9 months old...wow.

Dear Xander,

I cannot believe you are now 9 months old. Time has flown so fast. Finally we are emerging out of the long winter that set in just a couple months after you were born. I have felt so cooped up inside unable to take you out to see the world. But slowly and surly we are going out and seeing more more of this amazingly complex and beautiful world.



You spent this month crawling EVERY WHERE. Literally. We couldn't stop you. Everywhere you could see you would go. Particularly if there was a dog ball you could put in your mouth or a door open to go through. You particularly love the bathroom in the basement - such a cool place I know, but it was also the scene of your first cut. Your Papa was watching you, not me :-) But you took a tumble and cut your face. It broke our hearts.


You are continuing to hang out with your new friends, Cecilia, Miles, Sonia, and others. It will be so fun to see if you stay friends with them as you get older. But for now it works out just fine. You have gone to the zoo with them, to the Park, you have hung out at their houses and they have hung out at yours. Already getting so social!



It is amazing to see the world through your eyes - as you grow and grow. You are looking more and more like a little boy and not a baby. This is both sad and exciting. But what is even more amazing is what is going on behind your eyes. It is very obvious you are starting to learn things and understand more and more. In fact there are two new activities you love to do. You have started to wave to people whether they are coming or going. Sometimes you just roll onto your back and wave at the ceiling :-) I'm sure you are just exploring how to work all those arms and legs you have!I'm not sure you love anything more than lights, as you always have, but now you have started to point at them. Your Papa was playing a game with you that when you pointed at a light he turned it on, then off with another point. I think he got you convinced all lights do it so we can barely pass through a room with lights that you will point in hopes the light will turn on or off. Very cute - but we cannot always make it happen. I hope you aren't too disappointed.

You and I still spend so many hours every day together. You go everywhere with me. Even though I don't do much politicking anymore I still have lots of meetings and you are lucky enough to come with. It used to be a lot easier when you weren't needing to touch everything in sight! But we do manage. There is nothing cuter than hearing your little heavy breathing coming from the back seat of the car while we are driving around. I nearly stop and pull over just to watch you sleep. It puts the biggest smile on my face.




Some of our favorite places to go, other than meetings, is Kid to Kid to buy you some cool stuff - like toys and clothes. We also like to go up to visit Grandma and Grandpa at their house. There you often get to hang out with your cousins and your aunts. It is a lot of fun. I can't wait for you to get bigger to where you can really plan with all of them. They can hardly wait too! We do lots of fun stuff together. We go to the Park, to the store, over to friends houses, on jogs, and to the zoo. We've gone to the zoo more times than I can remember at this point but unfortunately you don't really care much about the animals yet, but I'm sure you will soon. I like going each time hoping you will get excited about the elephant or the giraffe - not yet though.



But the reality is, especially since the weather has been so bad, we spend a lot of time hanging out in the basement. It is a place you have free reign. You can climb up on everything, touch everything, mouth everything, and you seem to love it. We built that basement just for you, so I glad you like it. Right now your favorite toys are balls, a train your Aunt Amy gave you, and your VTECH walker, and your Leap Frog music table. You could spend all day on those! One exciting thing you did with your walker was you walked across the entire basement holding on to just the walker. It was so cute to see the smile on your face knowing that you had just accomplished something so big. Walking without the walker is coming soon. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened before your 10 month birthday, but we will see.

One happy and celebratory day we had with you was to go to the Utah Pride Festival which celebrates unique families like our own. It is so great to see so many people just like us in families that are different but work oh so well. You were the star of the festival as everyone wanted to see you and hold you!

Congratulations on completing another month of life. I'm so proud of you and can't wait to see what comes the next month.

Love,

Dad