Nine Fine Months

Miss Madeleine Noelle,

Today you are nine months old. When I started making a list of the things you've learned to write in your baby book, I quickly ran out of space on my sticky note. You are a learning machine these days, mastering new skills on a daily basis. It would be impossible to pick favorites, but your monkey noise and dance moves always leave me in stitches. That and the fact that you kiss your baby doll as well as the animals and kids in your books.





Every night when your Daddy comes home from work, we're finishing up your bath, and for the next fifteen or twenty minutes you roam around the nursery naked as a jaybird. I can't say for sure, but I think these times will stand out as treasured memories years down the road: just the three of us hunkered down on the floor of your room, watching you explore and discover as you read books, climb "Daddy Mountain," and play with puzzles, all while nudey. I for one can never get enough of your beautiful rounded baby body, and for as long as you'll let me, any square inch of you is free-range smooching territory.




I can hardly believe how big you are. Looking at pictures for your monthly update I realized my baby is starting to resemble a little girl, and I'm hardly ready to let you go. When you are nursing I savor each second because when those precious minutes are over, you are well on your way to another activity, whether it's sleeping or crawling away. This month you said my name for the first time, on an airplane trip to see Grammy and Papa, and you haven't stopped calling me since. If it was hard enough to let you lie in your crib for a while upon waking or before nodding off, it is much harder now that you can penetrate my heart with "Mamaaa!"


If who you are now is any indication of the person you will be, I am so excited to see you grow and develop. Although it may make my life a little more busy, I hope I will continue to foster in you those amazing things I see now: a delightful curiousity and sense of adventure, love for and interest in creatures great and small, affection for your family and friends, joyful personality, and hilarious sense of humor.

We love you baby.

Mama

Out for a morning jog

Now that it's Fall, the morning runs require some tweaking, mostly in the form of a blanket and hat. This pink number is a genuine Costa Rican knit hat from some family friends. Cute, pink, with small fuzzy animals--the quintessential baby girl accessory.

And of course, no trip in the stroller would be complete without Turtle and his friends the plastic rings. Because a jog outside with the beautiful weather and even more beautiful scenery might just not be exciting enough.

First Haircut

Miss Maddie's hair was getting a little crazy...all different lengths on top; wispy, horizontal hair with sometimes curls to the sides; dark at the ends, light at the roots...so I took the plunge and trimmed away. It was hard to do, because let's face it, her baby hair was so sweet. But now it will hopefully grow out more evenly and get in her face less.


BEFORE













AFTER