9 months old

Dear Tanner,

I am writing your 9 month letter while you are napping, since when you are awake, I have lovingly named you "Tanner the tornado". You are 100% boy...busy, busy, busy!! If there is something to knock over, you will knock it over. If there is something to bang, you will bang it. If there is something to dump, you will dump it. It is so funny to see the look of determination on your face when you get something in your sights. You are OBSESSED with the tv/DVD/stereo, and it's amazing that already at 9 months old, we can see your little "will" coming out. You look at us with your adorable smile and then proceed, for the 17th time, to go and bang on the TV. You definitely are keeping us on our toes!!

You started fully sleeping through the night this month, hallelujah! You usually go to bed at around 7:30, and sleep till 7-7:30. Every once in awhile you still may wake up in the night, but those nights are hit and miss now. You take 2 good naps a day, and settle easily with your "soo soo" and blankie after around 3+ hrs of being awake.

We are starting to see a little "temper" in you if we don't move fast enough for your liking. When you are hungry, we better have the food ready RIGHT THEN or you get very mad. You have been eating a TON lately. Mostly baby food, but you've also started eating cheerios, veggie puffs, and pieces of bread. You love trying to pick up the little pieces, although you still have a hard time actually getting those little pieces into your mouth.

You have started to balance standing on your own for a few seconds at a time...it scares mommy as she is NOT ready for a walker. You keep trying to find your balance when standing against something, and slowly taking your hands off. You just want to grow up so fast! You are not interested in your baby toys at all anymore, but can spend soooo long with Sophie's toy kitchen, pulling out the drawers, playing with the food, and banging the pots and pans. Time to pack up the baby toys :(

You are still a mama's boy and definitely need your mama. When I walk into a room and you see me, I love seeing your little face light up. You are my precious boy and everyday I thank God for the miracle of you in my life.

Love, Mommy

8 months (a little late)

Dear Tanner,

I am a bit late in posting this, but that is pretty fitting for this month!! This has been one busy month with you, Tanner! You are just on the go all the time. 3 days after you started crawling, you started pulling up on things to stand! Slow down buddy!! Now you love to stand EVERYWHERE. You started standing up in your crib for naps and haven't figured out how to get back down, so naps have been a bit crazy the past few days. But you have been blessing us with some good nights of 10-12hrs nights, so thank you!!

You said "Mama" purposefully the other day and now say it quite regularly when you want me. You are still a mama's boy but love your daddy immensely and always give him a big smile whenever you see him! Sophie is still your favorite person ever and always just smile and laugh whenever she is around.

You have started to become a better eater, except you do prefer fruits to veggies. You are not a fan of homemade baby food so all those jars that we made are sitting in the freezer :) You like eating teething biscuits and Baby Mum Mum rice cakes. You always have a smile when you eat them, like you are so proud of yourself for being a "big boy".

You are a typical boy...you already have gotten your share of bumps and bruises, and even your first black eye! But it amazes me that you can fall down and land hard but just get up without flinching! You also have gotten another tooth finally, your top Eye tooth! You love chomping on everything, and we have to make sure that Sophie puts all her toys away because you zero in on the littlest thing.

I love you my cuddle bug. The smiles you give me all the time just melt my heart.

Love Mommy

Another month goes by...

Dear Tanner,

The months are just flying by and I find myself loving you more and more each and everyday. You are my cuddly little thing who just loves to be held and snuggle with anyone! I love the way you are starting to reach out when you want to be picked up, or the way that a big smile breaks out on your face when your eyes meet mine in a large room. My precious boy...

This has been a busy month for you! You finally mastered rolling both ways (YAY!) so this has made night times a lot better as you roll to whatever position you like :) We also leave a bunch of soothers (AKA binkies) all around your crib and you find them fine on your own. You've had a nasty cold that has turned into your first ear infection, and you've had it for around 2 weeks, so our nights have been pretty interrupted with that. You are also sooooooo close to crawling. You get around on all 4's, but not the typical "crawling" way yet. But you do get around. It is so fun to see you get so proud of yourself when you do something and everyone cheers. A huge smile just lights up your face, and you try to do it again

You celebrated your first Christmas! You love banging on the boxes and trying to put the wrapping paper in your mouth. You were such a trooper to all the different events. You even went on your first trip to Canada! You loved staying at Grandpa's house and meeting all the relatives up there that have never met you before.

You loved eating solids until you got sick, now you don't want anything to do with them. Since you got sick, you have now been waking up a few times in the night again to eat. Mommy hasn't minded this too much over Christmas break, but with her going back to work tomorrow, she is worried how she'll function with such all this interrupted sleep again.

You have started "talking" more. You say dada, but not for "Daddy". You love to make sounds as you chew on your tongue, looks so funny! You still are in LOVE with your big sister. The moment she is in the room, your eyes are focused on her. You laugh so much at the funny things she does.

You are my precious, precious little boy and I love you so much.

Love, Mommy

Half a year...

Dear Tanner,

Happy half birthday!! So hard to believe that 6 months ago, I was in the hospital meeting you for the first time. That feels like just yesterday to me!

This has been a busy month for you. You have 2 teeth now, your bottom ones. You look so cute with these little ones poking through. However, you have bitten mama a few times, so hope that is not something you will do consistently. You are rolling from your tummy to your back pretty consistently, but not yet from your back to your tummy. You can sit up for a few seconds unassisted but your favorite thing to do is jump. You want to stand and jump all the time. You've recently started getting into the "crawling position" and rocking back and forth. That scares mommy a little bit, she is not ready for a crawler!

Mommy had to go back to work this month and had SUCH a hard time with that. You are spending 2-3 days a week with Marci, a wonderful wonderful lady who you love already! You are so smiley and happy there, sleep well there, and it makes mommy feel soooo good to know you are somewhere where you are safe and loved.

You've started waking up a lot more in the night again, so we started "operation get rid of swaddle and sleep positioner" since you'd be struggling to get our of your swaddle and then be in this weird position in the positioner. You are sleeping a lot better on your tummy. You know how to put the paci back in your mouth so mommy has put lots all over your crib so you can find them yourself :) Mommy still feeds you once during the night. We started you on solids a couple weeks ago. You were NOT interested in the cereals at all, but love sweet potatoes! You love sitting in the high chair with us when it's dinner time. You just laugh and look so proud of yourself. You are becoming SUCH a big boy!

You are still my cuddler. I can already tell that you have such a sweet spirit...you take after your daddy in that as well as your looks. Always a smile on your face, always a giggle ready to share. Everyone who meets you just comments about your smile and how happy you are. You are a flirt and love the ladies :)

Your mommy loves you, Tanner bo-banner :)

Love, Mommy

5 months old already!

Dear Tanner,

I am just in awe of how fast time is flying by and how fast you are growing up! You are changing so quickly, every day, right before my eyes. I am LOVING this stage with you. You are so aware of everything around you, always reaching out for stuff, grabbing hold of anything you can, and usually everything ends up in your mouth. You have been working on teeth for a bit now, especially this last week. I'm hoping the little guys will pop through soon to give you some relief! I can tell you are so uncomfortable with them!

Tanner, you are my sweet, laughing boy. Always a smile on your face, always a giggle. I am amazed at the simple joy that you have already, at such a young age. The littlest things just make you laugh and laugh, and when you laugh, it makes all of us laugh too. You love hanging out on the changing table, you love it when mommy lifts you high and "flies" you through the air. You are so much fun.

You are eating about every 4 hours during the day. You are taking 3 naps a day, usually 2 long ones and a short one. You are addicted to your paci or "soo soo" and I think it is contributing to a lot more night wakings lately for a "replug". We've had to let you fuss a bit in the night, but you are learning to go back to sleep without it. You still wake to eat once during the night, and I don't mind that too much. I love my cuddle time with you!

You are such a sensitive little guy. You are quite the "startler" and the littlest noises make you jump. Sophie gets a kick out of doing the little things to make you "jump". But then you just give her one of your big smiles :) She can ALWAYS make you stop fussing. She just starts singing and you stop crying and just get so calm. She is mommy's secret weapon for those fussy moments!

You are LOVING the johnny jump up and spend so much time jumping around in there. You are just on the go all the time (for as much as you CAN be on the go for 5 months old). You always want to be standing in our laps, no sitting for you, which is just like Sophie was at this age too, and she is still on the go 24/7. I am so glad you still love your cuddles though. I love how every day before a nap, you just rest your head on my shoulder and nuzzle into me. You always follow me with your eyes, no matter where I go in the room. You end up in some weird positions as you arch around trying to see me.

I love you my precious boy!

Love, Mommy

Dizzy Days...

I had a pretty bad scare the other night. I woke up at 2am and felt a throbbing on my right side of my head. I tried to lay down/walk around and it was still there. I started to feel really "weird". I remember waking Jeremy up and saying "Jeremy, my head feels funny" and right after that things got soooo much worse. My head starting spinning!!! It felt like I had just played "Izzy dizzy" and the spinning wouldn't stop. Jeremy helped me make it to the bathroom where I started throwing up, this lasted a few hours.

During this whole episode, the hardest thing to do was not to let the fear come in. Whenever there are things to do with health issues to someone close to me, or myself, I often panic and think of worse case scenario. I know a lot of this stems from me losing my mom at such a young age, and realizing that life can change in an instant. I hate how right away my mind goes to "tumor/aneurysm/stroke" and "what's going to happen to my kids because of this?".

At 4am, as this is still continuing full force, after Jeremy calls the advice nurse and they say "Bring her into ER!" Jeremy ends up calling the ambulance to come and get me. This was all going on around me and I just felt like it was so surreal. Got to the hospital and they decide to run a gamut of blood tests on me and do a CAT scan...never have had one of those in my life, so freaky.

Needless to say, all the results came back FINE. Dr said it could be an inner ear virus or something and to check in with a doctor in 3-5 days. I am soooo glad it is nothing serious, at the same time, going through that all really makes me realize the importance of life and how fragile it is and how at every moment, I just need to remember that God holds my life in his hands.

I'm so thankful that my dad was in town visiting, and my sister was such a godsend and came over and took care of the kids while I was in bed, literally, all day yesterday. I'm still a bit dizzy now, but enough to function, thank the LORD!

4 months!

Dear Tanner,

Hard to believe that 4 months ago today, you were this new bundle in my arms! Watching you then was such a miracle, especially with all the turmoil of my pregnancy and all the unknown we faced then. I still think of you as my little miracle, and sometimes it hits me hard just what we almost faced with you. I wonder if I will always be a bit more protective of you because of all this.

You are growing sooooo big! Nearly 100% for height and 75% for weight...Long and lean like your daddy maybe? You are growing out of your clothes at an alarming rate, and pretty much wear all 6 month size sleepers. 3 mth pants are SO short on you!

It was a crazy month in the beginning, with you being Mr. Catnapper all day long. A little exhausting at times!! But you've started to take some nice longer naps this past week and are falling into a pretty consistent pattern which makes Mommy a little more relaxed :) You are still waking up in the night to feed, around 4-4:30 and then going back to sleep till 7-7:30. At times I just want you to be sleeping through the night, especially with me having to go back to work in a month, but when I'm holding you and feeding you in the middle of the night, how peaceful and still you are, I am not ready for that to be gone. Especially since when you are awake you are Mr. Active and Mr. go go go, non stop!

You are still my Mr. Smiley Guy! You laugh SOOOO easily and so much! You love being tickled and will shriek in anticipation as our hands get closer to tickling you. You fill my heart with so much joy, little man! I love how you just love to cuddle and be held. You don't seem to be "uncomfortable" anymore so hopefully we can be off the Reflux medication soon.

I love you my little guy!

Love Mommy