To my favorite chunky little monkey bum. I still cant believe how fast this first year is flying by! You are nine months now and so far it has been your most fun month yet! You are so bright and happy and giggly and you are discovering new things every day. You constantly surprise me with things you can do and things you have figured out. The other day I said ‘want to read some books, monkey?’ and you reached over and grabbed one of your favorites! I almost didn’t believe my eyes because I feel like you shouldn’t be able to understand these things yet! You are such a smart boy. You have 2 favorite books which you never tire of and I could read them until my throat goes dry and you would still want more. You ‘talk’ constantly and your most commonly heard sounds are ma, ba, da, pa, ga. Just over the past couple days you have mostly been saying mamamamamama over and over, and I am wondering whether you are saying my name or  just babbling? I will have to confirm next month to be sure. It makes sense since you have figured out so many other things already, but it just seems so early for your first word! You love to give ‘kisses’ when I say ‘can mama have a kiss?’ which starts with you putting your chubby hands on my cheeks and coming towards me with your mouth wide open. Within a few seconds you are slobbering all over my face and we both end up giggling our heads off.  Your favorite game right now is for daddy or me to say ‘Im going to come and get you!!!’ and we wiggle our fingers in the air as if we are going to tickle you.. then you start crawling away as fast as you can squealing with delight. Then we catch you and tickle you and throw you into the air and kiss you all over. Then we put you down and you start crawling away looking back at us with a big grin waiting for us to do it again…and again..and again. You can now crawl at approximately the speed of light, and you can also stand wherever you want as long as there is something to help balance you. You can stand with no hands for 5-10 seconds before you sit back down, so I’m sure by the end of this month you will be standing no problem! You LOVE to be outside, so we spend most of our afternoons in the park. You always get so excited when I say ‘you want to go outside?’ which always makes me smile. Daddy and I are thrilled that you love the outdoors so much, since we both enjoy it just as much as you do. You love exploring and you always find any sticks in close proximity which you chew on, wave through the air, and bang on the ground. You are into EVERYTHING, and within 5 seconds of entering a room, you have found every single electrical outlet and cord. My main mission in life right now is to prevent you from poking your eye out with a stick, getting electrocuted, or choking on on pretty much anything. You have also been trying lots of new foods this month and you love to feed yourself. You love to rub food all over your face and hair, so meal time is always followed by bath time :) You have also become completely enamored with our 2 dogs Heidi and Rufus. Heidi is smart so she always gets out of your way.. but our chocolate lab Rufus (or ‘the doof’ as we so affectionately call him) is so tolerant of you climbing all over him and pulling his ears and poking his eyes. He actually follows you around because I think he loves the attention, and I’m sure you two will become more and more inseparable as you grow up. You have never been a very good sleeper, Monkey, so I decided to start seep training with you 10 days before you turned 9 months, and you are such a fast learner that you slept through the night for the first time ever just a week after we started!!  This makes me SO very happy and I am so proud of you!! Becoming your mama has by far been the most challenging thing I have ever done…but you know what, little monkey? Best choice I ever made :) Love mama.

To my little dude.. who is really not so little anymore! Wow I can’t believe you are already 8 months.. it sounds so old! You are constantly moving and keeping me on my toes..you are basically a 23 pound ball of pure energy! You are getting so fast at crawling and you are pulling yourself up to standing on everything you can find. You have a few good head bumps a day so I feel like I need to either give you a helmet or cover everything in bubble wrap! And you FINALLY got your first teeth!! You now have 2 teeth on the bottom which is pretty darn cute.. except for the whole biting thing..those little teeth are sharp! Your favourite thing to do is still being outside, and you have been enjoying going to the beach lately (although you always end up with mouthfuls of sand). You love to be in the garden with daddy and you always come in covered in dirt and raspberry stains :) You love bath time though so it works out well! Next week I am taking you on a plane for the first time to go and visit daddy while he is working in New Brunswick for the month.. so we will see how that goes! (I pity the people sitting next to us!)  This month you also went in the swings at the park for the first time and you LOVED it! You just giggle and smile the whole time.. I think it might even replace the jolly jumper!!  Love you more than ever… Mommy xo

To my dear little Ollie bear. How fast things have changed in just one short little month! You are now sitting all by yourself and you also just taught yourself how to sit up from laying on your belly. Not only that, but you are also now crawling! You are getting better and faster every day which is a bit scary.. I am so used to you being stuck in one place! I’m sure I will be chasing after you soon. Still no teeth have come through but your gums are rock hard and  I can feel some little bumps.. so fingers crossed by next month you will have one or two :)  Your favorite activities include sitting and crawling on the grass, chewing on your feet, jumping in your jolly jumper, pressing buttons (especially on my keyboard and the buttons on the phone), yanking out my hair, grabbing daddy’s glasses off his face, or if anyone holds you who has earrings on, you will immediately try to rip them out of their head. You seem to take great joy in inflicting pain on your loved ones!
Well as you can see, you are the cutest baby on the planet.. at least until your little brother arrives in 5 months.. then I think it will be tied :) Love you to the moon and back, Mommy.

Dear Oliver. Can you believe you’re already 6 months?!! Ahh in just another 6 months you are going to be a YEAR. Please stop growing up so fast. Wow a lot has happened in just a month! Somehow you continue to get cuter and cuter, and just when I think your cuteness has peaked, you get even cuter! Your personality is constantly growing and you make me laugh all the time. Your favorite activities are jumping in the jolly jumper, rolling around, being naked, and bath time (probably because you’re naked). Your legs are getting so strong from jumping that you can stand straight up just holding on to my fingers, and you can take steps like this too. I have a feeling that you will be standing by yourself before you are sitting by yourself. You really have no interest in sitting. You love to be constantly moving so you would much prefer rolling or jumping. You can roll across a room in just a few seconds flat. You are also trying pretty hard to crawl but it looks like a mix of the army crawl and the inch worm… it is pretty darn cute :) You also attended your first wedding this month, for your honorary ‘Aunt’ Erin and ‘Uncle’ Mike! You were very popular; everyone seemed to have heard of you and/or seen photos and so many people wanted to come and meet you and tell you that you are the cutest baby ever (I would agree). You barely slept all day since we were out during your nap times, but you were SO good. You never cried or got fussy and were fascinated by everything going on around you. You even had a place setting at the head table with mommy and daddy! I think you are going to be quite the social butterfly :) Your grandparents came from Nova Scotia to visit for 2 weeks whom you promptly wrapped around your little finger :) You still have no teeth coming through but the drooling and chewing has not stopped so I’m sure they will pop through soon. OH and just over the past few weeks you have started growing some visible hair! You are no longer completely bald :) You are also now eating solids 3 times a day which you LOVE! So far your favorite foods are banana, sweet potato, avocado, and mangoes. I think the solids are making you sleep better at night, which makes me love you even more (if that is even possible). I love you so much it hurts. Love Mommy.

This photo was really hard to get because the second I lay you on your back, you roll onto your belly!

Playing with your favorite toy.

This is how you are most of the time on the ground.. on the move!

You have your serious moments, and are often concentrating very hard on things. Here is one of those times where you are spacing out (you get that from me) haha.

You are CONSTANTLY drooling so I had to include this…

Dear Oliver. You are 5 months already..  and wow you are getting sooo big!! You are now tipping the scales at a whopping 18 pounds! This past month has been a fun one full of smiles, giggles… and rolling over! Last week you finally figured out how to fling yourself over onto your belly and you enjoyed it so much that every time I put you on your back you instantly start rolling to your side. The things you seem to enjoy the most right now are gardening with daddy (and being outdoors in general), airplane rides on my knees, being lifted into the air, reading books, and making fart noises with your spit bubbles :) You are still teething like crazy. No sign of any teeth yet, but anything within arms reach goes straight into your mouth and gets covered in drool. You now love being fed rice cereal and lunge toward the spoon with every bite! We are so proud of you and all of the new things you are learning to do. I am looking forward to seeing what this next month holds for your new little world :) Love, Mommy.

Getting airplane rides in the back yard..

Gardening with daddy…

Dear Oliver. This past month has flown by, and a lot has happened in your new little world. You have started showing signs of teething, which means you are constantly drooling up a storm and chewing on everything within reach. If you could go into the drool business, you would be set for life. You can soak an outfit in a few minutes flat! You have discovered that you can chew on your fingers, which have become your favorite teething toy. You have also just realized that I have hair, and what a great discovery it was!  Anytime I get too close, you grab a chubby little fist of it and try to rip it out of my head. This little stunt seems to give you great joy, and it never seems to get old no matter how many times you do it :) Four months also marks the time where we can start feeding you rice cereal. Our first attempt ended with you being covered in goop, and I don’t think you actually swallowed any.  You did, however, enjoy chewing on the spoon though :)  Your arms are getting stronger and you are actually starting to enjoy tummy time! You have also realized that you have toes! Yes I made sure I baked up 10 perfect little toes for you. I’m sure it’s only a matter of days until you start chewing on them. And my most favorite part of you being 4 months old is… you have started giggling!! I get at least one good giggle a day out of you…usually while being naked or during a diaper change (these continue to be your favorite activities). I am looking forward to this coming month because I’m sure you will begin to laugh more and more, and it is by far the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. I love you to the moon and back. Love, Mommy.

Dear Oliver. Oh how i love you. Over the past month you have really started turning from a baby into a little boy. I know this probably sounds silly since you still look like a baby, but I can really see your personality coming out and you are such a happy little kid. Every morning (and sometimes middle of the night) you greet me with ear to ear smiles which melt my heart every time. Sometimes you smile so hard you wave your fists in the air and squeal with delight. Any day now I am expecting a full out belly laugh! You love making cooing and gurgling sounds as though you are having a full out conversation with me. You can mimic sounds that I make too, which really surprised me the first time I discovered this! I have also just started reading you kids books, which so far you are loving! You seem to like the bright colours and are starting to reach out to touch the pages too. Sometimes I read you my books out loud too which you don’t seem to mind, even though they don’t have any pictures :)  Your  legs are now chunky enough to wear your bumgenius diapers without leaking (most of the time) which you of course look adorable in. Daddy and I regularly tell you that you are the coolest thing to ever happen to us.. but we may take that back when you hit your terrible twos :) For now though, we will just keep on enjoying the smiley goobery lovable mess that you are :) Love mommy.

Dear Oliver. I know I will probably be saying this for the rest of your life.. but WHERE DID THE LAST MONTH GO!?! How can you possibly be 2 months old already?! I guess it’s true that time flies when your having fun sleep deprived :)

Soo.. you pretty much just get cuter and cuter every day. You are now awake most of the day and are babbling and gurgling like never before. And you’ve just started smiling back at us which is pretty much the cutest thing EVER! You are determined not to let me get your smile on camera though.. I’m sure this will also be a lasting trend. You are chunking up nicely  and you were almost 11 pounds at your 2 month appointment. I think you will soon be big enough to fit into your beautiful cloth diapers I spent a small fortune on :) Your cheeks are starting to get chubby which I kiss about 83924 times a day and I would eat them if I could. (Yes I realize when you read this when you’re older you will probably die of embarrassment. That is a parents job, no?)

Some things about you.. you love music, and when it goes off you get fussy until it turns back on. Your favorite is great big sea. Although I’m sure your daddy thinks your favorite is rush. :) Hmm is it bad that we are brainwashing you from such a young age? Your favorite past time is eating and pooping. Oh man do you love to poop. Also I think farting would be up there as well. (I’m sure this will also be a lasting trend.. what is it with boys and farts?) Which by the way, you fart like an old man your daddy. They are loud and smelly and did I mention LOUD? I don’t know how such a little person can make such a loud fart.

The rate you are growing, I’m sure by the time I write your 3 month letter you will speaking in sentences. Please promise me that you won’t grow up too quickly… I love you just the way you are. But no matter how big you get, you will always be my little ollie bear. Love, mommy.

(These will sadly be your last naked sleepy newborn photos as you are getting to big to scrunch up)

Dear Oliver. You are now a month old and I have no idea where has the time gone!! It feels like just yesterday that we came home from the hospital. The days go by so fast, even though they are pretty much consumed by breast feeding, changing diapers, and doing laundry. You have already grown and changed so much in only a month. You are now awake a lot during the day, and you are very content to just look around and soak up everything around you. You have started making little laughing sounds while you sleep and I’m not sure what causes them (maybe a funny dream?) but I love them and it just makes me even more excited to hear your first real giggle. These little sounds make being shot with explosive  poop completely worth it. (Yes you shoot me with poop regularly. It’s actually quite impressive how far it goes.) I am so proud of how big you are getting but at the same time I can see your ‘newborn’ look disappearing every day and I can’t help but feel a little sad that you are growing up. Before I know it you will be sitting up and getting teeth and going off to collage. AH! So I am soaking up every special moment with you before you leave home :) Love mommy.

This is one of your many funny expressions :)

I just love baby yawns.

Dear Oliver. I can’t believe that you are already a week old! I have only known you for a few days and I love you more than I ever could have imagined. I am learning new things about you every day. One of the first things you taught me was that you hate having your hands covered because you love to touch your face. You have so many facial expressions and I could stare at you all day long. You make the cutest little squeaky noises and barely ever cry. You also smell like heaven. You have very long fingers and toes just like your daddy. You are also a very cuddly baby which works out well because I could snuggle you all day long. Since you are almost a month early you sleep almost all day except to eat and get your diaper changed. You love to hold things in your hand and you have such a tight grip already. When you nurse, you hold my finger in your hand and make beautiful noises like a little bird. A few days ago you smiled at me and my heart melted into a million pieces. I don’t care that it was just gas :) Love, mommy.