable of all these things that you do. No one in your family would be surprised if you suddenly started speaking, at least by Christmas, and when you do speak, neither will we be surprised if nothing short of a Shakespearean soliloquy comes out of your mouth.

I don't, however, mind the changes, though sometimes it is difficult to watch you grow without me there with you. Yet, it is truly a blessing to watch you grow, and be so happy about it, too! Every video I get you are squealing with unbridled joy at finally being able to do things (at least some things, mind you don't go off trying to drive a car yet) on your own.

And there will be so many other things to see, so many moments of wonder when you see just how many things you can do, from running to jumping to singing and climbing. You will be making things, adding and subtracting, fabricating worlds of your own, and with each step you will feel like a world conquerer will all that you know and will know. The world is yours my girl: Go chase it. Forever more I will stare at you and all of life in wonder, thinking just how amazing it is that we can do anything at all.

And you, my dear, will continue to be wonderful, though you may eventually forget the wonder of all you are. Still, someday a little one like yourself may remind you, whoever they are, and you will love them just as much as I love you. And I will be behind you all the time, watching you go, picking you up when you fall, or teaching you how to over the phone when I can't reach you, leaving you with drops of wisdom that you can use to open new doors, and witness new horizons.

I only hope I will be personally responsible for getting you hooked on books and storytelling. I know your parents will teach you to read, but I want to know I have made at least one other person in the family as book crazy as I (as selfish as that is, I know, I'm sorry love. But, then again, no I'm not, and neither will you be). And, I know just how to begin...

With you in my arms, under the greatest blanket fortress ever known, two queens beginning a world with the chanting of the proverbial phrase, "once upon a time."