Letter Month Nine

Dear Charlie,

Nine months old feels like a big milestone.  You have now been out in the world almost as long as you were inside of me!  You are staying very busy and the time is just flying by!  

You are growing so fast that I can hardly keep up!  You wear size 18 month clothing, which I sometimes can't believe!  You have two teeth on the bottom and are about to have one on top, too!  Even though you don't have a mouth full of teeth, you chew your food like you do.  Speaking of food, you seem to be a fan of that.  You will eat most things that we give you.  So far you have eaten any meat, fish, or shellfish that we give you; you especially enjoy yellow veggies; you really like foods like pizza and tortilla chips; you have tried a few different beans and eat those; and you eat scrambled eggs;.  On our recent trip to Shreveport, you enjoyed catfish, hushpuppies, fried shrimp, and twice baked potatoes and that was just at Ralph and Kackoo's!  You don't seem to be a fan of fruit though, but you kind of like pineapple.  You can feed yourself Cheerios and other small things and when you want more you slap your hand on the table and say, "aaah."  You also really enjoy drinking water whether it's from your cup or mine!  You are still a hearty nurser too.  The nighttime still seems to be your preferred time for nursing and that is definitely the most peaceful time to nurse you..  I would say that you nurse 7 to 8 times a day.  

Night nursing brings us to our biggest challenge with you, sleep.  You seem to be developing a desire for a morning nap around nine o'clock, but the length of that nap varies a lot.  Some days it is 20 minutes and others it is an hour and a half.  It is rare for you to sleep much longer than that without being held or riding in the car.  Night sleep is a struggle too.  You fight going to sleep and once asleep, you wake often.  Daddy can soothe you back to sleep better than I can, but you come to me to nurse and fall back asleep pretty quick.  We have moved our mattress to the floor now that you are so mobile and we worried you would fall out of the bed.  I guess we have accepted that you are our bed buddy for the time being and what a cute one you are! 

You are learning so many new things that I feel I can hardly keep up!  You can now sit yourself up and you have developed a traditional crawl; although you recognize that your old way is still faster!  You are pulling up all over the place, too!  You can pull up using just the wall now.  You are starting to cruise around a little, but you mostly crawl to the next spot.   You like any toy that you can chew on and seem to enjoy going from thing to thing.  You still like your paci and are quite adept at putting it in and out of your mouth as you desire.  We try to save it for sleep, but sometimes you need it when we are out and about, too.  Your sister just delights when she sees you!  She loves it now that you are able to play with her more and she is trying to teach you pat-a-cake.  Mostly, she just likes to see you and talk to you.  When she wakes up in the morning, she comes into our room and tells me, "I want to see that baby boy!"  She loves to see your cute baby toes, too!  Sometimes she wakes you up kissing on you and talking to you, but she does it out of love.  

You don't have any words yet, but you understand a lot.  If I ask you if you want to nurse, you lunge for it!  I'm pretty sure that you understand other things like saying bye bye or when I ask you to come to me.  We are showing you signs, but you haven't started doing them yet.  You will!  You "talk" a lot!  You babble all sorts of sounds and we can't wait to hear what you have to tell us.  I'm pretty sure there are big ideas going on inside you!  You are wary of new people.  You love for me, Lovie, or Daddy to hold you, but are cautious of new people.  You definitely get worried if I leave the room.  I prefer your company too, so I don't mind it!  Your hair is growing and getting thick and we have discovered that it gets a little curly in the humidity! We called you fuzzy head from the start and the curly adds to it.  

You giggle often and find the world amusing.  You also have such an easy smile.  When I walk in the room, you flash me a smile every time!  You look at us with sweet, trusting eyes that melt our hearts.  Words just can't tell you the kind of love that we have for you.  It gets us through long, sleepless nights and motivates us to get back to you as soon as we can.  I hope you feel how much you are loved by everyone.  It's remarkable what a little person can do to so many hearts!

Love,

Momma