Dearest Raffie,

You are nine months old! There are babies being born today who hadn’t even been thought of when you arrived yet it still feels like I’ve only just had a baby!

You are strong and fierce and you know exactly what you want as well as how to communicate that! You have even begun to actually start speaking and said yogurt! YOGURT! What a brilliant first word! I’ll concede it does sound more like ‘ogurt’ and you DO say it when it’s not relevant but you also say it when you see pouches of food so I know you know what you’re talking about! You also say ‘Caaaaa’ for the cat and ‘caaa caaa caaa’ for clap, clap, clap! And it’s been no surprise to me (after you’ve been winding the bobbin up for so long) that you can actually clap as you say it. A beautifully perfect clap and you are so happy with yourself! Daddy also thinks you say Da Da… I’m not so sure?!

It’s been a massive month for learning new skills and of course you are on the move now too. A rather unusual one legged drag/bum shuffle but you get where you want to go and you do it quickly we found out when you pulled a desk over on yourself. I won’t talk much about that because the whole thing terrified me to the point of distraction and we were just so very, very lucky that you weren’t hurt. We will keep an even closer eye on you now so it has served as a very good lesson.

Again you have been with me every step of the way this month. You sleep under my wing and come with me everywhere I go. You’ve gone down as the star of the show at all the Christmas in July press shows and everyone says ‘My word, what a happy baby he is!’ and you are. So happy. You’re amazing really as even in the heat of the blazing summer we are having, even on the tube, hustle and bustle and the confines of a sling, you are wonderfully smiley and good tempered! You are a joy to have around and you are such good company too. I love you so very, very much, we all do! You are the little mechanism which makes this whole family work and every one of us looks for you first. People ask me if the big kids are ever jealous or annoyed by the baby and I say honestly that sure there may be moments of wishing they had my undivided (something I am working on giving them both individually every so often) but they love you with their whole hearts! When the desk fell and we all worried about you they were both in tears of fear and Jimmy says ‘Raffie is my most favourite person in the whole world’ which is really quite something when he is just as much of a mummy’s boy as you are!

Your smile is glorious, your learning so mesmerising to watch! I take it all in, every single second and I love that you’ve turned 9 months old on the day I turn 39. Happiest birthday ever with my three is the magic number set of babes!