Saturday, November 28, 2009

We Thanked, We Gave

More like, we ate and we ate. So Thanksgiving 2009 can be labeled a success. And I think we all know what we were thankful for this year:


p.s. Sody seemed to like everything except turkey. go figure.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

What We Talk About When We Talk About Love


She’s just so big now, I can’t get over it. Each time I reach to get her out of her crib or I pick her up when she holds out her chubby little arms, it’s like, “Oof! When did you get so heavy!” How did this happen? How did 10+ months go by so fast? I look at her baby book – (actually, I should say I look at one of her baby books – we keep many: journals, photos, scrapbook, you name it) and I just can’t believe my eyes when I look at pictures from last winter. Brand new Sody with her wrinkly skin and scrawny chicken legs, stretching out her whole body and sleeping with her little fist propped up on her cheek. I miss that newborn baby, I do. I miss swaddling up that little bundle and being able to carry her around in one arm. I miss watching her sleep on Joe’s chest. I miss the teeny clothes and diapers and I really miss a baby that never wiggled around and objected during a diaper change.

But of course, that newborn has been replaced by the funniest and most fun baby ever, which is alright by me. Every single day more facets of Sody’s personality come out and I realize that we don’t just have a baby - we have a real Person now. A person with her own specific tickle spots and curiosity and desires and a cute cowlick on the side of her head when she sleeps on her hair funny. A person with a squishy scrunchy grin that comes out so often I can’t help but think there couldn’t possibly be a happier or friendlier baby on this planet.

This morning we lounged in bed together –as well as one can lounge at 6:45 a.m. – and she started her own game of peek-a-boo with herself and the bedsheet, just giggling to herself. My heart gets a little bigger each time I catch moments like this, and there are so many. She is just so sweet and funny.

Sody Lou, your mama loves you like you wouldn’t believe. Way more than I could ever describe with this computer.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Scary Bear



Lately we have noticed a new emotion Isota seems to be experiencing: fear. She doesn't display often but there is one thing in particular that has set her off, and that thing is a stuffed bear. We have this big brown stuffed bear that has always sat around the house...either our room or her room but mostly in the living room with all her other toys. He is huge and soft and cuddly and she has always seemed to like him just fine. But one day Joe was playing with her and made the bear do a low growl and the noise freaked out Sody so much. Her eyes got wide, her arms started flapping like, "Get me outta here, quick!" and the tears were soon to follow. Cruel parents that we are, we found the whole scene a little bit funny because she is just never like that.

So now he is Scary Bear and I sit him in the corner so she can go play with him when she feels brave enough. Lately I have been watching her go up to him, feeling his face and trying to make friends with him again. My little girl, facing her fears. She is a brave little soldier.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Weeeeeekend

We had a lovely, mellow-ish weekend around here: dinner at my parents with old family friends Friday, puttering around the house on Saturday, and a visit from my college buds Melissa and Adam on Sunday, who roadtripped down from Portland with their almost-two-year-old son Stellan. Unfortunately the visit was so short and sweet that I forgot to snap any pictures of the kids together (doh!) so you are just going to have to trust me that they were very cute. Stellan is adorable and very well-behaved, even when Sody was trying to swipe his toy trucks away from him. Come back soon, you guys!

Random weekend pictures:





Monday, November 9, 2009

When Dad is Away...

...the mice have Dinner Dance Parties! Which means turning up the iPod with *my* tunes and dancing and singing like a fool for Sody while she eats her dinner. Oh, how I love a captive audience. And what an audience she is:

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Ten Months


Isota turned ten months old last week. I made a pumpkin pie in her honor but it came out pretty ugly so no picture of that. (I made it with a real pumpkin - the baking kind, sugar pumpkin - and it just wasn't as good as the canned stuff, it pains me to say.) So ten months, double digit age, and her skill set just keeps getting bigger and bigger. As of this writing she can now: crawl at lightning speed, pull herself up, cruise around furniture, clap her hands on command and babble really well in babyspeak. But her absolute favorite activity right now is waving. She waves at anyone and everything. We walk into a store and she waves at everyone we pass, smiling like a maniac and basically charming the pants off people. We go to a restaurant and every table around us and every waiter passing by gets a wave - the other night we eventually just turned the highchair around so she could face the whole restaurant and find more people to wave at.

But my absolute favorite wave is when I put her down for naptime. She gets all sleepy eyed and still in her crib and when I say "night night" right before shutting her door and leaving I see her little tired hand raise up and wave bye bye at me. Kills me every time.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Chicken Little








Isota's First Ever Halloween: Oakland, street parade, pumpkin patch with her friend Remy the Snowman, hanging out with her friend Lenny the Leopard, pizza and trick-or-treating til she passed out. So, a success! She was dressed as a chicken, obviously, and I was a farmer and Joe was a chimney sweep, which had nothing to do with the farm theme but he looked cool. Good times.