It starts so young....

Here is Maverick helping Gram with her work on the computer. He is absolutely fascinated by computers. I am certain it won't be long until he is asking for his own....sigh...

Dear Mack - Month 10

Dear Mack-a-roon,

Month Ten has us coming off of a rough couple weeks of stomach virus and for you double ear infections, so I apologize that this is a bit late, but I still feel like I am recovering and needed a bit more time to get this together. I am somewhat comforted by the fact that you can't yet count, and that by the time you read this and realize I was late this month, I'll probably have humiliated you on your first day of junior high, or been the only mom who insisted on riding in the back seat during driver's education, and that will make this seem like a minor infraction. I hope you'll forgive me.

As a result of this vile illness that swept our home over Thanksgiving weekend, I also have significantly less photos of you this month than previously which makes it easier to pick out a few so there is a small blessing there even though now, I wish I had taken more...but as there times over the last two weeks that you were behaving as if the mere task of breathing oxygen in and out of your lungs was more than you could contemplate without screeching in annoyance every five seconds, I did the best I could.

We started the month together in much better health in Texas celebrating your cousin Bailey's 13th birthday. You were a gem, as always. Bailey loves helping me to take care of you and she does such a fabulous job with you too. You totally fell in love with her and her shiny shiny cell phone that she let you play with. Here you are with her.

You still clap, and kiss and are working on waving and saying "hiya" to just about everyone we cross paths with. You fake sneeze, fake cough and all in all mimic all sorts of sounds you hear which is really quite funny.

Probably the most notable new skill you have this month is dancing. Have I mentioned how ridiculously cute you are dancing? Because you are. A few weeks ago, during your bedtime routine, I started noticing that when I would sing the little songs I sing with you every night, you would sort of wag your upper body from side to side, like a person tied to a chair might do while trying to loosen the ropes. I thought maybe you were protesting your impending bedtime, or developing some kind of a tic. It never occurred to me that you might be developing rhythm and dancing. But over the next few days, the wiggling got more pronounced and started to involve a lot of head movements (a la Stevie Wonder) and arm waving and I soon realized that you were getting down with your bad self.

This month, you have continued your self agency. In various fits of this self agency you have fallen off the bed, slipped backwards in the sink during your bath, and conked your head on the tile floor, a wall and the pantry door, leaving two little scrapes and bruises on your forehead.

This is not exactly making me feel like Mother of the Year. But I am told by people who ought to know that you have to start understanding gravity at some point, and this is how it happens. I wish it didn't have to involve so much falling down, but I actually think that is harder for me than it is for you. You pretty much recover if I offer you a graham cracker, whereas it takes me an hour to get my blood pressure back down after one of your tumbles. Maybe I should try one of those graham crackers.

You really are the highlight of my life. Every night, after I put you to bed, I love to sit and think about funny things you've done, and how much you're learning, and how quickly you're growing. You'll be one year old in two short months, which seems impossible, and if I had my way, you'd spend at least a few months being this age. But I know that isn't how it works. What a shame.

I love you,
Mommy

Blame the guy in the red suit...

Ok...so I am working on your 10 month newsletter but will be a few days late due to this guy. See those white gloves? White gloves touched by every child within 100 yards of the mall? White gloves that are probably not cleaned but once at the end of the season? White gloves there to protect Santa from getting sick? Yeah, well, they dont protect others touching the gloves...and thus due to illness, this months edition will be a couple days late. Blame it on Santa. This photo will have to tide you over until then...I wish I felt warm and fuzzy when I see it, but I feel resentful and a tad nauseous.

9 Month Baby Model...

You can go here to see little man at his latest 9 month photo session...he is growing so fast...

Click here:::::::

Mack - 9 Months

Statistics....at 9 months

Length:  27 3/4" - 30th percentile

Weight:  19 lbs 6 oz - 30th percentile

Head Circ:  17 3/4" - 45th percentile

Keep on growing little man!  I love you!

Mommy

Dear Mack - Month Nine

Dear Maverick,

The good news is that while the last two months have been pretty obnoxious regarding the election, in contrast, you have been really fun. Yesterday, election day, you turned 9 months old. This last month for you has been really busy for both of us and filled again with a lot of travel, family and friends, which is always a good thing. In fact, we are currently still on the road and despite the changing sleep arrangements, changing time zones and changing everything you are still proving to be mostly a great traveller. I say mostly because your new thing is to now wake up waaaay earlier than normal to get into bed with me which gives both of us not great sleep when it is for so long at night. We do better with that when it is the last hour or two of the night. Now that your sleep is out of whack, I do look forward to both of us sleeping in our own beds soon in hopes that this will correct itself and you will go back to being the great sleeper I know you are.

As we set out on our most recent journey, I admit I was a bit worried that you would not sleep on the plane like you did a few months back. I worried about how I was to contain you now that you are mobile. I worried about how I would ever keep you entertained for the entire 3 hour flight. The good news for me was that you have recently learned to eat Cheerios, and find this activity so engrossing that I was hoping that if I brought a big enough bag with me on our trip that you should be entertained for at least the first hour or so of the flight. You see, your preferred method of eating Cheerios is to pick up a handful and shove them in your mouth. Usually 2 of them make it in the mouth and the rest fall from your hand and scatter about. Now, I am not completely certain how many actually make it into your mouth....I am guessing at the most 2 or 3, but the fallout of those Cheerios that don't make it into your mouth is quite impressive. I would say for every 1 that makes it in your mouth, a good 10-15 end up on the floor. There may be a more wasteful way to eat Cheerios, but I can't think of what it is. Still, I am not complaining since at that ingestion speed, you can eat Cheerios for a looooooong time. We basically survived the last half of the flight from Los Angeles to San Antonio by you shoveling handfuls into your mouth and me trying to catch and kick back into your little cup those Cheerios that did not hit the floor and pouring more into the cup when it ran dry. Eighteen hundred crunched-up, soggy Cheerios later, we landed. I do hope they had a Dustbuster on board.

So far this month we have been to visit your Gram, your PaPa and Granny, and now your Cousins and on the way you have again met many more people who were so excited to finally get a chance to meet you in person. Since we have been in Texas, you have endlessly been entertained by your Aunt Jen and your cousins who just can't quite get enough of you....unless you have a stinky diaper, then you get quickly handed off to me to sort that out. Really, all of you are quite in love with one another. At times, you have gotten a bit clingy if you are extra tired, but mostly you have been happy to hang out and play with them for hours at a time. I admit at first, I felt a little sad at how much you were not needing me, but I think I can get used to it.

You are continuing to develop new skills it seems daily. You now clap on demand. You give hi-fives. You started a week or so back when our friend Gayle spent a good hour and a half doing hi-fives over and over and over again. By the time you went to bed that night you were snuggled up to me with your eyes closed trying to fall asleep and you kept shooting your little arm up for another hi-five. I finally had to gently pin your little arm down so you could fall off to sleep, but it did make me giggle. I am a bit concerned that now that you have learned this skill you think you have the power of mind control, because every time you hi-five even a little, someone nearby drops what they are doing and try to get you to do it again and doing anything possible to keep you doing it.

You now laugh. You play peek-a-boo. You have learned to throw things. I am not sure that is a good thing, but you find it entertaining, so as long as you are throwing plastic toys, keys or food off your high chair and not valuable china, I don't think we have a problem.

You give kisses now which is my favorite skill. One morning you woke and I sat you up facing me on my lap and you grabbed both sides of my face and proceeded to give me 4 solid baby kisses. It was one of the best mornings ever.

We continue on our path of having you feed yourself. This month you have tried sushi, caprese, frito chili pie, all types of pasta dishes and pretty much any fruit or vegetable I can get that is soft enough for you to handle. You are a self feeding wizard. However, it is still going to be a while before you can handle a steak knife, so on occasion you do get spoon fed yogurt, oatmeal or other such soft foods like that.

You are changing so fast and so much every week that I can clearly see that the day is coming when you won't be a baby anymore. Some days, I'll admit, that is a comforting thought - but last week, when we were on our way to Texas, we got on the plane and much to my pleasant surprise you fell asleep in my arms during takeoff. Usually on a plane I have a book or I-pod all ready to go to help to pass the time and the thought of sitting perfectly still without one of those things would sound like some kind of punishment. But you were so beautiful and sweet, sleeping with your face turned toward me and your cheeks all rosy, and right at that moment, I didn't want anything but to sit there with you and hold you and try to forget how quickly you are growing up. Slow down.

I love you,
Mommy

Green Babies Rule!!!

Today, Maverick, is election day in our great country. And that means that if I just keep myself busy for one more day, the election will be over, and I can return to a normal life that does not involve robot phone calls from EVERYONE urging me to vote for ... well, I don't know who/what they wanted me to vote for, because I hung up. So in case you were wondering why I yelled "I HAVE ALREADY VOTED! LEAVE ME ALONE!" yesterday afternoon at around 5:30, that is why. Sorry about the outburst. Meanwhile, I am putting the finishing touches on your 9 month letter and thought I would share a few more pics of you from our painting experiences this past month. When I get back to LA next week, I will put up the end result....it was awesome. But here you are and your first introduction into paint which is not much different than any meal time of any day with how messy you are, ... so it was only appropriate that the first thing you did was taste it...

And he wore more than made it onto the platter...but we had fun

And the big bottles of paint were the true fascination...

Then our baby class also painted that same week...It was a very big week for paint. Of course, you again had to taste it first...and it must have been good, because I spent most of the day trying to keep the stuff out of your mouth...

I am pretty sure all future artistic prodigies do this when they are teething...

Sort of like a milk mustache with paint...

One of your masterpieces...

And the aftermath....I did not think it was possible, but you got even more on you this time than you did on our pottery excursion a few days earlier. It also stained you a bit green, but that faded in a day...or two...or three. And as one of your mommies favorite Wicked onsies says....Green Babies Rule!

The Texas Heat and Other Halloween Musings

Ok....so the crazy Texas weather can sometimes force you to alter your original plans.  As I mentioned before we had decided you would be a lobster and I your chef for Halloween.  Of course, at the time , it was a bit chilly outside and the costume was a great baby warmer.  However, by the time actual Halloween rolled around and you were heading out for your first trick or treat with your cousins, the thermometer was reading a stuffy 80 degrees.  Needless to say, dressing you in a fully padded , and footed lobster suit would not win me any mommy of the year awards.  So we went with Plan B.  Plan B was "what if it is hot?" and it was...so at the suggestion of our wonderful friend Gayle, you donned a tiny blue speedo and 8 gold medals and went as Michael Phelps....

It was a very cool costume...literally.  And so simple.   The rest of the Halloween weekend was spent in fun first Halloween outfits.  Here is Ashton modelling your pumpkin skull cap at Bailey's volleyball game...

And the "I love My Mummy onsie that you wore most of the day"....

Ashton stole the ears from your monkey costume alternative...and gave them a good run...

Soon it was time for bed and of course, since I have no restraint, you also had new Halloween pajamas....I thought you were adorable...

No candy for you this year..I don't think I will get that lucky next year...but it was sooo fun to spend our first Halloween together with your cousins.  I am so excited for next year too!

Happy Halloween!

So after deciding between a monkey, Michael Phelps or a lobster, we finally decided on a lobster for you so that Mommy could play too and work her costume in with yours....

You were the hit of the local Halloween carnival and we were stopped by so many people to take your picture.   So now strangers have you in costume on their digital cameras somewhere. 

I was your chef!  It was quite the hit...

We had so much fun!

You were the sweetest treat of the night!

Pumpkin Patch revisited...

Ok, so after our first miserable attempt at the pumpkin patch we finally decided to load up and try it again with Uncle Dean, Aunt Lori and Austin....

We filled the wagon and although the pumpkins had been picked over, you were in a much better mood....

and played in the hay...(that is your Aunt Lori and Austin in the distance behind you)

Your Uncle Dean propped you up on a pumpkin...

Austin came to sit beside you...

Then he was off like a shot....to run through the pumpkins...but managed to knock you a bit off axis

That is him leaving on the left and your Uncle Dean coming to rescue you on the right from a complete dismount off the pumpkin...

This previous series just makes me giggle.  

Off you went to explore more pumpkins...we then loaded you two up to go check out some other areas and fun things to do...

It was a very fun day.  Much better than our first attempt.

I love you my little pumpkin...