A Letter To My Son {Month 7}

Precious Little Prince,

My sweet son... oh, how you are growing! It's so exciting and fun... and it hurts... I flipped through your little monthly pictures and tears just instinctively start to flow as I see how you've changed and grown and I swear, we just brought you home from the hospital yesterday. 

Last month, I told you all about the day you were born and the story, the pictures and the slideshow bring the emotions of that day back to the surface so quickly - it was the day my life changed forever. But after looking over the 6 month letter, I felt the need to clear something up...

We have our days where it isn't all rainbows and butterflies. Some days you cry for no reason whatsoever. ALL. day. long. Some days Mommy has an agenda - things to do, people to see, rush, rush, rush without stopping to realize that tomorrow you will be a day older. Some days my patience is thin, my make up is a day (or two) old and I can't seem to get us in sync... Little side note, before you were born your Gabby gave me a stack of letters - ones she had written me every year on my birthday - they gave a brief recap on what my interests were that year and other noteworthy things. They are letters that I will cherish forever (where do you think the idea behind "A Letter To My Son" came from?!). Gabby wrote honestly - the good, the bad and the ugly - and I found it strange that in many of the letters she wrote about praying that God would take certain things (her lack of patience, missteps in her parenting, etc) from my memory... and now that I'm a Mommy I understand this all too well. 

There are nights when I put you in your crib and I just stop and have a heart to heart with God asking him to forgive me for taking you for granted, for losing my temper, or for rushing the day... and I ask him with great sincerity to remove my short comings from your little memory. "Lord, please let him only remember the good. Erase my mess ups, my blunders, my irritated moments from his little mind. Please Father, let him remember nothing but happiness, let him always feel my love and complete adoration." Some days being a Mommy is hard - the walls seem to be closing in, the house can never stay clean, the dinner is rarely ready on time and sometimes, very selfishly, I miss the days of just running to get my nails done or slowly browsing through stores or taking nice long showers... but, know this with certainty, even on the longest, hardest, most frustrating days not a single fiber in my being wants to go back to the day before you.

 The day you were born, precious son of mine, was an incredible day full of love and joy - a day I had waited for my whole entire life - but here's the crazy part, the moment when I was holding you for the very first time and trying my best to process all the feelings, really letting it all sink in, I thought for sure that that had to be the best day of my life... but today I laid in the nursery floor with you, my squirmy little 7 month old, as you sat next to me while I watched you in awe playing with your little ball and you noticed my staring, stopped and smiled at me with the biggest smile... I realized, as cheesy as this sounds, every day with you is better than the last. The day you were born was pretty amazing, but today when nothing special was happening whatsoever, was equally wonderful. 

Please know, always, that your Momma is wild and crazy about you. Know that there is not a more proud momma in the whole wide world than yours. Remember that you always bring me joy and happiness. And most importantly, never ever forget that I will love you forever and a day.

All my love sweet boy,

Mommy

Seven Month Milestones:

Eye Color - Hazel. Mainly brown, but with definite gray flecks.

Weight - 19 pounds

Height - Long. 

Clothing - The snaps are getting a little strained on the 6 month clothes, so I always buy at least 9 month.

Nicknames - Little Prince, Coop, Squirmy Worm (because you NEVER stop moving) and Chunky Monkey (for obvious reasons).

Sleep - Thankfully, nothing has changed from last month! Sleeping through the night like a champ and taking a real nap. This month you've probably spent more nights in your pack 'n play than in your crib since we've been on the road pretty much non-stop. You don't seem to mind it, but if aren't in your crib you wake up sometime between 3:00-5:30 and want to nurse a little bit before going back to sleep until around 8:30. While I prefer you to sleep through the night, the morning snuggles that come with your little snack sure are nice.

Hair - Just growing, growing, growing!

Teeth - There are TWO now. How did that happen?! We expected the first one, but that second one shot up out of no where! Two bottom teeth today... college tomorrow... (sigh.)

Crawling - Well... Crawling is not exactly your favorite thing. You get up on all fours, and you rock and then go backwards! It makes you so mad! Whatever was in front of you that you wanted keeps getting further and further away and your crying gets louder and louder the more "crawling" you do. Bless your little heart, I just know that any day you'll figure out the forward motion and take off, but so far no. (I blame your frustrations on our wood floors - too slippery for you to get any decent traction)

Walking - I'd be shocked if you didn't walk in the next month or two. Crawling, you would skip right over if you had your way. You walk very easily while holding my fingers and you move fast already! I'm really pulling for you to start crawling first to help break Momma in to having a baby on the move!

Your little personality is becoming more and more apparent every day! Oh my goodness, we couldn't ask for a more adorable child. You smile constantly. You are super laid back and are happy to tag along anywhere or to do anything. I've dragged you to a lot of places this month and you've taken them all in stride. We are sooooo thankful that you are such an easy baby - we are going to be in so much trouble on Baby #2.

We've officially graduated from Baby Yoga... We are still loving Kindermusik and now we've started SWIM LESSONS! Oh. My. Goodness. You love the water! You are by far the youngest one in your class (It's a 6 - 18 month class) but you don't seem to mind. We sing fun little songs that encourage you to kick your feet, splash and blow bubbles. You definitely have not mastered the bubble blowing - you prefer to just lick the water. Any time you do anything facing the water you put your face down and stick your tongue out. They also want you to learn to float on your back but unless I'm holding you, you are not interested one bit. It's so fun to watch you get used to the water and it doesn't hurt that you are so darn cute in your swimmie!

You are still talking non-stop. Non. Stop. When real words happen, Daddy and I will never get a word in. Ever.

You sweetly smile at everyone - if anyone makes eye contact with you, you light up with the biggest smile! Lately there has been one little trick to getting you to smile... You must be female. You are such a flirt! A complete stranger (female) looks at you and you just start cheesing from ear to ear. A complete stranger (male) looks at you and you mean mug with the serious eyebrows. If the guy keeps smiling and talking to you, you come around, but a girl gets instant smiles! We are in trou-ble!

Oh, the real food... You are in LOVE with real food. You want to eat everything! You are a huge fan of fruit (minus the bananas). You're favorites are apples, strawberries, oranges and blue berries. You can put away some berries. You also like meat - pork chops have been pretty popular, as well as chicken, steak and any type of sea food. Veggies are not real high on your list but you will eat them if there aren't any fruit options. Surprisingly, brussel sprouts went over pretty well, asparagus, potato wedges and carrots were also popular. Your sweet Pops shared his snickerdoodle cookie with you while Mommy wasn't looking - needless to say, you liked loved it.

CALENDAR RECAP. This month has been another jam packed month of joy! Cooper had fun lunch dates with friends. He welcomed the third little baby boy cousin - Creede!  He played with his buddy Jackson at small group gatherings and celebrated LOTS of birthdays! He cheered at lots of great OU basketball games and enjoyed watching Uncle Awesome have the time of his life. He started swim lessons! Cooper visited the Oklahoma State Capitol and took his very first plane ride to sunny Philadelphia. He slept through the majority of our country's earliest historical sites, but always conveniently woke up when dinner was served. He road tripped to Kansas City and attended his first Big 12 basketball tournament. He made friends with lots of strangers every where he went and smiled non-stop. Overall, I'd say it was a really fun month of adventures!