Dear Edie,

Today you are 9 months old. I say this every month, but each month the impossibility of how gigantic you have become is mind boggling. MIND BOGGLING.

You are quite possibly the proudest baby ever. I will say in your defense that this month you have much to be proud of.

You now crawl so fast and with such precision it's terrifying.


You are pulling up on anything and everything and have begun cruising along the couch and chairs, even letting go for a few seconds at a time without any support at all. You love to hold on to my fingers while I stand behind you and walk. You take a giant, military type, high-step with your right leg and then mince forward with your left. It's hilarious but also surprisingly effective - the other night we walked around the hostess island at Tutta Bella like 3 times in this manner while waiting for our table; I think I tired before you did.

You still haven't hit your stride with solid foods, but we're taking small steps in that department. It's not that you're picky about what foods you'll eat, it seems more the whole idea of eating in general that's not appealing. You'll take a few bites of just about anything, but when it comes time to really chow down, you lose interest pretty much every time. That said, we have had a few foods that struck your fancy of late - yogurt and baked beans to name two.
The other day we were at Trader Joe's and they were sampling their organic baked beans and cornbread and you went a little crazy. I bought them immediately and we all three essentially ate beanie-weenie with cornbread that night for dinner. Despite your waifish ways with solid foods, we think you've managed to hit the 20 pound mark and are gaining on me every day in height. Your Dad asked me the other day, "How old do you think Edie will be when she's taller than you?" And while I considered my response, he suggested, "5? 6?" Rude.

You recently started clapping and went through a brief phase of clapping every time I walked into the room. It was maybe the best thing ever and I'm sad it passed. You're starting to try waving and doing the sign for "milk" but they look remarkably similar so I'm never sure if you're waving to me, asking for a bottle, or just raising your hand and making a fist for no reason.

You have become incredibly verbal this month. The "cat scratch incident" did nothing to dampen your enthusiasm for the cat. In fact you are making every attempt to make Cat your first word. You've begun to yell "Da!" every time the cat shows up and in more focused moments, you listen to me say "cat" and then try out a very intentional, "dat" of your own. It's Adorable with a capital A. You also (finally) added mama to your frequently used consonants which of course I adore. Sometimes I'll say "I'm giving you a kiss!" and you'll say "diss!". It would appear that in your world, everything starts with D. On a less impressive (but very entertaining) note, you also frequently do this new face-scrunching thing and then huff and puff in a very angry looking manner. It's weird but very funny.



Since recovering from your first cold last month, you've returned to sleeping well, including taking two regular naps each day. Your bed time is 8pm and you wake up pretty close to 7am sharp each day, singing and standing in your crib. It's amazing to me when I remember what a terrible sleeper (and napper!) you used to be and how far you've come. Not just in the sleep department either. The other day while we were driving around town running errands, with you happily playing in the backseat, I remembered the way you used to howl in the car seat for the first 4 months of life. When I would take you out to eat with other new moms, I would inevitably end up standing the entire time, bopping up and down to mimic the yoga ball in order to keep you happy. In contrast, you are just SO HAPPY nowadays. You do EVERYTHING with such purpose and passion; people are always commenting on how full of personality you are.

You love a good adventure, and are incredibly snuggly. When I say "up?" to you, you frequently will hold both arms up for me to pick you up, as if to answer, "Yes! Up!" and it makes me feel all marshmallowy inside.

You've really turned your Dad and I into softies. We put you to bed the other night and were sitting in the living room reading when I turned to him and just said, "Why is she SO CUTE?" and he replied very earnestly, "I don't know, I guess we just got lucky."

love you Shorts,
Mom

New Toy

The face she's making in this photo makes me snort. I took Edie to a baby consignment shop on Friday to find her some new pjs. All the stores seem to think that babies want to sleep in tee shirts and shorts right now. These cute summer pjs are not helpful in cold, rainy, damp Seattle. Not to mention that you aren't supposed to let babies sleep with blankets. So off to a new second hand shop we went in search of fleece footed jammies in late May. While I browsed the racks (and found 4 pairs of almost new fleece jams for $3 each!) Edie noticed this toy in a corner. And wouldn't let me leave without purchasing it. Its circus themed, metal and makes an old fashioned clinky-musical noise when you push it around like a vacuum. Edie "plays" with it by manically pushing it back and forth, all the time with this intense look on her face. I'm telling you, this toy is like baby crack.

Teething Biscuits

Someone's top two teeth are going to be here any second. I can see them through the gums but they haven't quite made it through yet. I bought Edie her first teething biscuits and locked my OCD in a closet so as to let her get all dirty without having a heart attack.

Edie's Hair

I've been meaning to write something about Edie's hair for a while, but a recent comment from Lindsey finally motivated me to do it. Here's the thing - Edie's hair is out of control. It is long, fuzzy, sticky-outy, blondish red with hints of a mullet (but only on the sides - can you have a business in the back, party on the sides mullet?).

In the last month the length has really taken off. The problem is that it cannot be contained. It puffs out in every direction and looks weird and greasy when I try to slick it to her head in some semblance of style. So instead I've decided to make it as weird as possible. We sometimes comb it straight up to make it a faux hawk, but most of the time it looks a little like a baby chick stuck its finger in a light socket. The other day when I took Edie in for a doctor's appointment for her sinus infection, Jeff said as I was leaving, "Could you ask him if there's anything we can do about her hair?" He was kidding. Obviously, my husband isn't a moron. The truth is though, is that it totally fits her personality. Hilariously awesome.

Flip Tuesday

Every morning at 7am, this is how we wake - with Edie quietly singing and proudly standing in her crib:

Miscellany

Edie's pull up skills are out of control. She now pulls up on the couch and shuffles the entire length of it. She can also transfer from the couch to the chair next to it, bridging a foot long gap without too much difficulty (it did take a few falls in between before mastering the necessary pivot). She's really interested in little else other than standing these days. I fear/hope that walking may be happening sooner than we are ready for. I've given her the new title of Mayor of Danger City.

Unfortunately, after recovering from her cold for almost a week, Edie relapsed midweek with what the doctor guessed was a sinus infection from the first cold. After a short course of antibiotics, her runny nose seems to be finally drying up, her cough no longer keeps her up and she's back to sleeping really well again. Such a relief. During the brief hiatus of wellness, Edie took time to have her first date with Darrah's son Reid.

Reid was a bit snoozy (literally) but Edie made up for it by refusing to nap in her stroller, kicking her blankets off, removing a sock and depositing it on the sidewalk on several different occasions.

Then it was back to runny nose central.
We also spent some time last week planting these three trees. As you can see, our neighbor's deck looms over our yard and some privacy was in order. These Arborvitae are supposed to grow quickly and provide a hedge-like wall. We like the idea that they were planted during Edie's first year and look forward to tracking their growth along side hers.
Edie's new scrunch smile.
Did I mention that Maurice got his first stab at Edie? She tried to pull up on a stack of blankets he was sleeping on. I was running in what felt like slow motion to stop the inevitable. He hissed at the interruption and clawed her under the right eye. I then spent a few minutes frantically Googling "cat scratch baby" only to find like five thousand results for something called "Cat Scratch Fever". Cat scratch what? Oh yeah. Apparently cat scratches can cause all sorts of terrible symptoms in babies. Thanks a lot Google. Luckily none of them happened to Edie. I may have ruined her modeling career though, as it appears that it might leave a tiny scar. That said, I probably already ruined her modeling career by genetically providing her with my 5'3" genes. This is what I tell myself to feel better about letting my cat maul my baby.

Mother's Day

We spent last Sunday - Mother's Day - in Bellingham. We headed up early and had a lovely Mother's Day brunch at Kathleen and Javi's house. The whole Culver family was in attendance (my parents were on vacation). We brought Edie's walker and she was thrilled with all the wood floors and open spaces at Aunt Kathleen and Uncle Javi's house.

We stuffed ourselves with sausage, bacon, homemade savory scones and cinnamon rolls, eggs, fruit salad, and mimosas. I ate enough for 3 mothers. Or maybe 4. Edie snacked on banana and blueberries. She's such a waif.
Great Aunt Wendy bought Edie another of her favorite finger puppet books - this one of a bumble bee. Uncle Javi is reading it to her and you'll see that she's VERY focused on trying to grab the bee so that she can eat him.
The weather was amazing, so we took a big family walk after breakfast, including a stroll down the street I grew up on - Hampton Place. I kept picturing this one photo my parents have of the day they brought me home from the hospital. It was taken on the front steps of our house on Hampton and as we walked by with Edie in her stroller last Sunday, it felt very odd to remember being a kid there so clearly yet be standing there with my own daughter. We are OLD.

Once back in Seattle that evening, we headed to the neighborhood park 2 blocks down the street.

The Mom Thing

Sometimes motherhood feels a bit like one of those dreams in which you are running from some unnamed monster but putting one leg in front of the other is like moving mountains and you can't for the life of you seem to gain any momentum. I don't mean this in the terrible way that it sounds though. I just mean that it takes FOREVER to do anything with a baby. I really had no concept of how much work just getting from here to there took for mothers until I had Edie. I suppose there's no real way to appreciate this until you're actually doing it, but still.

Sometimes I'm running fairly on-time for an event of some sort, but then as soon as I think I'm ready to leave, I realize I don't have enough clean bottles for the 4 hour outing planned. In my pre-baby life, I would just rush around the kitchen, hurriedly wash two bottles and then literally run out the door (although before I had a baby, I suppose I didn't have much need for bottles). Now, I have to convince a wiggly baby to sit in her high chair, strap her in, and find a toy to occupy her happily while in said high chair. Only then can I rummage through the house to find two bottles, wait for the water to get hot, then scrub the 237 pieces of each bottle, fill each with water, cap them with the 237 pieces I just washed (why do bottles need to have so many parts?!), find the bottle caps (which for some reason are NEVER anywhere near where I left the bottles) and then place them in the diaper bag. While doing this, I must stop what I'm doing approximately 5 times to pick up the toy Edie keeps dropping. Then I suddenly realize that the stroller isn't in the trunk like I'd thought, so I must collapse it and run it out to the car. By the time I get to the car, I realize I can't find my keys. Are they in the diaper bag? My purse? Of course not! They are in the stroller pocket from yesterday's walk. You know, the stroller I just collapsed? So now I must UN-collapse the stroller, remove keys and repeat. I run back into the house to get Edie and put her in the car, but sometime in the forever minutes it took me to put the stroller into the trunk, she has lost a shoe and a sock. I finally get footwear adhered to feet when Edie starts fussing for a bottle, despite having eaten an hour earlier.

Jeff says I have an unpleasant knack for describing things in such excruciating detail that people are forced to "feel my pain" in a way that they may not necessarily want to. So I'm guessing you're feeling a bit like you're running with legs made of lead and the big bad monster is slowly gaining?

The thing is though, I don't actually mind any of this. I may feel a bit harried in the moment, but I really love what I'm doing every day. I'd take it over 8 hours of answering emails any day. The truth is that this entire ridiculous process of getting out the door actually only takes about 15 minutes, but it feels like FOREVER compared to the carefree way that I used to step out the door with my purse that weighed less than a feather slung over one arm, both hands free to pull the door closed and lock it. I sometimes think our neighbors must be laughing at me as they watch me run to and from the house a bajillion times just trying to get everything ready for a trip to the grocery store with E. Not to mention the unloading of the groceries upon my return.

This may seem like a whiny post, but I actually intended it to be a braggy, self-congratulatory post about what an awesome Mom I am. Or maybe how awesome being a Mom has made me? It's just that "doing stuff" was so easy before having a kid. Of course it didn't seem easy then. But now I realize that it was. Because doing all the same things but with clean bottles, a properly collapsed stroller and a clean (enough) and happy (enough) 20 pound baby clinging to one hip is inarguably more work. And my Mom did all these things with me 31 years ago. And then she did them again 3 years later for my brother! And we can only guess how much harder all these things are with a 3 year old AND a baby. In particular a 3 year old who is convinced that her seat belt is "CUTTING ME IN HALF" and who's shirt tag is "ITCHY MOMMY. IT'S ITCHY!!!"

So. Happy belated Mothers Day to me. For cleaning all the bottles, picking up the dropped toys, using the safety strap in the high chair, reading the stories (with voices) and remembering the stroller.

And happy Mothers Day to my Mom. For doing all of it first. Twice.

Pull ups

Guess who started pulling themselves up this week? I sat her down next to me on the floor while I tied my shoes on Monday and when I turned around, she was standing while holding on to the first step. I immediately made her repeat the accomplishment so as to document it:

She now pulls herself up whenever possible and has even started trying to climb the items she's using to support herself. I fear the future.

Back from the Dead

Well, we are finally on the mend from this horrid cold. I have to say that I think last week was the roughest week we've had in a VERY long time. Needless to say we are so glad to be feeling better again. Not only were we sick and sleepless in Seattle. We were also sequestered in our house for most of this time - no playgroup, no visits to new baby Reid and no fun outings made for a lame week. So now that you've heard more about our health than you wanted, I will provide you with some awesome photos from our trip last week to the cabin at Orcas. Behold many photos:

First night on the beach

Good morning!
Keeping the cabin at 80 degrees = lots of naps
Edie practices her school picture smile
Maybe going to Eastsound without a nap was a mistake.

Edie makes friends with wildlife.

Gravel AND swings? Best vacation ever.

Edie plays it cool on the swings.

Hanging out inside during another rainy day.

Just admiring the view.
Being totally self-absorbed, I first looked at this photo and thought "what a cute picture!". Then I noticed Edie's face.
Edie enjoying the view out of the sun roof on the ferry ride home.

The end.