Frozen Assets

Eighteen Months!

My dear, sweet, wonderful boy,

Today you are 18 months old! A year and a half! How did that happen??? I know my last update was so late that I've probably covered a lot already, but the past week has been eventful.

The bad news is that you had your first bad stomach bug. It started on a day your nanny called in sick (not the same bug, luckily). I started out the morning pretty excited to just be able to play with you, go to the park, meet your friends, and not work. I sat down at the computer to notify my colleagues that I wouldn't be working, and while you were playing in the family room I heard you throw up. Turns out that wasn't the first of the day - I later found evidence in your crib that you'd started earlier. And it certainly wasn't the last. You couldn't keep anything down that day, which made for lots of laundry and lots of me running around while you were napping scrubbing at the carpet. (Why didn't you get sick on the hard wood or kitchen floors?) The next day the problem was, um, with your other end. That didn't subside for another two days. At least you were finally able to eat and drink a little. Through the beginning of it you kept in high spirits, but as the diaper changes came rapid fire, you got pretty upset. By the end of the day on your second day of illness, Daddy and I both caught the bug. Luckily my mom came and took care of us the following morning. Not a fun way to spend the week. The ONLY good thing about it all is that you started sleeping really well. I don't know if it retrained you, or if you're still feeling bad, but this morning you actually stayed in your own bed until 6:45! We'd grown accustomed to you waking up around 4 or 5 at the latest and needing to come nurse to fall back asleep. I guess you figured out that you don't really need that and that sleep just feels good. If course, now that I've said all this, you'll probably go back to your old ways. You seem to be feeling much better now, which is a great relief.

You've made some pretty incredible strides with your words. You will sing the beginnings of songs (the ABC song is a favorite - sounds like "A,B,B,B..." You recite phrases from books. This evening you kept reciting the beginning of Sheep in a Jeep: "Beep Beep! Sheep in a Jeep on a hill that's steep. Uh Oh! The Jeep won't go!" Of course, when you say it it sounds like this: "Beep Beep! Eep eheh eep ehn ehn ehn ehn eep. Uh oh! Eh ee uh uh." But we know what you're saying. And I just about had to pick my jaw up off the floor this morning when I heard you saying "One two ree uh ih eh eh eight nine eh." Seriously. You were looking through your Ten Little Rabbits book (where Daddy and I count the rabbits on each page for you), and pointing at the rabbits in there while you were saying it. Now, I don't think you can actually count yet, but it just amazes me that you're retaining all this information and actually saying it back to us. Just incredible.

We cut down our Christmas tree today! You didn't much like the long drive up the mountain, and I'm not sure you really liked being up there in the cold finding the perfect tree. I do know, however, that you'll love seeing the tree all decorated tomorrow. I love that for you this season is still just about the decorations and lights outside - no greed has set in, and you don't have any demands for gifts from Santa. I'm sure he'll bring you lots of wonderful things anyway. You did pose for a picture with him this evening and didn't even cry! I need to hook up my scanner and then I'll post a picture. (It was taken on a Polaroid - by the time you read this, those probably won't exist anymore!)

I need to go see how Daddy's doing with the lights on the tree. I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Months Sixteen and Seventeen... and almost eighteen!

I am so far behind on posting letters to Axel and I just hate it. So much has happened in the past few months. I have to read my last post to see what was going on back then! I was going to post a list a month ago, but I couldn't even get it together to do that. Truth is, I'm getting lazy. I'm busy too, but I could probably cut out some of my web-surfing to get some posts down. I think I know what's more important. So this post will either be really long, or it will be the first of a multi-part post. And so far it's not taking the form of a letter to my son. He can read it anyway - no secrets there.

So anyway... in case you are wondering what ever happened with the dishwasher, the story was on its way to becoming too ridiculous to post, but in the end we did get a dishwasher. And it still works. And it did not poison my baby. It did however get in a second traffic accident along the way. Oh, and I had to reorder it because after the first accident, Sears canceled the order and neglected to reorder it. Worst customer service ever. I consider myself lucky that I got the appliances at all. I'm glad that's over with.

OK, letter to kid time:

Dear Axel,

You're nearly 18 months old! Somebody told me the terrible twos actually start at 18 months - please don't do that to me! I don't think we've seen a real tantrum yet, even though on occasion you'll get pretty angry if I take you away from something fun. You snap out of it very quickly. What a good boy. You are a very silly boy too! You make so many goofy faces, and love to imitate Daddy and I when we make faces at you. You're destined to become a comedian I think.

Developmentally you're doing great. You're walking extremely well - nearly running now! You took a really long time re-learning how to stand up without grabbing a leg (furniture or human), but over Thanksgiving weekend you remembered how to do it and now hardly crawl at all. (Though your love for leaves, rocks, and dirt brings you back to the ground frequently.) You're not very good at going in the direction we want you to go, but I think that's pretty understandable. There is so much to explore with this newfound mobility! We took you to the Christmas parade this morning, and you had the most fun just wandering up and down the sidewalk.

I've lost count of your words. I was keeping a nerdy spreadsheet and got up to around 70 words on there, but you learn new words everyday and I couldn't keep up. Today you learned "alligator". (Sounds more like ah-ga-ga".) It's so wonderful knowing what you want (sometimes.) It will become even moreso as you get older. We're looking forward to it, but we also remember fondly the time when you couldn't move and were completely dependent on us to get you around. As my mom tells me, each stage is the best - it keeps getting better.

Our new nanny (not so new now) has really worked out well. You greet her at the front door each morning and give her a big hug. It's clear you love her, and I know she loves you. You go to the park in the morning and play with friends you've met there. Some days she takes you to the library for story time.

One major development that happened about a month ago is that you started taking your naps without nursing beforehand! I had to go to an all-day meeting two days in a row, so you had no choice but to nap without my help. It was a little tough the first couple days, but by the end of the week you were able to lie down and take a nap with little help - all without leaving you to cry yourself to sleep. Falling asleep at night is much much easier now too. Our routine goes: Dinner, bath, stories in Daddy's and my room, then brush teeth, nurse, put you in bed, sing a few songs, then I say "night night" and leave the room. Usually you say "night night" back to me, put your head down and fall asleep within a few minutes. I never thought we'd get to this point, so I'm really proud of all of us for figuring out this part of the sleep equation. You still have a habit of waking up in the middle of the night, but the progress we've made so far is fantastic.

The holidays are here already and we're even more excited than we were last year. I think you'll be able to enjoy Christmas quite a bit even though you don't totally understand what's going on. You already love all the lights we see up on houses - including our own. (Daddy insisted that our lights be up before any other house on our street, so he put them up the day before Thanksgiving. Silly Daddy.) Next weekend we're going to take you to the downtown tree-lighting festivities where you may even get to sit on Santa's lap. You don't quite get who Santa is, but you do know he says "Ho Ho (Ho)."

I love you more and more by the minute, which seems impossible considering how much I loved you before you were even born. I'm constantly amazed that you are mine and Daddy's. I'm the luckiest Mommy in the world. I love you.

Love,
Mommy

Se@rs tried to poison my baby.

I hate Se@rs. Here's why.

When we bought our house, it came with old-ish appliances, maybe 20 years old? Maybe I'm exaggerating? I really don't know. But old enough so that the dishwasher looks like it's about to fall apart, and you really have to scrub the dishes before putting them in before they will come out remotely clean. Most of the time they come out looking grungier than they started. On rare occasions the soap dispenser doesn't open properly, so a blob of dish washing detergent is left behind on the door.  My in-laws had the same dishwasher which ended up breaking and leaking all over the place. I've known for some time we should replace it, so a couple months ago we decided to do something about it. Our range was also too retro for our liking (and not in the good way), so we decided to replace that while we were at it.  I picked out the appliances online and went to Se@rs thinking I could order them, have them installed, and be a happy consumer within a couple weeks time.

Boy was I wrong. The first time I went in, I was told that the manufacturer was no longer making the range I wanted. I left the store upset. After all, when I set my mind to something, I have a hard time letting go. But, alas, my husband persuaded me that another model of range was better anyway. And so I returned to the store only to be told that I couldn't buy that one either. I left again, angry with the salesman who tried briefly to sell me a lesser range. (You may wonder why I didn't just order the dishwasher. Well, most of the time when you order more than one appliance you get a better deal. Plus, I was angry with these people and didn't want them to get a commission off of me!)

So I waited a few more weeks for another good sale to happen, and returned to the store. This time... everything was in stock! Or at least it would be in a couple weeks, and I could at least order it then! Yay! Victory! Axel had joined me on that particular trip, and I kept him occupied opening and closing the ovens while I quickly made the purchase.

When I got home I checked the receipt... and realized they had put the wrong model number on it. Ironically, it was the model number of the first range I had wanted - but I didn't want it anymore. I called the next morning and they were able to make the change over the phone. Phew.

A couple weeks later I got the call from the appliance delivery and installation people - my dishwasher had arrived! They'd install it tomorrow! I'd have clean dishes within 24 hours! Yahoo!

Later that day I received another phone call from the delivery people. The truck carrying MY dishwasher was in an accident and they'd call me the next day to let me know whether it had been damaged.

It had. The truck rolled and everything in it was damaged. They would have to reorder the dishwasher. Oh well, I thought, we'll just have it installed at the same time as the range, later the next week.

Sears called next to tell me that my appliances had been delayed until the 20th. Then they called again to say they were delayed until Oct 1st. Today I got a call from the delivery people saying they had the range! But it was a mistake - she was reading the old notes that said it would arrive on the 20th. It hadn't, of course.

And so, at dinner tonight, we cooked on our feeble stove, and loaded our feeble dishwasher, grumbling the whole time about how we should have new appliances by now. And Axel toddled to the dishwasher, and as he likes to do, started to climb up on the open door.

This time, however, he paused and dipped his finger into the blob of Cascade (camouflaged against the white dishwasher door) leftover from the load we ran last night, and briefly popped it into his mouth. (It looked like yogurt that may have fallen out of a poorly rinsed bowl, so I - stupidly - dipped my finger in and stuck a dab on my tongue just to be sure.)

Yeah.

I sprang into action and got a big soggy washcloth and wiped his face and his hands, and whisked him into the bathroom where I could hose out his mouth. He cried the whole time, not because his mouth was burning, but because I was manhandling him. I'm not even convinced any of it really got inside his mouth.  Once in the tub, I gave him a cup of water, and he took some sips. I poured water over his head hoping some would get in his mouth as it usually does. Of course, he liked none of this and promptly climbed out of the tub and onto my lap.

I'm sure he's fine. I'm not, of course.

And I still don't have my appliances!

Fourteen and Fifteen Months

Dear Axel,

I blew it. Never got to your fourteen month letter. I'm a terrible Mommy. I'll try to cover month 14's events in this letter though.

Last I wrote, you were just beginning to talk. My how your vocabulary has grown! You can now make a large assortment of animal sounds; woof, ah ah ah (monkey), meow, bzzz, rahhrr (this works for many animals), quack, hsssss. When I ask you what a lizard does, you stick out your tongue. You can also say up, down, hat (you say this so clearly and deliberately - it's ironic that you won't wear one.) Perhaps your most frequent word is wawa (water). You're picking up words so quickly, and I'm sure you understand way more than you can speak. One of my favorites is when you say cheese. You usually end up spitting out some of your cheese when  you say it.

A few weeks ago we all went down to visit your aunt, uncle, and two cousins. Your youngest cousin was only 3 months old at the time. What a shock to see you next to her - you're so big! You were generally quite gentle with her. We saw a few glimpses of your jealousy when I held her, but you were - for the most part - a delightful traveler. You certainly are charming, and we now have no problems in restaurants as you're always willing to flirt with the waitresses. Heck, even the waiters think you're pretty adorable! Also on this trip we went to the beach, where you got to actually put your feet in the ocean. This was a little scary for you and you much preferred playing in the puddle that your uncle created by digging a hole and building a wall around it. (He always has loved making elaborate sand structures.) You ate one handful of sand, but luckily that was it.

Just over a week ago you took your first steps. You're still quite cautious, but you are capable of taking 6 or 7 steps in a row. It works best when you don't realize that's what you're doing. With this new mobility comes more chance for injury, of course. Today you fell and hit your head on the side of a cabinet. You had quite a goose egg for a while. Now you just have a nasty bruise. I feel awful - not that I'm sure I could have prevented it, I just don't want you getting hurt! You hated the cold pack I tried to put on the booboo.

After a summer with the fun yet scatterbrained nanny, we hired a new nanny. We'll call her Dee. Dee is fantastic - a real pro. She takes you to the park and the library, and teaches you Spanish! We like her because she's reliable and very responsible. She makes you laugh (hysterically), and that's a good sign. She comes over in the morning three days a week, and leaves just as you're going down for your nap. This way I can get my work done early and play with you after your nap! I have grand plans to take you out for a jog periodically. More likely it will be things like the grocery store though. Your grandparents (my parents) still take care of you two days a week which you absolutely love. I'm so lucky to have them nearby to help, and you're lucky to have them nearby too! When I was growing up my grandparents were a long car trip away. I'm so glad you're getting the opportunity to really know them. (And they you!)

You are growing up quickly. It amazes me how your intelligence and personality grows over time. When you're walking comfortably I know everything will change even more. (It's funny - since you're still mostly crawling it's easy to think of you as a baby... but then when you stand up you're clearly a kid!)

I'm glad you still have a baby face. In fact, you may always have a baby face! You're so beautiful - your hair is a gorgeous shade of... I'm not sure what. Sandy blond? Something like that. I'm sure it's lighter from the sun than it would normally be. I still have a hard time describing the color of your eyes too. The closest thing I can come up with is that they're a deep olive color. Not quite brown, but nowhere near blue. So pretty. You really seem to have the best bits of both your daddy and me. I just hope you don't end up with our eyesight - neither of us have good eyes!

I apologize for not sending last month's note sooner. It was a hectic summer, with little free time. I'm glad we had our one mini vacation, but next year I want more!

And I apologize that this note isn't that eloquent. It's late. I want to say more, but I also want to sleep. Good night my sweet boy.

Love,
Mommy

Welcome back...

For the first time in nearly 2 years... it's CD 1. I guess the nursing has cut back enough to tell my body that it can ovulate again. No immediate plans to you know... CYCLE... or anything. But, at least I know my body remembers what it's supposed to do. I even got to dig out my big box of feminine hygiene products. Whee. Pass the advil.

Thirteen Months

Dear Axel,

Has it already been month since your birthday? Why yes - it has! And so much has happened. You can talk and wave and point and have smiling contests. Really. Your first word was "Woof", followed by "Mama". You call Daddy "Mama" as well, but hopefully pretty soon you'll figure it out. After that you started to make monkey sounds - you still confuse what doggies say with what monkeys say, but that makes sense - they're all furry four-legged creatures. Sometimes when you wake up in the wee hours of the morning we can hear you talking to your self: "Woof! Ah ah ah! Woof!" It's so cute I almost forget it's 5am.

We live in the flight path for an airport, and while we don't get commercial jets, we get lots of big scary planes. They used to scare the heck out of you. You'd hear them coming and scurry towards me or Daddy and climb up whatever part of our bodies you could grab hold of. (You nearly launched yourself over my shoulder a couple of times...) But you're starting to warm up to those planes. Now you look up in the sky when you hear them coming, and even point up there. When we're inside and you hear a plane, you look to the window and point up. You're brilliant!  And so clever!

You recently decided that your smile wasn't big enough and now you use every muscle in your body to smile - showing all seven (or so) teeth in your mouth. You and I trade off the huge smiles, but I think you win. After all, you have two dimples while I only have one.

You're not quite walking yet, but I think you're getting close. You can stand on your own for quite some time - at least 20 seconds, as long as you don't realize that's what you're doing. I've tried on several occasions to get you to "walk to Mommy!", but you're too smart and realize I'm tricking you, so you sit down and crawl to me instead. Clever boy.

You had your one-year check-up a few weeks ago, and as we knew, you're really a big boy. You were 33 1/4 " tall, 28lbs 11 oz. (99% and 98%, respectively.) They didn't measure your head, but it's pretty big. Trust me. You're starting to really thin out though - we have several pairs of pants that only fit you when you wear cloth diapers. (Yes, you still mostly wear cloth diapers. And you're still breastfed. Some people might call us hippies, but we're not. Just environmentally responsible and trying to do what's best for everybody.) So anyway, yeah. Sometimes your pants are too loose.

I need to get some sleep now - let's hope this is a night you let me sleep until the sun comes up. (Unlikely, but we can hope.) Here's a picture we took of you last week that captures one of my favorite expressions:

You are beautiful. (Handsome, whatever.) I love you.

Love,
Mommy

Happy Birthday!

My sweet boy,

You're one year old today! It's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since that long day and night(s) of laboring to bring you into the world. (Don't think I'll let you forget about THAT anytime soon.)

It's hard to write this without a tear in my eye. You are simply amazing - and I am so grateful every day that you are my son. You're becoming quite the little boy - nearly standing on your own, babbling as if you're speaking real words (though we have yet to understand any of them), and you are so charming, I swear you could swindle old ladies out of their entire bank accounts if only you knew what a bank account was.

Today I turned your car seat around and took you on your first trip to the big warehouse store. You thought that was pretty fun even though you hadn't had a nap yet. Speaking of sleep, today you woke up just a few minutes before your official birthday time of 4:29am. Daddy thinks you were having flashbacks to that suction cup on your head. After that you snuggled in close to me, and as Daddy put it, you got unlimited drinks for your birthday.

Your big party is on Sunday. I'll show you pictures later. A bunch of your other little friends had birthdays this week too, and later in the summer we'll have one big party to celebrate all of them. Won't that be fun?

I love you my sweet boy, and can't wait to see what happens in the months and years to come!

Love,
Mommy

Eleven Months (Well, heck, it's almost a year. Sorry about that.)

My sweet, beautiful boy,

This letter is way late because I can't possibly write and keep track of you at the same time. I don't know how other mommies write their blogs every day. I can't keep up with you and my job AND this writing stuff. You started crawling (for real - not commando crawling) the day before you were officially eleven months old. Since then, you've been a crazy man exploring all over the house. It didn't take you long to realize you could crawl VERY quickly. And once the crawling was under control, you discovered drawers and cupboards. As you may recall, you started cruising (pulling up and walking around holding on to things) before you started crawling. So between the crawling, cruising, and drawer/cupboard opening, you've become quite the trouble maker. In an amazing, completely adorable way, of course.

We haven't hired a nanny for you yet, but I think we're close. We've interviewed several, including one who came and took care of you for a few days. In the end I trusted my instinct and didn't hire her. I should have listened to you to begin with - you never did warm up to her. We have another coming tomorrow for a test run - and I'm pretty hopeful that she's the one. You loved her at her interview, and she comes highly recommended. Let's keep all our fingers and toes crossed that this works, because I've had a really tough time working and watching you. I've ended up working late at night and I really need my sleep! (As much as you'll let me get, anyway.)

The weather is finally warming up and we're trying to spend as much time outside as possible. You love your little pool, though you especially like leaning over the side of it to pull grass. Then you like to eat the grass, and I'm afraid I'll lose a finger if I attempt to get it out of your mouth. Oh well, it doesn't seem to do any damage. You still just have four teeth - at least, I think that's all there are. Again, I'm afraid to go in to find out what else is growing!

Last week was our last Kindermusik class for the spring session. It's totally hokey, but you still enjoy it. I think you've got my musical genes - you love the music, and you love all sorts of percussive sounds. I play my flute for you and you'll just watch and smile - even when I stick you in your playpen! I hope you grow up like I did, hearing live music played for you regularly.   Your Granddad plays the piano and harpsichord for you, so at least I know you'll get the exposure when you're with him and Grandmom!

Sleep continues to be a sore issue around here. I think you're trying to drop your second nap. Depending on how early you wake up (which has been too early lately), you'll take a morning nap, but not an afternoon nap. Then you'll get super tired and cranky and end up taking a nap way too late - and then you'll stay up until 9 or so. That's too late!  Ideally we'd move this morning nap to the afternoon and we'd be set.  Yesterday you took a 2 1/2 hour nap - which was absolutely amazing and I doubt you'll do that again anytime soon!  And I was with you for most of the nap, and it was on my nice cushy bed, so I shouldn't be surprised. I wonder if you'll ever become a good napper. Nighttime is also a problem - and I'm sure as long as you are still nursing you'll be tempted to wake me up for snacks. I'm not planning to wean you anytime soon, so I guess I should just hang in there. Somebody told me that their son became a good sleeper shortly after his first birthday - wouldn't that be nice if you did the same?

I should note now that I just checked on you and you're sleeping in the cutest position - your little behind is up in the air. Too cute. I can't stand it. Obviously you've woken up a little and fallen back asleep - you can do it! Do that in the middle of the night too, OK?

Some of the big news here is that you have a new cousin! She's a tiny little thing - not really that tiny by most standards, but compared to you, she's tiny. We haven't met her in person yet, but later this summer we'll go see her. She sure is cute in pictures.

We're looking forward to your birthday party - we'll just have all your grandparents and a few other people over.  I'm not sure what to give you as far as presents go. We need to replenish your supply since a bunch of toys we had borrowed had to go back to your new cousin.  You're really into books these days - you'll sit and flip through all your books. Story time is becoming really fun! You also like to pull all the books off your shelves - especially right after I just put them up there.

Assuming we get the nanny hired soon, I plan to write your one year letter on time! For now, I need to get some sleep.

I love you!

Love,
Mommy

 

Ten (and a half.. or so) Months

Dear Axel,

So much has happened in the last month! The great news is that you completely recovered from your illnesses. You had a little cold briefly a few weeks ago, but nothing like we had experienced before.  Now that you're healthy you can focus on fun things like getting into trouble.

A couple weeks ago we took you to Yosemite. I think you really liked it. One of the highlights for you was riding on the shuttle bus. You stood up in my lap, held on to the headrest in front of you, and smiled from ear to ear. You probably would have been happy if we'd stayed on the bus the whole time! Instead, we got off the bus, put you in your off-road stroller, and hiked around the valley.  By hiked, I mean we walked around on the trails. You tolerated it all very well. Other highlights of the trip include eating in the cafeteria, sitting on dirty decks, and grabbing tree branches.  Here's a picture that shows how much fun you had: 

My new job is going well. It's a lot of work, but I think I can handle it. This was your first week out of day care, and while I like it better, I'm not sure you do. You'll get used to it, and I'm making a point of getting us out and about every day.  At least now I know I won't miss out on your new developments. At this point, you're nearly crawling, but it's still not official. I actually think you may skip it. You started pulling yourself up on EVERYTHING this week. Not only that, but you're starting to cruise. For now, they're just small steps, but I don't think it will be long before you're getting around all over. You're fearless. You see things you want to climb on, and you lunge for them. Sometimes you get to it, sometimes you fall. I'm extremely proud of you for all your accomplishments, big and small.

Let's see - what else... Vocabulary! You can say dadadada, mamamama, nananana, yayayayaya, gagagaga, bababababa, uh-uh-uh-uh, amongst other things. Plus, you've started combining syllables. I think you say "Uh oh", or at least you're trying to.

I have lots of things to say about you, but not enough time to say them! You continue to light up my days, keep me awake at night, and be the most incredible thing to have ever happened to me.  I love you!

Love,
Mommy

Nine Months

Dear Axel,

You've been outside me longer than you were inside! Isn't that cool?

I need to stop putting expectations into these letters - I just reread my last one and saw that I thought your lungs would be all healthy soon, that you'd be crawling soon, and that maybe you'd think about using your sippy cup(s) for their intended purpose.

Unfortunately, you sort of relapsed in the health department and came down with another weird virus. This time you are congested AND you had a rash all over your body! The rash cleared up after about 5 days, but your lungs got pretty bad. The doctor gave us another inhaler to use. You're finally getting a little better - at least you're not wheezing all the time anymore. We're also trying some homeopathic things. You actually like those - they're little sugar pellets that you can play with in your mouth until they dissolve. When you don't accidentally drool them out, you like them quite a bit! In a couple days we'll see the regular doctor and the homeopathic doctor for followups.

I don't know officially how big you are, but you certainly haven't slowed down in the height department. You're really. really. tall. I watch you roll around on the floor and you don't look like a 9 month-old - you're more like a 2 year old. As a matter of fact, you've just started wearing 24 month sized clothes. They're a bit baggy still, so I hope they last a while. I'm not sure how much you weigh now, but a week ago with all your clothes on, you were about 27 1/2 lbs. We'll get your nekkid weight on Monday.

On the locomotion front, you're rolling like a madman, but not crawling. I think you're maybe getting an inkling to do it, since sometimes you get your behind up in the air, and then you scoot back like an inchworm. But mostly you like to get around by rolling. I did that as a baby too, so no worries. You've tried pulling up a few times - even in the bathtub this evening, but mostly you pull yourself onto my lap. You've become a clingy little boy - I love it! When you were smaller you weren't much of a cuddler, but now you like to grab at me and have me hold you close. (Not all the time, of course. Sometimes you really really hate that.)

I'm VERY happy to tell you that yesterday was my last day working for the company I've been at for nearly 8 years. The commute was horrible, and it broke my heart to be so far away from you, wasting all that time driving when it could be spent with you. I got a new job and I'll be working from home full time! I'm taking a little break between jobs to get myself and the house ready for me to be here all the time. We'll still go hang out with your grandparents a couple days a week, though. However, I think we'll be taking you out of daycare. I know it's fun for you, but you keep getting sick, and really I want to keep my eyes on you. :) We want to find a nice nanny/babysitter who can play with you a few days a week while I get some work done. I can't wait for this new phase of my career and family life!

The weather has been warming up nicely, and we love taking you out in the fresh air. Unfortunately, you've decided you hate hats. You're quite adept at removing them. I guess that's why they invented baby sunscreen and covered strollers. I don't want your cute fuzzy noggin getting a sunburn!

(Fast forward a few days - Mommy's been a slacker about writing this.)

Here are your official stats as of your doctor appointment: You're 26lbs 5 oz, 31 1/4" tall, and your head is 49 3/4cm. That puts you still off the charts for height and head circumference, but you're now in the 97th percentile for weight! I think you lost some weight while you were sick. Speaking of that, the doctor finally put you on an antibiotic and you're doing MUCH better. Your cough is almost gone now! Pretty soon we can stop using the inhalers - now that you're finally starting to tolerate them.

I'm going to finish this up now - otherwise you'll be ten months old by the time I finish it!  I love you, my sweet boy, and I can't wait to see what you do this month!

Love,
Mommy