Month nine

Dear Xavier,

Nine months on the inside and now nine months on the outside. Whenever I tell someone that you are nine months old, they comment on what a fun age it is. And they are right! I love that every day we can see your personality coming out more and more. When we go to the playground, you love swinging high up in the air and going down the steepest slides…I think you might have a bit of an adrenaline junkie in you.

This month we started attending story time at the library for kids under two. I’m amazed at how different your personality is when you are surrounded by all those kids. You seem content for now just to take it all in and observe and you always listen very closely to the books.

You finally started saying “Mama” on a consistent basis…on Father’s Day! I guess that’s okay since on Mother’s Day you were able to say “Dada.” I love hearing you call me except for the fact that my name always seems to be accompanied by crying, moaning, or screaming and is only called in moments of extreme distress.

The end of this month brought Uncle Aaron’s wedding to Aunt Katie and we traveled all the way to St. Louis to be there. You once again did a great job on the long car ride despite not being used to sitting in one place for so long. Every time we stopped, you crawled around in the grass at random fast food establishments. At the wedding, you looked like such a grown up boy in your little suit and I was so proud of you when Aunt Erica carried you down the aisle! Of course, it might have been nice if your daddy had been able to see more than five minutes of the wedding. Aunt Erica very accurately described you as a “wind-up toy” and you certainly weren’t going to sit still for the entire wedding service.

Summer has meant that both Daddy and I are home with you much of the day. It also meant that the celebration of our wedding anniversary…and your first night away from us! I didn’t even cry when we dropped you off. It probably helped that you barely noticed that we were leaving because you were so excited to see your babysitter again. You also went swimming in the big boy pool for the first time while we were gone. I was so ready to sleep in instead of being woken up at 5 am, but I sure did miss you after 24 hours away!

One of my memories of this month occurred at the ungodly hour at which you like to wake us up. At Grandma’s house, we would sneak you into our bed to avoid waking up the rest of the crowded household. When you were ready to get out, you let me know…by waking me up with a sweet (and slobbery) kiss.

I love you, Xavier, and I will never get tired of those sweet kisses, no matter how messy they are.

Love,
Mommy