One Year Old Baby Boy

Max,

You are a one year-old boy now. (In fact you are more than one by the time I'm posting this, but I wrote this on a plane on my way home from Austin Texas just before your first birthday.) It seems like I have, and will, say this at every age but you amaze me.

You can walk, run sometimes, you climb up everything including over the top of the couch, on our night stands, up the your bookshelf, and onto any toy that seems like a good step on the way to your desired destination. You still make frequent use of your very speedy crab crawl with your left knee and right foot but slowly walking is taking over as your preferred and fastest method of motivation.

You are full of words, though only a few of them come out clearly. Right now bye-bye is the clearest among them usually accompanied by a little waive and often a kiss you blow to the departing party. Mamamamama, dadadadada and nananana are also in the mix. And you are starting to use a few of your baby signs – your favorites are “all done”, “bird”, “more”, and sometimes “milk”.

While you are using more words of your own you seem to understand everything. We have quickly learned that if we tell you what we are doing you are much happier — getting dressed or going places or eating, you like to know what's going on

You like to read books with Mommy (and Mommy is probably biased because this is one of my favorite things too). You pick the books you want off the belf or out of your basket and you turn the pages for me as we go. You also like to play with your books all by yourself. You love your Elmo Bath Time book and your Who Loves Baby soft picture book. When we ready together you love 123 NYC and Little Blue Truck but your clear favorite is I Love You Through and Through.

To my amazement and great joy you are beginning to pretend. You got a toy cell phone for Christmas and ever since you love to pick it up and hold it to your ear and babble little conversations. Now everything is a phone and you like to share making sure Mommy and Daddy and Nana get their turns talking on the phone too. You also like to pretend to drink from the toy jug of milk when I pour it into a pretend glass for you.

You also love to play with your music toys and cars. And of course you love your classes – you are the mayor of Gymboree. You are fearless with the bigger kids and you crawl and climb all over everything. And now that you are big enough you love to go to the park. You climb up the jungle gym and go down the little slides all by yourself. I have a feeling you’d climb even higher and wouldn’t hesitate to go down the big slides if we’d let you. Daddy likes to encourage the daredevil in you, but I’m not ready for all your bravery quite yet.

You also love the sand box and the grass. The best day at the park so far was when a few older kids were there with their Big Wheels trikes. As soon as one of them left theirs unattended you make a b-line for it. By the time you were crawling in the seat a worried six year-old little boy was rushing over to reclaim his Big Wheels. Very nicely, he let you sit on it first though!

 

You sleep the whole night through in your own room now, even though sometimes Mommy and Daddy would rather have you back in our room. Nana Karen started it by just putting you in your crib one night when we went out to dinner and you slept so well and straight through the night that we’ve kept doing it.

Everyone tends to agree that you are the happiest baby ever. You are quick to smile and seem to be continually in a good mood. Things do upset you from time to time, and you have your grumpy moments, but it always seems to pass quickly and fussy times are few.  You wake up with a smile on your face and my favorite times of the day are when you wake up smiling and holding you as you fall asleep each night.

I think back to the day you were born. Our excitement to have you seems to have been just the beginning. Every day you layer on another level of happiness. If it’s possible I smile brighter now that I have you than I ever did before.

We love you baby boy.

9 months old

food food food

Max you are an amazing eater - I expect no less of course! Here are the foods you love right now:

Blueberries (at every meal if possible)

Bananas

Pasta - including Low Mein noodles which you had for the first time last night & slurped down like a champ

Avocados

Strawberries

Meatballs

Juice juice juice!

Quesadillas

Peanut Butter sandwiches

Scrambled eggs with cheese

Oranges

Green beans

Apples

Yogurt ( though you don't love it as much now that there is so much food to pick up & eat on your own)

Cheese (any kind including fancy cheese from the wine bar and fresh mozzarella like you had tonight for the first time)

Chicken

Bagels

Tomatoes (the delicious little kind from the farmer's market)

Blackberries

And of course the occasional bottle of milk. 

Bottoms up baby boy. I can't wait to see what you eat next!

6 months

6 months - belated...

(I wrote this at six months but am just now getting around to posting this one.)

Max you are six months old. You are an adorable baby boy -- I wonder sometimes if we are biased because we love you so much, but everyone says so. I sometimes wonder if you just seem so gorgeous to me because am your mother but it is very satisfying to know that everyone agrees. It makes me even more when someone tells me you look like me. Everyone says you have my eyes. And I do think that is true, but you are also a great mix of both Phillip and me.

Every day you do something amazing -- you tear up the house in your walker chasing the dog and cats, you sit and play with blocks and toys, you listen intently to every book I read you, then you earnestly hold each one I hand you after we're done reading it examine it closely. You eat with fervor and excitement pounding your hands the tray of your highchair if I dont feed you fast enough. You sleep soundly, almost through the night, with your face snuggled close to me or your daddy or a pillow (making me constantly worry if you can breath but you make it happily through every night). You laugh, you smile, and you make this funny sound that reminds us of an old man with a toothless grin on your face. You don't say any words yet (though Phillip is working hard on daddy), but we definitely get the idea of what you mean.

You love to eat, in fact we joke that you don't miss a meal and you are a gorgeous plump little boy. Your main meals are still milk but you also eat sweet potatoes, carrots, avocados, bananas, pears, sweet peas, and rice cereal. We haven't tried anything you don't like yet and I really hope it stays that way -- it wouldn't be the end of the world but I would like it so much if you grow up to be an adventurous eater.

We have our life set down into a nice routine, when we are home that is. Phillip and I both have our offices here and work from home. We have a nanny for you who comes weekdays from 8:30 to 3:30 except on Fridays when she leaves at 12:30. This system is working quite well except the nanny part, we've had one since you were just past 8 weeks old, but we've decided to make a change so soon you wil have a new nanny.

Maybe my favorite thing so far is that we have become a traveling family. We go everywhere together and I like the idea that we don't have to be apart just because daddy and I have to travel for work. So far you've been on trips to Miami, DC, LA, San Diego, Aspen, and Wyoming. In a few weeks we are headed back to the east coast with stops in DC, New York City and Maine. You were made to travel. Whether we drive or fly you rarely fuss and the different beds a varying time zones don't seem to bother you at all.

You are sitting up and working on the basics of how to crawl (I'm sure you'll get there in no time).

You are amazing and we love you so much. I can't wait to see what the next months bring!

3 month old baby boy

Max,

Today you are three months old.

Now before you were even a twinkle i n my eye I started this blog about life and homes and hopes. And now you are here. And have been here for 3 entire months (or 12 weeks and 5 days if you're counting week-style and not just by the month).

You, my beautiful baby boy, are amazing. You eat and sleep and smile and cry and I can't find a thing in the world more interesting to watch than you and I can't imagine a day I ever spent without you. When you're not fascinating in your awake state you are precious in sleep.

These past three months have gone by so quickly it's hard to recount everything that's gone into them — so I won't try. But I will say that my days have been filled with the most amazing details of the beginning of your life.

For the first 8 weeks I religiously (almost obsessively) tracked every single thing you did: every time you ate, every diaper, every nap. The minutia of your days seemed like a magical code, a secret recipe for your happiness and health. In the past few weeks I've taken a slightly more relaxed approach to your daily care — partially because you are such a strong, healthy baby and partially because we have grown already into a comfortable pattern of daily life.

Now we take your days with much more ease and less scrutiny. Despite not being closely documented your hours pass as blissfully as when I was monitoring and logging every single item.

You are already getting so big. (I find myself repeating that familiar refrain of parents everywhere.) You laugh and you coo, and recently you've started to shout a few small shrieks — fabulous and surprising as you discover all the things your voice and lungs can do.

Today we took your 3 month photo and you found it very amusing as we tried to take your picture with the neatly lined up blocks spelling out "3 months". You were greatly amused by shaking them from your belly and watching us re-stack them.

You hold onto toys and the things around you (like the burp cloth that captivated all your interest for over an hour today). You listen to us and talk to us in your baby way. Mostly you watch the world very closely. I have a feeling that you, in your own way are logging all the details of your own days.

I know soon you will be crawling and walking and talking and these first days of babyhood will seem a distant memory. But for now they fill up all the hours and each day that ends I'm sad it's gone and happy for the next to come. The magic of these months is a beautiful thing.

You are already in bed tonight and as I write this I feel I'm missing out on the chance to watch you sweetly sleep. There are a million things that I want to capture about this moment in time, but for now it will have to suffice to say that you make me supremely happy and I love you immensely. I can't wait to see what amazing feat of growth you accomplish tomorrow!

I love you,

Mom

Wishing and Hoping

It's Christmastime and all around people are scurrying to get ready for the holidays. And people are taking their kids to see Santa. I heard a really charming interview on NPR the other day of a Santa who often gets wishes not just from kids, but from moms and dads. Adults who ask Santa for help finding a job, or keeping their marriage together. Giving over their dearest hopes to this mystical man in a fake red suit in the hope that it will help.

It didn't strike me as odd at all to hear these people asking for help from Santa. Call it the power of positive thinking or prayer or just putting it out there, but any way you look at it there is a real power in just simply "saying" what you want.

We have so many traditions and tricks set up for how our wishes can come true. Whether it's blowing out birthday candles, or speaking what you really want to a kind old man dressed up in red velvet and a white beard.

And I for one believe in it. Not that the magic of blowing out the candles on your cake makes what you want come true, but that once you set an intention and are brave enough to form the words of what you want — you've made that wish come that much closer to being a reality.

Several years ago I was on a yoga retreat in St. John Virgin Islands. One morning my tent-mates and I embarked on a sunrise hike to a cliff nearby promising a spectacular view of the sun coming up over the ocean. And the gorgeous view wasn't the only appeal to the hike. Local legend had it that if you stood on the edge of the cliff and threw a rock as hard as you could into the sea while shouting out your wish — if your rock made it to the water without crashing back against the cliff — your wish would come true.

My hiking companions and I found it somewhat difficult to not only come up with our wish, but also shout it out loud (so many of our wish making rituals involve a whisper or a silent wish), but we all did it. I've long felt that that moment was a truly powerful one in my life.

Maybe there was some magic in that cliff and particular patch of sea. In fact there was probably magic in the whole trip. But I think the real power of the moment was in what it forced me to do. Choose the thing I wanted most, put it into words, and put it out into the world.

That day I wished for a family of my own — a bold intention coming from a career focused single girl living in New York City. But that wish feels like the turning point for me. When I stopped closing off options to find a partner and start a family.

One of my yoga instructors on that trip gives a particularly helpful set of instructions for getting into difficult poses. It starts with your feet. With your pinky toes. She guides you through the process of getting ready for the pose by having you set your feet with strong grounding in the earth. And then set the intention for the entire pose in your pinky toes.

With that small action of understanding in your toes where you want to go, you lay the groundwork for everything else.

When you find the courage and the words to tell Santa what you really want, you set your intention. And from that moment on your wish has started its journey on the road to reality.

Blueberry Buckle

I just baked a very tasty breakfast treat for my blueberry loving boyfriend: Blueberry Buckle.

It's not the same as the original from Missoula where I went to college and frequented the Shack for this unbelievable breakfast selection. But I think that's only because I didn't go the extra mile and serve it with warm cream. A mistake I won't repeat next time! (photo courtesy of Alex & Becca on their cross country drive a few years ago).

My version this morning was from an Alton Brown recipe and, while I had some serious doubts during the process (the dough looked totally wrong....like a cookie not a cake batter), Phillip assures me that the results are quite delicious.

Hooray!