letter to baby

Dear Baby Owen,

8 months old, pushing 9 months, and so now I find myself pinning ideas on Pinterest for your first birthday.  How did we get here so fast??!!

You still have no interest on being on your belly, but I feel like you'll probably be a little butt scooter, unless all the other kids in your daycare convince you otherwise.  Because the majority of the kids are around the same age, give or take a few weeks, you all hit the same milestones about the same time, which makes it super fun for your teachers.  Imagine all the fun they experienced a couple weeks ago when about 5 of you cut teeth at exactly the same time.

Luke and I are trying to get you to pull up so you can play on your activity table.  You're not quite sure how to balance yourself on those little legs of yours quite yet, so I hold you up in case you try to fall forward and hit your nose on the table.  You love any play time you can get with Luke.  He likes to come up to you and pretend to sneeze, and you crack up.  You think that's the funniest thing you've ever heard!  Your dad and I love listening and watching to you two play.  Luke is pretty anxious for you to get bigger.  The other day he got mad because you're too little to play and drive the jeep with him.

You have cut both bottom two teeth and it has been hard.  You are not an easy teether and let it be known that you are in pain.  It breaks our heart, but it's a necessary evil.  And because you still nurse (trust me, I've tried to wean you), when you're done, you've started biting me with those sharp little teeth and it.is.not.funny.  OUCH!  And on top of biting me, you pull my hair, pinch my arms and scratch my neck while I'm rocking you to sleep.  Last night I just couldn't take it anymore and laid you down in your bed, turned your mobile on and called it a night.  You finally gave up the ghost and fell asleep.  Maybe we have ourselves a new nighttime routine.

You're on your 3rd ear infection, this time it's a double ear infection, and so we're going to see one of the doctors I worked for during my externship to talk about tubes.  I hope that after we get tubes you'll start sleeping better.  When we stayed at M and Pa's the other night you were up for 3 hours refusing to sleep.  I finally woke up M and told her I was getting your brother up and driving us home.  She sent me to bed and rocked you to sleep, slept in the room with you and was a true blessing for letting me get 2 hours of sleep before you got up again to nurse.

We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa during your dad's birthday weekend and had a great time.  Next year, you'll be old enough to go to the baseball game with grandpa, dad and Luke.  You were a good traveler!  We're planning a vacation so I hope you'll continue to travel well :)

We love you little man.
Mom and Dad