9 Months

Delma,
You are now 9 months old. You are such a vibrant, engaging child with a very distinct personality, but you are also such a part of me that when I press my nose to your head or bury my face in your neck, I can't smell anything, as if I were trying to smell my own arm.


Right now you are in your crib making the sweetest la-la-la noises and babbles. This is a delightful change, you usually practice the range of your voice, screech like a dolphin, do this funny silence then BLAH! then silence then BLAH! thing, etc. We long for the days of your sweet little coos, as you mostly just sound like a tyrant these days. You're happy and you're just fine entertaining yourself in your crib, but your voice just makes you sound like a brute. You still wake up VERY early, around 5am most days, so we have taken to letting you just hang out til at least 6am before we fetch you, and as we go about our early-morning routines we have lots of laughs listening to you talk and sing and just make non-stop noise.


You started crawling for real a couple of days ago. It is so cute to watch you. To be honest, I was starting to think you'd never do it. You just weren't interested at all. When you wanted something, you were content to sit on your but, peg your arms and legs straight out in front of you, tense every muscle in your body, turn red and bellow. It didn't seem like any amount of Frustration As Motivator would work on you. But then you just did it. Just like that, with encouragement from Daddy. You are officially mobile, little bunny.


Your affect on total strangers is amazing. People love babies, I know, but you seem to go beyond the norm and suck just about everyone into your gravitational pull. You stare at people and make eye contact with everyone and I think that your coloring and the amout of hair you have just look quite dramatic and catch people's attention. People go to mush around you, everywhere we go. You have a way of lighting up a room, of making people happy. You are magic.

Love,
Mommy