Adventures of Rebekah: It's just a phase

It's just a phase..." 

New moms are magnets for "advice-givers". Solicited and unsolicited. Good and bad. Helpful, and well, less than helpful. I am constantly getting advice and words of wisdom from friend, family and well meaning strangers. Most of the time, I love it! I have some very wise mothers in my life who have years of experience raising children. 

One piece of advice that I hear over and over again is "It's just a phase."

We have been through a lot of phases already in the past 10 months....

Right now we are in the "put everything in your mouth" stage. 

No matter how often I vacuum the floor, her little eyes see every tiny speck of something deposited onto the ground. I can tell when she spots something that she wants to put in her mouth. She starts to crawl very fast in a new direction than she was previously moving. When she arrives at the tiny speck of something, she drops to her belly. Her little chubby fingers stretch out to scoop up her new 'snack' and then close in a tight fist around her prize. That fist will only open once it is inside her mouth. Once said object is in her mouth, if I haven't already swooped in to remove it, she will turn and look at me, smacking her lips as she moves the piece of whatever she has found around in her mouth. And while she can only say a few words verbally, her eyes are very clearly saying "Look at what I found, Mom! I put it in my mouth!" 

Sometimes I swear she picks up nothing and pretends to put it in her mouth and smacks her lips just to get my attention. And after holding her squirmy little body and checking her mouth for the 50th time that day, I just have to remind myself that this is only a phase....

Right?!