Dear Annabelle,

Yesterday you turned nine months old. You are now 8 inches longer than the day you were born. I noticed your height the other day when your legs were hanging over my lap. I remembered how much smaller you used to fit into my arms. Even though you are 27 inches high you are only taller than 25% of babies your age. You weigh 16 pounds and 10 ounces. Your grandma, aunt, and great grandmother were all petite ladies and the rest of us ladies are all of average height. I am afraid you don’t have any chance at being tall. Its nice for me, because you still fit in some of your six month clothes right now.

The past three months you have grown exponentially in your motor skills. Three months ago I would sit you up and would stay there a little while before falling over. Now you sit up in 1.2 seconds while we are changing your diaper. At least you let us wipe you up before you do your trick. I really think that you would prefer to leave your diaper off sometimes. And sometimes I let you; even though Daddy is afraid you will pee all over our bed.

Within the last two weeks you have perfected crawling. The cats are your favorite targets. I keep trying to tell you that screaming at Samuel and Elizabeth while you move toward them won’t make them come any closer, but you don’t really listen to that advice. Hopefully, that is not the beginning of a bad habit of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “Na-Na-Na-Na-I’m-Not-Listening.” You started off crawling with your back right leg sticking out. Or you would crawl two or three steps, stop, sit up, take a break and then keep going. Even though you can crawl you still prefer to stand. You have even started moving around the coffee table and the crib by placing one foot next to the other and then moving the other foot. You have even started standing unassisted for a few seconds. I know I need to enjoy you at every stage, but it is so exciting to watch you grow and develop.

Every time I feed you, you lick the bowl clean. Well, not literally, but you do cry if I don’t try to get every atom of food left in the bowl on to the spoon to put in your mouth. Your absolute favorite is banana. You could eat five bananas in one day if I let you. You weren’t really digging the asparagus I fed you. So I put in some mashed banana and now you can’t get enough. You are a carbo-holic. I know this, because last week at church you were trying to steal your neighbor’s animal crackers. You even got her to feed them straight into your mouth. Almost every time we are out you happily eat the tortillas and bread. Corn, flour, white, wheat, it doesn’t matter. You like them all. I have heard that this eating everything in sight and willingness to try anything is a phase. I hope it isn’t. We really have a desire to teach you to at least try something once and then make a decision on whether you like it or not. When you were in utero I actually made a point to eat lots of different kinds of food from many cultures so you would develop a taste for them all.

You already got to experience culture in other parts of the world when you were seven months old. Your passport shows two stamps – China (Hong Kong) and the Philippines. While traveling to Hong Kong we took a bus no a layover from the Los Angeles airport to the Santa Monica pier. You did not want to sleep or miss anything while flying to LA, the nine hours in LA, and half of the sixteen-hour flight. I don’t even want to think about the flights getting to Cebu City. Both your Daddy and I were in tears that we couldn’t comfort you. You did find comfort in Papas left shoulder. You slept so great on him. We will always be thankful for Papas’ Golden Shoulder. Once we arrived you were so thankful to be laid down in a pack-n-play.

You charmed everyone you met, although you did not like the heat and humidity very much. As soon as we walked into air conditioning your smile would return. You also got to ride in the van in my lap. You really enjoyed sitting in the front seat with Daddy with the a/c on your face and looking straight out the window. Luckily, you didn’t mind your car seat when we got on the plane and back to San Antonio.

I can’t count the number of arms that held you in the Philippines. They all loved you. They would come up and say “Hello! Ba-be!” We still say that to you now. You absolutely loved the hour and half boat ride to Cuaming Island. I bought you a cute little Filipino outfit and you smiled as the wind hit your face. The following Sunday Bishop Tagud told the congregation that he was surprised to see you on the boat and he said that you were the world’s youngest missionary and he affectionately called you ‘Baby Missionary’ every time he saw you. Everyone started calling you by your new nickname. I do pray that missionary seeds were planted in your heart during this trip. You brought so many smiles to faces while you were there. I could not have gone with out you. It wasn’t easy, but I am glad my little sidekick got to go to the ends of the earth with me.

I am looking forward to doing more traveling with you. Anything less than a sixteen-hour flight will be great. Other than that you are an easy-going baby. You go to bed around 6:30 p.m. every night and wake up some time between 6:30 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. the next morning. I don’t really have you on a schedule during the day. You take two naps when you feel like it. You eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You still nurse about 4 times a day. You have already started to drink a little water out of a sippy cup, but thinking about weaning you makes me a little sad. I do enjoy our time together. You are fast and proficient at nursing, but I can tell you take great comfort and have fun with me. I know I am planning on weaning you at a year, but we’ll see.

You learned to wave bye-bye all on your own. One day we were at FiFi’s house and your cousins were leaving and you waved at them good bye. It is sort of a full arm wave, but it is too darn cute. You are also very cute playing at your table and pushing your “Pickle.” We spend lots of time together on the floor in the living room. While in the living room you are learning the word “no” every time you touch the tivo. I think you are getting it, because after I said no once, you went back and touched it while you looked right at me.

You have your two bottom teeth and your top two teeth are about to break through any second. You are growing into such a beautiful girl. Your dad and I burst with our love for you. You are such a joy to be with. We just want to pick you up and squeeze you all the time. In fact, Daddy changed jobs last month to see you more often. So let all the squeezing commence!

Love,
Mama