Some of you may be wondering what happened to my monthly letters to Livia. Well, I decided that these updates were too personal to be posted on the wonderful world of the internet every month. I started feeling like Livia deserves something to call her own someday, some memento that friends and strangers alike haven’t seen. Posting them on the blog was a nice way to keep myself accountable to writing on a monthly basis, but all good things come to an end right? I’ll continue to post pictures and writings about Punkins, I’m sure. But for now the letters themselves are treasures to hold a little closer to our hearts.

As for the present comings and goings of our beloved 17 month old? As you can see in the picture, she’s a toothy one. She’s now the proud owner of four molars and one canine. I can tell you from personal experience that her teeth are very sharp. Baby Vamp laid one on my neck yesterday, and boy, was I NOT a happy mama. The need for discipline has quickly entered our universe and Jeremy and I are talking about it on a regular basis now… How do we best discipline her when she bites and hits? How long do we leave her on her naughty mat? What if she scoots off of it? When is a spanking called for? And so on. The great thing about the whole need for discipline is that it simply means Livia is becoming more independent. And a natural byproduct of that is her increased interest in movement. Right now she’s cruising the furniture and taking more risks. She also does a mean butt-scootch around the house—a habit our early intervention team sternly looks down upon. I’m not sweating it anymore though. This child is going to walk when she wants to and not a moment before. When the walking finally comes, I’m in big trouble. Right now she can only reach yea high from a seated position, so I can’t imagine what life will be like when her sticky fingers can reach up and over the computer desk and up and into high drawers. Ah, motherhood! As my dad said yesterday, there’s a reason why people become parents when they’re young.