Dear Baby - Month #9

Dear baby,

It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was writing the last one of these...

You're now 9 months old. Roughly, you've now been out and about for as long as you were growing inside me.  If we double the time you've been with us, and move backwards, we'd be at that last moment where I was just 'me'. Before I became your mum.

Apart from a one-off earlier this week, you've been remarkably well behaved. You're pretty easy going and happy most of the time, and even if you wake up on the wrong side of your cot, you're still pretty easy to work with. You were in a fantastic mood yesterday, and daddy commented on it more than once.

I forget that he doesn't get to hang out as much as we do. Whether we're doing stuff together, or doing stuff where you're with me, we're together. We spend a lot of time in each others company. We have an unspoken state of 'being'. You watch me make your lunch, you play with my hair while you feed, you grin from behind your dummy in your cot, you watch me while I change your nappy, you look up and smile while you sit in the bath. Your daddy doesn't get to have as many of these moments.

But. The time you do spend with him, you guys party hard. He chats more to you. He makes you laugh in a real way, that I just can't seem to do. He reads to you, he dresses you in his own special way, he reaches straight out to you when he comes home. And you light up when you realise he's home. You look around me to see what he is doing. You play with his stubble and study him in a way that you don't with me.

I had a dream the other night that you started to crawl. I missed your first attempt, and only just got to see you do it for a few 'steps' before you crouched like you were going to stand. And then you got up and just walked. Whether it means something or not, you were walking away from me. Perhaps it shows how excited I am about you learning to crawl (and walk), which I think will happen within the next month. But I think it also shows how I worry about missing things with you. And then how soon you will no longer be a baby.

Soon, you're going to be a toddler. Then a child, then a teen, then a young adult, then an adult. And then you're going to stay an adult, and not my baby, for 80 years or so. And you'll only have been my baby for less than a year, and that year is almost over.

A good friends baby turned 1 not long before you were born, and she had a cake in the shape of an owl from tv. She was (and still is!) obsessed with that owl. Will you have this soon? Will you have favourite things? I mean, you really, Really, REALLY love the dogs, so it makes sense. But the concept of you having favourite shows or songs right now just baffles me.

But then again, you've had a big month. Your first words (and the start of your baby talk which I just love - you sound like you're carrying on conversation with yourself, but you only have one word) and your top two teeth. You can roll both ways and you spin in circles on your mat, as well as moving backwards. You're getting up on your knees and you're starting to rock. You're starting to sleep more consistently too, which I love. You've been having occassionally longer naps too, which might help with your night sleep. You pull yourself up using the rocker or your toybox if I'm sitting with you, and you've mastered almost all the little tricks on your activity table and toy kitchen (lifting and closing the flap the table, and opening and closing the oven on the kitchen are both new talents).

Happy nine months, baby girl. Party on.