Monday, May 04, 2015

Letter to my lucky penny: 9 months

You are a very pensive, observant baby, but you are a very happy baby. Sometimes you talk to me in long strings of babble "ra dada da dada mmmm ga ba da", and then you pause and bust out a huge belly laugh, like you just finished telling me a joke. It is one of my favorite sounds. 

Dear Violet, 

You are nine months old and you are a whirlwind of learning and doing right now. You crawl and and scoot and roll and chomp and giggle and laugh and explore. Your three greatest milestones of late are these: you army crawl everywhere, you have perfected the wave, and you love food.

This latter interest has really taken off in the past month or two. You gum down whole chunks of food and wave your arms and pound your tray expecting more. You lunge at food, mouth agape like a starving animal and you frequently smack your mouth and make contented sounds as you suck and gum your food down. If I am eating ANYTHING in your presence, you expect a bite too, thank you very much. While you love just about anything, your absolute favorite foods include cheerios, pasta, toast, avocado and bananas.  What an enthusiastic little eater you are, my little penguin. I love it!
Sharing (or stealing) your sister's green smoothie.  

Additionally, your army crawling has completely taken off in the past three months. You have not quite mastered the traditional crawl just yet, but you can move and scoot wicked fast exploring all manner of things: towers that your sisters have built for you to knock down, balls you for you to roll and throw, and any piece of dirt or flint that you can find to shove in your mouth.

However, my favorite love is your newfound ability to wave on command and say "bye-bye." You turn your wrist just so and wave to anybody and everyone. The mailman coming to deliver the mail, a friend stopping by for a visit, or people you see walking past us on the street. It's so cute and endearing that most everyone stops and waves back.
Don't worry, your father is ducking behind the fence holding on to you. But, you want to be included in EVERYTHING your big sisters are doing. Including sitting up on the fence. 

To see you now, I have a hard time believing that you are the same baby I brought home from the hospital. You are so active, so playful, so LIVELY and its hard to understand how that helpless little newborn could have possibly grown so much in so little time. It feels like somebody flipped a switch in your brain. Every day you seem to learn something new.

One of the things I love about having a third baby, is that I finally realize just how fast time is going by. It seems like just yesterday I was writing a nine month letter to your older sisters. Your babyhood is so fleeting. So, when we have days where you just want to be held and cuddled and nursed and time seems to stand still, I sit and I memorize the way your brow get furrowed when you sleep, or the weight of your hand when you give me a high-five or your perfect baby smell. I feel so lucky that I get to mother you my sweet little Violet; that I get to teach you and love you and watch you grow.

Happy nine months my love. I look forward to seeing where the next nine take us!
I love you more than all the stars in the sky and all the water in the ocean.

Love,
Momma