7 months - Vincenzo

My darling Vincenzo,

Your seven-month birthday was three days ago, and I am amazed as usual at how fast the time has gone. You are a sweet, sturdy, handsome little guy and your smile (and laugh!) melt my heart every time.

You are still conservative about smiling (relatively), but when you do it is contagious, open-mouthed and full of joy. You like to smile at waitresses and especially at the flight attendants on our trip to Italy for Christmas – they were your absolute favorites, even when you were in the middle of melting down. And your laugh, your Papi and I agree that it is the best ever. It’s so contagious. I wish I could predict what you find to be funny, just so I can make you laugh on cue when I’m feeling down.

You have grown so much in the last few months. I saw your first tooth coming on New Years Day, but it took eight days (!) to break through your gums, and man was it sharp. Number 2 was close behind, and now you have a little two-tooth smile that is even cuter than it was before, if that’s possible. It seems like your upper teeth are ready to make an appearance, but so far they are taking their time.

You learned to sit up right after we got home from Italy, and you mastered it right away. You are amazing the way you sit with a toy and study it and turn it over and over, totally lost in thought. It’s incredible to see. Sometimes when you are in the right mood, you can sit there for over an hour just studying your toys quietly. You like it when I (or someone else you trust) sit right behind you, or if I sit with my leg next to you. I’m not sure if you like the physical closeness, the support in case you fall, or just the comfort of knowing someone is there. You occasionally put your hand on my leg or just reach out to make sure I’m still there. It’s very sweet.

You’re generally a cuddly little guy, and you like physical contact. When you get upset and you’re sitting by yourself, you reach your arms out to be picked up, or try your hardest to grab whoever is nearest to you. You like being held and cuddled, and you like us to walk around with you and talk to you. You also like sitting on my lap when you play with your toys.

Feeding you has been a lot of fun – you make great faces!! You pretty much assume you won’t like something the first time you try it, and you make an awful face accordingly, even if you decide you do like it two bites later. But then you sometimes change your mind later anyway, and we can’t keep track of what you like to eat.

You have slept through the night, quite a few times now! It’s wonderful, and when you wake in the morning you are really happy and cheerful for a little while. You and I often spend some cuddle time together in the morning before anyone else is up. We did that every morning in Italy, it was my favorite time of the day, cuddling and playing with you. But … ugh, we’re still swaddling you. That’s going to be a hard habit to break.

You still like taking baths, and generally spend bath-time chewing on a rubber duck. I remember your first night in Italy, your grandmother thought a nice bath would be a good way to get you ready for bed. She stripped you, carried you off, and dunked you right into the tub without warning. You screamed your little head off! Things went better after that. Except for getting dressed to go outside in the cold, you hated that with a passion.

These past seven months with you have been the most beautiful months of my life, and I can’t wait for all that lies ahead. You are the best little boy I could imagine.

Love,

Mama

7 months - Josephine

My dearest Josephine,

You just turned seven months a few days ago, and you are the most adorable little girl I have ever seen. You have rosy chubby cheeks, you smile like there is no tomorrow, and you charm absolutely everyone. Not much has changed in the past few months in that respect.

You have changed a lot in the past few months, though. You’ve been through a LOT! You went to Italy and met your entire Italian family, or at least as much as we could manage in three and a half weeks. Took your first plan flight, and it was trans-atlantic. You charmed all the flight attendants, as well as everyone at security.

When we got back, you started crawling almost right away, always going after two things: a bottle, or a laptop. It was easy to show off your crawling on skype because you’d always crawl towards the computer. It’s really more of a military crawl, and in the past three or so weeks, it hasn’t changed much except that you’ve gotten faster.

Then finally you sat up by yourself, and once you learned how to do that, you perfected it quickly. You’re adorable, sitting there with your legs sticking out straight and your hands resting on them. I could stare at you all day while you smile back at me.

And then you got teeth!!! Two sharp little teeth that came in almost at the same time, I’m not even sure which one was first. You also got sick around the same time poor little thing, spiking high fevers for days in a row and really worrying your Papi and me. You looked miserable for quite a while, and then it settled down into a pretty awful cold, which you still have. You HATE when we clean your nose, and I feel so bad doing it.

You still love taking a bath, it’s one of my favorite times with you. You became interested in bath toys, and go diving after your rubber ducks with abandon. You’ve also tried climbing out of the tub, and have no fear of the edge of the bed or couch. You are quite a fiery handful, and I’m terrified that one of these days we will not be quite careful enough.

You have a fierce sense of independence. You want to do everything yourself, which is why I suspect you started crawling so early. It’s part of your plan to take over the world. As far as you are concerned, you can hold your own bottle, feed yourself solid food, cut your own nails, and probably change your own diaper.

You’ve started eating solid food as well, although it’s hard to tell what you like and what you don’t. You started off well, grabbing the spoon and trying to do it yourself, of course, and you were a good eater, but since you got sick, you’re not so interested. Even now that you’re feeling better, you complain and don’t eat much.

And you’re finally starting to sleep (knock on wood)! It’s wonderful, it makes me and Papi so much happier. You don’t quite have the “sleeping through the night” thing down yet, but I can tell we’re getting close. In any case, things are much better – you usually only wake up once or at most twice.

You are the little sunshine in my life, and without you my life would be so much darker. One smile from you is enough to make my whole day. I’m SO happy you’re my beautiful little girl.

Love,

Mama

Post-posted - 3 months - Vincenzo

My darling Vincenzo,

My little sweetheart, you are three months old! I don’t understand where the time goes. Everyone says that children grow up so quickly, and so far it seems to be true.

You are a little joy – you sleep well all night, and you have stopped crying so much during the day. In fact, I can always count on you to fall asleep well in the evening and after you eat during the night. You still sleep in your carseat. You don’t seem to like sleeping flat on your back, but you will sleep really well in the swing during the day.

You’re very noisy though! You grunt and squeak all night long, and often when you nap during the day, too. Everyone finds it to be very amusing, except when they’re sleeping in the same room with you!

You have started smiling a lot more these days as well, and it’s a beautiful smile you have. You’re not very generous with it, and it almost seems like you’re becoming more wary of strangers, because you stare at them with big, suspicious eyes. When you do smile, it lights up the room.

Even better than your smile, you try to chat with us now! It’s hilarious and sweet. You make noises and we hold little conversations, and I can tell that you really enjoy interacting.

Every day with you is sweeter than the last.

Love,

Mama

Post-posted - 3 months - Josephine

My dearest Josephine,

You’re three months old. How has the time flown so quickly? You’ve changed so much in the last month, it surprises me when I look at your photos from when you were born because I don’t realize how much you’ve grown.

You understand the difference between day and night now, but that doesn’t mean you respect it! You’re hard to get to sleep – like your Papi, you like to stay up late and sleep in. You still get up a lot during the night to eat, and you’re still sleeping in your carseat, although you will take naps during the day in the bassinet or the crib, or on the couch. When we’re trying desperately to get you to sleep in the evening, you typically just smile at us, like you think we’re funny. I can’t ever stay upset with you when you smile at me.

You still smile almost constantly, everyone is taken with you from the beginning when you flash your beautiful smile. You raise your eyebrows before you smile, which everyone finds endearing. Sometimes I can get you to smile just by raising my eyebrows, and then you copy me and smile. You also have your hands in your mouth constantly – I’m worried that you’re already teething!

You like to sleep on your side, and will sometimes roll onto your side by yourself in the bassinet, and you rotate in your carseat into what looks like a really uncomfortable position. I think you’ll be rolling over pretty soon. You don’t like to be on your stomach, though, even if I prop you up with a few pillows so you can see around.

You met your Nonna and Nonno from Italy for the first time this month! They’re both madly in love with you. They spend every day feeding you, holding you, rocking you to sleep, taking you for walks, singing to you, and trying to make you smile. You get weekly visits from your Grandma in California, too, and you see Aunt Candace sometimes, as well.

You are my little joy, and I love you so much.

Love,

Mama