Dear Dylan,
You walk! Okay, the rest of you is pretty amazing, too, but I’m just sort of in shock every time you walk towards me with your arms out and your huge smile on. You started cruising in January, and now you just take off here and there, so excited to go, go, go. We’ve taken some trips together, too, you and me. Back at Thanksgiving we flew to Iowa for a weekend, then in February we went to Blissdom, and last weekend we road tripped to hang out with some of my friends in Chattanooga. You love the change of pace, and I love spending that time with you.
Okay, it’s true, I love all the time we spend together.
Just today, Joshua looked around your stairs play area and said to me, “You guys just hang out here all day, huh?” I mentioned that we play outside and hang out in the kitchen with him and go to the store and so on. But also, yes. We just chill out and hang out all day. This is my life. This is your life. Those are the same thing right now, and we seem to be having a nice time of it.
Your favorite books are “What Do Penguins Do?” and “What Do Sheep Do?” I don’t even have to have the book handy. I can just recite the lines to you in that way that I do, and your face lights up with recognition. Sometimes I change up the words of the sheep book to match the reality of our own sheep. Sometimes I call you a sheep because when we’re outside you’ll often end up with a mouth full of clover.
You don’t make talking sounds much. You still do your zombie growl sometimes. Your sweetest sounds are when you’re super tired, and little coos and babbles fall gently out of you while you wiggle around and try to fall asleep.
I adore every single moment we have together, even the ones with way too much poop in way too many places. I love feeding you and sleeping with you the best. I love pictures of you, and I wish there were more pictures of the two of us. But, our sweetest moments are the ones that can never appear in photos. Yesterday, you crawled over to me and rested your head on my belly as I lay on the floor, and a peace passed between us, and I wished I could capture the moment forever. Something else will have to capture it, though, not a photograph but something deep inside me instead.
I read somewhere that parents don’t make eye contact as often with boy babies. Especially when you’re nursing, I like to gaze into your eyes. At first I found it a little awkward, wondering what kind of expression to have, so I started talking to you, too. I say, “I love you so much. You are so important.” I repeat those sentences a couple of times, and then you giggle and pop off, and we laugh together and I tell you I love you some more.
Because I do. Unwaveringly. Wholly.
I love you.
I love Joshua, and I love you. I love our house and our land, our pigs, chickens, ducks, and sheep. I love our truck and our two cats. We’re having a really good time, and I’m ever so happy that you’ve joined us here.
Read Dylan: 9 Months Old on LoveLiveGrow and leave your comments.