Baby girl,
Nine months old! And an on time letter! Amazing! I can’t believe that it’s been nine months already. Nine months ago at this time I was laying in an uncomfortable hospital bed watching you sleep in the bassinet beside me. Now you’re sleeping in your playpen and you still look just as angelic to me as you did on that first day. You’re just a lot larger.
I’ve been going through a lot of pictures lately and it’s incredible. I don’t notice day-to-day how much you change, but when I see those pictures from nine months, eight months, seven months ago, you really have matured in astounding ways.
I’ve been really surprised this month with how content you are to just crawl or to walk along furniture. With the hurry that you were in to get mobile, I was so sure that you’d be walking by now. I still think it will be very soon, but you really do seem perfectly okay to just make your way around the room using the couch, your toy baskets, your highchair… you just don’t quite seem ready to let go and take off on your own even though I’m confident that you can do it.
This last month had you taking your very first real vacation and it was, uh, interesting. We traveled to Mexico for Auntie Steph and Uncle Mikey’s wedding. You were so great on the flights, but something made you really sick and you spent most of the week vomiting or filling yucky diapers. We couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on. We thought maybe you’d been affected by the water, then we thought it was the heat, then we thought you might be allergic to something in the environment. We got you home and you were just fine, but it certainly made for a week filled of panic and uncertainty. We debated missing the wedding and coming home early just to get you to a doctor! It didn’t help that the world was in a panic over the swine flu – a new illness that was originating in Mexico. We got through it, though, and we still came out with some mighty cute pictures of you in the tropical climate.
Other than that, things have been strangely quiet with you this month. The last few days you’ve really started to test your boundaries though and let me tell you, you’re driving me batty. You’re trying to pull my books off the shelves (and then you put them in your mouth). You’re pulling DVD’s off the entertainment unit and you’re playing with power cords at every opportunity. Trouble, my dear, trouble is what you’ve been! You’re also trying to see if screaming obscenely loud when something is taken away from you will get that item back. I’ll tell you right now, as I do when I take things away, that no. It won’t work. Keep screaming, darling, I’ll still take no-no things away each and every time.
Food is starting to get fun with you. I’m working on trying to give you a little bit of whatever it is I’m eating just to get you accustomed to some new tastes. Some of the new baby foods that we’ve been trying are ones that leave you completely unimpressed. It’s pretty funny, though. You open your mouth wide for the first few bites and then you seem to realize that it isn’t going to turn into anything better and you cry every time the spoon approaches. Usually, if we try the same food a week or so later, you do just fine with it. The new tastes must just be a little too much for you. You certainly love your snacks, though. Wowsers. You chow down on your puffs and your yogurt bites. You also like to take your “cookies” and shove the entire thing in your mouth so you can barely mash it down. We try and tell you that it’s okay to take it slow, but you just look at us and shove another handful of your current snack into your mouth.
Your dad and I are so in love with you. You constantly make us smile and even when you’re being a pain in the butt, we find ourselves laughing at the faces that you make. Hell, even your screams are cute when they’re for such ridiculous reasons.
I love you so very very much. I can’t even remember what life was like before you and, quite frankly, I don’t want to remember. I wouldn’t want my life any other way if it meant I had to do it without my daughter. I love you.
-Your Mama
