A Letter to Rowan, 9 Months.

 Dear Rowan,

You’re NINE months! You’ve almost officially been on Earth longer than you were in my tummy and that makes me feel all the feelings.

You celebrated your first 4th of July and you saw fireworks for the first time. Your face lit up and your little noise protector headphones made you look like a tiny DJ. We had a block party and, man, you love watching big kids. When you are more mobile I know you'll be tearing it up with all your friends in the neighborhood (including your future BFF who is due September 23rd, Mommy's BFF is having a baby boy!).

You went on your very first vacation! We went to Tennessee and Florida and you were a freaking rock star. You are truly a kid who works best when we don’t impose a strict schedule, your vacation days were filled with adventures and really good naps and seeing lots of new things and sleeping really well at nighth. You saw the ocean for very first time and it was crazy magical. You flapped your hands and smiled your big smile when we got to the beach….then you got splashed with some salty water and you were very over it. You also went in a swimming pool for the first time and you are quite the little fish. When we got home we kept waiting for you to realize that vacation was over and you were back to your boring, old routine and pitch a fit but you didn’t. You take to change pretty well in that way.

You’re still partially co-sleeping. It works best for you and for me though I am slowly transitioning you to your crib for longer naps and bigger chunks of time at night. I laugh when I think about how I was so adamant that at six months you’d be in your own room full time. You still nurse quite a bit at night (you're usually up at least twice between 9:30pm and 7am) and you are the world’s lightest sleeper (we started having to take Violet's collar off at bedtime because she kept waking you up with all her jingling and jangling), but I have no doubt you’ll be hanging in your crib by yourself before month’s end.

It’s crazy to me to think about how different you’ll be by the end of the month because I feel like you’ve completely changed in the last few weeks. You are CRAWLING! You’re an army crawler so you look a bit like a tiny zombie but, boy, you are on the move. You sit up on your own and love to hang out on the fluffy rug in the front room surrounded by toys and Violet. Daddy and I have started doing more activities with you like finger painting and little puzzles. You are in this really cool, exploratory stage where you like to feel and see and listen to everything. You love to run your hands over the wooly sheep in your Feel & Read farm animal book and you turn every object over and over in your little hands. You are a big Sesame Street fan and your face lights up when you hear Mickey Mouse's voice. You and I listen to lots of music and your favorites seem to be Murder By Death (much to Daddy's pleasant surprise) and Elvis. Daddy and I bought this little indie band's (Saintseneca) album at a concert a couple months ago and you smile when you hear the clap-clap-clap of the first track fill up the kitchen.

You are still toothless but you are trying new foods—both pureed and just cut up—all over the place. You love Cheerios and start every morning in your high chair feeding yourself bits of bananas and Cheerios while Daddy and I start our day. This time last year you were in my belly and now I'm handing you little plates with dinosaurs on them so you can feed yourself sweet potatoes. Time flies.

Sometimes I look at you and just realize how big you are now, what a personality you have. You are just a sweet kid, you love to snuggle and you have the best laugh. But you seem to feel things to the core of your being--when you are happy, everyone knows it and when you are unhappy...woof...everyone knows that too. You are the master of the hold-your-breath screamfest and sometimes all you want is your Momma. That's okay because sometimes all I want is you, too. 

A few days before you were born I downloaded this app to track all your diaper changes and feedings. I was crazy about it (ask any babysitter, who had to write time what time you were changed and what was in the diaper or what time you ate and how many ounces and how long it took). When you transitioned to eat more solids, I kept up with the tracker and religiously logged all of your bites into it. A couple weeks ago, realizing that it took up a lot of space on my phone (terrible) and you weren't as unpredictable anymore so I deleted it. It's so weird but it felt like the end of your infancy and the beginning of you being a baby. You're not nursing constantly anymore so I don't need to time it and I don't panic anymore if you haven't had a wet diaper in the last couple hours. I feel like it's a small sign that we are in the swing of things. You're my baby and I'm your mom. We've kind of got the hang of this now.

To another month of firsts and changes and milestones and getting closer and closer to your very first birthday. I love you, Bear. 

XOXO, 

Mommy