Ryder's First Newsletter

Dear Ryder,

You are turning 1 in just a few days and I am baffled with how quickly this year has gone by! You are a blessing beyond words. I often describe you as my "joy baby" because you light up my entire existence (and others as well). You balance out our family with your sweet spirit and grinning face. I am so in love with you and am so thankful you came to me when you did. You keep me sane. I will have a hard time ever letting you go, just so you know. It's true that once you have more than one child you don't get as many pictures or documentation of their life as you would like so I hope I can remember some of the milestones now to record them for forever. Maybe we should go backwards since what you have done this week is easiest to think of.

We have been vacationing in California and have visited the beach as much as possible (your daddy is a beach bum who would live in the water if he could) where each time you also eat as much sand as possible and it shows in your diapers. You speed crawl everywhere and have been doing this since a little bit after you turned 9 months. You love holding our hands to walk and you cruise along anything you can. I can tell you are very anxious to learn to keep up with your big brother.
You and Cohen love to wrestle already and you both giggle and laugh as you roll around on the floor together! (Your big brother is toughening you up!) I love that you and Cohen have grown to love spending time with each other as you play. Sharing is an issue for Cohen, but I see light at the end of the tunnel.

You have just two bottom teeth that came in about 10 months and two top teeth that have been threatening to come in for weeks! You are growing out of liking any baby food so hopefully you will get more teeth soon to help you chew all the big boy food you want! You completely weaned yourself from nursing before 11 months so you are now happy to take a warm bottle. I felt sad at first, it was bitter-sweet, but am enjoying a little more freedom now to have time to myself occasionally and sometimes even a date night for your daddy and I! About that same time your separation anxiety kicked in, in high gear! You follow me around the house and cry at my feet or throw your body at me if you are not in my arms. Sometimes I feel quite claustrophobic, where in I remind myself that the bond between you and I right now where you still depend on me for all your physical and emotional needs is priceless and beyond rewarding!

You are a blankie baby and LOVE holding a silky blanket and sucking your right two index and middle fingers anytime you need comfort or are falling asleep. (It makes my heart melt!) You have slept well most of the time and started sleeping 10-12 hours a night after 4 months. We have had patches where you would wake up once or twice a night but most of the time I would just feed you and you would go back to sleep. You take two naps for an hour or two still. In the morning Cohen loves climbing into your crib first thing to play with you.
You had your first hair cut at 10 months. You had a baby mullet that had to go and while I was holding you and daddy was using the clippers, Cohen grabbed the camera and took a picture of you all by himself! Some of my favorite pictures of you Cohen has taken.
Your first words have been Mama, Daddy, Ba Ba, Uhu-uhu (no) and just today you said Tracy (Aunt Tracy)! Your favorite word is Uh-oh! and you use it all the time with so much expression it's funny! You babble a lot and laugh and make funny fish faces and blow bubbles. You seem to love animals and have been having so much fun with our doggies. You love petting them and sticking out your finger for them to lick. You love bath-time and will hang out next to the tub to let me know you want to get in. You loved going swimming this summer and even fell alseep in my arms in the water once. You really love being outside and get frustrated when the door opens and you can't crawl straight out to play. You love exploring and will dig up lots of things you should not put in your mouth! You have gagged and choked on so many things that it is almost an everyday occurrence even though I scour the floors for any and all small objects where ever we go before putting you down!

You started smiling early on at about 6 weeks, but even before then when you were not even a few pounds wiggling around in my tummy I could feel your joyful spirit. I can't explain it, but I know your sweet disposition and love for life is something you were just created with.
I am so excited you see you each and everyday. I miss you while you sleep and squeeze, smell and kiss you as much as I can while you are awake.
Happy First Birthday my "Joy Baby"! Your Daddy, your brother and I all love and adore you so much and we celebrate your life and that you are a very special and important part of our family.

XOXO,
Mommy

19, 20 and 21 months old!

Dear Cohen,
There are some huge things coming up in the near future so I thought I should let you in on what is happening with out family right now! In your last newsletter I mentioned us possibly moving to California permanently, but instead we are now moving to Boston temporally! We move this next month and will be celebrating your second birthday there! It will be a very exciting adventure for our family and we are looking forward to experiencing new things with you!
In even bigger news than moving across the country, once we return from Boston we will be adding another member to the family! That's right, you're going to be a big brother! Our new baby is coming this September!
I am so excited to experience the craziness, miracle and joy of being a parent again. I can't explain how rewarding and exciting it has been watching you grow into a little boy! You have a wonderful and fun personality that is showing more and more all the time.
You love to run through the house, laughing all the way especially when you have shoes on which brings me to your first love...
You love shoes, I would actually go as far as calling a SHOE OBSESSION! You wear anyone and everyone's shoes from my black high heels with bows on them, grandma's shoes, crocks, church shoes, and slippers, to your daddy's cowboy boots from when he was little. One afternoon I was trying to put you down for a nap and as I changed your diaper I removed your boots and you had a huge Cohen sized fit! So, once I got your pants back on, they boots immediately followed. You fell asleep with them on and I had to take pictures!You love our dogs, but seem annoyed with their existence at the same time. You don't only play in their water when you get a chance, you will actually eat their dog food and any dog treats you can get your hands on! YUCK! Needless to say, I moved the food and water outside. You love to get a dog toy or anything that they may be interested in and run through the house holding it tight while they chase after you trying to retrieve it. I think I have heard you laugh out loud more at the dogs than anything else!You love music and art, especially water coloring. You loath getting your diaper changed and getting dressed still. I have even tried making it a positive thing with special stickers or treats, but you still act like it is complete torture almost each and every time! You love bubble baths, but also hate the part that comes after, getting dressed. You try to escape and streak through the house. You run to the front door like you may be able to book it to Grandma's and a couple times as I tried to give you some personal nude time you peed all over the side of our couch!
A few months ago you were already doing really well with saying lots of new words and I can tell you are a very smart boy, but you have decided that talking is overrated and that screaming is more efficient. I try to encourage you to use words, especially ones I have already heard you say (25+ words) especially since I know you can, but most of the time you just stick with Dad, Meme and baby (which is your newest!). You do love doing sign language and get excited when we learn something new so I am going to try to encourage that more as well. You seem to get frantically frustrated extremely quickly, I know it will help once we can communicate better.You have grown a strong love for movies (fortunately and unfortunately) throughout this long winter of staying indoors. Your current favorite is The Incredibles. Your first favorite was Nemo, then Monsters Inc., Ice Age, Madagascar (which I hope to never see again because we have watched it so many times, but I was sick with morning sickness a lot so maybe that is why I don't like the thought of it) and you are starting to like the Disney Classics like Peter Pan. You will sit in front of our movie cabinet and pull movies out and look at each case and open them and read the inserts like its a book. When you get your heart set on watching a specific movie, it is hard to detour you. But there is one thing that you love more than shoes, movies and water coloring! Being outside! You would spend every moment playing in the dirt if possible. Another thing you love when you are outside is spending time inside the car. You climb all over, pushing buttons and looking at yourself in the mirror, opening and closing the DVD player, peeking out the sunroof, etc. It is pretty hard to lure you from the magnificence of our Honda.You go to bed pretty late now, around 10 pm. But you don't wake up before the sun, so I am happy! You sleep until 7:30 or 8 and take about a 3 hour long nap (which you are napping right now and almost to the 3 hour mark)! Your naps are great, so I am not going to complain, but I do need more sleep right now and since I have been even more sick in the evenings and at night it has been hard for me to sleep so 8 am still seems early when I haven't slept much. Sometimes you will get up with your Daddy and hang out while he gets ready for work and I sleep a little more. A few times I have woken up to your sweet baby hand on my face where you would stroke my cheek then head out of the room, closing the door behind you! The thought of every little moment I get to share with you like this fills me with emotion of how wonderful it is to have you in my life.It makes me think of all the nights where I have put you down to bed and after reading books and saying a prayer, we cuddle and I hold you and hug you and squeeze your sweet baby thighs. I don't ever want to let go because before I know it, you will be too big to hold like that and the thought of giving me kisses on the lips, or kisses at all, will gross you out. You will press your baby nose against mine and wrap your arms around my head and mush our faces together and I think about how I love nothing more than these moments. Nothing can bring me pure happiness the way you can...

I Love You,
Mama

15, 16, 17 and 18 months old!!!!

Dear Cohen,
Yesterday you turned a year and a half! I was reflecting on how 18 months ago you came into our lives bringing with you the greatest journey we will experience. We have had some really hard days throughout the last four months, but definitely some of the best in my 25 years and 5 years of marriage to your daddy!You are now officially a little boy! You run and pretend and have your own ideas of how life should go. You are so curious and are constantly exploring and learning new things, getting hurt and getting into mischief! You leave no door unopened and no breakable object untouched. You empty every drawer that crosses your path. You push the limits and test your parents patients! You have the cutest cheesy grin and your little voice just makes us melt! You have said so many words (probably more than 20) and are so smart! One of my favorites are when you tell the dogs to "stay" and you put your hand up too. I love when you sign more, please, thank you and all done.Being the only child, you have trained us well and we are trying to get some of our own control back! Have I mentioned before about how you scream, A LOT? There have been some days when I thought my head would seriously explode! Since I have learned some new, more productive ways to communicate with you and found some ways to keep you busy, there has been less screaming. I still feel like I could improve on parenting because I want to do my very best in raising you, it is something I work on everyday and some days are easier than others.
You are also an awesome sleeper now, which is a great gift to your mommy! You sleep about 10 hours through the night and take a couple hour nap! It is truly wonderful. Thank you!
You do so many funny things, like how you talk on the phone. You giggle and jabber and give a fake courtesy laugh here and there.I am having so much fun staying home with you everyday! We play games and read and watch your favorite movies (Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Ice Age). We eat snacks and run around after the dogs. We laugh and cry and hug and kiss!
We have done so many fun things in the past four months since I wrote your last newsletter. We have gone boating and on walks up the canyon, we took your trick-or-treating for the first time and to the zoo as well! We went to the Ranch, to California, to the beach and to Disneyland! You loved the beach and the sand, but not so much the crashing waves! You loved Disneyland and were so brave on some of the rides I thought would have scared you. You stayed with your Grandmommy for a night, this marking the first time you were away from us and you did great! You have played with all of your Grandparents and all your cousins and even your Great Grandpa Haile.
You have decided that you like the taste of food, but you don't like swallowing it so it has been a challenge to get you to eat enough each day. You try and give as much as you can to the dogs, which they love, but I don't! We finally got you regular after trying Mira lax for a couple weeks and we are so happy that isn't a struggle for you anymore! You have four teeth on top and about six on the bottom, your molars have just been coming in. You have been learning where all of your body parts are and you already know your hair, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, ears, head, teeth, bellybutton, fingers, hands, knees and toes!
We are so excited about Christmas this year with you! It is going to be so much fun to see how you light up when you find the gifts Santa has brought you! Having you has brought the magic back into the holidays.
In your last newsletter, I told you about our fourth miscarriage and unfortunately we had another one since then. We lost our fifth angel in November. That baby was due two days after your second birthday. We have been so sad and have gone on to do some further testing and blood work and hope this last miscarriage truly will be the last.
My dad's move back to Colorado looks like it will be a good thing for him and his on going recovery against alcoholism and drug addiction. We won't see him as much now, but he is in a healthier place, so I am happy for him. Your uncle Dustin is actually doing really well! We are so proud of him, he has almost finished his rehab in California and is a completely different person now that he is clean. He has been here visiting for the holidays and we have had so much fun spending time with him and he just adores you! You said his name the other day and he loved it!
We are excited for the new year and what it may hold for our family. Some big changes are probably coming up which could move us to California. We are in limbo on things right now, but it could be a possitive move, especially for your daddy. We will see, we would be sad to leave the house we brought you home in, but as long as we are together, that is where home is. Your Grandmommy would have a really hard time letting us go (and I have a hard time thinking of leaving her), but is supportive of whatever path we take. Other than that it could be another exciting adventure of our family! We will see what this new year will bring...

I love you my sweet boy!
Love,
Meme (that is what you have been calling me, sometimes Mama as well. :))

12, 13 and 14 Months Old!

Dear Cohen,

The entire summer has basically already passed us by! I went back and read your 11 month blog and I can't believe how much has happened and how much has changed since then!I weaned you around your first birthday which has been good in a lot of ways, but I really miss that closeness and comfort it gave the both of us. I think it was hard because it was the last physical bond we had before you were completely your own person. It symbolized the transition for me from being my baby to becoming my little boy! It went really smoothly though and you didn't seem to put up too much of a fight although I know you preferred not to end it. (Sorry if this thought grosses you out later!) You had your first hair cut about then and you also had all four of your top teeth coming in at once!
Your first birthday party was a huge bug themed bash where you had tons of fun with your Grandmommy and Papaps while your Daddy and I were busy cooking and entertaining for all 50 friends and family that came to celebrate your life with us! You seemed to have a lot of fun and you loved eating your cake and being sung to!Shortly after your 1st birthday your Daddy and I found out we were pregnant again. We were really excited, but after a few short weeks of happiness we lost the baby. A flood of emotions came back to me of the hopelessness that I felt before you came, the memory of the hole that ached deeply in my heart before you filled it with warmth and joy. This miscarriage was different than the three before you because I knew first hand of what could have been, but your laughter filled my thoughts and your smile lifted the tears and I was able to find peace in the unknown through spending my time counting my many blessings and thinking about what an incredible miracle you are! I feel so much gratitude to our Heavenly Father for sending you to us when he did. I was at a breaking point and you have brought everything I was looking for with you and more! I have learned so much about myself while raising you. I feel like I have so much to work on to become the mother, friend and example that I want to be for you, but you make me want to try harder each and everyday. I am thankful to be able to be here for you full time and to be able to spend more one on one time with you because I feel like you have so much to teach me (and others) and I can't wait to learn!Just after you turned 13 months you took your first little baby steps! You have been very cautious and are just now walking across an entire room, but your walking baby! We call you Little Frankenstein because you put both your arms straight out infront of you for balance. It is so cute and you are so proud of yourself!
You also have started talking!!! You have said more words than I can remember! Your first words were dog, tickle-tickle and ball. You called EVERYTHING Dad for months and would babble in long stretches using your own language made up of "Dat! Dadadada Dadoo!" Then came bubble, duck, fish and tooth brush. Some words have been extremely clear and others I made out in baby talk. I can tell you are a very smart boy and you love to answer our questions with yes or no nods and the corresponding word. You know some sign language and I am trying to teach you others. You sign "all done", "milk", "please", "thank you" and "more" which is a nice change from the screams trying to communicate.You're a screamer! It is just a fact of life... at least our life. Your angry, you scream. Your happy, you scream. You fall, you scream and cry huge alligator tears. You poop, you scream. While you eat, you scream. (With the exception of when you are in a new situation and you are really reserved which is amusing and quite a nice change.) You definitely have a lot of emotion to express! Your Daddy mentioned the other day, after listening to you protest in the car for what seemed like an eternity, about how he wonders what you will do in your life because you sure do have a lot to say!I am surprised about how much you love to follow me around and pull on my leg. You find almost anything I am doing a complete waste of time (especially cleaning, cooking and showering) and demand that I get down on your level and play. You love to read books and you love your little people village that makes noises when you ring the door bell or turn on the TV. Most of all you love being outside!Just this last month you have gained a great love for the park! We walk there and back in the morning a couple times a week and while we are there you love to look for airplanes and helicopters in the sky! As soon as you hear their sound you are looking upward pointing and searching. You love to swing and go through the tube and go down the slides! It has been so much fun taking you there all summer.You are a great eater now and we have finally got you regular! You use to have a really hard time going potty (for months actually) and it was horrible for the both of us, but your little body seemed to have figured it out better. You love fruits and veggies of all kinds and you drink your sippy constantly, but you still aren't too interested in meats (including chicken) and juices.

12 months

14 monthsYou love your Daddy and you get SO excited when you spend time together. He loves making you giggle and teaching you new things. He tells me all of the time how much he loves you and how grateful he is that we have you. Almost every night while you sleep he talks about the little things he loves about you and how he misses you. You are a very lucky little boy to have such a great Daddy! I don't think I could have picked a better man to be your father, role model and friend!

You love to give hugs and kisses and you pucker up your sweet little lippys and make an "ooh" sound when you want to give us a kiss. A couple of times you have given me a kiss while your Daddy was gone and then you leaned toward the door with puckered lips waiting for your Daddy to come to kiss you too!You are sleeping pretty well going down around 9pm and waking around 7 am. Depending on how early you wake up you then take one or two naps. Your nap(s) lately has been only about an hour on average which just isn't long enough, but we make it work...

You have been having fun with all your cousins! We recently went to Kya's 2nd birthday party and they put a princess tiara on your head and you seemed to think it was really fun to wear! It's hard not to get confused when you are hanging around four girls all the time! I try to get you around Kaden and Cameron as much as I can so they can show you their firetrucks and karate kicks! But I don't think there is anything wrong with liking baby dolls and pink tiaras, everything in moderation. :)
Besides the miscarriages we have endured I feel very grateful that we have all been fortunate to have great physical, mental and emotional health. Several people in our family have struggled with addictions and depression like I have told you about in earlier letters. I have had a really hard time these last couple months (and years for that matter) with my dad specifically because along with being a recovering alcoholic he has had drug addictions that have substituted for the alcohol. These are heavy subjects to talk about to my now 14 month old baby, but I know one day you will read these and it may be around the time you are faced with decisions that could be life changing. Like I said before, I want these letters to mean something and to say even more than an update on your important milestones. Your grandpa hasn't really been an active part of your life because of parts of his life that have taken over everything else that should be most important. It has made me so sad that he hasn't gotten to know your sweet personality and to see you go from a infant that learned to roll over and crawl to a toddler that is taking off into the world on his own two feet. I hope and pray his illness doesn't prevent him from one day spending time with you and even having a great relationship with you. I want you to have wonderful memories of what an incredible man he is when the disease isn't overpowering him.
He just moved back to Colorado to live with his parents, your great-grandparents, because he no longer has a job, no longer has a home and no longer is healthy enough to be on his own.

I think longingly of a world where drugs and alcohol, among other things, can't tear families apart and wear people down to the core of their sole until there is nothing left but the fix they seek.
It is so scary to bring a perfect and innocent newborn into this world where there is so much pain and sorrow, but there is also so much joy beyond anything imaginable until you experience it. When I look into your deep ocean blue eyes I can't help but to think of the future and what it may hold for you. I hope your life is lived to its fullest and you can experience each and everyday with passion and excitement. I hope your Daddy and I can be everything to you that you need and want. I hope for a much better world than what is being created because you definitely deserve the sun, the moon and the stars.

Love,
Mama

11 Months Old!

Dear Cohen,
Hey big boy! Today you turned 11 months old! You are now a mover and a shaker! No more "Cohen Shuffle," you crawl on all fours now! We had to do some major baby proofing and gate you in where it is safe! You are getting around a lot quicker and are getting better at entertaining yourself and exploring. (Yeah!) It is so fun seeing you maneuver your little body from room to room. You think the baby gates are toys just for you and you pull yourself up to stand and hang on them and you have even stuck your little toes in the holes and tried to climb it! You have gotten your entire body off the ground a couple times. You have been really busy exploring and having fun! You and your daddy have been building forts, laughing and playing together all month long! You have finally decided that dad is just as good as mom and love when daddy comes home from work and is here to play with us! You give him big hugs a lot and slobbery open mouthed kisses, which he just loves! The doggy door offers plenty of amusement, but even better are the dog food and water bowls! You get pretty upset when I grab you just before you put a huge handful of food in your mouth. You have dumped over the water bowls soaking you and the entire kitchen floor a couple times. When you get a cold wet rush like that you scream for help. I am teaching you to stay away from them now that you are understanding the word NO a little better and you hesitate before going over. Most of the time we just have the kitchen gated off so the temptation isn't there!You can now walk all the way across the front room while pushing your walking toy all on your own! Good job!
You love visiting your cousins Mia, Zoe and Kya who live down the street! They keep you very entertained and you love watching all three of them bounce from room to room. You decided you are too busy to take two naps anymore and now take one 2-3 hour nap, if I am lucky. You go to bed between 7 and 8 pm and don't wake up at night anymore which is wonderful, but you wake up between 5:45 and 6 am EVERY SINGLE MORNING! I have tried putting you to bed later to see if you would wake up later, but I still hear the same "Da, da, da..." noises from your room promptly when the birds rise and just before the sun! You soon demand breakfast or I would leave you in there to play. Oh well, we are making improvements in the sleeping area. Soon we will be throwing a huge kink in our routine by weaning you from nursing... that will shake things up a bit I am sure!
Your Great-Grandma Tibbetts came up for a weekend to play with us! We had so much fun shopping and spending time with her and she just loved all the personality you shared with her! Grandpa Green also came from California to help your daddy with a couple things and you loved playing with him! You thought he was great fun! We went swimming for the first time and you didn't really know what to think of it. There were other kids splashing and you thought that was quite rude! We only stayed in the pool for about ten minutes. We will try swimming again soon and see if we have a better reaction!
You figured out how to spit food out that you don't want, so it is all down hill from here now! The food you do like you make the "Mmmm!" sound while you eat. I think it is so cute! You want to help feed yourself and you love finger foods. You also like to hold your own spoon and you love when we have a "sword fight" with the silverware! Your Grandmommy said she thinks you should eat more mashed food and I told her you like to be able to do it yourself. This seemed to bother her and when I got to the bottom of it, I realized it's because she doesn't want you to grow up so fast! So slow down for your Grandmommy's sake!When you hear music you move your little body to the beat and bob your head. I love to watch you when you get excited! You squeal with joy when we get down on our hands and knees and chase you!
This has been such a great month! We have so much fun watching you each and everyday. You are a joy to be around and your laughter brings us so much happiness! It just keeps getting better!
Love, Mama

10 Months Old!

Dear Cohen,

The picture above wouldn't give you any clue in this, but this has been the month of screams (with good reason because of the following), constipation, diarrhea and one day of vomiting. What a great way to start your 10 month newsletter, huh? At times your daddy and I have joked about how you may be our only child because you are more than enough of a handful for us. And then we go and add another family member! We adopted another dog, who we named Lilly from the animal shelter this month. To my relief, she has been great around you. I was a little worried since she is still a puppy, but besides potty training and her barking problem, adding her to our family has gone well. Before Lilly and before the diarrhea and throwing up you became a world class sleeper! For almost two straight weeks you slept 10-11 hours straight through the night! I was in heaven and besides the constipation (stemming from your love of cheese, I think, which I had to completely remove from your diet for now... sorry) we were really having a great time! And then you got sick and since then you are waking up once a night again. I have to feed you and rock you for almost an hour every time too! What is this all about? I know you know how to sleep, you gave yourself away already and now I want it back! Most days start before 7 am now too. Yippy...
True, this month has been hard which all the other months have been too in their own way and generally I try to just look at all of the positive things I want to remember and to share with you. But, I also don't want you to have a false perception of what it was like to raise you, my beautiful boy! I feel like Heavenly Father prepared me for you with the years of trying to conceive and the three miscarriages we had. We had to learn patience and we had to learn how to support and comfort each other in times of emotional breakdown and extreme depression. When I look back on those three years of trial before you were born I think about how much we grew and now I look at how much we continue to grow through being your parents. I am constantly seeing things in myself that I want to better so I can be the role model, mother and friend that you need. I think we learn the most when we feel the most weak because we are humbled and have to turn to others and our Father in Heaven for help.You finally met your uncle Dustin for the first time! He was really cute with you and he gave a nickname to the way you get around. He called it The Cohen SHUFFLE. You get part way into the crawling stance and then keep one leg tucked and scoot all over the place. Of course, when you are on carpet it takes you a little longer because you don't slide as well. Your uncle had so much fun with you and he thought you were just adorable! Luckily he is now getting serious help for his drug addictions and will be in California at a rehab for the next year. We plan on visiting him sometime this summer if we dare make the drive out, lets just say driving isn't your favorite thing. (You can barely make it to Salt Lake and back!) I want him to be a positive example for you, he is such an amazing person and he has so much potential that hasn't been used, like other people in our family that have been consumed by addictions. I hope this is the start of his new life! I have learned a lot from the choices he has made, so in some ways I am thankful to him because I have learned what I don't want in my life without having to live it first hand. There is never a dull moment in being your parent. I am truly grateful for you each and everyday. I remember life before you came to us and now I can't imagine it without you and your sweet baby kisses. You are loved!!!

Love, Mama

9 Months Old!

Dear Cohen,

I think the months keep passing quicker than the last! You are now nine months old and as sweet and chubby as ever! Well, maybe not quite as chubby... you are now in the 68th percentile (instead of 85th) for weight at 21.5 pounds and in the 77th percentile (instead of 93rd) for length at 29 inches. Your head circumference is 17.9 inches which is in the 58th percentile, a good size for your body. Not top heavy! :)

Everyday you make me laugh with all of your many random quirks. You started learning how to feed yourself and have really fallen in love with Cheerios! Instead of picking up each Cheerio with your fingers you would lean forward and place your mouth on the tray and try to lick up the Cheerio! Maybe Izzy is rubbing off on you too much, but I thought you were being very resourceful. You also love seeing your reflection in a window or a mirror and you smile, blow bubbles, kiss and laugh at yourself. I think you recognize yourself in pictures now and you seem to be impressed with how adorable you are. You love to read books and your favorite foods right now are green beans, cheese and yogurt (that I sneak baby cereal into since you never have taken to it.) I love when you give me kisses by opening your mouth wide and rubbing your mouth back and forth on my cheek or chin while saying, "Aaahh!" You just started doing my most favorite thing! The other morning I was up with you early and I was cradling you in my arms and you started mumbling "Mom, Mamam..." It was the best feeling and sweetest thing I have ever heard, thank you...
Unfortunately, this week you had a mild fever that lasted a few days. We both have been really fortunate with you not getting a cold until this point. It was so sad to see you with aches and pains, you didn't want me to ever put you down and you were restless and whinny for days.
The only other times you haven't felt well was a few months where you had a hard time with your tummy and would randomly throw up everything you had just eaten. I just had to go slow with the solid foods to allow your stomach to figure out how to function properly, but you seem to be doing really well now!
I have really been trying to encourage you to crawl and so far you have started pulling yourself along the floor with you hands, but that is only if you absolutely have to. Generally, when you are on your tummy you lay your face on the floor in between your hands and cry which, I don't mean to sound mean, but it is really cute and it always makes me laugh. Most of the time you are just content with sitting up and reaching as far as possible in every direction for toys or you just sit there and wiggle your legs, feet and hands which many people find funny to watch. You love to stand and hold our hands and put one chubby little baby foot in front of another. We walk from room to room throughout our house and you get a little more balanced as we practice! I was really excited when you were sitting in your crib and started to pull yourself up to stand on the bar. You get a little frustrated with trying to decide what to do with your one bent leg, but you seem to be very proud of yourself and you think it is great fun.
Sometimes you chatter and babble and it truly sounds like some alien language that I just don't understand. I can tell that you will be very entertaining once you can speak "our" language. You love to brush your teeth, (or should I say chew on your toothbrush and then throw it on the ground). You are a really cuddly baby and just melt into me when I carry you around. You are experimenting with cause and effect and you love to drop things on the floor now. You seem to know when it will make a loud "clunk" and before it even hits the ground you flinch and squint your eyes! You love your pal Izzy and you are starting to love pulling at her hair. She is a pretty good sport and will just get back at you by stealing one of your toys and running off with it to the backyard. You now find diaper changes and getting dressed a complete waist of your time and show how much you disapprove by complaining loudly and stiffening your limbs every time even though I try and distract you with toys. You also love to point at things, which I find adorable, and you love when I point with you and touch our index fingers together. There are so many little things you do that I love, I could go on for a long time!
This morning I was cleaning the kitchen while you were taking a morning nap and I was looking around our house thinking about how I love that our home is filled with all of your baby stuff! A jumper, walker, high chair, a sippy cup and scattered Cheerios that you had thrown on the floor during breakfast, a box overflowing with toys, books galore, stuffed animals, an activity arch, baby blankets and a burp cloth! And that is just in the front room and kitchen! Our life is so full of the joy that being your mommy and daddy brings.
Happy 9th month to us!

Love,
Mama