Month Nine

Dear Ela,

The great explorations of your baby-hood continued with earnest during your ninth month. Though not technically crawling yet, you still manage to cover a lot of ground! You do lots of scooting to the side by manuevering from your bottom to your hands and back again, and you love to move backward in a crawling position. You do a great plank and a yoga-style downward dog. It's just amazing to leave the world of a stationary baby and begin to enter the realm of the mobile child.

Hanging at the Children's Museum with Nate, Liam, and other friends.

Our biggest event this month happened right at your nine-month birthday -- you and I took a trip to New Mexico to visit your aunt, uncle, and cousins. Your cousins were SO happy to see you, and spent a ton of time playing with you on the living room floor.

With cousins Denae, Jayden, and Nathan.

We also went to a playgroup with other sangha moms and babies. I know that these are kids you'll know throughout your childhood. I can't wait to watch you all grow up together! 

Turiya, Veda, Jagadish, Satori, Ela, Bodhi, and Ashwin.

And, of course, we love our friends in the 'hood oh-so-much. You first met your neighborhood buddies when you were two months old, and it's very clear that you have a relationship with each of them (both the moms and the babies). One of my favorite things as a momma is watching babies play together.

With Jill and Declan.

You take great joy in eating -- you definitely take after your mom! You're starting to shift your preferences away from green vegetables and more toward proteins like meat, but your absolute favorite things to eat are bing cherries and crushed ice. You don't have any teeth yet, but it's amazing what you can do with your gums!

Homemade mac & cheese with arugula.

 Even though you love to eat, you also still love to nurse. So do I.

At the farmers' market.

At Lucky Pie.

Our first Father's Day was a lot of fun. We gave your daddy a songbook (since he loves playing music with you on the guitar) and some bath toys (since he almost always gives you your bath). Oh, and we gave him peanut M&Ms, and didn't even give him a hard time about eating them for breakfast!

Getting harder and harder to photograph a moving target...

Morning snooze.

Visiting Grandpa Grumpy.

Snuggling with Eeyore.

 I know that we're right on the cusp of you crawling, and that feels a bit like waiting to jump off a cliff. I know there will be many, many more cliffs to jump off together as you grow -- and after we jump, we'll soar. I love you, my little explorer.

Love,

Momma