Dear William,

Momma has some catching up to do on her monthly letters to you!

You turned 6 months old on April 29 and have officially moved from being our little baby to our little man. Even more so now that you are just over 7 months old. You have the sweetest personality, the best smiles and snuggles and Daddy and I love you more than anything in the entire world.

At your 6 month checkup you weighed 14lb, 15 oz and were 27 inches long. I'm fairly sure that you are now already up over 16 lbs. You are a very tall little boy and have the best little baby thighs and cankles.

Some of the things you love right now:

Your dog. She has become much more interested in you now that you eat more than just mashed up food. She waits patiently for anything to drop from your high chair and while she is standing there hoping for a puff or a piece of cantaloupe to drop, you just smile and laugh at her from your chair.

Food. You have been a good eater since we were able to start you on cereal. But you now are so much more interested in all food and drinks that those around you are eating. You have mastered eating your Gerber puffs and we've moved on to some other finger foods like scrambled eggs, pancakes, toast, melon, avocados and pears. You have a hard time with some of the more slippery foods but you will get there soon enough and be picking up anything we give you in no time. You are also great at drinking water from your sippy cup and can even hold the cup by yourself most of the time. We also use eating time in your high chair to teach you new things like clapping and sign language for the words "more" and "drink". You haven't figured out the last 2 yet but I'm hopeful that with enough practice you will soon!

Your walker. This has been your favorite toy since we put you into it at 3 months old. You no longer just walk around in it, you run when you can. Daddy and I are diligent about keeping the basement door closed and keeping you a good distance away from your dog when she is eating, but other than that you can pretty much go where you want when you are in it. You love to "talk" while running around and your favorite time of day to be in it is when Daddy gets home from work and you can run to greet him. You are pretty good about keeping your toys on your walker so that you can play with them and luckily don't seem to make a habit of throwing things only for the amusement of watching us pick them up for you. Although I'm sure that will happen soon enough!

Sleeping. You go to bed between 7:00 and 8:00 now, which is just a little later than you had been for the last few months. For the most part, we can put you in your crib, read to you and you will fall asleep on your own and sleep for 11-12 hours. If you wake up, it is not regularly and most of the time you will fall back to sleep on your own. You are in the midst of teething right now, though, so that has changed things up a bit for all of us and there have been some sleepless nights mixed in with the usual good nights. You are now a belly sleeper like your momma and love to sleep with your legs tucked in up under your belly. It is the cutest thing ever.

Playing/Singing songs. You love to clap when we sing Patty Cake or If You're Happy and You Know It. Watching you clap was one of the funniest things at first because you would keep one fist closed and "clap". You like when I sing to you in the car and I do so often.

Some of the things you don't love right now:

Strangers/Loud noises/Crowds. You cry at the end of church when we celebrate birthdays and other special events by clapping. You also don't do well at first when you are brought into a large crowd of people and prefer only your mom and dad until you warm up to being there. You have mastered the boo boo lip and are very good at giving it to strangers or even people you know well when you are not in the mood to be passed off from mom & dad.

Teething. This has thrown you, me and daddy for a loop. You cut your first tooth on Friday, May 31. The night before you cut your first tooth you had daddy and I up for almost 3 hours, tag teaming to calm you down and get you back to sleep. Every time we thought we had you down you would wake right back up again within just a few minutes. We had no idea that you were finally popping a tooth through! You had been working on it for months by that point. Needless to say, none of us got very much sleep that night but once momma saw your little tooth poking through in the morning it made the sleepless night (almost) totally worth it. You cut your second tooth exactly one week + one day later on Saturday, June 8. You have also been our little low-grade fever runner throughout your teething. Not to mention that for a week prior to your teeth popping through your wet diapers smelled much stronger than usual.

Napping. You are all over the place when it comes to naps. You will take them some days and other days you just don't feel a need for them. We do not have a true napping schedule in place and you will sleep in your crib, in the car or on me if I let you. Momma is ok with you not being 100% scheduled with your napping because it allows us flexibility to be on the go with you grabbing a nap in the car, if needed. But, you are a bear when you don't get a nap all day so we try to squeeze in at least a good morning or afternoon nap if we have a busy day planned. That said, a long nap for you is typically no longer than 90 minutes.

Things you are learning/have learned:

Rolling over/Sitting up/Crawling. You are the king of rolling over and use it as your method to get from point A to point B. You can sit up without assistance most of the time but have not completely mastered it quite yet. You are an army crawler but when you get up on your hands and knees to try crawling you are still only able to rock back and forth and haven't figured out how to get your arms and legs to work together quite yet. And boy do you get frustrated at yourself when you realize you're not crawling. But I promise you that soon enough you will be fully mobile and will be giving us a run for our money.

Clapping/Sign language. You picked up on clapping after only about a day of practicing. But, like I said before, your clapping at first was with one hand open and one hand closed. You're such a silly little man. And momma is working on sign language with you here and there. I'd like you to learn to say "more" in order to alleviate you from banging on your high chair tray when you want more food. I know we will get there in time!

You are such a sweetheart, William. Daddy and I have so much fun playing with you and watching you grow. You are an amazing little person and you take in so much of the world around you. We love you all the way to the moon and back.

Love,
Your Momma

William, 6 months - April 29, 2013

William, 7 months - May 29, 2013

Dear William,

I cannot believe you are 5 months old already. Time just moves so fast sometimes that I wish I could make it stand still. And yet with every new month comes a new adventure with you that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

On the day you turned 5 months, March 29, you rolled from your back to your tummy for the very first time. You had been working on it for weeks and decided that to celebrate your 5 month birthday that you would finally accomplish this goal. It was amazing, to say the least. And I'm so glad that Daddy and I were both home to witness it when it happened. Since that time you have become somewhat of a little master at it, although there are still times when your arm gets stuck underneath you and it takes you a little while to remember to pull it out so that you can finish the roll.

In addition to rolling over, you are now also very well versed in pushing yourself up on your arms and watching the world around you while on your belly. Sometimes you get tired and put your head back down after a short time and Daddy and I joke that its a lot of work for you to hold up that big head of yours!

You are still full of smiles and belly laughs and we do whatever we can to make you do both. You are such a joyful little boy and when you smile, you do so with your eyes and it makes my heart light up.

You have discovered your feet and absolutely love to hold onto them. You love to have your socks off (and really just your clothes off in general) so that you can grab onto your feet and roll to the side when trying to get them into your mouth.

This past month you have discovered what fun it is to walk on the wood floors in your walker, which has been your favorite toy since we started putting you into it at 3 months. At first, we would put your shoes on to give you good traction to be able to move across the floors. Now, you don't even need them and can get around just fine in your socks. You love to walk yourself across the house from the dining room all the way into the sunroom and have even figured out how to maneuver yourself if you get stuck on something. Or, you just whine until Momma comes to get you unstuck from wherever you are. This has given you a new kind of freedom to move about the house (always being watched by someone, of course) and has opened your little eyes to a whole new world around you. You love to look out the sunroom windows, to follow your dog and have also been trying to figure out how to get down the back hallway to the laundry room.

While in your walker you always have a couple of toys to play with and you have gotten very good at throwing them off in order to watch me come pick them up. I sometimes think that you don't know any better but other times I'm sure you know exactly what you are doing and it makes me laugh to think how smart you are.

You have discovered your voice even more and you are a little babbler and cooer. In the mornings instead of being awakened to the sound of you crying, I usually wake up to your sweet little voice talking to yourself. I'll come in and you will be playing with your feet through your sleep sack and you will look up and give me the biggest smile that melts your Momma's heart. You also somehow know how to turn your aquarium on and off, and I'm pretty sure you do this with your feet. I have seen you reach for it with your hand but I do not know yet if you have actually been able to turn it on and off this way as you usually do it while you are alone.

You are so interested in everything going on around you. You still like to watch TV, although we limit it to Baby Einstein or Sesame Street whenever possible. And sometimes we watch The Today Show together while Momma drinks her coffee first thing in the morning.

You are a very patient little boy, unless it comes to food. Once you're hungry, you are hungry and food is all you want. You understand that your high chair is for eating and we don't play games when it comes to getting your food ready. You have eaten everything we have given you and this past month we have introduced some more fruits into your diet to add to all the yummy vegetables you've been enjoying. You are also regularly eating 3 meals a day and nurse consistently every 3 hours during the day.

You go to bed anywhere between 6 and 7 pm and are usually down for the night. You don't wake up to eat until sometime after 4 am and after eating you go right back to sleep until 7 or 8 am. To say we are spoiled with your sleeping habits is an understatement. Which makes the nights that you deviate from your schedule that much harder on mom & dad because we are used to having such a good sleeper. There are definitely occasional nights where you request a diaper change in the middle of the night or when you just miss me and Daddy and want one of us to come and give you your nuk. Or, when I get up to rock you because you just don't seem to want to settle down. On those nights, I just remind myself that I won't always have these special times with you and I enjoy the moments of quiet while rocking you back to sleep.

You are a pretty good napper during the day, although the length of your naps still varies greatly day to day. Now that you are becoming more active with your rolling and walking in your walker I think that you nap a little longer than you had been. But, a good nap for you is usually just over an hour.

This month was full of meeting your cousins and hosting house guests while we celebrated your baptism. You were baptized on Sunday, April 14 during the 10:30 service at St. James. While you were being baptized, you didn't make a peep and after you fell asleep on Momma for the rest of the service. To say you were a good little boy for your baptism would be an understatement. You were amazing.

William, you are such a happy little boy. And we are so lucky to have you in our lives. I'm sure that during these next few months, when teeth start popping through and such, that our patience will wear thin with one another on occasion and that we will have some long nights ahead of us. But I look forward to these next milestones with you and enjoy every moment of the time we get to spend together.

Daddy and I love you so much and are so blessed to have you in our lives. Thank you for being our sweet boy and for bringing such joy and laughter to our lives.

Love,
Your Momma

William, 5 Months - March 29, 2013