9 months - Josephine

Dear Josephine,

You’re nine months old! When did that happen?! When did you get so big?

You are the little light of my life, my smiling happy girl, my little sweetheart. Your personality is so sweet and happy and joyous, you light up every room you’re in. Everyone thinks you are a little character, and you really are! You charm absolutely everyone into getting whatever you want.

You have four teeth, one of which just broke through the gum on top. You are such a good little eater, you open your mouth and eat almost anything. You aren’t picky at all. You love avocado, the soups your Nonno and Mama make for you, fruit, anything. We discovered that you love strawberries when we went to the farmer’s market and you kept crawling over and trying to grab them out of the bag as we were having a picnic. You’ll sit there and just much on a strawberry contentedly until you finish it, like a little chipmunk.

You still love your pacifier, and you tend to hoard them, probably because your brother likes to steal them from you. When we went to Papi’s office for pizza lunch the other day, you managed to have four at one time! I have a feeling that breaking that habit is going to be tough.

You pull up on all the furniture, but you haven’t shown that much interest in walking. Probably because you crawl so well – you are super fast and can get anywhere you want to go. I still think you’ll be an athlete one day. You LOVE going to the park and swinging in the swings, and going down the slide – probably you like it a little too much, you try to go head first! You fell off the merry-go-round when Papi’s attention wandered for a moment, and landed in the tanbark without any problem – no crying at all. You also love going to the pool for your swimming lessons, you’re so much fun to take!

I can’t believe how fast these nine months have flown by, in no time at all you’ll be walking, and you’ll turn a year old. As much as I wish I could keep you small and sweet forever, I’m so excited to start playing games and sharing this great big world with you and watching you discover new things every day. It’s such a privilege to be able to watch you grow up, every day I’m looking forward to the next step with you.

Love,

Mama

9 months - Vincenzo

Dear Vincenzo,

I missed your nine-month birthday by a few days, but I wanted to write anyway. You are so much fun now! You crawl around, although you have a funny way of doing it. You started crawling with one knee and one foot, sort of sideways, and even though you eventually learned to crawl normally, you seem to prefer your own way. I suspect that you aren’t that interested in crawling because you’re really interested in walking. You’ve been pulling up on furniture, cruising around, and walking while holding two adult fingers for a while now. Sometimes you can even walk while holding on with just one hand. I think you’ll be walking for real pretty soon.

You’ve become really jealous of your sister, and you never miss a moment to steal her pacifier or her toys. You get angry and frustrated with her, and start hitting and pushing her, too. I only hope you learn a bit of patience from her, because so far you don’t seem to have too much. Watching the two of you interact is fascinating, though.

You’re still a complete sweetheart, and your smile and laugh are adorable. Your laugh is contagious – I don’t know how many times we’ve been out in public and your laugh has made everyone around laugh, too. You love your Mama and your Papi, but you really don’t like to sleep for us. You especially don’t want to nap at home, if you can help it, but typically you fall asleep in the car before we’re even out of the driveway.

You love reading books and watching TV, especially Sesame Street music videos. You can turn the pages of the books, and you like to sit on my lap and listen to me read each page, and then turn to the next one. Everyone is so impressed by that.

You have FIVE teeth! Unfortunately, you like to use them to bite me, which I don’t like very much. You even bit Josephine once. I hope this is something you grow out of very soon! You haven’t been easy as far as eating, recently. You hated solid food at the beginning, then went through a phase in which you liked everything and ate it all up. Then suddenly you only liked sweet foods, like fruit and sweet potatoes, and then only from a jar. You’re getting a bit better now, but you’re so hard to feed! You fuss and complain and throw your head back. We have to distract you with singing or cartoons. You love avocado, and your Nonno just made you some soup with pastina in it for the first time.

The other day, I couldn’t get you to sleep, so I went outside and rocked you on the swing, and you finally fell asleep, face-down on the swing, for over an hour, while construction workers pounded away and we ate lunch nearby. It was so sweet. You love being outside. We started taking you to the playground, and you like to go in the swings, down the slide, and on the merry-go-round. I can’t wait until you can run around and play! I think we’ll have a lot of fun.

The last nine months of getting to know you have been wonderful. In the next few days, months, and years, there is so much new stuff for you to discover and places to go! I am so excited that I’ll get to share it all with you.

Love,

Mama