Saturday, March 3, 2012

Letters to Milo (#5, 39 weeks, 9 months)

Milo's first snow angel, @9 months.
Oh, Milo. Nine months? Really? Where has the time gone? I'm in denial a bit, about this whole growing up thing. I love you so much, just the way you are, today. And then there you go--growing up some more.

You're definitely waving on purpose now--but only to your blankie. Any time you get near your crib, you turn and wave at your blankie, and you wave goodbye to blankie when you wake up and I take you out of the crib. in fact, blankie is the first word I could really tell you understood, because if we are in the nursery, and I ak you where your blankie is, you'll turn toward the crib and start waving. So far, though, you won't wave at people. Apparently you're not as sad to see mommy and daddy go as you are to say goodbye to blankie.

Actually, I'm pretty sure mommy just made an error in trying to teach you how to wave. Because if I ask you to wave to daddy as he leaves for work, you just stare at me curiously. But if I mention your blankie a moment later, you'll start waving with great purpose. So apparently you associate the waving movement with the word blankie. Oops.

You've cut your first two teeth (the bottom ones) but man are they slow about making an appearance. They broke through the gums about a week ago, but you can still only see a sliver of tooth above the gums! It's hard to imagine what you'll look like with teeth--we're so used to your gummy smile.

You went on the swings for the first time this month, and you seemed pretty happy about it. I can't wait until it gets warm enough to go play at the playground! We went to an indoor playground, where you crawled from wheel to shining wheel. Apparently, you LOVE wheels! You went straight to the fire truck, then a car, then a scooter--just focusing on the wheels. Today, you figured out how to push your high chair back and forth to make a squeaky sound. Which you did for quite a while. Back and forth, back and forth, squeak squeak.

Squeak.

You went to your first story time at the library, and you also played with baby animals that came to visit the library. I think you liked the baby goat best, because of the sounds it made.

You started eating "finger foods" this month--sweet potato puffs and banana. And I shared some of my pinkberry frozen yogurt with you. =) I don't share that with just anyone! So far, corn still seems to be your favorite food.

You've figured out how to transition from sitting to scooting, which means I can't just sit you down and run to answer the door anymore. You're still not crawling, but definitely getting close--you get up on your hands and knees, move your legs...and then fall down.  but you can get anywhere you want to go pretty quickly--you chased a ball all the way down the long hallway in the dorm the other day!

You still love playing with your activity cube, and we had to get you a new stuffed owl, because the first one got so grubby. =) You really like playing with a little beach ball, and I can always distract you with your little puffer fish bath toy, which squirts water and air. You like knocking down things I build with blocks, and you love toys you can spin, like the one we stick to your high chair tray. You still like your activity gym and jumper, and you've grown fond of a Thomas the Tank Engine train that zips around the room after I pull it back and let it go. You're fast enough to grab it as it whizzes by, but mostly I think you like the whirring of the wheels.  Daddy's favorite thing to do with you is still tickling you, because your laughter is the most amazing sound ever. I love playing peek-a-boo with you. You've recently learned to play it yourself--you'll pull a blanket over your head and then suddenly whip it down, smiling at me expectantly until I exclaim "peek-a-boo!" At which point you giggle and do it again.

You made your first craft this month--a valentine. it was a bit of a challenge, honestly. At first, you were focused on eating the paper rather than coloring on it. Then, I taped the edges down to stop you from eating it, but that made it harder to color on. You were quite good at holding the marker, but didn't seem to catch on to the bit where you move it around on the paper, so instead I moved the paper under the marker while you held it still. In the end, you'd made a beautiful metallic scribble, which I cut into a heart shape and  glued on some paper for you. I'm sure next year will go a bit better. =)

You've gotten really good at sleeping through the night--finally! You go to sleep around 8 and wake around 5 to eat, and then go back to sleep until around 8. Which means mommy is finally (!) getting some sleep--yay Milo!

This week, you've been sick. You've been running a fever for 4 days and it's gotten up to 104! Very alarming for mommy and daddy, though the doctor says it's just a cold or virus. Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa Ed came to see you, but it was right when you got sick, so you weren't really in the mood to play with them. I thought the fever was from the teething at first, but you got really fussy and wimpy00crying at the smallest thing. And you NEVER fuss, so I knew something was wrong.

Oh, baby, you've been burning up! We've been holding you and rocking you and taking lots of baths with you and generally trying not to totally fall apart with the helplessness of it all. It breaks our hearts to see you so sad and tired and sick. There was one night none of us slept. But then the next two days you slept constantly--only able to stay awake an hour at a time. We'd take your temp and give you medicine throughout the night and you shoulda seen your daddy. He tried to give you a cool bath and you just sat there crying and he had to keep you in there to bring your fever down and he was so sad. You've been refusing to eat solid foods, and you've been getting the chills on and off. We've been taking turns staying home with you and it's really hard when one of us has to go to work. It's hard to leave you. The silver lining is that you're very cozy when you're sick--extra snuggly. We've gotten to spend a lot of time just cozying up together, and for a while you even slept on me, like back in the day. Which is funny, because I swear not a day goes by when your daddy doesn't tell me how he wishes you would still fall asleep on him. =) Anyway, today your fever was down and you ate a bit of food, so hopefully you'll be back to your old self again soon.

We had to take a little walk to mommy's office today, and we stopped to make your very first snow angel. it was super cute, but you didn't really feel like staying outside to play. Snow will be a lot more fun for you next year, I think.

Your last swim lesson is this weekend, and maybe we'll do a music class next. I've noticed that when I put some music on, you kind of bounce around in your chair like you're dancing. Also, your mom is totally tone deaf, so it's probably a good idea for you to get a head start on the whole music thing. =)

you're still a total joy, Mr. Milo. You are so, so loved, from the tip of your nose to your tiny toes. We love to watch you learn new things and explore--you're such an explorer! And you love doors! You open and close every door you can. You're always on the move, checking out a door here, some wheels there, a ball...the edges of things. That's right...you love edges. When we're in the rocking chair, you arch your back and throw your head over the side, peering behind the chair and playing in the curtains. You crawl to the edge of the steps and the edge of the bed and you try hard to peer over the edge of the bathtub. You have no sense of fear--you just need to know what's out there. It's kind of made diaper changes a bit tricky, actually. As soon as we lay you down, you flip over and make a run for the edge. We sometimes need two of us to change your diaper, so one can distract and occupy you so you'll lay on your back!

Alright, my little love bug. You're finally asleep so I'd better follow suit--it's been a long, tiring week for all of us. But you make everything more worthwhile. It's hard to remember how we filled our days before you came along. Here's to nine months of our clever little bundle of joy. You are so, so loved, Milo.

That's why I can't stop kissing your face, you know.

Now hurry up and get better so we can go play in the snow, okay?

Love you, peanut.