9 months!

Dear Gus,

Our Baby Boy is getting big! You are nine months old and officially you have been out of the womb as long as you were in. I can tell you that the last nine months have gone by so much faster than the nine you spent in my belly!

We are enjoying every minute of your development. You seem to be doing new things each day. We received this email from Mrs. Cummings, the director at daycare.

Your son Gus is moving all over the room. He is doing great. I will like your permission to have him interact daily with other children in infant one, who are at or above his developmental level. Infant one will provide him with more space and activities to stimulate all developmental areas, while providing him with opportunities to stand and walk. The teachers in infant one will observe Gus's behavior, which will determine when he is ready to make a complete transition over. When he is awake he will spend all of his time interacting in infant one and only return to his original room for nap time. I will also like your permission for Gus to participate in music classes in the Toddler classroom at the beginning of March. The music teacher comes in every Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and the toddlers participates in a very interactive class. If you agree, I will like him to begin participating in structured and unstructured activities in infant one beginning this week. Have a great evening.

Thank You

Mrs. Cummings

So of course this made Dad and I very excited for you and we agreed! What we did not expect was that after one day you made the full transition to Infant One. The next thing we knew all your stuff was moved and you are now in that room. Most kids do not move into that room until 10 months, but since you are a crawling manic, you need some room to do so and this room is much bigger! It was sort of bitter sweet for mommy because I became quite fond of all your girlfriends (caregivers) in the Infant room. You loved Ms. Cheryl, Ms Veronica, Ms Ana and Ms. Tammy! Well this is the way life is kiddo, change happens and you need to embrace it (or maybe that is just a reminder for me). Daddy and I thought you would take a couple of weeks to get transitioned but when I came to pick you up they called you the social butterfly and you took to the new room like flies on ….oops this should be “G” rated, I mean bees on honey. It helped that some of your old buddies were in there like Maya, Devin, Jake and Abby (your secret love).

One thing that we knew from the time you were 4 months old was that your physical development was awesome. I think you may start to walk soon. You are pulling yourself up on everything and you can now transfer from one thing to another. You love to pull up on the couch and then cross over to the cube. I caught you standing straight up on your own holding nothing the other day. Once you realized what you were doing you plopped down and started crying. It was a little scary. I think once you get over that fear-look out world Gus is going to start walking!

Dad had a big birthday this month and later this year mom will celebrate a big birthday too. One thing we reflected on this new year is that life goes by fast and with you in our lives it makes us realize that we need to slow down and enjoy life. Before we know it you will be a teenager! All the little things you do enrich our lives so much. From waving hello and goodbye to blowing mommy kisses, you touch our hearts everyday and remind us of what is important! I am so proud of you Gus and pray and hope that we give you the tools and confidence that you will need to be a happy person.

Happy 9 months!

Love,

Mommy

8-almost 9 month Letter

Dear Gus

Happy 8-8/12 month Birthday! Mommy was a bit busy this month so this letter is a little late. But I have so much to write about! My first bit of news is that not only are you crawling you are doing so at record speeds! Once you got the hang of this you took off. This has made Mom and Dad very nervous. We have to watch you like a hawk! Even the girls at Daycare commented to me on how they constantly have to have an eye on you. You now can tuck your butt under and blast off down our hallway.

All this crawling around makes you extremely hungry and you have taken to eating us out of house and home. We feed you 3 full meals a day and you have several snacks in between. Cheerios and Cherry Puffs are your absolute favorite! I started to make your food for you. At first this seemed very intimidating for mommy but once I got started it was very easy. You have enjoyed homemade sweet potatoes, acorn squash, butternut squash, green beans, zucchini, black beans, broccoli, asparagus, apples and pears. I still buy some fruits and things to send to daycare. The food is so good, I have caught daddy finishing off your applesauce. You are starting to really like proteins and are now eating chicken, turkey, lentils etc. I am proud to say that you are our son and like your food just as much as mommy and daddy do. We took you to Osteria and fed you veal meatballs and you were nuts over them! I really enjoy introducing new flavors to you there are so much more to come!!!!

Another new development is your relationship with Roxie has grown. At first when you started crawling she was terrified of you. If you motioned towards her she would run away. Now she has gotten used to it and thinks you want to play and likes to interact with you. She will let you pet her, crawl under her and this morning you were rubbing her belly with Daddy. It was so fun to watch.

You celebrated your first Christmas! You enjoyed every minute of it. We took you to see Santa at the Mall which was quite the experience. One hour and half later you were able to sit on his lap. You did not cry once! Daddy became a true believer in Santa this year. When Santa called you over he said “Come over here Gus! Augustus Woodrow” Both Mommy and Daddy had a look of shock on our faces, we never told Santa your full name and we could not believe he pulled the name from Lonesome Dove, which is exactly who you (Augustus part) were named after. Needless to say Daddy and Santa bonded and both reveled in their love of Lonesome Dove. Santa said he always wanted to name his son Augustus, but he and Mrs. Claus never had a boy. You smiled big on his lap. See the picture below.

On Christmas Eve you woke up with a very special gift, your very first tooth! Yep it finally came through, all that drooling and crankiness had a reason. That night we went to Mimi and Papas and my whole family was there. You hung in there like a trooper and stayed up 4 hours past your normal bedtime. Santa came and you sat on his lap, however you were more interested in the bows and wrapping paper but it was still fun. Everyone was so generous with gifts! On Christmas morning you opened your stocking to find some little gifts from Santa. Then we skyped with the Bell family on our computer. We were able to see everyone via the web camera and we opened presents together. It was super fun! We had a very special holiday with you and will never forget it.

This month we had our first evaluation at Daycare. Mommy and Daddy we so proud afterwards! They said that you are a very social child, that normally kids are your age can interact with other kids for short periods of time, but you want to interact for longer periods of time. Gus, physically you amaze us. They said you are so strong and are even pulling yourself up and your legs are super strong so standing is not a problem. You are very good at recognizing people and you can even say Mama and Dada to the right person. We need to work on getting you to hold a bottle, using the sippy cup and work on those fine motor skills.

You are currently learning how to give kisses and you love to hug. So a big hug and kiss to my Gusser! I love you so much!

Love,

Mommy