9 Months

Lilabean,

Here we are again, another month older and another week late in writing you this. I could blame this on the fact that you had some serious jet lag issues that resulted in waking up at awesome times like 3 a.m., 4:15 and more typically 5. But then today you slept until 8 so you totally made up for it. Of course I sat and stared at the monitor for about 45 minutes watching you breathe because I couldn't believe you were actually still asleep.

I am sure that the amount of worry that I harbor for you in the short 9 months you have been in our world will only grow as you do, just as the amount of love that we have for you grows exponentially every day, every hour, every minute.

You have morphed from this somber, clingy baby into this amazingly happy baby. You love to smile, you love to laugh, you love every thing your brother does, including the things he shouldn't be doing. Your face lights up when you see someone you know enter the room, and you shoot over to them, arms up ready to be picked up. Nothing makes you happier than when you see daddy come home from work and he picks you up.

Food has become less of a novelty and more of your favorite times of the day. You are, as the doctor said yesterday, an oral baby, and everything - literally, everything - goes in your mouth. When it comes to food this is awesome. Red beans and rice, fish, pasta, chicken, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread, you don't care what it is as long as it makes its way to your mouth. It usually comes back out, but that's okay, you are working on it.

On the flip side everything goes in your mouth, so I spend my days vacuuming and following you around, taking pennies and cat fur and paper out of your mouth, things you find 2 seconds after I vacuum. You are like a hound dog.

In the past month you have done so many things for the first time. You have flown overseas (and did super, as usual), you had your first haircut, you climbed the stairs, you started standing without holding on. I want to push you over, to slow you down, to keep you little forever, but I also want to see who you will become, the things you will do, the things you will accomplish. I can't wait to hear your voice, other than 'mamammama' and 'baaaa', to see how your brain works, to see if you are a talker like your brother.

I will never be able to adequately put into words the joy you bring to my every day, how perfectly perfect we think you are. As we march on to 1 I hope you continue to be my happy girl, my love-a-bug, my sweet moonpie.

I love you to the moon and back,
Mama