Open Letter to Desmond: 9 months

Dear Des:

You just turned 9 months old.  9 MONTHS OLD!  This means that, a year and a half ago, the day I got back from attending the APHA conference in Philadelphia (ha!  I remember!), you and I started our journey together.  It's been quite the bumpy ride with huge ups and downs.  You have taught me so much so far about myself and my relationship with you and your dad.  You've strengthened my relationship to my mother and have made it possible for me to understand what it's like to be a daily caffeine drinker (in the form of tea, not coffee.)

You have two beautiful new teeth with a space in between them like your dad.  Your hair is growing in a lot thicker and the color is still hard to explain: I swear it's khaki colored one moment and then looks like a bunch of cornsilk the next moment.  Your eyes are slightly darker brown than they were at 6 months.  You make tons of ear wax.  Like bright yellow ear wax.  I don't know how you do it.  It's gross.

You weight 18.6 lbs; 70% of that is in your head, but only because you are so smart and have a HUGE brain.  Your favorite thing to do is to clap when someone says "bravo!"  Even when you hear clapping, like on Ellen or on Oprah, you start clapping.  You love standing and walking around as someone walks, hunchbacked, behind you.  You still eat everything we put in front of you and have moved on to eating Cheerios (thanks, Grandma Donna for offering them for him).  This is the only time you'll sit on the floor: to play with the cheerios I've strewn for you.  You have graduated to sleeping in 4-5 hour blocks!  This has made such a huge difference in my day.  Thank you!

You love to laugh when someone else is laughing even though you're clueless about what's going on.  You love to reach your arms out for me and slap at my face when I pick you up.  Although the first time you started slapping me, I looked back in shock and anger, but then I saw you grinning with absolute love and adoration and have realized that you only slap me in the face because you love me (Ladies, this is the only time that it will not be considered abuse!)  You love to take baths and get super upset when I take you out.  You love splashing water everywhere in the bath and drinking the bathwater.  You grunt a lot when you want something or are upset about something, and you purse your lips and wrinkle your brow and look so funny.  One of these days, i'm going to capture it on video so that I could show you, when you grow up, how silly you were and how much we laughed at you behind your back :)

You are a lot cooler now than you were at 6 months.  We love you more and are so happy to see your silly face when we wake up in the morning.

We love you!