dear baby,

you are 7.5 months old going on 7.5 years old! We can't believe how much you've grown! It was like yesterday that I gave birth and you were just a teeny baby in my arms. I look at myself holding you now, and I'm holding this bright-eyed, bouncy, squirmy, wriggly, KID! The cliche is true...it just gets better and better. You are so much fun and the light of our lives. All that to say, you must know that your momma and daddy think you are crazy. You definitely have one BiG personality, and are the quirkiest baby. You have been kicking and squirming (and jumping i believe) since you were 20 gestation weeks old. You were standing and bearing weight at 2 weeks old and started jumping soon after. Jumping is still your favorite thing to do. Your calf muscles are huge. In fact they may be the only big thing about you...you are still very much a little pip-squeak, but you pack a lot of punch.

You are NOT a cuddler! oh no. As much as I struggle with you to hold you down and get a hug or a cuddle out of you, you are just way more interested in everything going on around you. You have always been super alert and don't want to miss a thing. You never stop. Even while falling asleep, I can still feel your little hands going and going untill you finally pass out. When I'm feeding you, you never just lay quietly and eat. You wriggle and squirm the entire time. You used to wind up your free arm as far back as it would go, and let it fly like a slingshot and smack me wherever it would land. I have battlewounds all over my arms and chest from your grabby fingers. You need to be constantly grabbing and playing with something.

Ok, this is weird, but your new thing is finding your way into my armpit and grabbing my skin and twisting it. You do this everytime...the things I let you do... In fact, I'd say one of your talents is being able to pull skin up off anywhere on your dad's and my bodies (even the neck) and twisting it. How do you do it? Your other weird thing is that you don't like anyone to touch your hands. You pull them away whenever anyone tries to hold them. Forget trying to teach you how to clap. That's a losing battle. You WILL let me hold them when we sing "itsy bitsy spider" though. What is it about this song that you love? You know it so well that the instant I grab your hands and start to sing it, you become still, watch me sing, let me do the hand motions with you, and then somehow you KNOW to stand up everytime the sun comes out...without fail.

All I know is that I am in trouble. What am I going to do with you when you become mobile? How will I harness all this energy?

You are so happy all the time! We have people come up to us all the time to tell us how happy and smiley you are. You have a smile for almost anyone willing to make a funny face at you. Your laugh is the best. It cracks me up. You think I am super funny for some reason...even when I don't do anything to make you laugh. (I give you the hiccups when I actually try to make you laugh because I can get you laughing so hard). When I come home from work and you haven't seen me all day, the moment you see me, you give me a huge belly laugh. It's the highlight of my day. Your dad wishes he had that kind of power over you. what can I say? :)

Other things you like are: to spit and blow bubbles, play with tags, shake your hands and grunt when you want something, play with your fufu (pacifier), throw your fufu, and play with your daddy's chest hair.

We haven't begun to feed you solid food yet, but I know you are chomping (literally) at the bit to have us start. Your momma and daddy have learned a lot about nutrition from a wonderful, wholistic, naturalpathic doctor. We really wanted to wait until you started to get your first tooth, but that toofy is taking too long! So we are going to give you your first foods this week! We really want you to get wholesome nutrition and to avoid any allergies, so we're committed to making all of your food homemade and as organic as possible. And we're going to feed you only fruits and vegetables for the next few months untill your body is ready and capable of handling meats/dairy/gluten. We hope to set up these same food values in you as you grow up.

We've also been cloth diapering you since you were about 1 month old. I was a bit shaky on this at first - as you chose me to be the person you peed on everytime, but your daddy and I have totally gotten the hang of it, and are so glad we chose to do this with you! I am happy we made this choice with every single diaper change. Plus, you'll be happy to know that you have never had a single diaper rash...which I whole heartedly tribute to your cloth diapers. I don't even mind the huge butt they give you. Besides, it kindof helps to hold up your pants for the time being.

Sleeping is our long ongoing battle with you. You have never been a great nighttime sleeper. You have been waking up a couple times per night to eat for months now. I'm pretty tired. I am thankful that your daddy helps me every night by bringing you to me and then taking you back to your crib when you're done eating...thankfully you fall right back asleep. We're pretty sure you aren't doing this out of habit but are just a little tiny thing, and need the extra calories at night to get you through. You have always had trouble with spitting up a bunch of your food during the day, so you don't always get all the calories you need while you are awake. I'm secretly hoping that starting solids will help you sleep better. But, wise advise I've been given over and over is, "this too shall pass", and even though I'm sometimes a bear at 3:00am, I look at you with such love, and am willing to do anything for you.

This past year has been the most amazing, most challenging, most incredible year of my life. It's hard to put into words everything I feel and think and know and love about you. Your daddy and I lovingly call you "crazy", but in fact we're the crazy ones, we're crazy in love with you...with everything from your funny little quirks to your blonde, fuzzy, chicky hair. You are now and will always be our 'little lolo'...

love,
momma and daddy