Dear little child,
This week I feel conflicted writing to you as a baby. The salutation "dear baby" does not sound correct. You are really less of a baby and more of a small boy. You can express your emotion, volition, and needs. You are a little human being, and I guess I didn't think of you as such when you were a tiny baby who could not express anything he felt, wanted, or needed. You were still a human of course, but you were more of a living doll that I had to dress and make assumptions about your needs.
This week was a week of visitors. Oddly, none were related to you! Usually our visitors are related to you. On Sunday, my friend Laura came to visit. She brought you several pairs of lovely (and masculine) shoes. Some you can wear now, and some you will grow into. This is quite generous of her. Her son Cedric has long outgrown them, and we are thankful for her kindness. During her visit, she ate an apple. You were curious and crawled over to her. You licked the apple. She offered it to you, and you gummed it. I think you liked hearing your teeth scrape against the peel and your tongue taste the juices. I bet it was an odd experience for you. You love to eat applesauce and have it nearly everyday. This apple experience was so different.
Another visitor was our dear friend Ann Hoemann. She is so much like a sister to me that I hope you call her Aunt. She has been praying for you since before you were born. She also mails goodies to you, like the Life is Good tee you wore at 1 month and the board books at Christmas time. She also bought you your first swaddle (the one with the reptiles you came home from the hospital in!) and several other educational toys and books. Anyway, Ann came to stay with us for a week. She had a negative experience happen to her family, and she needed a place to come for comfort. I think your sweet smile and goofy attitude brought her joy, which was a comfort to her. It made me so pleased that my close friends think you are precious and intelligent, too. You went shopping with us, came along on our walks in your stroller, and endured lots of girl talk. She helped me take the 33 week photos in this letter by holding a distracting toy near the camera so you would not attack the week sign.
Our friends Kristen and Riley Oesch came to visit us for Monday day. They have not visited since you were three months old (and Riley was six months old). During the last visit, you and Riley upset each other. You reached for her face and she screamed! So you screamed. Today's visit was quite similar. You approached her curiously, and she did NOT want to be touched. Her sudden movements made you fall down, so you screamed out in surprise. This caused her to get upset. She began to howl. So you began to howl. It was quite difficult to get you both settled down! I know that you are used to girls fawning over you when you smile at them, so perhaps this is a valuable lesson. The rest of their visit was more pleasant. Both of you babies rode in strollers while we girls enjoyed lunch at Panera and some errands at the mall. Kristen enjoyed watching you crawl and pull up on furniture at our house. Riley content with no crawling these days, so I bet Kristen got a dose of how busy little movers can be. I felt a bit jealous watching Riley play contently in one place because this does not happen with you too often!
On Tuesday, my friend Elegan Lee came to visit. She made know pretenses that she was visiting me or your father! She came to play with YOU. I know Elegan from MU and from teaching together at West Junior High. She is a chemistry teacher and tennis coach in St. Louis. Her teaching personality and philosophy is really similar to mine, and I know she could teach you A LOT and inspire your curiosity. Well, in about fifteen years or so! I think you taught her A LOT about baby boys during this visit. Elegan played with you and also fed you some chicken and noodles I'd prepared for you. When you woke for a snack at 9 PM, I let you play with her. You played tickling games and read stories. This was a real treat for you since your parents put you straight back to bed!
This week our friends the Dorrs also visited. You and Emmett and a lengthy grunting conversation. Though he is one month older than you, you have surpassed him in size. This surprises me, since you used to look so scrawny compared to this brawny kid. Emmett is a really strong crawler, but you are catching up in motor skills! Taylor enjoyed you, too. You grinned as soon as you saw her and had a hard time not trying to make her smile and laugh. You mutually enjoy each other. We also went to the Dorrs house for dinner this week, and you seemed okay with the change of pace with eating in a different high chair and playing with different toys.
Something you did this week that surprised me was FUSS. You seemed irritable, which is really not like you. Your naps were short. You woke up standing in your bed yelling a few times. You gnashed your gums against practically everything in site. You tolerated Baby Orajel and seemed relieved to get Tylenol. This makes us all think its TOP TEETH TIME! I cannot imagine what you will look like with teeth. Will you have a smile similar to mine or your dad's? You do have a crooked smile, which is my natural smile, too. Right now your bottom teeth are half way up and are perfect little squares. They really have some power, too. You bite into your spoons sometimes and its tough to get them away from you. You have never bit a person - and we are thankful for that!
You talked A LOT this week. You are such a jabber box. You say things like this: Yahyahyahyah Mamamaaaamama Bobbabobobbobma. You also have started to say Nie Nie Nie type sounds. It sounds like you say Dan sometimes. You definitely say Momma, but I am not convinced you are saying that to me. Its just a sound you have said for a month. You started to do a lot of buzzing of your lips. You blow on your tongue and make lots of sounds. This discovery has led you to start making th and zzz and sss and sh sounds. This means it sounds like you are making rude noises sometimes, like farting noises. Yuck. I hope you stop thinking this is funny because it is somewhat embarrassing!This week you started to tolerate finger foods!
While we were reading in the nursery one afternoon, you heard door open and close. Peered at bedroom door just waiting for his dad to come it. Its great that you know when he comes home, he comes to find you. You've got a daddy that really loves his family. 
Today your menu was nursing four times during the day, breakfast of 2T apples and some rice, a few glugs of water, chicken and noodles mash, carrots mixed with mixed vegetables mash, blueberry chicken and peas and rice and formula. You also enjoyed trying to eat finger foods - freeze dried yogurt puffs and some cereals. You are working on that finger grasp!Other notable things from this week include: many stroller walks, Elegan Lee brought you two new stories, The Tooth Book and Mike Mulligan, you ate some Mexican food right off of my plate, and you got too tall for all of your six month sized pants.
As always, I love you so much and think you are wonderful.
From, your mama
