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Happy 9 months, Madeline! Time for another letter to Maddie.

Dear Madeline,

Wow! I cannot believe that you are 9 months old today. You have now spent as much time outside of my belly as you spent inside of it. You are a happy baby these days. Your daycare teachers have commented numerous times now about how well you keep yourself entertained in the classroom. You seem to only be fussy when tired, hungry, or sick. Well…sometimes you just fuss when you don’t get your way. I’m getting a little concerned about the fits that you indicate you may pitch in the future. You can have quite the attitude, especially when we take things away from you such as the TV remote, telephone, Mommy’s work badge, and electrical cords.

You had a few firsts this month. You celebrated your first Halloween dressed as Super Girl. Unfortunately, you were quite sick for a few days leading up to Halloween and through the entire weekend afterward. Mommy and Daddy were worried about you as you had fevers exceeding 104 degrees. Yikes! The doctors assured us that you were going to be fine and that we shouldn’t be worried unless we saw temperatures of 105. You were a VERY hot baby in the middle of the night. It was hard not to be worried and feel bad for you. We really wished we could do more to make you feel better. Your pediatrician told us not to be alarmed if we saw a rash in several days, and sure enough you came down with a rash around the time that your fever broke. Turns out that you had Roseola. Just as we thought you were getting better, you became irritable and developed a fever over 102. We made yet another trip to the doctor (we took 3 after hours trips to the doctor plus several calls to the advice nurse and a call to the after hours nurse during this illness). Turns out that you had developed an ear infection, on top of everything else. Poor baby girl!

You missed several days of daycare (and Mommy missed several days of work), including Halloween day. I had planned on you wearing your Halloween costume to school. I even picked out one that would allow you to move around easily so that it wouldn’t get in your way. Your teachers didn’t seem to mind that I sent you to school on the following Monday in your Halloween costume. You were adorable, even though you started to feel bad with your ear infection during the day.

Just after your ear infection, you finally started your first official swimming lessons! We had signed up for them in September and again in October, but both times the lessons were canceled due to a lack of babies signed up for the class. When you got your ear infection, I was worried that the long awaited swim classes were in jeopardy. Fortunately, the doctor cleared you for swimming and the antibiotics work pretty fast!

You seem to love swimming classes. Your buddy Caroline has been taking lessons with you, and you’ve met a few new friends. I’m not sure you’re going to be doing any serious laps around the pool unassisted anytime soon, but you’re getting comfortable with the water and spending quality time with Mommy. You are “learning” how to float, blow bubbles, hold onto the edge of the pool, climb out of the pool, kick your legs, scoop with your hands, and push off the wall to drift. I think your favorite part is the squirty bath toys.

You were able to see both your Kentucky grandparents and your North Carolina grandparents this month. Your Kentucky grandparents came for a quick visit. They loved being able to see you and give you hugs and kisses. Unfortunately, Mommy started to feel sick while they were visiting and passed her germs to Grandma and Grandpa. You were sick with Roseola the following week as well. Hopefully, everyone will be well when we travel to Kentucky for Thanksgiving next week.

We took a short trip to Davidson to visit with your other grandparents and for a photo session. You absolutely loved Abby the dog. You smiled and giggled and watched her wag her tail around the living room. Your grandparents and Aunt Kristin keep telling us that you really want a dog for Christmas, but you’ll have to visit Abby, Nugget, and Brendon for now. We went out to an Italian restaurant where you had some tasty Italian bread and to a breakfast place where you had your first taste of pancakes. You especially LOVED the pancakes! During the weekend, you also tried some real bananas. Yum!

Your Mommy has a weakness for cute baby clothes. What can I say…you need clothes! While visiting your grandparents in Davidson, Grandma and I took you to Concord Mills. We had so much fun visiting the outlet stores of Children’s Place, Gymboree, Old Navy, Osh Kosh B’Gosh, and Stride Rite. Grandma bought a few Christmas presents for you, and I bought some cute clothes that you really needed. We also bought your first pair of “real” shoes from Stride Rite. I discovered that we’re going to be quite thankful for the Stride Rite outlet with half price shoes — real shoes are pricey! The new shoes are very cute, and you seem to like them.

I think your new shoes are helping you with your stability when standing and cruising. You are getting so fast with your crawling, and you cruise along the furniture with ease. You think it is hilarious if we crawl after you. Sometimes you let go of the furniture and stand for a few seconds by yourself. I don’t think that you have realized that you can do this yet. You have even stood up in the middle of the room from a squatting position, though I haven’t seen you do it yet – your teachers have seen it several times. Sometimes we will set you in a standing position and let go, and you can stand for several seconds before deciding to sit. We applaud you greatly, but I’m pretty sure you don’t know why it’s such a big deal. Speaking of us getting excited, you have started waving! You did it for the first time last Friday and appropriately waved about half a dozen different times throughout the day. Mommy was so proud of your cute baby self! Since then, you have not been as interested in waving. I guess you grew bored of performing that trick and will do it again when you feel like it. You explore little details with your pointer finger, and you usually have it in the ready position prompting us to say, “you’re #1!” You have possibly done this in other months, but you are definitely raising your arms when you want us to pick you up. Very cute.

You participated in a bit of history this month. Barack Obama was elected as our 44th president, and North Carolina became a blue state! You went with Mommy and Daddy to vote early, and you woke up just in time to watch his victory speech on the night of the election. I guess you didn’t want to miss this exciting moment! You soon decided that politics were not for you (even the talk of a new puppy in the White House was not enough), and you demanded to be taken to bed. You have pretty much the same schedule you have had for the past few months – you go to bed sometime between 8:30 and 9:30 and sleep 2 or 3 hours before joining us in our bed for the rest of the night. This arrangement seems to be working out pretty well (most nights) for all of us.

The temperatures really took a dip this month, and we bought you a bunting (it’s basically a baby snowsuit) and a winter coat last night. Both are very cute! I hope that you will share in your Mommy’s excitement for the Fall colors someday, but for now you seem to be pretty interested in leaves. You want to eat them most of the time, but you also like to study them intently.

We have had a busy month, and the next few months will likely be quite busy with the holidays. We are looking forward to experiencing the holidays this year with a brand new perspective. We are very excited about starting traditions with you and all the fun things that we want to share with you. We love you more and more every day. I just love watching you explore and discover the world. You’re such a happy baby and such a joy.

Love,
Mommy

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Posted by kerry on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 9:38pm.
Categories: life.