Cornbread

The cornbread I made came out absolutely terrible - strong baking powder taste, gritty texture, salty - but Baby and I had a grand time making it. I gave him some flour and cornmeal so he could experience what I was doing.

He's still a bit of a crab, but this kept him happy for a long long time.

Nine in, nine out

Or: The Return of Doctor Bellows

So he's 9 month old, as of Friday. And he really is more charming, more engaging, funnier and sweeter pretty much by the day. Yes, I said funnier. I don't know if this is developmentally possible, but I swear he has a real sense of humor.

That toothless smile that people used to rave about is gone - he's got 6 teeth, and is working at least one more. He cruises like a madman, and will carefully let go and take a step or two before pitching over. He got over his ear infection very fast (thank God) and is back to sleeping through the night and then some. His hair's getting thicker and blonder, and in the right light, you can even see his eyebrows! His eyes have moved from kinda hazel to medium brown (like his dad's) with a navy blue ring around the outside.

When I look at new babies, I can imagine he was ever that small, or that inactive. (For the record, try to look like you're interested, he's over 20 lbs and over 27 inches tall.) I know this sounds ridiculous, but he's so grown up!

Adorable, funny, grown up - and really well-developed lungs, have I mentioned that? Wow, can this kid yell. Lots of yelling this weekend. Lots and lots. I attribute this to the fact that he had a couple of vaccinations on Friday, which in the past have tended to make him crabby and out-of-sorts, I think because his legs get sore at the injection site. So it was a weekend of crying, screaming, of begging to be picked up and then wrestling out of our arms. Sigh.

It's all you can do, I guess - sigh, and give him as many cuddles as he'll sit still for.

We're sleeping much better

as you can see.

Turns out that the young man had a bit of fluid in his left ear - our babysitter pegged it completely - and, after just a couple days of meds, is much better, and much more pleasant to be around.

We are very relieved - huband and I occasionally have this experience (we had it a couple times when I was pregnant) in which we feel enormous intense relief about something that we hadn't realized we were worried about. And I would say that we weren't feeling worried about Baby's sleeplessness and crankiness - much more annoyed than worried - but now cannot believe how happy we are that he's on his way back to normal.

I should be asleep by now, but I'm very very busy

1. Watching a documentary about heavy metal culture on VH1. (Remind me sometime to tell you some tales of my years as the fiance of a metal guitarist.)

2. Sniffling over this post. Tears welled up and spilled over at the first newborn photo and have barely stopped. I was going to say "You don't have to be a mother to be touched by this piece of writing," but I could totally be talking out my butt on that. Would I have cried reading this last September?

Okay, probably, but would I have cried about it 2 years ago?

What do you think? (I know many - most? All? of you are parents...)

oh no, not another crappy selfportait

7 mo, originally uploaded by funky fat girl.

This is a picture of two people after one long night. It's several weeks old, but I post it because we've been having some long, long nights lately.

The Dude has decided that sleeping at night is for chumps.

If it was, say, April or May, and we were USED to being up all night, this would not even merit a flinch. But he's been sleeping for 9-hour stretches all summer, and we have lost our edge. We've become soft.

I'm not REALLY going to drive myself into a bridge abuttment. I mean, in all likelihood.

He had a little fever this afternoon. If that comes back, or if he has another crap night, we're heading to the dr in the morning. (Again, like with the sleep, this would not even garner a shrug from most parents, but he's been in such perfect health for...his whole life! that I'm pretty freaked out about a (tiny, marginal) fever.

If, however, he has a good night (one waking or, dare I imagine, LESS) he's going to spend some time at a friend's, and I'm spending the day napping and reading the new Vogue.

So please - think good thoughts. Sleepy, fluffy cool thoughts

An encouraging thought on motherhood

I have a friend who used to say that when I talked about parenthood it sounded as if I were trying to convince myself that everything was okay. And for a long time it was exactly that — this new way of life was hard to navigate, impossible at times. I used to hang up the pone after talking to her, crawl into my closet and cry because I thought I was so bad at this. I said a few months ago that things were better, and they were, but I had no idea that you would continue to become more charming, more adorable, more full of surprises. At this age you are like Christmas every morning, always saying something wildly outrageous, often breaking into song in the oddest places, and now my friend tells me that when I talk about parenthood it sounds like an instrument I’ve been playing all my life. I like to think that I feel better about this because I am better at this, but I know it’s mostly because you are the most amazing person I have ever known. Whenever I talk about you to other people, whenever they ask me how I’m doing with this, I’m not sure I can adequately communicate just how lucky I am to know you.

Love,
Mama

from dooce, in her monthly open letter to her daughter Leta (who's now 31 months.)