You are technically 10 months and 3 days at the time of this post, please forgive my tardiness. We have been VERY busy this week with craziness at work and getting ready for our annual crawfish boil. I remember this time last year, I was pregnant at this annual tradition. Now I will be holding you in my arms, enjoying your hugs and kisses (since you will only hug and kiss mommy), and jumping with you in the bouncy house. You and I both have come so far in the past 10 months. You will be spending the night away from mommy and daddy for the first time tomorrow night. Grammy and Grandpa are going to keep you so that mommy and daddy can enjoy the party...and sleep in.
You are continuing to grow more and more each day. You lost a pretty decent amount of weight during your illnesses last month, but I weighed you tonight and you weigh 16 lbs and 6 ozs. You continue to be a great eater and can now even feed yourself. I typically have to wrestle the spoon out of your hand when I am feeding you and you love to shove as many puffs as humanly possible in your mouth. We have started to introduce stage 3 baby foods and you are doing good. You still aren't totally sold on the texture, but you NEVER turn away food. It won't be long until we have you on table food.
You are working as hard as you can on crawling, but you still aren't there yet. You have gotten so good at shifting your weight while sitting and for not crawling you can get around really well. You now have 6 teeth, four of which you cut in one week. YIKES! You have three on the bottom and three on the top. It definitely hurts now when you want to chew on our fingers. You love playing with your toys and have discovered your box of blocks. You love to dump them all out and then bang them together. When you play, you actually prefer to dump out all your toys and throw them all over the place. I think you got that from your mommy. We have started to stack blocks and you love to knock them down. You also have finally started to make consonant sounds. I had just told your social worker at your 6 month review that you still were not making babbling noises that involved consontant sounds. Well, of course you had to go and prove me wrong and last Saturday we were in the car on the way to a party and next thing we know you are ba ba ba-ing away in the back seat.
Speaking of your six month review, I was looking back at all your goals that we set at the beginning of this journey and it is amazing how far you have come. We were asking for such simple things, like bringing your hands to midline, getting you to reach and hold objects,getting you to respond to familiar voices. Things that at the time seemed like insurmountable tasks, but now are easily mastered skills. The last goal was that you would respond to your mom and dad and show us that you knew who were were and were attached to us. It is sometimes hard to think back to those days. Days when you wouldn't look at us, wouldn't turn to the sound of our voice, didn't want to interact with anyone. Those were difficult and painful days for sure, but they have allowed us to have such a beautiful appreciation of where you are today. I will NEVER take any milestone, no matter how small, for granted. Each one is a miracle given to us and I cherish every one of them.
You have really been doing well at daycare and I think you like being around the other kids. Unfortunately, you were sick again and we had to have you on breathing treatments. Daddy and I have decided that it would just be safer and easier for everyone to get you a nanny. So, i have begun the process of finding you a nanny and will be interviewing candidates this weekend. It will be sad not to have you around friends as much, but it will just be so much better for your little lungs. They just are not ready for daycare yet.
You have gotten to be a much better napper (thank God!). You will usually take a 45 minute-one hour nap in the morning and an hour and a half+ nap in the afternoon. Some days are still a struggle, but it is so much better. You usually go to bed in between 6:30 and 7 each night. You still will wake up sometimes in the middle of the night and you still think 5am is an acceptable wake-up time. Luckily we can usually get you back to sleep either in your bed or in the swing during your early morning rooster calls. It allows mommy and daddy to sneak another few minutes of sleep. You are still loving your pre-bed bath and we finally had to move you out of your baby tub. I think you were the only nine and a half month old still easily fitting in your baby tub. You figured out how to climb out of it, so we realized it was time. You now have a blow-up rubber ducky tub that you LOVE!
You are growing up so fast and your daddy and I are so proud of you. I don't know if I will ever be able to adequately describe how much I love you and how much you have changed my life for the better. There are somethings in life that are so profound that even the English language can not adequately capture them. Your smile lights up my life and your sweet laughter is the best music there is. Your daddy and I love you more than life itself.
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
