Where to begin? Well, let’s start with the obvious. You’re ONE! Happy Birthday!

You are such a little boy! You love trucks and cars and tools and trains but, also babies and kitties and puppies… you are all boy, but, have a sweetness that is undeniable. You go from crashing your trucks together to rocking your baby doll and I love all of that about you.

I just had to read your 9-month letter to even grasp how much you’ve changed over the past 3 months. For starters you got 6 teeth! I remember back then trying to imagine your smile filled with teeth and worrying that you wouldn’t be as cute.

Luckily, I was wrong:

And then, there was that other little development… you know, no big deal – but, YOU CAN WALK! And have been doing so for about a month.

Seeing you take your first few wobbly steps was the most exciting moment of our life together, outside of the first time I held you. You are becoming incredibly confident and more skilled at this upright thing every day. The true joy, concentration with just a hint of trepidation that splashes across your face when you stand up and walk on your own sweeps up everyone around you creating cheers of encouragement and squeals of laughter.

You started to give hugs – first only when you thought you were in danger and then they came all the time – for no reason, other than you FINALLY REALIZED THAT YOU LOVE US – about time kid! And you give sweet, albeit open-mouth kisses (interspersed between bites). Uh – yeah, you’re a biter. We have been working on it – the biting thing – and you have gotten better – meaning that your bites are less frequent, however, you have, at the same time, gotten stronger so when the mood strikes so does your death-grip crocodile-jaw. We are going with the “no bite.”; “here – bite this.” (insert toy into mouth); “OUCH!” (pretend cry) – tactic. And so far it seems to be working.

You also eat almost ANYTHING. Watermelon has not made it through to your gullet. It is the only thing you have actually spat out – and don’t doubt that we haven’t tried to find things that you wouldn’t like! Here’s a list of some of the more obscure items that you have liked:

salsa (this is more like a love affair than a simple appreciation for flavor)
curry lentils
olives
pickles
capers
pork ribs
Kona Kampachi from Uchi
Chicken confit
steamed kale
pretty much any kind of fish
aged cheddar (no Kraft Singles for this kid – you know you’re spoiled when you have only ever eaten cheese that is priced by the pound and older than you are)

We couldn’t be more proud. We were terrified that you would be an insanely picky eater from the get-go, and I totally understand that you probably will be – any day now, but, for the time being, we are loving your willingness to like anything.

Pretty much, you are just a totally rad human being. And we love hanging out with you.

Love, momma

Listening: Cymbals Eat Guitars (LOVING IT – thanks OCMD!)

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)

No big, long letter, as they are a total pain in the ass. We going for quarterly newsletters now. Look for the next installment of your momma racking her brains to remember what your recent accomplishments are – next month.

In short, you are totally freaking awesome! You are 99% happy (when you aren’t pulling your hair out – literally) trying to tell us that you have an ear ache. Thank you for being ours.

Listening: Little Joy

Son, I’m sorry – this is the first of what is sure to be many of apologies for missed deadlines with you. And I could beat myself up for it, but, I’m not going to. I started writing a letter to you at six months, but, honestly I had a hard time keeping up with the past because every freaking day you are doing something new now. It is beyond cool. Your dad and I remark daily on your awesomeness and give each other looks of silent nods of congratulations on the making of such an amazing human being.

OK… a quick rundown of your accomplishments over the last two months:

FOOD! You eat rice cereal and baby food twice a day now. You detest carrots, like sweet potatoes, aren’t sure of apples, love pears and are surprisingly fond of peas.

You sleep like a big boy now. Sleep training was a lot of work, but, ultimately it was worth every moment of anxiety. You take naps 1,000% better than you did and are almost sleeping 11 hours at night. Most nights you get up around 4am for a quick diaper change and then go back down – thanks to your dad’s baby-wrangling skills.

Speaking of baby-wrangling – kid, you like to move. The rolling is sooo 2 months ago. You are all about the sitting up and then transitioning to the ground and scooting (army crawling) all over the house. You also really like to stand (but, that’s nothing new – you could stand on your own when you were weeks old. The doctor told us at 4 months that your standing was just reflex and that you would stop doing it and learn to do it “for real” around 7 months. She was wrong… kid you’ve been poised to walk since you were born.).

You have the cutest laugh and you think we are hilarious. I LOVE that we can make you laugh. This is my absolute favorite development thus far. You’ve giggled for a while, but, the fact that I can do something intentionally meant as funny and you get it is fantastic. You giggle, guffaw and even have a subtle courtesy laugh. RAD.

You babble a lot and it moves easily from a whisper to a yell. And when I say yell I really mean blood-curdling shriek. This ear-piercing sound is used in moments of utter joy or momentary frustration or to simple make a point.

Your dad and I are taking a ton of videos and watch them over and over and ask each other “how cute is your son?”. We are obsessed with you and rightly so – because you are so totally wonderful.

Listening: First Aid Kit

You are five months old almost six months old now (I know I know – a few days is acceptable… but, almost a month late – my ticket to mommy-hell just got upgraded to first-class).

When you were about four weeks old a client/friend told us that he and his wife thought that five months was when it really got good with their kids. At the time I was pissed, FIVE MONTHS! I have to wait FOUR MORE MONTHS until you get good!? Obviously living with you had been getting easier, more fun, more rewarding each day, but, I have to agree with him – five months is AWESOME!

We moved back to Austin this month. Which meant more traveling via plane. I was much more calm this trip, despite not having my drivers license (Marc had absconded with it on his drive to Austin two days prior). Turns out, that if you have a baby with you it is pretty easy to break the rules. Without, really any form of ID, I was able to get on the plane with a slightly more invasive search. You were of course #1-perfect-baby the whole time – charming the pants off of everybody we came in contact with. Once I got through security I treated myself to an egg-bagel-sandwich and mimosa, while waiting to board. The three+ hour trip was without incident… if you disregard the EIGHT diapers I changed! I think you must have been saving all of that up just to test my patience. I am proud to admit that I passed your little experiment with flying colors thank you very much. When we got to Austin your pops and Granny were there to great us. Granny had driven back to Austin with your dad to help him stay awake and take over some of 36 hours of drive-time. Then she got to stay with us and help us get re-settled. Having her here and along for the drive was incredibly helpful – we were all very grateful. After she left we found tons of new toys and clothes in your room that soon became favorites… thanks Granny!

A few days after getting back to Austin you started day care. Elizabeth is your nanny, which you share with your new buddy Finn. Elizabeth is equal parts patient, wise and fun. And you and your BFF seem to really dig her. I had some mixed emotions about the whole thing, but, soon learned that the pros FAR out way the cons to having somebody else look after you while we work.

You LOVE to rollover and have become an expert speed-roller from back to stomach which has made diaper-changes an Olympic event that test our mental as well as physical strength. You still dig standing and can do so on your own with a little help from a piece of helpful furniture. Even if we keep you out late (which we’ve been guilty of in order to finish our fancy dinners out) as long as we hold you standing on our laps – you can hang with us for hours.

Your smile is ridiculous – your whole face lights up the dimples come out, your mouth is agape and your eyes twinkle… this smile must be earned though, you don’t hand them out willy nilly – which makes them that much more precious.

You pops and I love everything about you and are so grateful to have you in our lives.

Love, momma

Listening: Built To Spill

I really don’t want to jinx this, but, you are an AWESOME baby! This month you solidified your place in the all-pro baby hall of fame for sleeping, eating, cooing and giggling. Quite an accomplishment for one so small. The credit for the sleeping-through-the-night-since-you-were-six-weeks-old (technically, “through the night” for a six week old is six hours, which you did, you are up to about nine, now) must be shared with your father, for he is the all-pro champion baby swaddler. We hadn’t planned to swaddle you for this long, but, you just sleep so darn well, that we are going with it…we are a bit concerned that we may have to teach your college roommate how to swaddle you to sleep – but, we’ll cross that bridge…

This last month you have become a blast to hang with. From bundling you up and dragging you all over Golden Gate Park for Outside Lands to taking you on your second airplane ride – you have been more than just a trooper – you’ve seemed to enjoy yourself. You are able to adapt to any situation and make the most of it.

Hanging at an outdoor festival all day means diaper changing on the spot – which you were fine with (you still hate a dirty diaper – so, as long as we can get the offending, soiled material off of your nether regions – you are happy). After Outside Lands we walked towards Kylie’s house while she was on her way to pick us up. We ended up walking a few miles which was great, until you started to fuss a bit and we realized you were about to loose it due to a dirty diaper, so we had to change it where we were – in the middle of the Inner Sunset on the cleanest front porch steps we could find… I’ve never been so ashamed and proud at the same time, as I am oddly equal parts yuppie and hippie.

Like I said, you are a generally happy baby and dig the people around you, but, you LOVE your daddy. If Dad is smiling – you are smiling. If he laughs – you laugh. You stare at his face in what I can only imagine is adoration and love. Marc thinks it’s his out-of-control hair that transfixes your stare. Or maybe it’s because you get to do all sorts of fun things with dad – like learn to wield large sharp knives.

But, either way, it’s really cute.

Each month we see a little more of a glimpse into your personality and we can’t help but want to know you even more. So far, so good little one.

Love, momma

Listening: Jens Lekman

You’re sitting on your pop’s lap right now, while he tries to finish up work on the computer.

You are content to sit and watch him work – following the moving objects and lit up screen. Your dad’s legs are naturally shaky making for the perfect baby-bouncer. We’re a little concerned with how much you like the ol’ moving pictures. I imagine we could park you in front of the TV for the better part of a day and you’d be happy to fry your brain. This past month we’ve been at the grandparents’ house which is complete with big-screen-cable-provided-programming. It is coma-inducing to anybody who walks within it’s visual range. The media frenzy that comes booming from that box is scary enough – and when you factor in commercials – holy moly – not on my watch I say to myself… this from the woman who just nursed you while watching the Olympics and then when you were so cute sitting in my lap watching the TV that I just let us stay there for an extra half hour.

This month started with you smiling and cooing and boy have you mastered that.

It is truly the most beautiful thing I have ever seen – we get you in the morning and unwrap your swaddle and you look up at us with your gorgeous eyes and shoot us that smile. Even if you’re crying – if you see Marc or me you stop and give us a little giggle. It is the reason to wake up in the morning. The giggling is a work in progress. You have the cutest group of breaths that gather together to form a pseudo giggle – and I’ll take that for now – but, i am really looking forward to a full-on laugh. We are starting to hear a bit of your voice come through in your coos. And it just makes me that much more eager to know you.

Your dad is living up to his dad-of-the-year nickname. He fearlessly took you into San Francisco to meet up with John at Tour De Fat. People we tell about this adventure are immediately shocked and awed with Marc’s ability to take a child away from it’s mother and bring it back alive. But, as we know, your dad is no ordinary human being. And besides, when there is beer as incentive, there is nothing he can’t accomplish.

We had a lot of events this month for you to attend. Your baby shower/sip and see, my sister’s bachelorette party – where you made an appearance at our day-spa-party, kylie’s rehearsal dinner and then her wedding. You were a champion baby throughout. Letting all kinds of strangers hold you and fuss over you. It was always my wish that you would be comfortable with our friends. The capper was Kylie’s wedding – we made you wear a suit in the heat and passed you to countless strangers who gooed and gaaed all over you. Again – champion baby! Thank you.

Spending this last month with my parents has been priceless. I can only imagine that for my mom – who married an American after knowing him for only a few months and having babies thousands of miles away from her mother; never really giving her the opportunity to get to know us as much as she would have liked – this is a beautiful thing. Three generations living in the same house may be a bit turn-of-the-last-century for me, but, I recognize how wonderful this is for all of us. Your dad’s parents stopped by on their way back home from a vacation in Oregon and the seven of us lived on the premises for a weekend. You were passed from grandparent to grandparent – loved from all angles. It was really special.

Your dad and I are still working our tails off even though we are doing it from my parents dining room table. The Chinese rainforest resides at the foot of my end of the table and the aquarium swing is at your dad’s end. We take turns feeding/changing/playing with you throughout the day and try to give you a smattering of independent play in the rainforest neglect-o-mat. This system is working well for the time being but, we have started to interview nannies for you. The nanny will start next month… something to look forward to…? The jury is still out on that.

This month has proven to be the best yet – we are all reaching our stride and enjoying every moment with each other.

Love, momma

Listening: Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band

We’re two months in and I think you’re beginning to like it here. You started this month by starting to smile.

You had been smiling in your sleep and when the synapses were firing in that little brain of yours, but, an actual smile as a reaction to us… that is an outstanding development. For the last few days of the month you started to coo and man oh man is the smiling-cooing combination a killer. Mark my words kid – you will get far in this world if you can harness that kind of charm – here’s hoping you choose to use it for good and not evil-world-domination (I can’t imagine there’s much joy in that).

Speaking of joy… you really are becoming pretty great to be around. Don’t get me wrong, we have loved you since the moment you joined us out here in the air-breathing world, but, now, you are becoming more and more of a person. And we LIKE you. We LIKE hanging out with you. You don’t stare off into newborn baby-space as much any more and like I said – that cooing and smiling… wow.

We headed back to CA last week. We left stifling 85 degree heat in Austin for sweltering 100+degree Green Valley. We’ll be staying here until you’re about 4 months old – living here with the grandparents and getting up to Truckee and into San Francisco as much as possible. This month we took you to both places and you are a rockstar with the traveling. Thank you for rolling with our gypsy lifestyle!

You are still growing like mad – I’d say you’re around 13 1/2 pounds right now and our arms are feeling it. You eat every two to three hours when you’re awake and… did I forget to mention that you sleep through the night! Holy moly kid – you are a sleeper! Right now, after adjusting from our travels to CA, you are sleeping 8 hours, then you’ll wake up for a mid-night snack around 5am and then sleep for another 4 hours. In the morning you are really cute… you get up, do a little cooing and smiling, eat breakfast and then go down for a nap. We’re trying to only let you stay up for two hours at a time and sometimes you don’t even want that much. It feels counterintuitive to let you sleep all day in order to ensure you sleep at night – but, it works for you.

Love, momma

Listening: Black Keys

Hey kid! Welcome to the world! You made it! So, this is life. You’ll dig it here, as soon as you can – you know – see things and hold your head up to look around. It’s filled with all kinds of great things like fresh cut grass, music, bike rides, sandboxes and food! Oh, man, you’re going to love food!

So far so good. You are alive. Yep, still breathing each and every night. I don’t even have to check anymore (by the way – Maggie – thanks for the mirror under the nose trick – saved me poking him each night). You have figured out how to eat, poop and sleep all on your own. You are gaining weight like a champ – about 2.5 ounces per day for the past two weeks – you weigh 10lbs 14oz as of yesterday! That’s WAY more than “they” say breastfed babies will gain. I even called your doctor to make sure that everything was cool – they were impressed and said, that yes, all is good. Thanks to the weight gain “Beefy Cheeks” has been added to your list of nicknames.

At this point it’s hard to report back to you what exactly you are like, because with any luck your personality is still developing, otherwise we’ll have to send you off to college with people describing you as a total spaz of an eater, a cry-baby (especially when it comes to diaper changes) and a pretty good sleeper (unless you are up too long in which case, you completely loose your $#!^ and your dad walks around the house holding you muttering things like, “this kid is insane… this kid is absolutely insane… what are we going to do?”).

So, what’s it been like for us, you ask? I’ll try to turn on my brain long enough to remember back through the past four+ weeks…

You were born after 33 hours of labor. Try to think about what that means for a minute. 33 hours (like watching 16 movies back-to-back) of contractions (contractions are like a muscle cramp all the way around your middle – like all your guts decide it’s time to move on and they attempt to rip themselves from the connective tissue that holds them in place) – yes, they only lasted about a minute at a time, but, there were a lot of them. The pain I could and did handle pretty well – the harder part was for your dad and me to try our very best to not totally freak out about the fact that we were about to have a BABY! Here’s where we could totally sugar coat this for you, but, we may as well be honest. We planned to have you – we tried to have you. But, even now, as you are a month old, questions about our sanity start to creep in. Questions to ourselves about whether or not this was a good idea. Whether or not we can handle this. Whether or not we will be any good at this. Because I gotta tell you, hanging out with an infant 24 hours a day is not always a walk in the park. BUT, yes, there is a but – you are about to start smiling based on actual feelings and events… that is something to look forward to.

We have had some help over the past two weeks – the grandparents – part 1 and 2 – came to stay with us all. This was supposed to help us transition back into work… that wasn’t really the case, because we never really took any time off. I guess there was that day I gave birth, and the day after in the hospital we didn’t do much other than stare at you and upload photos of you, since we were getting phone calls from California demanding proof that my mom did indeed, FINALLY, have a grandchild! But, that third day, I actually took a meeting with a client in the hospital. The circumstances were extenuating, but, still, I know this was truly bad form, but, let’s be real – this is who I am. I really dig my work. And yes, I dig you and your dad more – but, we all have to learn to live together – you, me, your dad and our business.

We’re starting to figure out this roller coaster you’ve got us on. The secret ingredient to making sure the ride is smooth so that nobody looses their corndog? SLEEP. For you and in turn us. You are a COMPLETELY different creature when you’ve had enough of it. I am guilty of trying to entertain you too much. I figured out that background music, me singing over it, shaking a toy at you, rocking you and patting your back – at the same time – is the equivalent of me being subjected to a Hannah Montana concert – overwhelming and terrifying. I get it – I promise to chill out.

You are gorgeous and healthy. A constant challenge. And disarmingly sweet – overall. Thank you so very much for joining our family.

Love, momma

Listening: Coldplay