Dear Hadley,
Today you are nine months old. And what a busy month this has been! You are learning so much so fast, I’m having a hard time keeping track of all your accomplishments. But the big news of the month happened only this afternoon: you are officially crawling.

Crawling was such an exciting milestone, simply because you have been working on it for SO LONG. You’ve had the physical ability for awhile now, but you just didn’t know you could do it. Then you were actually doing it, but I don’t think you even realized it. You would crawl forward a few inches, but would get frustrated (or distracted) and stop to sit down, putting you further back than where you started. So today I saw you going for it and I managed to get out my phone and recorded you crawling across the hall to your sister… and the unicorn pillow pet she was using as bait.

Another thing you mastered this month was learning to use a straw. You are obsessed with water bottles and so it was only a matter of time before you finally figured out how to use one. You started by chewing on my Camelbak and once I realized you were figuring out the bite valve, I bought you your own learn-to-drink-from-a-straw sippy cup. It has a cool feature where a parent can gently squeeze the cup and brings the liquid to the top of the straw so you can taste what is inside. And that was all it took. You sucked on the straw, your eyes got really wide with glee, and that was it. You were hooked.

Another thing that makes you exceptionally happy is reading books with Daddy. Every night after bath time, you two curl up on our bed and read a few books. You get so excited, listening to your Dad reading, and touching all the textures on the pages, you can hardly contain your enthusiasm as he turns each page.

One of the things that has NOT been fun this month is teething. I still cannot see, or even feel, a single tooth, but the symptoms are certainly there. You are biting every thing you can fit in your mouth, drooling all over, and you have even spiked a few unexplained high fevers. I feel so bad when you look up at me with those sad, pleading eyes. Don’t worry, sweet girl, it will all be over soon enough.

Involving your mouth, but with much more entertainment and less pain, is you learned to stick out your tongue. It all started when we were at the Wings and Waves water park. I think you discovered the taste of chlorine on your lips and you kept darting your tongue in and out. But once we were back home (and chlorine free) you did it again while you were eating and discovered you could lick your lips. It was the cutest thing, but as it is hard to feed you with your tongue sticking out, it’s probably not the best skill to practice during meal time.

Speaking of meal time, you use to be our very predictable eater, everything we gave you you simply accepted and gobbled up. But things have changed recently. I’m sure some of it has to do with teething and some of it was the hot weather we have had, but most of it has to do with finger foods. Once you discovered you could actually feed yourself, you are less and less inclined to eat the purees we feed you on a spoon. I’m having to start getting creative with your meals to keep you happy…and fed! But as you are still a champion nurser, there isn’t any risk of you going hungry any time soon!

Aside from the teething frustration and the eating complications, you are such a happy little girl. I just love this age because every little thing is new and exciting. All we have to do is show you something you haven’t seen before and any fussing or crying screeches to a halt as you happily examine the new object. You are so content to explore the world around you and discover every little thing that it brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.

One of your favorite discoveries happened just the other day. You had woken up from your nap, and I could hear you happily chatting away in your crib, so I didn’t come pick you up right away. Then I heard a loud bang and, thinking you had somehow fallen out of your crib, I ran up the stairs to your room only to find you smiling up at me. You were having so much fun you kicked your legs and discovered you could donkey kick the wall of the crib. You kept doing it over and over and you thought it was just the funniest thing ever. In the future, I’d appreciate it if the things you get so much joy out of were things less likely to give your mama a heart attack. Thanks.

As you get bigger and stronger, your Daddy (who is in charge of the nightly bath time) has been letting you and Ana take baths together more and more. This delights you both to no end. There is very little that your sister does that does not just make you shriek with delight. And it goes both way too. It gets to the point where you are both in the tub just giggling and laughing so much I often have to come up and see just what is so funny! I am so happy that you and your sister can share these special times together…and that you occasionally let your father and I just sit back and observe.

Since you have obviously been getting quite the control over your physical abilities, we decided that you were finally ready for your very first Gymboree class. Ana, as a Gymboree “graduate,” was so excited to share it all with you and she didn’t want to miss watching you experience it all for the first time. So Daddy, Ana and I all went with you and it was every bit as amazing as we remembered. I loved watching your eyes light up with each new discovery and seeing you giggle as we sang and danced to the silly songs. I am so happy that we are able to do these fabulous things with you and help you enrich your life in ways that you can’t even begin to imagine yet.

Oh, Hadley, we have been having so much fun together, it’s hard to tie it up with a nice pretty bow. It would take a myriad of ribbons of different textures and colors to even begin to describe all the things that make you so special. All I know is that you are one amazing child and I just love that I am able to stay home with you so I don’t have to miss one single moment of watching you become the person you are going to be. Because I know that you are going to be spectacular.

All my love,
Mama