Dear Owen,
Here we are, a mirror image of the time it took to create you, as the time you've been in this fantastic world. 9 months is an adventure in parenting, teaching us about your independence and individuality. 9 months has opened the door to many new opportunities and challenges and loads of fun, love and happiness.
I can barely stand your cuteness right now, you always have an amazing smile plastered across your cheeks. Its so beaming and bright that sometimes I think your cheeks must ache the way mine do when I've spent hours laughing. I know I say it every month, but its worth repeating that you are such an easy baby. You enjoy spending time with Collin, watching his every move, taking in and evaluating how you can position yourself to learn to follow along at his pace. You are such an adored addition to our lives, reminding me how lucky we are to have such a happy family.These days you sleep from 6:30 to 5:30, then again to 7 if your brother will let you. You two have internal radar, and just as soon as he pops his little eyes open in his bed, even if he hasn't made the tiniest little peep, you too rise and shine. Without fail, every morning I watch the video monitors in Collin's room and yours to see you both wake up simultaneously. The only way around this is if the moment I see Collin stir I sneak down, scoop him up and take him into the basement. Its only then that you'll even think about sleeping longer. I cherish the days that you do though, as I still worry about how many hours of sleep you get.
You usually don't last long in bed with me in the mornings anymore, as after you nurse, you're mostly interested in telling us, loud and clear, that sleeping in our bed isn't such a good idea. Lots of yelling and sassiness, pulling my hair and rolling, quickly and quietly, like a stealth baby toward the edge, as if it say, "fine, if you won't play with me, I'm just going to jump off the bed". We reel you back in by your ankles and before long one of us is taking you back to your room to rock until you slip off to dreamland.
Once we're up for the day we usually begin the morning with books. You have your favorites and will listen contently, but for most you'd rather grab the pages and taste them. Everything is in your mouth these days, being tasted and textured with teethmarks from your two little teeth. You love standing at your music table and leaning against the couch, playing with the shaky eggs and rattles and sitting amongst a circle of toys that are withinn your reach. You crawl to your preference (army style, reach and pull), pivot and move in a new direction. Its pretty hilarious to watch. Rarely you use your knees. I think you are so efficient now with your army crawl that you really won't move on to regular crawling, instead you'll head into walking. Mornings are plastered with adorable kisses, as you try to plant one on my cheek, open mouthed and full of slobbery drool. It appears as though maybe you are trying to eat my cheeks, but I like to think its just your kisses. You are so adorably affectionate, hugging and holding on tightly to us as we hold you close. Like a baby bear scaling a tree, you wrap yourself around my arms and cling to me with one hand, your little finger nails clawing into my skin like little anchors, while using the other to grab anything within reach. Secure base from which to explore, I suppose.
After a half hour of watching you explore the world we head to breakfast, where Collin entertains you in the highchair.You dislike being contained in your highchair and usually yell at us when we don't give you something to shovel into your mouth the moment you sit down. For the 5 minutes it takes me to get Collin started on his breakfast, you eat yogurt puffs and fresh fruit, usually telling us how your day will go in baby babbles and cadences of mama mama mama nana dada. I love watching you focus on getting those small pieces of fruit, pears, bananas, raspberries, into your little mouth to savor. You're eating baby yogurt and lots of stage 3 jarred foods now, slowly transitioning to real table food for all your meals.
After breakfast, we get you cleaned up, which you absolutely hate. It hurts, terribly bad, to be clean. You protest everytime I touch the wash cloth to your little face as though it burns, letting me know how awful it is to be cleaned up. If I do this while you are still in the highchair its doubly traumatic, with the combined hatred of being in the highchair without food in hand and the washcloth on your little cheeks.
But, soon after, you've forgotten about your disdain, and we're in changing your diaper and getting dressed for the day. I try carefully to leave the breakfast remenants on your pajamas, rather than allowing you to hug me and share the smashed bananas, pears and raspberries. At least once a week I get to work and find that I wasn't successful and there is the tiniest of breakfast treats plastered on my shoulder, saved especially for me, like an afternoon snack. We then make our way into Collin's room to work through the same routine with him, while you take full advantage of his toys, quickly crawling to the trucks and cars, anxiously putting all of the small pieces in your mouth, all the while staring at me out of the corner of your eye as if to say "don't worry mom, I'm just tasting it a little." We play, as a threesome for a bit, until its time for your morning nursing and nap, which usually happen about 8:30 or so. You've settled into a nice hour to hour and a half morning nap. I'm so thankful that this routine has finally appeared in your life, because for awhile there, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to be confident you were getting enough sleep. You're such a happy baby though, we've begun to think that we must be doing at least an okay job.
You settle into my arms, little hand tucked around my back, hanging on in the tiniest of hugs as I cradle you and walk/bounce you to sleep. It isn't very often that you let me rock you anymore, you want to be moving, and so, I dance you around the room with Parsley the puppy tucked between your check and my chest, until you drift off to sleep. As your brother plays quietly in his room, I get a few moments to myself with you to admire your sleeping face, and remember, everyday how blessed we are, if just for a brief moment. Its amazing to think that just last month we were wrangling you out of a sleep wrap, as it seems so very far in the distant past now. You're getting so big, so fast. I wish I could capture it all in my memory, to play back like a home video at my own disposal, but alas, the best I can do is hang on to brief moments, and record every tiny bit of love and happiness in places like our blog.
Once you are asleep I take Collin downstairs and enjoy some time with him, playing with bristle blocks, coloring, painting, playing with play-doh... this list goes on. I often think about how you'll be as brothers as you grow, Collin adores you in a way that I never expected. His heart is so big and generous, and you seem to fill it right up with happiness. He's often trying to make you happy, playing peek a boo, or trying to appease you when you're scolding us from your high chair. 
When you rise and shine, we play so more. You really enjoy rattles and music, dancing along like a little rumba baby, and you particularly love the Thing-A-Majigs, which are these small animal things that sing when you squeeze their bellies. You often chase the toys that aren't yours and are exploring dangerous territory, making a beeline for outlet covers in the outlets on the wll, or pulling yourself into precarious positions, like under your rocking chairs footstool.
Our day continues on in a pattern of play, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep. From playtime, to luch, to afternoon nap. Greeting your daddy, whom you adore and beam with excitement to see (as you nearly bounce out of my arms, waving your hands around as if to signal him, "over here! over here! I missed you!"), to exploring the afternoon warmth of fall as we prepare for dinner and evening bedtime routine. Fall crashes in on us with an evening curtain of dusk, reminding us that its time to wind down and put the day to bed.
Having Fridays through Mondays to spend with you has been fantastic, as I don't feel as though my working impeeds my mommy-hood as much as it used to. I can rationalize being away only on Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays, allowing me to keep up with the work I do ( and remain so invested in) but also feel as though I'm being a good mommy.
Every month I try to pinpoint the signficant changes in your life, little mini-milestones, like teeth (all two of them!), your habits and such, but really, its been so difficult for me to see the other changes, they seems to just suprise me, and I continue to wonder how we arrived. How did you get so much older? Where did this little personality come from? When exactly did these likes and dislikes develop? Last Tuesday? Its a sneaky little journey this first year, moving from such a tiny infant, to a toddling baby. I hate that I can't hold on to it tighter. As it turns out, you grow no matter what we do. We're along for the ride. We try to keep up by smothering you with love, kisses and hugs, everday, so you know that this journey represents some of the best parts of our lives.
I'm not sure how we got here, or where life will take us in the next 30 days, but are so in love with you Owen, that it doesn't really matter because we're permanent fixtures in this journey. We'll take it in stride and embrace every moment of it as your parents to help you grow and be successful. You're the brightest most amazing little baby I know, and we love love love love you to pieces.
Happy 9 months.
love
Momma and Daddy
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