Dear Dylan,

You're still my little peanut, but you are getting bigger and bigger. What a personality you have. You are so stubborn and determined. Yet, at the same time you are sweet and gentle. You have terrific charisma, and charm everyone - everywhere we go. At restaurants, the waitresses carry you around. At stores, you get free treats and special compliments with a flash of your smile. Your dad and I are blown away, though of course, we aren't surprised that everyone is as taken with you as we are.

Well, enough gushing, though I could go on and on. Here is my monthly list of the special things you are doing these days.

• You are a huge eater. Pureed foods aren't really cutting it anymore, even though you have just two teeth. You manage to gum/chew cheerios, small pieces of green bean, pita bread, tofu, egg yolk, peach, melon, plum, and even some steak the other night (but don't tell your Aunt Megen).
  
• Your two favorite foods are cheerios and vanilla yogurt.
  
• You are very very loud. You like to scream and babble and call everyone da da.
  
• You're still waving at everyone we see, and sometimes you wave your fingers as well as your whole arm. But mostly, you just wave your whole arm up and down.
  
• You are sleeping wonderfully. It's pretty standard for you to go 8.5 hours at once.
  
• You are starting to cruise along the furniture, but you don't quite "get it". Usually, when you see something you like, you'll cruise a bit, but then go to the ground and crawl to get there. Also, if something is on the other side of a table, you try to go over it. Going around the obstacle isn't a concept you've figured out yet.
  
• You are so much fun in the bathtub. You don't need any kind of bath seat anymore, and just crawl around splishing and splashing and playing with your rubber duckies and sponges.
  
• Everytime we walk over to the refrigerator, you point at the picture of Friday and Benny and say "dog, dog". You don't quite have the hard "g" sound though.
  
• You pick out books that you want to read. The other day, I finished Pat the Bunny and put it down on the nightable, ready to move on to read Goodnight Moon. You squirmed around and grabbed Pat the Bunny and handed it to me. We read it again! You love that book, because you can do all the little tasks, like smelling the flowers and putting your finger in the ring.
  
• We're trying to figure out which toys and dolls you like the best. Curious George seems to be your favorite, but you also love Liberty Bear. Strangely, you'd trade them all for Julie's Swatch watch, which you like to carry around with you everywhere.
  
  It's hard to believe that you've been in the world for as long as you were in my belly. We love you so much and you amaze us more every day.