We took these at the park on Lincoln near 19th Ave. You were so tired you were dilerious. But you still didn’t want to let us take you out of the swings.

It’s hard to time a picture on the iPhone, the shutter speed is terribly slow. I took some 20 pics of you, and these were the best.

Hugs,
-Oz

Seems one of the only consistent ways to get you to sleep in the middle of the day is to put you in a car and drive.

This means all of our days’ errands are based around your nap schedule. Fun.

You are officially now one of ‘those’ babies. Or toddlers. You know what I mean.
-Oz

I think at this point, it’s safe to declare that the word, ‘the’ is not your first word, irrespective of your constant use of it.

Instead, I think it’s ‘mama’. You say it to get Lesli’s attention. You say it to call out to her when she’s no longer in the room. You’ve pointed while saying it, directly at her.

So I guess, first word slightly before 10 months. Not too surprised at your vocabulary, all things considered. Your mom is your world. And you are hers.
-Oz

It’s been a while and I have a ton of things to bring up but nearly no time to do it. I sometimes feel like that song, I think it’s by Harry Chapin - ‘Cats in the Cradle’. Lots of work and little time for my cub, my little baby bear. But the time I do have, I have so many projects to finish it’s ridiculous. Meantime I’m too exhausted to really play.

You are teething. A lot. Your bottom teeth are coming in and you hate it. Very much.

You eat solid foods a lot - at least as solid as one can refer to the jarred mush we feed you. You appreciate the more complex foods - the Mango Chicken Resoto over the mashed carrots. I’m not sure who you got that from.

Also, your hair would be past your chin if only it were straight. Of course with your mother and I as your parents, you were all kinds of screwed, and your hair seems to be getting even more impossibly curly.

Sucks for you.

Here are a few pics.
-Oz

There’s really no reason for me posting this, except that you’re absolutely adorable right now.

-Oz

You are constantly covered in drool these days.

It didn’t always used to be this way. There was a time where saliva did not gush freely from your mouth, and you were not constantly trying to insert any small to medium sized object in the vacinity into your mouth.

No, at one point you were just a regular, non-teething baby. You just had to go and decide to change that, didn’t you.

The best part is that you’re sort of figuring out this whole crawling business, too, so you spend a lot of time on your stomach, face down. You try to crawl, angry, while rubbing your face on he floor or our bed, all the while leaving us a little snail trail to let us know where you had been most recently.

Icky.

You also freak the hell out when your mom leaves the room or even sometimes turns her back to you. Clearly you want her comfort, and full time at that. Her work is never done!

Mean time you’re still cute as all hell.

Lesli and I were discussing - it seems like you haven’t changes much in the face since you were 3 months (now you are 8 months). Weird.

Some photographic evidence from this weekend’s random walk to Sutro Heights:

There are times in all of this business that you really surprise me. Sometimes in the ‘freaking me out’ kind of way, but that still is a type of surprise. .

Today you stood up on your own. We put you in the crib on your butt (or stomach, I can’t quite recall), leave the room for a minute, and come back to find you standing up in your crib with a Cheshire grin on your face. You were clearly proud of yourself.

Lesli captured a picture she needs to send me so I can post it, but the attached was taken shortly after. Little cub, you’re growing up.

It truly is strange to see this happen, too.

Supposedly, you’re a bit advanced for your age. We visited a physical therapist today for your very mild torticolis and she said many of the things that you do (including your waving when people say hi or bye) is well advanced for someone who just turned 8 months. Crazy.

It makes me feel old. I worry about you becoming increasingly mobile because that just means it’ll be all that much sooner till I am chasing you down.
-Oz

This makes me happy, then, that I got my blog plug-in on my phone working, because maybe then I’ll have more opportunities to write about you than I would without it. Much of my available computer time is actually phone time.

You’ve been excruciatingly cute as of late. You can wave hi. You string together long series of noises together (and generally when you are upset at us). You can sit up from a lying down position (though only on the bed). You laugh, you squeal with delight.

Oh an you drool a lot.

Here’s two recent pics. Because we should post more pictures of you. You almost have no choice but to become a scooter girl.

Right now we have a picture of Casey on our mantle.  We’re considering superimposing her in a picture and giving that out as our Christmas card.  Ew.

 Below:  pictures!

I think, over the last few weeks, we’ve gone from the state of wondering, “is Casey moving?” to knowing full well that ”Casey’s been kicking again…”

This is the sort of transition that takes effect in startling speed…  it seems like but a few short days ago (probably somewhere between 14 and 21 to be fair), Lesli mentioned that she felt something going on ‘down South’…  described as onomatopoetically as possible with the word, “bloop!” and a hand gesture that resembled flicking an index finger away from her thumb.  It was an odd sensation to her since, according to her, it was a sensation that didn’t originate in an area where such sensations were normally felt.  This is a polite way of saying that Casey’s original kicks were akin to feeling gas in one’s uterus.

Thus began our experience of feeling Casey actually interact with us.  I spent the good part of a half hour one night with my ear pressed against Lesli’s stomach, listening to the various noises that came out, hoping (quite quixotically) to hear Casey shifting about.  Once or twice, I swear I heard her kick and Lesli confirmed that the times that I “heard” something (for all I know I simply felt it) corresponded with times that she felt the odd sensation of someone inside of her doing…  something.  What, we’re not quite sure.  Gymnastics, ceramics, any sort of *ics.

This morning it’s been as strong as I’ve ever felt it - if I didn’t know better, I’d be convinced Casey wanted out.  Of course, she’s only 4.5 months old, and that’d be a disastrous thing to have happen, but as far as kicks go this one definitely had gusto.

A few (one or two) weeks before the car accident had come about, my mother had it in her to take Lesli and I shopping with my six year old niece Lily (who was absolutely convinced she knew what it was that we should be getting for Casey). 

In some ways this is training - my niece, like most children her age, has an innocent and naive understanding of the world and how things work, so here I was surrounded by 3 women (er, 2.5), prancing about the baby section in a Target, trying to steer this six year old from the horrendously hideous outfits she insisted that Casey would require, never mind they were almost always for three year olds as opposed to newborns.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I just made it sound (er…), but it was certainly an “adventure”.  My mother managed to wrangle Lily enough to direct her towards things we’d actually require, and by the end of the trip we accumulated a good number of random baby items we’d absolutely need with very minimal nonsense. 

Of course we had our fun, too.  As you can see, it was required that we’d buy some hats.  In particular, one stood out from the crowd of cats, dogs, ducks, and other assorted shenanigans:  a Winnie the Pooh hat.  What kind of parents would we be, having a cub, and not buying her a hat with ears? 

I cannot wait until Casey is born so that I may inflict this hat upon her.  If I had ovaries, the mere thought of how adorable she’ll look with the hat on would make them ache.  Thankfully I don’t, and for now I will pretend that the above statement is in no way emasculating. 

Our next trick will be trying to figure out how to implement a baby shower slash housewarming, now that Lesli is fully moved in.

As an aside, you may notice, the blog now has a soundtrack.  Enjoy! 
-oz