Dear Allison Kate,

You are 14 months old now and it just boggles my mind how quickly you have grown. Each time I look at your little girl legs toddling you across the living room, my heart pangs knowing these beautiful moments are quickly passing. Sometimes, I close my eyes and try to burn the images in my brain so I will never forget these times.

Right now, you are in the kitchen, playing with the plastic containers. You are singing the alphabet; or your rendition of it: C, D, C, G, etc. You are so adorably snuggly and cute. I love all your attempts to count and sing.

You have been walking since the beginning of December. You do not crawl anymore and have gained such control of your gross motor skills. You are, without a doubt, mobile now. I love watching you kneel down, pick up your toy, and take off across the living room.

You are always the over-achiever when it comes to teeth. This month your four one-year molars are coming in ALL.AT.ONCE! It has been difficult for you. You have twelve teeth now. Fortunately, you only have eight more to go (on your deciduous teeth). At the rate you are going, they will be in very soon!

This Christmas was a lot of fun for you! You tried to take the ornaments off of the tree, but we only decorated the top 2/3 of the tree. You were only moderately interested in the ornaments. Occasionally, you would develop some interest, but quickly desert the ornaments for something more exciting. You still do not really GET the gift unwrapping, but loved pulling bows and tags off of boxes. You are only moderately interested with your toys. It seems you would rather explore those items you should not play with. Reaching the counter top is simple for you now. You reach and grab whatever you can from the edge.

You have a penchant for unplugging everything from the wall. During the holidays, you unplugged the Christmas lights every opportunity you got. You unplug my laptop at will. You have yet to stick your fingers in the socket yet, but have removed the child safety plugs from the outlet on a few occasions.

We have moved almost everything from your reach to higher elevations. You get into everything and are very tenacious. You have begun to throw little tantrums when you do not get your way. You want things your way and often throw food at us when you are done eating. Although you are a good natured, good baby, you are already asserting your desires.

You are the most loving child I have ever known. You come up and give us hugs all day long. You are so sweet! One of my favorite things you do is when you hug your dolls. The other day, you picked up your doll and patted its back and bottom. It was the most tender moment and made me realize that you are watching everything we do.

You sing the alphabet now; albeit, not always in the correct order, but you are so sharp! You count to three (and sometimes not in order!), you say: kitty, keys, doggy, daddy, mama, mommy, bye bye, hi, hey, me, one, two, three, and many other words (I need to get better at writing them down!).

You are advancing by the second! I love you so very much. You have blessed our lives in every single way possible. You are a silly little girl and love you completely!