Dear Bennett,
It's taken me a couple days to get this post done, but better late than never, right?
You are ten whole months old today. In just eight weeks you will turn one! I can hardly believe it. Where is this time going?
You have five teeth, two on top, three on the bottom and three more that are just about done working their way to the surface. Teething has made you into a frantic gummer of anything.
And you love to chew. On anything. Everything. Some days you just wander around the house, your mouth wide open like a panting dog, just looking for something that will fill the need to bite. I am constantly scanning floors to see if there's a errant string, a lone shriveled hard pea, the tiniest scrap of mud, because I know those eagle eyes of yours will hone in on these little bits of detritus at the edges of your world. You LOVE to eat! There's not much you don't like... your favorites are avocado and cheerios, though I think cheese is a close third.
Right now you are working on your standing skills. You love to pull yourself up on the edge of the couch/cabinet/box/chair/dog and are shimmying sideways, lifting your sausage legs in the air and unsteadily setting them back down a few inches away. Walking is near.
I am excited for this but strangely sad to see the end of your babydom. The days of wearing us out and taking unexpected couch naps will soon be coming to a close.
I took you to see your first show a couple of weeks ago. You and I went down to our
favorite record store to see the
Heartless Bastards play an afternoon show. It wasn't too crowded but was terribly loud, so we hung out at the back of the store and looked at the thousands of CDs and DVDs. Your friends T and C showed up, too! Good times... you love to people watch, just hang out and stare at folks intently, eliciting some response from random people ("Hi, there!" "Whatcha doin' cutie?"). I wonder if this curiosity will continue as your world slowly becomes bigger and bigger. Some days you like to wander away from me and explore, other days I can't leave your sight. If I do you begin to wail and howl.
We're coming up on the anniversary of your brother's birth and death. It's all condensed into such a short span of intense emotional upheaval that I am going to apologize in advance if I seem absent and lost. I love you so much. I'm not sure of what the anniversary will bring with it. We are going to have a little celebration on Sunday, light a candle, play some music, spend some time remembering... I'll tell you the story of your older brother... I'm not sure how it goes, but it begins with: one day in April, the year before you joined us... we will figure the rest out as we go along, I'm thinking.
Well, time to get outside and dig in the dirt while you nap the afternoon away.
I love you to the moon and back, my dear, my honey bunny.
yours,
Mamma.
The last one was taken a couple years before his death, and you can see how big the tree has gotten out in the yard! As far as we know that big tree is still standing by his home, across the field from the family homestead, down by the Solomon River, shading the house and quietly marking time.
