Dear Ash,
This month the name of the game was TEETH. A couple of teeth started coming in at the end of your eighth month, but I can comfortably say that you got SIX TEETH when you were nine months old, the last coming in a couple of days before turning ten months old. Outside of a bit more moaning and a couple of bad nights of restless sleep, you were wonderful. We used baby Tylenol when we absolutely had to, but most of the time you were okay just with Hyland’s Teething Tablets and another brand of homeopathic teething water.
Saying that, you went from this:

to this:

To be honest, I don’t feel that much happened this month. You’re just getting better and better at previous skills. You pull yourself up on everything (often pulling my elastic-waisted pants down), you’re walking with the help of our fingers or the chairs your push across the room, or your little Plan Toys wagon.You love to eat, and we’re now letting you take bites of chunks of food, rather than cutting them up. Broccoli is a favorite, you love brown rice noodles and this month you tried organic apricots (perfect hand-sized food) and loved them. You’re a sticky mess when you’re done them, and you cry when I have to take it away to get the pit out so that you don’t choke. When you eat, you often curl your toes together like in the picture below.

There’s a particular pair of khakis overalls that you wear that, I guess, makes you look like a girl. People always comment on our “beautiful daughter,” even if I pair the overalls with a blue shirt. One morning when we were hanging out together and you were dressed in the overalls, I decided to embellish you with a new girly hairstyle. And the strangers were right! You turned into our beautiful daughter! Look how pretty you were!
We took a couple of trips to the market this month to try to sell my slings. It was really hard on you, my little demo baby. You’re used to four hours of sleep between 5am-12pm, and going to the market means that you’re lucky if you can catch an hour of sleep while laying in my lap. Even though you take the full weekend to recover from it, you’re always well behaved. You love the attention you get from strangers, and if someone passes by without smiling at you, you’ll try to get their attention by doing an adorable baby squeal as if you say, “Um! Hello! Did you not notice how cute I am? What if I make this noise? Will you love me if I do this?”I must admit that I loved having you pass out, boob in mouth, on my lap while we were at the market. You felt so small, which doesn’t happen very often anymore.

You tried your first juice this month, and I won’t spend a lot of time talking about it because it’s not that exciting. You really loved it (plain carrot juice), which isn’t a surprise because you have a never-ending love affair with drinking water. You drank out of my cup and got your first juice mustache. It was amazing how quickly the juice stained your skin, heh.

Your father took you fishing for the first time this month, too. I was lucky and got to sleep in. He stuck you in a sling and tells me you really enjoyed yourself. He said you even cried when he had to throw the fish back in the water! Would you just love to explore the fish (probably by sticking it in your mouth, yuck)! Everything in your mouth. A piece of thread, some of yesterday’s dinner that I missed when sweeping, a toy, your shirt, whatever. Everything. in. your. mouth.

I introduced you to bubbles this month. First, a handful of dish soap bubbles which entertained you (and again, ended up in your mouth, whoopsie), and then I took you to our neighbour’s back yard and blew real bubbles with a wand and everything. It was windy so they blew away pretty quickly, but it did keep you entertained for about 20 minutes. Your aunt and I took you out a couple of evenings later and we spent about an hour on our front lawn blowing bubbles, but to be honest, it was mostly for our own entertainment than yours. Bubbles are wicked!
Canada Day was this month. It was uneventful. We took you to the Halifax Commons and sat in the shade near a lot of other familys, but that’s about it. Your dad and I couldn’t care much less about Canada Day, though it was nice to get out and do something as a family (it doesn’t happen very often because of your sleep and his work schedule).
You and I? We make a good pair.
Runner up: You and your papa.
You constantly amaze us, and you’re starting to amaze other people too. People have started commenting on your demeanor- how well behaved and easily amused you are. One of the best compliments was made by a stranger at the Halifax Farmer’s Market when your father and I went together to sell slings; she said that your easy personality was indicative of our great parenting skills. I think we’re great parents, to be honest, we protect you from the things we deem important, yet we give you a lot of freedom to explore and learn about life as much as we can while still keeping you safe. We follow your lead and you follow ours. We’ve got a great thing going on.
I love you.
Love,
Mama