Dear sweetie,

I know this letter is a couple days weeks late, but I was faced with the choice of spending time with you or writing to you… and frankly there was no comparison — I’ll pick hanging with you every time. So let’s just pretend I posted it on time, okay?

Today you are seven months old! Last month was huge for you developmentally and socially. Here’s the lowdown:

You started eating solid foods. We’re not sure if you dig bananas, butternut squash, banana or avocado yet, but you certainly like eating with us and feeding yourself with your spoon.

You love to suck on strings, ribbons and washcloths.

Everything goes into your mouth. I am constantly repeating, “books are for reading not for eating.”

You have gotten very, very, very good at turning book pages. Sometimes I think you only like story time for the physical activity of page turning.

You sit for hours on your own and rarely fall over or backwards. We’ve banished the boppy.

At six months old you learned to crawl though it took you over two weeks to realize what you were doing exactly. We think you now understand that you can crawl to get places (like towards the kitchen from the living room when I was making Daddy and I breakfast this morning).

You drop from standing to sitting and move from lying down to sitting easily. You are constantly trying to roll over and/or sit up during diaper changes. Now that is what we call fun.

You stand beautifully now with support (i.e. holding on to one of our fingers). You can also pull/push yourself up to standing with one hand… we’ve caught you standing up on her own without any support a few times now too.

You are just starting to cruise the furniture though you’ve taken just a few steps so far.

You are constantly doing the downward facing dog yoga pose. You look extra cute with your tushy pointing up.

You like to feeds yourself solid foods; you’re so not interested in us feeding you. Plus you get to chew and suck on the spoon when you feed yourself. SO much fun.

You are dropped the baby fat and quickly becoming a lean, muscular, constantly moving machine.

You are making all sorts of new sound combinations. This week you are very into ah-ba, ba-ba-ba, wah-wah-wah, ah-ah-ah.

You are fascinated with children and dogs. Adults are pretty cool too, but you LOVE kids and puppies.

Our pediatrician was very impressed with you and told us that you’re about six months of ahead of schedule developmentally. Taking after your Daddy! No pressure to continue on this advanced pace though. We love you no matter what.

And the big news — you now nurse to sleep! THANK YOU, sweetie! We so appreciate it. It’s so much easier cuddling with you while you eat yourself to sleep than rocking you to sleep. Even if you like to crawl onto your tummy to eat (when we’re lying down). Evidently this is the new comfy position. We need to get a picture of it. You have to see it to believe it.

You also quite frequently fall asleep in the car.

You are SO cute!

We love you!

Love, Mama

Dear Miss Leyba,

Oh my goodness, you are half a year old already! I can’t believe it. In 18 years you’ll be heading off to college. The time is flying by.

Month six has been all about movement. In the last few weeks you’ve morphed from a squishy, soft baby to a very muscular young lady with places to go and things to see. In fact, you converted so much baby fat to muscle in the first half of the month that we started bringing back clothes we had already packed away because they had been too small.

Then you hit your 6 month growth spurt and I’m happy to report that your beautiful, gigantic cheeks are back! (and those 3-6 month t-shirts are packed up again.) Your outfits are still super baggy, but you’re filling them out a bit more every day. Way to go, my voracious eater!

Here’s what you’ve been up to this month:

You can now sit beautifully by yourself. You are also very close to being able to sit up by yourself from lying on your back and you sit up fairly easily when you push up from your side. You like to go from sitting up to the crawling position too.

You are constantly trying to crawl, rocking back and forth on your hands and knees. You scoot yourself backwards around the house on your tummy; so far, you have only ventured around the living room on your own. We know it’s only a matter of time until you’ll be cruising the joint.  We really need to baby proof the house as we didn’t realize just how much baby proofing would be needed until we saw how you reach for everything we touch and will put anything in your mouth.

You love standing up by yourself and only need minimal support from us now so you don’t fall over. You are incredibly proud of yourself for this achievement and give us giant, toothless grins while you’re standing. It’s adorable. You have every right to be proud! What a momentous achievement! Now stop growing up so fast; I can’t take it.

This month you’ve been expanding your vocabulary and love to chat with us. You still are very quiet in public and mainly just talk to daddy and I, but sometimes you surprise us and chat it up with total strangers. For the most part, you are speaking gobbletgoop, but you frequently mimic what we say. You’ve repeated “meow” (once!) and mimic the intonation of things like “hi” after me… we’re still holding out for mama and dada! I listen carefully to everything you say and are ready for you to astonish me with those big words.

We still read together, but now you have less patience for long books, so we mostly stick to “baby books” with just a few words on each page so you can practice turning the pages and, of course, eating the book. Everything goes in your mouth!

You are tremendously fascinated by food and reach for what we’re eating. We haven’t given you any solid foods yet; we’re holding out as long as we can on that. Now that you are six months old we plan to introduce all sorts of yummy vegetables and fruits to you.

You reach for, toss, and drop your toys. Over and over again. I like seeing you make choices and develop preferences. (Of course, I can say this NOW.)

And you enjoy riding in your jogging stroller.

Of course, you enjoy it even more when our runs are over and we hold you, but we really can’t blame you for that.

We’ve been hanging out together for 15 months now. It’s been such fun. Happy Half Birthday, sweetie!

Love, Mama

Baby in the mirror from Carrie on Vimeo.

Hi sweetie,

You’ve had such a big month. It has been a whirlwind June of physical developments: standing, sitting, rolling over, and crawling. You chat nonstop to Dad and I and have just recently started talking to other people too. You smile at everyone and love being out and about. Your hands are constantly in your mouth and you love sucking on your toes (sometimes both big toes at once). You are so much fun. We love you so much!

It’s amazing that you are five months old! Keep growing healthy and strong. We are here loving and supporting you.

Love, Mama

Dear daughter,

Here are some things I forgot to mention last week.

You love to grab hair, noses, eyebrows, mouths, clothing. You are very into sticking your fingers in our mouths.

You are constantly sticking out your tongue! It’s adorable.

You’ve found your voice. Oh, you love to shout! You are amazingly loud. Lots of shrieking going on over at our house. You are so proud of yourself and we are proud of you too.

You love Shrek. When it’s late and you’re very over tired and your gums are hurting and you’re completely inconsolable, we’ll turn on a children’s movie. So far Shrek is the only one you’ve been interested in (though you seem somewhat interested in ballet, as well as the documentary Coral Reef Adventure). Dad and I aren’t thrilled about the movie choice (and we’re getting awfully tired of it), but we’re glad it distracts you enough to stop the hysterical crying and get you to sleep. Everything in moderation.

Your new activity: climb across, over and down us. You just love to wiggle and look around. You move towards and reach for your toys now too. Touching, banging books and turning pages is especially fun and fascinating to you.

You love it when we hold you facing outward. So much to see! We need to break out the Moby Wrap and try tying you in so you face outwards. I think it will be a big hit.

You like seeing all the mamas and babies at our yoga class. On Tuesday you spent most of the class on your tummy (or wanting me to hold you) watching everyone and everything. You were captivated. We’ll have to keep going for the social time (since Mama is now starting her running training and thinking about taking an Ashtanga yoga class rather than the more slow paced Iyengar)…

More soon!

Love, Mama

Dear sweetie,

You are such a happy girl. You spend your days smiling, chatting, and laughing with me. We have so much fun together.

This month you:

• Always have your fingers in your mouth (your hands are perpetually soggy!).
• Greet Daddy with a huge smile when he gets home from work at lunchtime. (Yep, he still works from home every afternoon; you love it! How lucky are we?!)
• Love love love bath time. And now get really upset when bath time is over.
  
• Enjoy trips around the lake at the park out in the stroller.
• Love watching older kids, especially when they crawl or eat.
• Smile at strangers–especially ladies–and then shyly burrow your head into Mama or Dad (whoever is carrying you).
• Find the concept of Mama using the potty, brushing her teeth, and putting in her contacts truly fascinating (and frequently funny).
• Wear mostly 9 and 12 month sized clothes and already weigh more than your mama did when she was one year old. We are so glad you are so healthy (and haven’t gotten sick yet!).
  
• Roll over from your back to your tummy at every opportunity. Even when you’re exhausted and don’t really want to be there.
• Play with your feet, especially when they are barefoot. Evidently your toes are so delicious.
• Have so many new friends. It’s been a very social month for us.
  
• Talk to us. (We love it!) You talk and talk and talk all day long, but only to us, not to anyone else yet. After a very quiet play date or yoga class or trip to Whole Foods (when you are just absorbing everything around you and completely silent), you then babble nonstop to Daddy and I telling us all about it.
• Really discovered how to giggle. It’s a frequent sound around here nowadays and it warms our hearts.
• Have tried so very hard to crawl.
  
  

Our days together consist of us reading, singing, playing with blocks or books or feet or toys, going for a walk (usually with Daddy), having tummy time, practicing sitting up, kissing and hugging and holding each other tight, napping, smiling, and chatting. We also love to tickle you and make you smile. You’ve just recently discovered the joy of sitting on Daddy’s shoulders. I think if it were up to you, you’d be up there all the time.

We love that in the morning when you wake up, you look over at Daddy and me and smile. We feel so glad that you start your day happy and glad to see us, because we both love you so tremendously and are so happy to be with you. You are our sweet, sweet girl and you’re growing up so fast.

Love, Mama

Dear Miss Leyba,

Today you turn 3 months old or 13 weeks or 1/4 of a year! I wanted to throw you a birthday party since a bunch of friends were coming over anyway, but Daddy put his foot down. He’s so practical. I guess we’ll have to wait until January to really celebrate! (I’m already thinking about party themes! Just you wait.)

You’ve had such a big month. You can do all sorts of new things like roll from your back to your side to your tummy; have raspberry (zerbert) conversations with us (sometimes from across the room!); grasp everything (hair, noses, clothing, toys); and chewing on your fist (or mama’s shoulder or hand) is THE thing to do. You also love to drool. And be read to. And make funny faces together. You get so excited when I sign and sing to you. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a big hit in our house right now.

Your personality is really starting to come through now that you are trying to communicate with us. You smile frequently and just started to really laugh (especially when I blow on your tummy or give you tons of kisses). You still are often serious, especially when we are out and about; then you quietly watch intently. You show your frustration now, most frequently when you are trying to crawl but can’t quite get it. I hate to say it, but that frustrated whimper of yours is so sweet.

I think you are so fun, engaging, and darling. Next to your dad, you are my very favorite person. I can’t get enough of you. I feel so lucky to be home with you every single day. And I love knowing and feel so thankful for the fact that I won’t be going back to work anytime soon. I am all yours, sweetie. I am truly blessed.

I love you so much.

Love, Mama

Dear Miss Leyba,

At the beginning (left) of the month with Daddy after a bath and today with Chelsea at the playground

You are now two months old and you can do so many things!

You love to smile and occasionally laugh. You constantly babble and chime in (especially when mama and daddy are having a conversation); coo, squeal, and gurgle; draw out vowel sounds especially gah and coo; and cry differently for different needs. You also occasionally interact and talk to your stuffed animals.

You stretch your limbs all the way out, especially when doing yoga with dad (every morning); hold your head up for several minutes while one your tummy; hold your head very steady when held and hardly ever put your head down when you’re awake and we’re holding you; roll from your back to your side; and you have discovered your feet and can now grasp your toes.

Your vision is much improved. You now hold eye contact; track objects with your eyes; stare at us and our bookshelves (you’re no longer interested in the black and white pattern on the ceiling); and you’ve discovered looking at the pictures while we read to you (though you frequently prefer watching us read).

You make sweeping reaches with your arms towards objects (like books) and people, especially towards mama when you want to nurse (you recently started hitting me in your sleep to let me know that you are ready to be fed). You unfold your hands, which are now frequently open and inviting; briefly hold rattles; and frequently grasp onto us and our clothing.

You almost always sleep through the night now, letting me know that you need to breastfeed without even waking up. This especially amazes Dad and I. Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep through the night with you soon (ha!).

Every day you grow by leaps and bounds. Your dad and I are so proud of you. We can’t wait to see what you learn and discover in month three!

Love, Mama