12 months

Dear Enzo,

I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. You are no longer my baby, you are a little boy! When you were a newborn, it felt like time was standing still. Sleep deprivation did funny things to me, and I thought it would never end. I felt like I would never be able to function normally again, getting a shower felt like an accomplishment. Leaving the house before noon seemed impossible. But a year later, it is like a whole different world.

Luckily you started sleeping really well around six months. You are still a wonderful sleeper most of the time. 11 hours straight and I am loving every minute of it. You have the occasional night when you pee through your diaper or your teeth bug you enough to wake you up, but you go back to sleep as soon as you are changed or soothed. Now if only Mama could go back to sleep that easily!

Speaking of teeth, you now have eight of them! Four on top and four on the bottom. You aren't too fond of Mama brushing them, but it is a necessity. You absolutely hate for your nails to get trimmed, but you love your bath time! Every night when Daddy starts to run the water, you run to the gate and start yelling excitedly.

That is right, I said run! In the last month you went from walking occasionally to walking the majority of the time, and running when you are excited. Combine that with all the climbing you do and you are one active little boy! You love to talk, and although I can't understand most of what you say, there are a few words Daddy and I can make out. Mama, Daddy, kitty, I love you, hi, bye, baba.

You love to sing with Daddy and laugh and giggle. You still love to eat, and are done with bottles. Milk in a sippy cup all the way! You still take a binky when you sleep, but Mama doesn't give it to you any other time. I'm sure Daddy and Grandpa let you have it whenever you want, but Mama is one tough cookie!

You threw up for the first time this week. That was interesting. You didn't seem upset by it, just confused as to what happened. You had a little case of the stomach flu that lasted a few days, but thankfully cleared up before Christmas/your birthday. It didn't matter though, you weren't interested in presents anyways. You wanted to play with your cousins and loved the cake and ice cream!

Here is to many more years of watching you grow, my sweet little boy!

Love,

Mama

One

Happy first birthday to my sweet little boy!

10 Months

Dear Enzo,

What an exciting month. Each month gets better than the last! You have turned into my little climber. You aren't walking yet(although you love to cruise along the furniture) but you love to climb on everything! You use my legs as a step to climb up on the couch. You are my little monkey!

Which is exactly what you plan to be for Halloween. You had your first trip to the pumpkin farm(grandma took all the pictures) and enjoyed it as well as you could. You were stuck in the stroller for much of the visit, as we couldn't have you crawling around in the dirt.

You sure are fast at crawling! It is a constant battle to get you to stay in one place. You are constantly on the go. Busy does not begin to describe you. Diaper changing time is quite challenging! Mama has to distract you with a book or toy in order to keep you from taking off. If we are somewhere other than our house, forget it! It takes two people to hold you down.

You have mastered the high five, although you won't give one to just anyone. Mama can always coax one out. You are still my awesome sleeper, sleeping 11-12 hours a night. You naps seem to be changing a little, but you still get 3-4 hours combined. You have started to babble like crazy and will say mama, dada, baba, yuck and shake your head no. You also have learned how to growl at Mama when I do something you don't like. Although it is funny, I hope this won't be something you do often. You have become a little mimic, parroting sounds that I make. You won't do it on demand, but whenever I say "yay", two seconds later I hear a sweet little "yay! "

You had another tooth pop through, for a total of 7. Four on top and three on the bottom. Who knows when the next one will pop through. In the mean time, we are enjoying your happy disposition. I sure do love you little boy.

Love,

Mama

9 months

Dear Enzo,

This week you turned 9 months, holy moly! Where did my little baby go? You are on the go from the time you wake up to the time you fall asleep. You are into absolutely everything, and you aren't even walking yet! This last month you perfected your crawling, started climbing, and are working on the walking thing. You can walk along the couch with the best of them, around the corners and everything. You pull up on things I would have never imagined, like the back of my pant legs. Strong is definitely the best word to describe you! Your latest nicknames are bonk and dozer. You seem to bonk your head on everything and like to bulldoze anything in your path!

Your eating habits are still awesome. You have yet to meet a food you don't like. You are working on the whole feeding yourself thing, and are getting better at it everyday. You still love to sleep as well. Mommy still really appreciates that! Music, books, and exploring are your three favorite things to do.

You are such a happy boy, even while you are teething! Daddy and I are still waiting for your next tooth to pop through to make tooth # 7. Once it does, maybe all the drooling kisses will stop. Just the drooling hopefully, not the kisses.

Like most babies, you love anything electronic. The phone, iPhones, remotes, and camera are never safe when you are around. You love to stick them in your mouth and press all the buttons.

This month you crawled up in my lap for the first time and it just melted my heart! I'm not going to be able to call you my baby for much longer. You are getting so big! I weighed you the other day and you were 19.5 lbs, not too shabby. You are still fitting into 9 months clothes, but the length is getting a little short. You are at an in between size of diapers right now. 3's seem to small, but 4's are too big. I'm sure that will change in no time, as you are growing so fast!

I love you, my little boy!

Love,

Mama

playing in the laundry basket

messy eater

This is usually what Enzo ends up looking like after eating a meal. Whether is is breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it ends up everywhere! Notice how his jammies have oatmeal on them. Enzo likes to eat his clothes as well as his food.