It’s another installment of what will hopefully be many monthly letters written to my son. It’s a part of an attempt to capture these glimpses into the everyday and the not so ordinary moments that pass by so quickly as children grow.

Dear smiling, sunshiny little guy,

The strides you have taken in this last month are ridiculous. Truly gigantic and your sunny attitude about it all blows me away. You’ve got your first two teeth (front and bottom) and are working on your first top two as well. They’re not in yet, but your sleep patterns (or lack thereof), are telling me they’re soon to be in.

You have learned how to crawl, roll over and pull to standing both around the house and in your crib. You don’t move fast yet, but every day your speed grows. It totally thrills you to be able to move under your own power, too. You are so happy – giggling and smiling so so much of the time.

You’ve also gotten a pretty good grasp (ha!) on the pincer grip. You can take down a pile of cheerios in no time flat. It’s already transitioned from “grab and shove entire fist in mouth” to a more deliberate finger-and-thumb straight to the mouth. The other night you flat out insisted to feed yourself your dinner, and you did a great job.

Someone cranked up the speed on your development lately, it seems! It’s so fun, and I’m so excited to try my hand at keeping up with you as you keep on growing!

Love always and always,

Mama