Letter to my Baby: Week 39

Week 39:  Wednesday, June 22

Dear Ryder,

You have now been an “outie” for as long as you were an “innie”.  Today we took you to your check-up.  The Dr. confirmed what we already knew:  You are a healthy and happy baby.  You are now 28 1/4 inches long (33%) and 18 lbs 7 oz (25%).  Your head is still in the 97 percentile.  I joke that you are my little bobble head baby.  You keep giving us little scares with that big head of yours, first with the fast growth and making sure you didn’t have hydrocephalus, then with the possibility of a cyst.  Fortunately, neither thing is a problem and you just have a big brain in there!

We have been really blessed that you haven’t gotten sick very much.  Unfortunately, you did decide to get sick this month when your Grandpa Thomson came for a visit!  Momma was gone overnight because she had made it a goal to run a half marathon.  Your Daddy was up with you ALL NIGHT because you were so sick and uncomfortable.  Grandpa was very good about helping to hold you and love you until you felt better.  While Grandpa was here we went to the natural history museum and to the butterfly pavilion.  You liked trying to touch all the butterflies and leaves while we held you.

It is so fun watching your personality come out more and more.  You are such a cheerful little guy, mostly smiles and happy noises.  You love to play little games with momma and daddy.  You shake your head no and sometimes yes, and you wave hello and good-bye.  If I sing you the “way up in the sky the little birds fly” you flap your arms like you are a bird.  You giggle when momma plays patty cake or itsy bitsy spider with you.

More and more you engage with us.  You will pull a toy out from your basket or pull something off a shelf and look over at momma to show off what you just did.  You love to shake rattles at us and have us cheer for the good job you are doing.  You love to be where we are, and are better at going with momma from room to room so I can get a few things done.  You find it so interesting to sit on the bathroom floor while I take a bath, in front of the closet mirror while or get ready, or on the kitchen floor while I make dinner.  You are fascinated by the things you can touch, such as our shoes in the bedroom or the kitchen cupboards.  The other day you discovered the cake sprinkles, which made you giggle with delight.    

Your fine motor skills continue to get better and better.  You love little objects like zippers or buttons on shirts.  You are able to reach into your toy basket and grab just the toy you want.  Just recently you have mastered passing objects between your hands and are just starting to figure out that you can hold two things at a time.  You are most fascinated by the things you can’t have, like the car keys, or our cell phones, or the TV remotes and get very angry with us when we won’t let you keep them.

You are not quite ready to crawl, mostly because you still don’t like being put on your tummy!  If we put your on your hands and knees, you scoot backwards, but complain at us the entire time.  You just figured out that you can back up until you are sitting again and if we try to turn you back around you lock your legs into a sitting position.  Then you sit and rock your body and flap your arms as hard as you can, like you are trying to fly, all while giving us a quizzical look that says ‘am I moving yet.’ Sometimes you topple over because you are rocking so hard, or lose your balance because you reached too far for a toy.  You look at us to make sure you are okay, and if we cheer for you, you usually don’t cry.

It has been really fun for us to let you try more and more “people food.”  You really enjoy taking small bites of whatever we are eating.  Momma introduced you to blackberries, which you love, but you look like a blackberry yourself by the time you are done!  You also have enjoyed testing out  avocado, apple, watermelon, pinto beans, and shredded chicken.  You enjoy feeding yourself, although when you get tired you will open your mouth so that I can put food in there for you.  

You reach for both your Daddy and Momma, although you are still much more insistent about Daddy holding you.  We both love watching your face light up when you see us.  We also love listening to your happy baby babbles and coos.  Mostly we just love watching you grow.  Happy 9 months!

Love,

Momma