nine months old

Dear little bug,

Today you are nine months old. This last month has seen a great deal of change for you. You are crawling with speed and agility. You are working hard to stand up and reach for objects beyond your grasp. You are quite interested in everything about your older sister. This causes problems on occasion, and both you and your darling sister let me know about it with loud voices. You are falling in love with your daddy (and becoming less of a mommy's girl). You give him the biggest smiles and the loudest laughs. You are still quite timid around other people, especially those with loud, staccato voices. People like Mrs. Jordan and Uncle Matt soothe you with their calm demeanors. You would love to hold Ollie and pull his hair. He would love for you to sit still. You enjoy eating a variety of foods, and you become fussy when mommy and daddy don't get it to your mouth in a timely fashion. You are still a voracious nurser, and while this exhausts mommy, she is very happy to know you are eating well.

The hardest part about your ninth month has been teething. You have seven teeth and are waiting for the eighth to come through. We hope you will take a break once that tooth erupts. Your discomfort causes mommy and daddy to feel discomfort as well.

We are quite sure that your tenth month will have as much, if not more, change for you. As you become more independent and opinionated, you and your sister will have many more disagreements. Daddy and I can only hope that you and she will learn to interact in healthy, playful ways as well. We anticipate that you will master standing up and edging around the furniture. We also anticipate that you will discover the stairs. We know that you will continue to develop your speech and enlarge your vocabulary. We are certain that each of these developments will give us pause. We will feel pride for your achievements (and perhaps some worry about things like the stairs) and some sadness that you are no longer quite so helpless. Regardless of how much you mature, you will always be our little bug.

With love for you as deep as the ocean and wide as the sky,

Mommy & Daddy


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This video was actually taken yesterday, and yes, Grace is wearing a swimming suit (her favorite attire). The temperature in the house was 65 degrees.