Nine Months

Dear Leah:

You are now nine months old, and have spent as much time in the world as you spent preparing to make your debut.  Every day now we have had you a little bit longer than you birthmother did, and we think of her a lot and with gratitude for the wonderful little gift she gave us: you.

What a month you have had!  You have been extremely busy.  Each day I wake up and I think, “I wonder what Leah will learn today?” and you never fail to surprise me.  You said your first words this month, “Mama” and “Papa” and seemed to know exactly what you were talking about with each of them.  The random babbling has at least two elements that are special and mean us!  What joy that brought to us.

You also started to crawl this month.  You are getting stronger and better at it every day, and I have to control the impulse to still pick you up and put you next to whatever it is you are indicating that you want.  You know very well how to get there on your own, even if it is sometimes easier just to scream while we try to figure it out.

You also grew 3 new teeth!  WOW!  And they all came in at once.  You have two on the top and four on the bottom now.  It’s amazing.  For a while we thought maybe you’d just have 3 teeth forever, but now you’ve doubled the number!  It was rough going, but you managed.

This month also marked your first Christmas.  You had lots of visitors and lots of presents and made the time a lot of fun.  Thanks to your Cioci, we were able to make prints of your feet, so we will always be able to look back on how small you were, even though right now you seem to be growing like a weed!  Some of your favorite Christmas presents were the sound stage (you gaze at yourself adoringly in the mirror, it’s so cute!), the xylophone, and all your pretty new clothes.  You also received a special ornament from Nana, the first in what will be a collection.  It is hard to imagine that someday you will leave us to have your own Christmas celebrations, but you will be able to take your ornaments with you for your own tree and each one will be a special memory.

You also got a taste of the snow this past month when we had a big blizzard.  We were trapped in the house for 2 days, but you were a constant source of entertainment.  We strapped you into your snowsuit and put you out in the snow to see what you’d do, but you didn’t appear to like it!  Then we took you around with us to see all the neighbors and give out Christmas treats.  You loved absolutely everyone, playing with adults and kids alike, and so many people since have told us what a good little angel you are.  We know, but it’s sure nice to hear it from other people!

We’ve also let you try lots of different foods this month and you are certainly very adventurous when it comes to eating.  Your current favorites seem to be pickles and celery, although you are also fond of lemons.  Jarred food is OK, although you get mad because I won’t let you play in it up to your elbows.  You still love sweet potatoes and applesauce, but have started trying some meat and like beef and turkey just fine.  You still hate green beans.  You are also not terribly fond of the pasta blends.  It’s OK, you take after your father in that regard!

Leah, I wish I could put into words how much we love you.  There are days we look at you and our eyes just well with tears about how fortunate we are to have you in our lives.  You are a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day, a true joy to all who know you, our every hope and wish come true.  I wish I could hold you forever in my arms, sweet girl, you are exactly the child we dreamed of when we decided to adopt.  You are growing so fast, it’s impossible to believe how quickly all this growing is taking place!  Looking back on old photos, I can’t believe that baby is now the baby in front of me.  We’re with you every step of the way, from here to forever.

All our love,

Mama and Papa