Almost nine months

oh man...I have been sucking at blogging lately. Every time I think about writing a blog I start thinking about how much has changed and I don't know where to start so I just usually forget about it and neglect it some more.

Leo crawls, Leo pulls himself up, Leo pulls himself around the living room hanging on to furniture (cruising?), Leo feeds himself some finger foods. When he wakes in the night he stands in the same corner of his crib wailing until one of us comes to the bedroom door and then he smiles huge.

He is very attached to me. I think he's going through that separation anxiety phase. He often cries or whimpers when I leave the room. He loves his Papa and thinks he is the greatest thing ever but lately when he is upset he just wants Mama Mama Mama.

He is very very funny. He makes himself laugh a lot or laughs at Matt and I. Tonight while we were feeding him dinner Matt put a Youtube video of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on and Leo started dancing in his highchair. It was his first spontaneous dance session. Lots of arms, lots of bouncing.

My parents were here for a week and we had so much fun. I was so sad when they left even though I am going up to visit them soon. While they were here we tried to go out for a date night but we had to come home early because Leo had a meltdown and refused to take the bottle from my mom or even let her bring him near his nursery. We went out the next night instead, after he went to bed.

We went to San Diego to visit our dear friends a few weeks ago, right up until we got there Leo was still just an army-crawler but the second we put him down on the floor at the Galloways' he started crawling with his belly up off of the ground. A couple weeks later he was pulling up in the living room and at first we had to be behind him all of the time but now he is a lot more stable. Sometimes he gets a look of very intense, fascinated concentration and slowly lets go of whatever he was holding on to and balances on just his two feet...this never lasts more then ten seconds (yet) but he is always kind of amazed with himself after it happens.

Leo is sick. He got a cold which became a mild case of croup and an ear infection. We haven't slept for over a week. Last night he only woke three times and I was thrilled (except this morning I woke up sick too, oh well). I was pretty much just sleeping in the glider in his room sitting up holding him while he coughed. It was very sad.

We are working on a pretty good routine for the day. Leo enjoys eating his fruits and veggies and various other grownup foods (mostly still pureed). Most evenings we meet up with a friend at the park before bath and bed. This is a lovely part of our day for both Leo and his Mama...he gets to see other baby friends and crawl in the grass and swing and pull up on the few little pieces of park equipment at our local park, and I get to decompress with a mama friend and relax and sometimes we even sneak wine in (a weekend-night tradition among some of the moms at our local park, we are the newbies). After this outing Leo is usually nearing a catastrophic meltdown and I am usually alone at this point (Matt is more often than not working swing or night shifts) but when Matt is home we try many different creative ways to get Leo bathed, diapered, lotioned, jammied without a meltdown...usually it involves one parent doing constant distraction while the other does the lotioning, etc. It's all fun, isn't it?

And finally, a special moment from last night. I was rocking Leo to sleep in the dark, holding my milked and exhausted sweet sick boy who was snoring in my arms, enjoying the smell of his lovely head and the relaxation after a busy day...Matt came into the room, smiling at me sweetly, and very slowly leaned over to whisper in my ear. I was so excited to hear the sweet words of adoration, appreciation, affection come of his mouth...but instead he said, so softly: "where is that big bag of cheese popcorn?"

Ah, marriage.