Before our son was born, Mike and I agreed that we wanted to keep a record of his life, (as well as a record for all future children) until his adulthood... Something unique we could give him when he turns 18 or perhaps when he gets married. We have been writing in a special journal for him since his earthly arrival, which contains his birth stats, details of his developmental progress, his general nature, milestones he’s reached, my birth experience with him, and our thoughts on being his parents. We plan to write about each stage of his life, his ups and downs, our observations, our thoughts on raising him, our experiences together as a family, and other important details. It will be interesting to see what kinds of things we write about during his teenage years. But anyway, we think it will be an invaluable gift to him as he reads back on his life through our eyes.
I find myself wanting to tell him so much when I write in his journal. I say to myself, "he needs to know how much I love being his mom. He needs to know how loved he is by us." I write my hopes for him and how I want for him to be happy in his life. I write how I enjoy watching him grow into a little boy. This time is going by so fast. I just want to hold on to it forever. V is almost 9 months old now and I wonder what ever happened to the baby I used to have. But I think this is my favorite time so far.
These days he crawls all over the house following me from room to room. He gets into just about everything, which means I have to pay special attention to the things I leave laying around. He recently discovered the Kleenex box that sits on the end table, and had a hay-day pulling out each tissue one by one before putting them into his mouth. He pulls himself up into a standing position every chance he gets. He holds onto my fingers and we take tiny steps until we’ve lapped the entire apartment at least twice. He just wants to GO GO GO. His favorite thing right now is to climb up on our scanner. It sits on the bedroom floor about knee high to him, the perfect height for him to pull himself onto his feet. Then he makes his way to the computer tower. Then he reaches out to hold onto the computer desk chair, but it swivels you see, so it sweeps him in one fast movement until he loses his balance and bonks his little head. It breaks my heart to see him get hurt, but I realize it’s unavoidable and all apart of growing up. And luckily he takes it fairly well when he falls, or pinches his finger in the lid of my cosmetics case, or when he gets stuck under the armoire during his exploration.
Ves started cutting teeth 2 months ago. The first one poked its way through his bottom gums. I thought for sure the next would appear on the bottom right next to the first. But instead, his second tooth was one of the top “vampire” teeth. The third came in the front on the opposite side of the “vampire” tooth. His teeth have appeared randomly in no particular order at all. He had a pretty funky looking grill for a couple of weeks. But now he’s got teeth popping up all over, filling in the empty spaces. They look like tiny pearls buried in a slice of seedless, pink watermelon. No more gummy smile! Some people have asked me if I’m going to stop nursing now, but nursing, ironically, gives him the most comfort during this painful teething period. Luckily he’s not a biter.
There are so many things I love about Ves. If I’m sitting on the sofa, he crawls over to me and rubs his head against my leg like he’s a cat. I love it when he’s so exhausted from playing that he just climbs into my lap and rests his head against my shoulder. I love the soft, blonde hairs on the back of his head that extend in all directions after he wakes up. It’s the cutest baby bed head of all time.
About a month ago I taught V how to jump off the bed into my arms. He thinks it’s the greatest game and laughs and holds his eyes shut tight as he pushes his body off the edge for me to catch him. I love the way he giggles. Sometimes he laughs without even being provoked, and I sit there wondering what he finds so amusing. Either way, hearing his laugh is a great way to make me smile.
In the morning Mike brings Ves into our bed before going to work (that is, if he isn’t already there from being brought in during the middle of the night.) He’s always in a great mood in the mornings and makes it known that it’s time for us to get up and play with him. He touches my face, grabs my nose and puts his fingers in my mouth and ears. He crawls up on my belly and I usually wake up after a few minutes of his incessant “mmbah mmbah, mmbah, mmbah, bah bah bah.” As tired as I am in the mornings, it’s hard to ignore his cute baby talk.
Whenever we go out, people we don’t even know come up to us and exclaim "what a beautiful kid you have!" Even children in our complex will yell “hi Vessel!” as we leave the apartment or come up and say how adorable he his. He seems to like being around other children. At church a few weeks ago we set him beside Sophie and they somehow started holding hands. Mike and I, along with Sophie’s mom Helen, laughed so hard as we watched them interact with each other.
I really love watching Vessel and Mike together too. Mike is a great daddy and I can tell Vessel wants to be around him a lot. One morning Mike was talking to Vessel and then told him “goodbye” and that he’d see him again after work. Vessel followed him to the door on hands and knees, and when Mike left, Vessel just sat there by the door waiting for him to come back in. It was awfully sweet, but kind of heartbreaking for Mike.
We love being parents and it just keeps getting better and better. I hope that the journal we’re keeping for V let's him know how happy we are that he is our son. I never want him to doubt how loved he is and has been since the very beginning.
A cute picture of Vessel playing with his reflection in the mirror.
Bennett: Hey Bates, I thought I told you to stay away from this side of the complex. This is my turf, bro. 
Bennett: How's this for your face? If you're looking for trouble, you've just found it, bro. 
Bennett: Whoa, nice grill, bro. Ha ha, are those real? 
Bennett: #$@&*!
