A letter from Aunt Jess

Dear Zoe,

I just returned last week from visiting you and man alive, you are the best baby in the universe. Really, you are.

First of all, you are getting so big, and when I say big I mean cute and awesome. You can sit up and babble like crazy and you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to eat my hair, my nose and my necklaces. You went totally insane for my hair. You wanted to gobble it right up. I would let my hair down and you would stop what you were doing and plunge forward to grab it with your mouth right open and then you would pull and pull it until you put it in your mouth. Then you would make this funny little grunting noise to let us all know how quite proud of yourself you were that you successfully hunted and took down this elusive long hair. It sounded a little like "huh huh heeeeeee".

You have also just recently started to experiment with solid foods. You are pretty ambivalent about rice cereal, but you think sweet potatoes taste like garbage. I took about 900 million pictures to document your inner most thoughts and reactions to the sweet potato. Most likely by the time you read this I will have shown them to you approximately 7 skajillion times and you'll be all "I know aunt Jess, you've shown these to me before. God." But then you'll right away say "...but man I am so cute" and then we'll go get sundaes and I'll buy you expensive jeans that your mom will ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to buy for you because, as your best friend, I understand what it feels like to really need a perfect pair of jeans.

Your mom and I are so amazed by you that we would just sit you down on the floor and simply stare and stare at you, because we both know that you are perfect, just the way you are. It's funny little Zoe B, but you are teaching me so much about being a person on this planet. Chelsea and I were talking about how incredibly wonderful it is that you are ALWAYS YOU; you are always yourself...in every moment, unapologetically you. I am learning to try to get back to that place, of just being me, in my own skin, no matter what. What a marvelous baby you are Zoe.

You are happy ALL OF THE TIME. You really never cry except when we try and make you go to sleep. Grandpa David says that you "are such a happy little character" and I fully agree. I don't think I have ever met anyone so adorably happy; you're just looking around loving life. Even when we make you do things you don't want, like go in the car seat or change your outfit, you just kind of look at us like "oh mannn, I hate this...sigh...but I get it." Usually when you look at us like that, we stop what we're doing and just hold you and you start smiling again.

One of the best parts of my trip was when I got to babysit you while your mom and dad went out to dinner. You had been having a hard time without your mom sometimes when you have to go to sleep. I was a little nervous that you would freak out when your mom left, but you loved hanging out and bouncing around. Then it got to be bedtime and I was pretty sure you would get mad at me. I fed you and put you into your pajamas, then I put on your music and tried to wrap you in the burrito blanket thing. And guess what? YOU WERE SO MAD. You looked at me as if to say "oh right - I'm going to go to sleep while everyone else is awake and having fun - no thank you." I knew that's what you were thinking because we're best friends and we have this funny mind telepathy happening.

So, of course, I just let you stay up with me and the other kids and you had THE BEST TIME EVER. You kept looking over at me laughing and smiling. I could tell you were thinking - "SEE??!!! Like I was going to miss out on this!" But then I saw you rubbing your eyes, and as much as you didn't want to admit it, you were tuckered out.

I took you back to your parent's room (which is where you sleep) and instead of wrapping you in the burrito and putting you in the swing , which is a good way to get you to sleep, I just held you and rocked you and sang you little songs. You were fussy, and just did not want to relax because you wanted to STAY UP FOR GOD SAKES. But I could tell from the best friend telepathy that you were just soooo tired. You keep putting you head down on my chest and then jerked it right back up. But then, like the most precious baby that you are, you just relaxed and drifted off to sleep in my arms. I thought I would totally just start crying my head off right there because, honestly Zoe, it was one of the sweetest moments of my life. I feel such a bond with you little girl and I felt like there, in my arms, you felt it too.

I love you to bits and bits.

Your adoring aunt Jess