Yum!

There's something about being in a warm place when it's cold at home that's particularly satisfying to me. Not to brag, but last night I ate dinner in an open-air restaurant right on the water. It was 78 degrees with a little bit of warm breeze. My Dear Hubby had wonderous, fresh seafood, and my son flirted with every dark-haired girl he could find. (That's his M.O. - find a dark-haired girl, usually pretty, and flirt shamelessly with her. If you can, turn around in your seat, even, and really distract her from her own meal.) It was warm and happy, and all-around good.

In the last two days we've had first airplane and first swimming pool; the former went more swimmingly, which is odd. I hate to jinx the trip home, but Little Man was an angel - he fell asleep as I held him during takeoff (literally--just as we were pulling off the ground) and slept on the seat next to me until mid-descent. The parents of a 4 1/2-month-old behind us weren't as fortunate, and we felt a little sorry for them as people complimented us on our well-behaved boy as we got off the plane not knowing that they were behind us. The swimming pool today was a little less auspicious. It was a little chilly, and he had just endured being slathered with SPF 50 sunblock, which may have put him off a little. Also, he needs shades as he refuses to wear any hat, and the sun was brighter than he's used to. Still, there were a few minutes of giggly fun, which are enough for Mommy. We'll try again tomorrow - there are plenty of pools and beaches in the Florida Keys, so I doubt we'll have trouble trying again.

Would someone please remind me why we live in the midwest?

I kid you not

Today the boy and I went across to play with our neighbor, Mary. Mary has claimed since the boy's birth that she's his favorite neighbor, and I now believe it to be true. They laugh and scream and play together, and she wears him as a "baby hat." It's adorable. Oh - Mary's not an infant; I'd put her mid-late 40s. Anyway, we played for half an hour or so with Mary, and then her jokes weren't quite as funny, which meant he was tired.

I scooped up boy and sippy cup, and inside we went. I happened to glance at the clock as we walked in, because I have much to do today (leaving for vaca tomorrow morning!). 1:12. I wiped his nose, put some cream on his cheeks, found the bink, and laid down on the couch with him on top of me for his nap. I waited until he was good and asleep before I got up. Glanced at the clock again then. 1:15. Seriously, 1:15.

A couple of days ago he was playing with me in the living room and my jokes got not quite as funny, so I knew he was tired. Obviously, it couldn't have been my jokes. I tried to hold him to go to sleep, but that angered him, so I sat on the couch with him, and he fell asleep in a little heap on the couch pretty immediately.

I am what you would call "a good sleeper." To this day I can sleep about anywhere - obvious places like a hammock or a beach, and also not-so-obvious places like on the floor of a friend's house while they play with their son nearby, on a noisy plane or in a car - pretty much anywhere. I also can take solid naps and still sleep well at night, and I can sleep in with the best of 'em. I think my son's got me beat, though - from playing to dead asleep in a span of five or fewer minutes. Excellent!

yes sir, yes sir - three bags full

The latest is that the boy talks. He's extremely expressive and very clear in his message. The problem that I didn't anticipate is that I don't understand him because he does all this with one word - ba. "Uh-ba-ba-baaa-ba-ba-b-ba." Imagine this with lots of tone inflection and very dramatic facial expressions.

The result of all this is that my son tells me very precisely (and expressively, as noted) what he believes he lacks. I, however, am inadequate in my response because I don't speak "ba." He then repeats his appeal in an even more dramatic and appealing manner. I generally try a few things that I think he might be referring to, and his frustration increases because he's obviously been saddled with a mother who doesn't know her head from a hole in the ground.

Another unfortunate characteristic of this whole procedure is that, some time between the first pleadings and my accidentally stumbling across the solution to the issue at hand, it will inevitablly become first adorable and then funny to me. Not the fact that there's a problem; I'm not sadistic. However, watching a beautiful child giving an Oscar-worthy performance using just "ba" is a pretty entertaining undertaking. Full points to him for performance - really, I cannot do it justice in words, especially given that I'm deficient in translation skills. Already the boy recognizes when people are laughing at him rather than with him (how is this possible at 8 months? Another day...), so I do my best not to laugh. Sometimes I succeed.

A lot can happen in three weeks

Wow!

In the last three weeks, the boy has gone from beginning to try foods to eating actual foods sitting in his high chair like a big boy. He's gone from sitting in his Bumbo seat to crawling out of it and crawling generally. He's got a cool technique that I hadn't seen before but his teacher says is fairly common, in which he kind of drags one leg behind him straight-ish. He's pulled up to standing, and two days ago he actually Stood Up. He Stood Up! He'll be 8 months old on Tuesday, and I have a feeling the days of the non-baby-proofed house are gone. Much work to do. He has four teeth and loves, loves, loves to bite things with them. It's a whole new world at our house in the last three weeks.

My husband is at an entirely different job now - he started a new gig on Monday. Very exciting. Much to do.

My little business has gone from merely a dream to signing its first customer today. We're official!! I have a partner and two employees, which makes me very nervous and also very excited. I don't mind putting my own earnings on the line, but I take seriously putting others' there. However, it seems as though the pieces are coming together, and coming together pretty quickly. Very exciting. Much to do.

Are you noticing a theme here?

If you know a way either to add more hours to a day or become even more ultra-efficient than usual, would you fill me in? In fact, perhaps I should bag my current business plan and work on that, because if I were able to solve that, any financial worries would dissolve immediately! I'll put that on the list - one more thing to do. Very exciting.

fun in a bottle

What's a good time? Riding bikes - ask any kid, right? I haven't had my own bike in decades (yes, decades). I've had roller blades (ended badly; broke my tailbone, and I'd like to point out that when people say they're going to put your butt in a sling, they're fibbing - there is no butt sling or butt cast. You just suck it up until it heals), but not my own bike. Until now!

I believe I've mentioned before here a bicycle that was delivered to my dad's house. We thought it had come anonymously from an eccentric family friend. Well, it turns out that it wasn't from the family friend--it was a delivery error by Schwinn. At an auction my dad found one of those carts that you pull behind your bike with your kid in it (he's been very quick to point out that it will hold two children - it will hold two, no mistake), but it was missing a few parts. Dad ordered these from Schwinn for me.

Apparently, someone at Schwinn got a little zealous with the address labels, and voila - bike at Dad's house coincidental with the time that he'd mentioned to a friend that I was looking for a bike. When Schwinn called and said that they'd made the error, my dad (who could, I'm convinced, get an eskimo to think he needed more ice) explained that he'd already assembled it for me and that he didn't want to have to take it back. He talked them into giving him the bike. Free bike after all!

Yesterday was our maiden voyage. Dad brought his own bike over, and I got to try my new one. It's true - I could still ride, though I wasn't as good as I once was (I'll get it back - don't you worry). Then we attached the cart with Little Man in the center (though, once again I'd like to point out that it will hold two children. I'm not sure why I keep pointing this out, other than because everyone else keeps pointing it out to me). We went for a little trip, I on my shiny new Schwinn with the cart, and Dad on his Schwinn, too. What a truly fun time! It was a short trip, but the wind on my face just like I remember, and on a perfect fall day, too. I can hardly wait to ride/tow over to the park with a blanket and play, maybe blow bubbles, and then ride back. I'm really excited to have another excuse to play outside! Oh, and the boy really seemed to like it, too.

Barflies--no, Butterflies

We are social butterflies, my son and I. Today I took him to a bar. I've always said I wouldn't be the mom who took her kids to bars, and today I took my son to a bar. In my defense, it was a gorgeous evening, and we sat outside on the patio with some friends, one of whom was back from out of town. There weren't many people, there was no smoking, and we didn't run into any too drunk people until we were leaving. The boy was a big hit, too - he had brought his cute and his flirt with him; he's irresistable when he's got all that in tow. We wore him out - I think he was sleeping before we made it out of the parking lot.

Back to being social butterflies, though. Tomorrow night we're traveling out of town with Daddy for a get-together (including lots of kids for him to play with), then home Saturday and another date for Little Man and me with some of my friends. Sunday we travel out of town again to visit Daddy's family for a few days, and you can only begin to imagine the socializing there.

Is what we're doing day to day important? No - you don't know these people (or us). However, what I think is a big step is that we're getting out and doing things. I didn't notice at first, but it's taken me awhile to get out since LM. It's not that I don't want him out, but I get so wrapped up in details that it's hard to take the time to make the phone calls, to make plans. I'm growing into my position as a mom, though, and getting better at it (hopefully I'll keep getting better at it - I'm still pretty new). I miss everyone, though, so I'm making a sincere effort - I'm normally the instigator of plans and get-togethers, so many of us have fallen out of touch since my boy's arrival, and not just me and my friends, but my friends and each other, too, which I find very sad. Recently, then, I've been making lots of plans so that we can keep the connections that are important.

I know that this being busy will make time fly even faster, which is a little hard to comprehend. Therein lies the quandry - I could try not to do much so that time would slow down, but then I'm not really taking advantage of what little time I have. On the other hand, I could try to take advantage of that time, which will make neat memories, but the time will speed up - is that possible? How does everyone else do this? Does everyone else blink and a month has passed?

Reason #952

And another thing I love about watching my Little Man as he grows and figures things out (as though there aren't enough). He's best at doing things when he doesn't know it. This proves my theory, to me at least, that he's got all the skills to crawl (and some other things) but doesn't know how to put them together. If he thinks about it and tries to crawl, no go--he just thinks about it, though you can see the wheels turning. If he doesn't think about it, well, that's a different story. Last night he was actually starting to crawl toward Daddy because he was excited to see him, but then he seemed to be aware all at once of what he was doing, and was unable to keep going. He ended up on his belly (which never makes him happy), and then sitting up again making "pick me up" noises.

In case you're wondering, his "pick me up" noises are nothing like the "pick me up" noises I've heard in various bars. His do, however, involve extra cuteness, if that's possible. He grins at you and waits for you to make eye contact. If you don't recognize his efforts, he slowly cocks his head to one side until it's parallel with the floor, and he never breaks his gaze at you, complete with hopeful grin. How do they learn the "cute" so early? I digress.

Similarly, he pulled himself up to standing twice the other day because he was in the midst of playing and didn't realize that he'd done it. All of a sudden he was standing there playing with his exersaucer from the outside of it, rather than standing in the middle. Normally, however, he can't pull up on things, or thinks he can't. I find it interesting that we can get in our own way so early.

As you can deduce, we're on the very precipice of mobility. Is the house ready? No. Do we have baby gates? No. Have we put breakables out of reach? No. Bumpers on sharp edges? Nope - not a one. There are, however, some safety gizmos in the sockets. It's a start.