9 weeks.

Dear Holly,

One of my exclusive daily responsibilities as your Daddy is to make sure you’re being physically challenged in your exercises. So when I’m home, I do exercise time with you after each feeding.

You curiously love to stand up while I hold your hands. This seems peculiar to me, in that you’re only 2 months old. But yes, you stand on your feet for several minutes at a time before you need a break.

It’s funny because you always stand with your feet perfectly together; never in a regular stance.

Sometimes I pretend we are having a father-daughter dance, jokingly signing “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman. You totally go along with it, not knowing any better.

But while it is a joke, I look forward a lifetime of dancing you with as your father.

After you get tired of that, I turn you over on your stomach, which forces you to attempt to crawl. You have every reason to cry within in a few seconds, yet you never do.

Instead, you are always inspired to keep trying to crawl until I finally flip you back over due to your puddle of drool.

In addition to you having an obsession with maintaining mobility, you also are getting very serious about learning to talk.

During our exercise training, you also will smile at me and starting talking:

“Grrrr-ooowww-ahhh…”

I’ve learned that as I make random sounds back, you try to imitate them.

You’re also fixated on trying to roll all the way over from your back to your stomach.

Rolling over from your back to your side is easy for you at this point. My favorite time was last weekend when you were laying down on your play mat, smiled at me real big, then just threw your whole body into immediately rolling over.

It was as if to say, “Hi Daddy, bye Daddy!”

We have fun together! I am your fitness instructor and speech pathologist.

Love,

Daddy