Dear Shenzie and Heaten,

Well. I am almost at a loss for words here. In less than one month you will be one which means you are 11 months old. I can’t even wrap my head around the concept. You are both growing up so fast. It is so fun and exciting to see you learn and do new things every day. You are so much fun…this is a great age! Your dad was able to see your fun first hand this month when I went on vacation….alone…without you or Dada. You had a blast with your Dada and he had tons of fun with you both.

We had an extra long weekend with Dada home and it was wonderful. Because he was here we were able to tag team you both and bathe you together. You both loved it. You spashed each other, kicked water on each other and stole each others toys. I wish every weekend was a long one.

Dear Shenzie,

My little girl who is on the verge of crawling. You want so much to crawl, you just can’t figure out how to do it. You rock on your hands and knees, scoot in circles, and can crawl backwards. Soon you’ll be a crawling machine and I’ll be pulling my hair out! You sat up for the first time all by yourself (August 30th). You haven’t done it since, but it was great when you did!

You are my little eating bean. You used to be so picky, not anymore! This month you tried watermelon that Grandpa and Grandma gave you and LOVED it. You were a veggie baby….but we’ve decided to add meat to your diet instead of only soy products so you’ve also had turkey, sausage, chicken nuggets (not the McDonalds type, but the organic, free range, antibiotic free kind). You love peas, carrots, blueberry muffins, bananas, peaches, cheese, and tofu. You are so cute when you eat…you still pick up handfuls of food and shove them towards your mouth…luckily a few pieces get in every time.

You LOVE bath times. The minute you hear the water running you start looking around until you find the water and just watch the tub fill up. You splash around, kick your feet, and drink the water.

You are starting to say more sounds. You say Mama and Dada and a bunch of words that mean something to you and brother, but Dada and I are left clueless.

You have five teeth. FIVE TEETH!!!! You got your second upper middle tooth on September 2nd. Teething is not fun and it interrupts your sleep, but at least you’re not teething at the same time as brother since he has no teeth! EVERYBODY comments on how you have no hair and brother has so much….well you sure showed them. You have all the teeth and brother has none!

Your favorite toy is your talking, singing dog. You love to play the songs over and over and over. You think it is pretty funny when Dada puts things on your head. You sit for a second wondering what happened and then you reach up and tear it away laughing all the while.

You are pretty picky with who you give your sweet kisses to. I am, of course, at the top of the list. You give me kisses all of the time. When the moods strikes you will give them to me over and over and over again. You open your mouth and lean into mine. After about the 8th kiss you decided you want to chomp down with your new teeth so I have to be very careful because those teeth are sharp! And you don’t let go once you have my lip between them. You sometimes give Dada kisses and for the first time gave Grandpa a kiss last week. Too sweet.

You still love to stand and can now balance yourself for quite awhile….and by quite awhile I mean 10-15 seconds. You also take steps forward and side to side. A game you love is to push off the couch while standing and fall straight back into my waiting arms. It is wonderful that you trust that I will always be there to catch you….and I will. I will always be here to catch you when you fall.

I love you sweetcheeks,

Love,

Mama.

Dear Heaten,

You are my little chubba whubba boy. You are ALL boy. It is so funny to see the differences in you and your sister. She is so petite, sweet, and girl while you are my hearty, solid tank of a boy. Don’t get me wrong, you are just as sweet….you are a little lover boy. You love to be held, love to be hugged, and love to give kisses. You give me the sweetest kisses that melt my heart. You put your little hand paw on my cheek and pull me to your waiting open mouth. I could die from the sweetness. Last week you gave Auntie Ang a kiss and then leaned over to Shenzie, put your hand on her cheek and kissed her. I almost cried it was so cute. You still love your sister to bits. You love to laugh at her, play with her, and hit her on the head.

You are now very mobile. You army crawl all over the place and are not nearly as frustrated as you used to be. You get on your hands and knees so I know real crawling is around the corner….but the army crawl is so cute I don’t even care. You crawl over to Dada in the mornings so he can pick you up. You crawl to steal Shenzie’s toys. You crawl to get into all of the things you’re not supposed to get into. Speaking of which…how in the world do you know what is off limits and why is that what you are most interested in?!!?

You love to stand and step side to side. You don’t like to share with sister so when I have you both standing in front of the piano or other toys you try to push her hand out of the way.

I say you are my emotional baby. You laugh so easily, but you also cry just as easily. You are very quick to go from crying to laughing to talking to smiling to frowning to crying again. You love to blow bubbles and do it constantly and babble up a storm. You have new sounds and still say Dada the most.

You LOVE bath times as well. You get all squirmy and giggly when you see the water running. You splash the water so hard it jumps out of the tub and gets all over me. I love to get you up in the morning and up from naps. You lay in your crib and kick your little legs and wave your arms in the air with excitement. You have recently started kicking the side of your crib when you wake up…very hard…and very loud. I sure hope you don’t break it!

You have no teeth…but you have a full head of beautiful hair. I need to give you a little trim it is getting so long it curls around your ears. Shenzie loves to pull on it…hard…and you cry. Sorry, but its so soft and silky she can’t resist.

You love music. Your daddy and I are hoping you will continue to love music as much as we both do. You crawl for the guitars every time you see them. You love to bang on the piano and love to sit and watch your daddy play the guitar for you.

You are still a picky eater. You pick through the food on your tray until you find what you want and then leave the rest untouched. You tried corn on the cob last month and weren’t a huge fan. Neither was sister. You love tofu and blueberry muffins. You hate broccoli and zucchini.

I love you little man…you are getting so big and fun and I love to play with you each day and watch you explore, grow, and learn.

Love,

Mama