Well, I might as well just admit it: my baby is growing up, and I’m going to have to quit calling her "The Baby."

I know I always refer to her like that on the blog, but I do it at home, too. She has a nice name and I like it, but I pretty much only call her "The Baby" or refer to her as "The Baby," as in "Where’s The Baby?" or "Can you watch the Baby for a second?" and so on.

Three weeks from today, she’ll turn one. That should have been my first clue. She’s cruising furniture. She’s mastered the staircase (up, anyway). She’s eating table foods.

On Sunday, I put her in her Easter dress for Mass and was chagrinned to see that it’s already too short! The hem covered knees at Easter. It’s well above them now. I know babies can get away with shorter skirts, and it actually helps her crawl a little better now that her knees are free. But it’s still a little too baring for my tastes. Time to hit the consignment shops to look for a replacement. Or I may just haul out my old sewing machine and stitch something up.

All her overalls are too short in the leg now, too. They still fit her in the body part, but the cuffs are clearing her ankles. Good thing it’s getting to be warm. Actually, I should chop off a couple inches and re-hem those overalls so that she has enough shorts to wear the next three or four months. At least they’d be long enough. Silly clothing manufactures make baby girl shorts with a 2" inseam, neglecting the fact that our kids have to ride in carseats with 2.5" straps. It’s really uncomfortable for a child to have a strap pulled tight across bare thighs.

The other thing I have to admit is, she really has weaned herself completely. About two months ago, she cut back to one or two nursing sessions a day, by her own choice. That’s dwindled quite a bit. Three weeks ago, she was only nursing every third day or so. And now it’s been a week and a half since she was even remotely interested.

I had it in my head that she’d nurse a year at least, probably longer, so this hasn’t been entirely easy for me to take. Funny that such a "liberating" thing would be difficult, but it is. On the other hand, when you believe in child-led weaning, which I do, that means you have to follow the child’s lead, and she has given it up. So there you go.

Along with weaning has come sleeping through the night, every night. It was the same with my son – the last nursing session to go was the one in the wee hours, still groggy. I must say, I’m enjoying the uninterrupted sleep, such as it is. I probably will never be able to sleep so soundly I won’t rouse myself to check on the children at least once in the middle of the night.

So. No more baby. At least, I need to mentally get to that point & start referring to my "little girl" and calling her by her name. I need to do a little better about encouraging her to do things on her own. She wants to – most of the time, anyway. I just get in the way, or let her big brother get in the way. I have to get it into my skull that she’s big enough for me to follow her lead and let her try the stuff she wants to try.

Siiiiiiigh. Why is it so much harder than it sounds?

--Sparki