Ninth Month

Dear Sarah,

The past month has been the most enjoyable month that we've spent with you yet. Aside from the late night teething incidents and separation anxiety tantrums, you are much easier to deal with than before.

Your favorite past time is playing on the floor. You haven't quite mastered crawling. Instead, you've improvised your own technique. You get on all fours and then roll into the sitting position. From there, you push yourself back onto all fours in the direction that you want to go. Although this doesn't seem like the most efficient method of transporting yourself, it's proven to get you exactly where you want to go. So, where do you want to go? To the most dangerous areas of the house, of course. If you can smash your fingers or bang your head there, it will be the only place for you.

On the language front, you're still very excited by the dog's barking and to your dad's distress are trying very hard to imitate them. You still say "mama" a lot, but I don't think you're talking to me when you say it. Just this morning, you got very excited when you saw the garbage truck, and you started screaming "mama' at it. Either that's an indication that I need to shower a bit more often or (I hope) that you haven't quite gotten what the word means. There is one word that your dad and I swear you have said - Lola. A few days ago, she stood outside the front door and you looked at her and said what sounded just like Lola. This has happened more than once. You haven't called anything else Lola - even the trash truck, and if anything around here smells like a trash truck, it's her.

You still like all of the little songs that I sing to you (sadly, this probably means that you don't have an ear for proper tone and pitch), but you have a new song that makes you squirm and scream with delight - the Jeopardy theme song. Every night at 7 o'clock, we turn on the television. You sit mesmerized watching the answers revealed in blue and white. When the music comes on, especially for Final Jeopardy, you completely lose it. It's like those clips of the girls weeping for Elvis. Drooling, wiggling, delirious - you are a Jeopardy groupie!

Other fascinations now include balloons and pigeons. When you see a balloon, you make a distinct grunting noise. I had never noticed how many balloons are out in the world. They are everywhere, and you don't miss one! The world also seems to be over-populated with pigeons. Whenever you see one, you try to call it to you with a loud scream. This hasn't proven to be the best way to get one to come to you, but don't worry. Someday, they'll realize that you probably have Cheerios in your pants, and you won't be able to keep them away.

Speaking of Cheerios, you can't get enough of them. You are all about feeding yourself now. Pieces of tortilla, bagels and teething biscuits are all much better than anything that comes off of a spoon - except for rice cereal. That is about the only thing that you'll consistently eat from a spoon. All of the other stuff is hit and miss. I think it's that you really like putting the little tops of the two bottom front teeth that you have poking out to use and a spoon with pureed baby food just doesn't let you do that.

So, now you entertain yourself, feed yourself, and constantly amuse us. Life with you has never been better. Let's skip the walking, tantrums, and teenage years. Don't change a bit. Stay as you are right now - except for the potty training, let's get on that one right away.

Love,
your mama

Here you are on your way to smash your fingers.