Lesson #4: They do grow fast!

Ellie just hours after birth on May 29.

Ellie babbling away on Thursday, Oct. 23.

There's a pink box sitting in Ellie's closet that's quickly filling with baby clothes. The mix of pink and purple onesies and sleepers are much too small for my chunky girl now. Her newborn bathtub was packed away last weekend, and another pile of diapers has been outgrown.

I no longer have to nicely remind people "be sure to support her head" when they hold her, and she won't let me sit for hours rocking her in my arms (unless it's bedtime). My baby is growing.

I know she's only (almost) 5 months old, but it's amazing how much and how quickly she has already grown and changed. It was just yesterday that the slightest smile from her was cause for a Facebook post and a phone call to my mom, but now she smiles several times each day.

She's babbling and laughing and holding her head up now, and her size 3-month clothes that it seems she just grew into got packed away last week.

She doesn't have time to hang out in my arms all day, she wants to roll and stretch and try so hard to crawl (it looks more like "swimming" on the blanket right now).

While I know we're only 5 months in, and we've got a lot of growing and changing left, it's hard to believe that we're already here.

I might miss the newborn snuggles, but I also love her new abilities and the personality that appears to have come with them. It seems she learns something new and outgrows something new each day. And as she learns and grows, I am too. When I'm rocking her to sleep at midnight and I just want to go to bed, I try to remember that there will be a day when she won't need me to do this anymore, and I squeeze her a little tighter.

I'm learning to appreciate the moment. And I'm trying to remember that lesson every single day.