11 Months

Delly,
You are 11 whole months old. You look nothing like a baby anymore, even according to Gap and Old Navy clothing sizes, you're a toddler. Yesterday you walked across the kitchen with me, holding on with only one hand. You'll be flying solo soon, baby girl!

You spent a few hours with Grandmommy and Grandpa Joe yesterday so I could have some time alone, while Daddy is away being a rock star. You had a blast with them, and when they took you to Stoney Creek to look at the water you made some new friends as you always do. You're a huge flirt and you especially like to make eyes at men and get all cute and coy. Your new buddies fell in love with you and Grandpa even took a pic of you with them, you are such a ham. Hatton through and through.

You are becoming really affectionate, which is so sweet and special. You hug your stuffed animals all the time, squeezing them and burying your face it them, and you'll give them kisses if I give them kisses first and you mimic me. It's adorable. You try to kiss us sometimes too, which you do by opening your mouth as wide as possible and trying to cover our mouths like you're going to consume our faces or french us or something. You've gotten me, Daddy, and this weekend you got Grandmommy too. You climb all over me when I sit on the floor with you and like to touch my face and stare at me like I'm the most fascinating creature on earth, which I pretty much am.

You are into everything, you will reach up and pull anything off of any table or counter that you can reach. I am developing my Spidey Sense, that fear that all parents get when things become eerily quiet, which inevitably means I'll find you in the middle of the floor surrounded by a pile of tissues that you've pulled one by one out of the box, or your wipes, or an entire roll of toilet paper you've unraveled, etc. You like to stand at the side of the bathtub and look in and drop binkies and toys in there for me to retrieve (arf!), and the other night when I filled it up for your bath, the entire surface was covered with tiny little bits of toilet paper that you had apparently ripped up and dropped in there while I was doing my makeup that morning. The other day while you were happily eating your lunch -- and were properly dressed -- I jumped into the office to send an email to Daddy, and when I came back you looked like this:


You are getting funnier and funnier, and as hard as is it to keep up with you and as tiring and challenging as you are, every day you make me laugh out loud. I can not believe that in less than a month you'll be one year old, Delma. One year full of the biggest fears and anxieties, and the biggest laughs.

Love,
Mommy

music and crafts

If you haven't heard Mika yet, go to Amazon or iTunes and listen to the samples STAT, especially for Love Today. He performed on SO You Think You Can Dance (OMG, LOVE THAT SHOW!), and when I was fast-forwarding over it like I always do for the filler stuff on that show, the banter, the music, etc, I saw him jumping around the stage, all 9 feet and 23 pounds of him, so I stopped to watch it and got so so excited. Super-fun music.

I haven't been doing as much sewing as I'd like, but I have gotten a few thinks done, including this embelished tee and reversable pinafore for my girlfriend's daughter. I made a tee like this for Delma, and my friend loved it so I made her one. The pinafore is a repro of one I bought on Etsy. I fell in love with it, and realized it was the simplest design so I made a pattern from it and started making my own. I have lots of fabrics waiting to be made into pinnies!

The appliqués are made from these instructions at jcaroline creative. I didn't use a pattern, just cut some circles out from fabric, so I skipped steps 1 and 3. So simple. And I (very sloppily) sewed ric rac on for the stems. Such a home-job, but it still looks pretty cute.




Front, back and reverse views of the pinafore:




And hopefully soon I'll get around the shipping them off to the wee recipient!

Delma's bodily functions

Because no one ever tires of reading about diapering issues and such, I thought I'd provide an update to the 2 people (Hi, Heidi!) who read this blog: Delma's daycare ended up letting us use gDiapers after all. We bought a bigger size because they seemed to think the fit just wasn't right. But no matter what size they use on her, they still regularly get some leaks so I think they just don't put them on right. They also don't use them exclusively, so we do still send some disposables (switched to Seventh Generation, at least) that they use sometimes. I don't know why, I guess maybe some of the people who work there are freaked out by them and would rather just use disposables. I don't actually care anymore, I feel like any fewer disposables they use is progress.

deer

This is why we can't plant any hastas or tulips. Or, as I found out this year, lillies. Hmpf. They do make for great live-action entertainment for the kitties, though.

Simon

Simon Fondu Pepitone was born on July 12, a few weeks early. Baby and mommy are doing great. Erica is someone who's become a really good friend, and I just adore her. She moved back to CT last year and was a huge support to me after Delma was born, even though I don't think she really realized it. She was my one friend who was just like Hey! I'm coming over to see you! And would just be around a lot without ever feeling weird like she was getting in the way or invading some pseudo-sacred mommy-baby time or something. I think a lot of people, unfortunately including family, felt like they didn't want to intrude and would just wait for an invite. Like when you have a baby you make plans to have people over for tea or something. No, at least for us, it worked better when people would call or email and ask if they could come by. It took all the pressure of planning off of us, and of course we always had the option of saying nope, not today, we're too tired. But Erica was great, popping in to chat and cuddle with Delma regularly when she had breaks between work appointments. I'm so psyched that she had a baby and we have this whole new huge thing in common.

Simon:


Erica, looking all rosy and gorgeous after about 2 days of labor and one teensy nap!




Simon was a great excuse to start sewing. I made some little appliques and put them on onesies, and I made a pair of shoes using this super-easy pattern.





I also made a bunch of burp cloths for her shower, but forgot to take pictures. The mom of a friend of mine gave me a couple special burp cloths when Delma was born, just some cute ribbon sewn onto the short-side hems of soft cloth diapers. So simple, but it was nice to use them out in public and feel like I was slightly hip and put-together despite being unshowered and sleepy and smelling milky and being covered in spit-up. I ended up making a few more myself, using some pink camo grosgrain. For Erica/Simon, I took some nice Kushies and pre-washed them, sewed them right sides together with a piece of cute cotton print fabric, left a little hole, turned them inside-out, and then top-stitched all around. So so so insanely fast and easy, and they all look adorable. Can use the same "technique" to make a blanket, using flannel or minky or chenille for backing with a really cute print. I have a couple lined up for Delma and up-coming baby gifts.

away and back

Home from vacation. Well, home from "vacation." A vacation with a baby is not exactly a vacation. It's more like every other day except away from home. We were on Cape Cod, had a teensy bit of nice beach time, went for nice drives, did a few fun things, saw Harry Potter, and had some really good nights at home after D went to sleep with our friends with whom we rented the house. It actually was better than I expected, I was braced for the worst but we really did have some fun. And we realized that D is really quite adaptable, she slept in the Pack-n-Play in a strange house like it was nothing. There was way more space to run around there than in our house too, and she had an absolute blast playing chase with our friends. She just screams and squeals and crawls after us now lightening-fast, it's so funny.

It's always good to come home though, and D was really happy to see her friends and her teachers at school this week. She seriously was so happy to see them, Josh said it was adorable when he dropped her off on Monday morning.

My newest Delma-obsession is her hydration. Of course I always have to have something to panic about! Now that she can feed herself finger-foods, she will not let us spoon-feed her at all, so she won't eat yogurt or cereal. And she's not great about taking her bottle anymore, so I'm constantly afraid of her getting dehydrated. Luckily she does like to drink water from her sippy-cup... We can't get her to drink more than a few sips of formula from her cup, though. Gah! BUT, on the up-side she is trying all sorts of new foods and loving them. Last night she had sauteed mushrooms and asparagus. She eats blueberries like there's no tomorrow, which is no surprise considering when I was pregnant I ate so many blueberries that we thought she'd come out looking like Violet Beauregard.

Listening to Jim Dale narrate the new Harry Potter. It's great, I'm loving it.

Would you care for a slice of hip bone?

I want to say this once, to get it out of my system and then move past it: I am pissed -- really effing pissed -- that people from work have some weird compulsion to read this blog. When I found out, I shut it down to invitation-only access, but have since opened it back up again. The point of the blog is not only for me to journal but also for me to connect with unexpected people, which making it private took away from me. On the other hand it was a good wake-up call, making me think twice before writing just any old thing for all the world to read. Done, moving on...

I want to donate bone marrow. Why? because it sounds awesome to have someone chip away at my hip bone and cause me agony. And then there's the added perk of maybe saving or prolonging someone's life. You can't donate if you have Lyme's Disease, and when I found that out I read about the symptoms and realized I must surely have it. It's easy to fall into that trap -- I could probably convince myself that I have testicular cancer too. So I went and got tested for Lyme's, and just for good measure my doc also ran some other tests. No Lyme's, but as it turns out I do test hypothyroid. I just had my thyroid tested 9 months ago at my annual physical just weeks after Delma was born. But apparently this is a typical post-partum thing that can show up within a year after giving birth. It'll probably correct itself, but until then I'm on medication. And now that I know this, I'm seeing very clearly some symptoms I've developed over the past few months that were actually becoming really barely manageable. All sorts of things are so clear now, that I'm amazed by how awful I was feeling but not really noticing because all I was trying to do was cope with getting from one day to the next.

10 months

Delly,
You are 10 months old today. You are a crawling dynamo and are pulling yourself up on absolutely everything now. Though it's only been a few weeks, I can barely remember what it was like when we had to carry you from room to room with us instead of urging you to follow us around like a little puppy. It's amazing to me how every new phase in your development becomes so all-consuming for us that we forget completely what life was like just days or weeks ago.



You are amazed by mirrors. You stand up in front of the full-length mirror on the back of our bathroom door, bang on it and talk to your reflection. You like to watch us in the shower, too, you pull yourself up on the edge of the tub and play peek-a-boo with us while we shower. Even in the tub during your own bathy you are constantly getting onto your feet. Washing your hair has become quite a challenge.



We've been saying this since you were 4 months old, but now we really really think you might actually be teething! You've been waking up at night and though you usually go right back to sleep if we put a binky in your mouth, last night you (we) had a really tough time. Daddy resorted to swaddling you and holding/shushing you like we used to do when you were tiny. It was the only way to get you back to sleep. All we can think, since you aren't sick, is that you must be uncomfortable from teething. Why don't you just tell us what's wrong?! :)

You're starting to get a little bit cuddly, which is so wonderful. You've always loved being held, but not in a cozy cuddly way -- you usually want to grab at us and check us out. Now you'll crawl onto us and give us little excited mini-hugs, jam your face onto some part of our body for a few seconds in some fleeting ecstatic urge. You're starting to appreciate little stuffies and lovies too, and like to hug and bury your face in your little pancake puppy and your piggy blanket.

This past weekend we went to a party at the Handelmans' house, and it was our first experience with lots of couples and babies. We learned that you are a brute. You'll crawl right over anyone and grab things out of other kids' hands, just to lick them and toss them aside and move on to the next object that catches your eye. It was sort of embarrassing, but what could we do? We also learned that your cute trick where you sit on your butt and then use your legs to spin around and around is unique. You did it for about a half-hour straight and everyone thought it was hilarious. Of course we've always loved it too, but we assumed it was some normal baby thing. Apparently not. Hmmmm.

Love,
Mommy

happy daddy day

When Josh was little, instead of saying he wanted to be a fireman or a policeman or a doctor when he grew up, he said he wanted to be a dad. He's the only man I've met whose biological clock was ticking. He was every bit as excited as I was to get pregnat, enter the kooky world of parenthood, all of it. The biggest selling point for me in marrying Josh was that I knew that if anything should ever happen to me, my children would be safe with him and would always be 110% loved.

I can not imagine learning how to be a mom without Josh by my side. From the second Delma was born, he was right in the game without any hesitation. He wasn't overly cautious or nervous, he took to being a dad like a fish to water. He took care of me in the beginning so I could just focus on making sure Delma was fed -- nursing was tough at first and I never ever could have stuck it out with Josh's help. He has never met a poopy diaper he couldn't handle. He wanted Delma to start taking the bottle so that he could get up and feed her at night.

Delma is so lucky to be Josh's daughter. I am so lucky to be Josh's wife. We love you, babe.

9 Months

Delma,
You are now 9 months old. You are such a vibrant, engaging child with a very distinct personality, but you are also such a part of me that when I press my nose to your head or bury my face in your neck, I can't smell anything, as if I were trying to smell my own arm.


Right now you are in your crib making the sweetest la-la-la noises and babbles. This is a delightful change, you usually practice the range of your voice, screech like a dolphin, do this funny silence then BLAH! then silence then BLAH! thing, etc. We long for the days of your sweet little coos, as you mostly just sound like a tyrant these days. You're happy and you're just fine entertaining yourself in your crib, but your voice just makes you sound like a brute. You still wake up VERY early, around 5am most days, so we have taken to letting you just hang out til at least 6am before we fetch you, and as we go about our early-morning routines we have lots of laughs listening to you talk and sing and just make non-stop noise.


You started crawling for real a couple of days ago. It is so cute to watch you. To be honest, I was starting to think you'd never do it. You just weren't interested at all. When you wanted something, you were content to sit on your but, peg your arms and legs straight out in front of you, tense every muscle in your body, turn red and bellow. It didn't seem like any amount of Frustration As Motivator would work on you. But then you just did it. Just like that, with encouragement from Daddy. You are officially mobile, little bunny.


Your affect on total strangers is amazing. People love babies, I know, but you seem to go beyond the norm and suck just about everyone into your gravitational pull. You stare at people and make eye contact with everyone and I think that your coloring and the amout of hair you have just look quite dramatic and catch people's attention. People go to mush around you, everywhere we go. You have a way of lighting up a room, of making people happy. You are magic.

Love,
Mommy