Baby Blase

Dear Harrison,

Happy .75 birthday!

This is a biggie. 9 months! You have now been moving around on this earth for about the same amount of time OUTSIDE, with all of us air-breathers, as you were INSIDE my belly.

The last nine months seem to have flown by but, at the same time because so much has occurred, time does seem to be… not longer… but, maybe wider. Wider in the sense that everyday is filled with more. More chores – for sure, more smiles, more laughing, more scheduling, more playing, more waking in the night – yeah… I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that one… you’ve been spared from sleep training Round-3 for a while because you got sick – really sick, for more than three weeks, got your first tooth, and then got sick again. We’ve gotten so used to the ooze dripping from your nose that I just wipe it on my sleeve. Luckily most days I’m wearing one of your dad’s big, comfy sweatshirts. But, I think tonight is the night. Again. Oh how I hate the thought of sleep training you… but, I must remind myself that you do so much better once we get the ball rolling. So, tonight I will curl up on the couch – just me, a bottle of wine and another bottle of wine while your dad locks you in the dungeon to fend for yourself.

You’ve just been knocking the milestones out lately! You learned to clap, which may be my favorite development outside of the smile and giggle. You crawl, sit-up and then punctuate it with a clap – incredibly cute:

Standing is a big one, but, you’ve been doing all of that for a while. But, you did stand for a second without holding on to anything the other day… it was too brief to even call your dad over to see it. But, it was the beginning of freedom, and I could see a glimmer of recognition in your eyes… you understood that what you were doing was something profound.

You’ve been babbling a lot. You say mama and nanananana and dadadada… notice that mama is just the two syllables… I think we may be getting closer to an actual spoken word there! I am obviously biased but, I think mama is just an excellent first word.

You have learned to not just UN-stack your stacking cups, but, you STACK them inside each other now too! You also put all kinds of toys inside of boxes and cups. IN-OUT-IN-OUT-IN-OUT. Objects fitting inside of other objects is TOTALLY COOL. And you are close to stacking blocks on top of one another – but, that is an advanced move especially because our blocks are slippery, so no pressure.

You are getting even more busy – which I didn’t really think possible. You rarely stop moving… except for… SPACE. We have a screen saver on the computer in the living room with satellite images of space. That will STOP. YOU. IN. YOUR. TRACKS. It is remarkable.

You will drop your toys, sit-up and reach for the TV in hopes that you can touch the stars. The red-flecked spiral-y one (on the left) is your absolute favorite followed by the rainbow-colored, blurry eye of Sauron (on the right). I promise to learn what these images are actually of, soon, so that you don’t grow up referring to the stars as “ooooh…preeeeetty spaaaaaaarkles”. The shot of earth from the moon is totally boring

even though I try to tell you that it’s a photo of where we live, you couldn’t care less – MORE SPARKLES!

Bumps and bruises go hand-in-hand with your busyness, but, thankfully you are tough. I would wager that you bump your head at least 15 times a day without so much as a peep to acknowledge that anything has happened. Marc was hanging with you in your crib and says that you face-planted into the bars at the top of the crib – nose between the slats – and slid down to the mattress on your face. And you just got right back up. Because of your new found status as a rough and tumble little boy you have acquired some new nicknames. My favorite being “Nails” – as in “tough as…”.

We love you more and more every single day. Thanks for being ours.

Love, momma
(ma-ma… come on you can say it… ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma, m-m-m-maaaaa-maaaaa)

Listening: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart (great name for a band)