Belly Life (9 months old)

Jessa,

You have officially been outside in the real world for as long as you were inside my belly! 9 months old baby girl! And I'm a week late on writing you this letter! It's been quite the month! Exhausting might be the word to describe this month! However, you are more beautiful than ever, have more personality than I know what to do with at times, and are learning more and more every single day! You are SO FUN!

The month started off with a business trip with Daddy. We used this trip as an excuse to go see your Great Aunt Dar, 2nd cousin Rachel and her baby in her belly! What was suppose to be a 3 day trip to Pittsburgh PA, turned into a 2 week trip to PA and IN! We had such a fun time visiting family, and surprising Uncle Zac and Aunt Jaime by showing up at their house unexpected! They both thanked us for coming multiple times! We got to spend time with Aunt Sarah as well, and she came back up North to Grandma and Grandpa's house with us. While we were there we picked blueberries which has become your favorite food of the month. Just this morning you kept whining as I was trying to feed you homemade strawberry oatmeal because you just wanted blueberries. It seems ironic that daddy called you "Blueberry" while you were in my tummy!

It was a great trip and a fast trip, as always. By the end of it you completed your 7th flight!! Everyone fights to see you, which makes me feel really good and there is never a dull moment when we are in Indiana.

You started getting a cough while we were in PA, but continued to be a trooper. At the airport waiting for our flight you played on the ground, by yourself for almost 2 hours. I can't even begin to tell you how amazing that was! Thank you for that!! You continued to cough throughout our whole trip, and now almost 35 days later... you are still coughing. You have had your blood drawn once again. (This time wasn't nearly as bad as the first experience!!) And you also had your first x-ray, a chest x-ray to make sure your lungs were clear WHICH THEY WERE! :) But... you're still sick and we don't know why. Just today I made you an appointment with Daddy's allergy and Asthma doctor. While I'm praying this appointment will give us some answers, I'm scared that we are going to be dealing with you being sick a lot. I guess we will just have to wait and see. Along with you being sick, I have also been sick with the same thing. Just a nasty nasty cough! Since we have been back from Indiana, we have really pretty much just stayed in the house alot.

You are so independent and love playing by yourself! Of course you also love chasing Daddy and I around on your walker still and "flying" down the hallway while one of use chases after you! You have completely mastered pulling up on just about anything, and have started "cruising" around on the furniture getting into anything and everything that you possibly can. Playing with newspaper, and cutting coupons with me continues to be one of your most favorite activities. You get so excited crinkling the paper and tearing it into shreds. You love to be tickled and you love scared! I'll jump out from around a corner and you'll just laugh and laugh and laugh. Speaking of laughing, you have no fully grasped the concept of the word "No" and think that when I get really serious and say "NO!" it's one of the funniest things you have ever seen. It's so hard for me to keep a straight face, but I really want you to learn!

You have been teething for about 2 weeks now, and just yesterday I felt something very sharp in your mouth. Sure enough your front left bottom tooth is almost all the way through! I had to put teething rails on your crib today because you were standing up chewing on your crib. It shouldn't be long before your other bottom tooth pops through and you start to get your top teeth as well.

Overall, even though this month has been very hard with the two of us being sick, it's been a really fun month watching you grow. You are so fascinated by things, which makes me want to sick back and watch you all day long. You are so beautiful, I could say that over and over again!

Love you, to the moon and back!
-Mommy