3/4 of a year - WHAAA

So sweetie, you're like growing way way WAYWAYWAY tooo quickly. and while its cool and all, i want my baby to stick around. you are toooooooooooooo cute. (and way funny at this age too)

Funny - you know we play around with baby signing. While i do think it stimulates your mind and gives us a chance to communicate earlier, really...its just a hoot. Like right now you do 'up', 'finished', 'hello', 'milk' and 'food' and they all look identical. So while technically you're just flailing, i'll read something into it and give it meaning :P The real hilarity comes in with watching you though...you're just so purposeful with each movement. Contextually it all makes complete sense, but its fun to watch you're Daddy try and read your cues sometimes as he just walked in the door from work.

Not-so-funny: rolling off the bed. PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEEEEEEEEASE for the love of god STOP. You are not superman. you do not have a cape, or wings or anything else cool that will make our CONCRETE FLOOR less painful. If daddy (uhh or mommy) have bad BO, just give us the sign. mmmk?

Funny - that snort baby laugh. your sister did it too. but let me tell you, it never gets old and is just as funny every. single. time.

Not-so-funny: nursing alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll   night long. nufff said. Funny - (so we can end on a good note, right) That tooth...i'm going to say it...you have the cutest little tooth E. i know i know - lady get ahold of yourself. its a tooth. but i'm your mama. and i think its adorable.

,
mama

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!

WOOOOOOOW. MY BABY IS A YEAR OLD!!!!!!!

What a birthday ~ what a baby girl . The other weekend we celebrated your very first birthday. I can hardly believe it. I had imagined it was going to be a really really tough day for me. Selfish, I know, but honestly that’s what I thought. However I learned that it really was the anxiety leading up to the day that was far worse than the actual SHE’S ONE factor.

In reality LOVED your birthday. I loved how you woke up at 6:05 am for a lil snack. It was if you wanted to say hi to your mommy at just the right time. I loved how a few hours later your daddy and I snuck into your room to sing you happy birthday. I love how you got to celebrate with your DC family. I love how Grandma and Aunt Joanne came too. I love how you laughed, ate, giggled, ate, and played happily all day long. I love how we laughed at how looooooong labor was and how wonderful the midwife experience was. I love how we can look back and not wish there was a single thing different about that oh-so-perfect day. I loved looking at all of the pictures of the past year and marveling at just how amazing life changes in one short SHORT year.

Since I’ve taken forever to complete this lil letter ~ I’ll also add that in the week following your birthday you’ve turned into a communication sponge. I’m amazed at how the verbal and signing just ‘clicked’ all of a sudden. Its soo fun / funny to watch you tell us what you want. EVERYTHING you want.

Unfortunately the whole asthma thing / nebulizer thing has taken a turn for ick. We have your next appointment in a few weeks with your doc and mommy’s armed with lots of questions and is looking into more holistic options as well. This nightly torture is just not fair to anyone and frankly – I don’t see your cough getting any better at all.

Speaking of ick…you want your diaper changed at 4-5am everyday now. Since your now a year old I think its fair for me to be honest with you and tell you – CUT THIS CRAP OUT. Since I don’t sit around in wet undies all day, your Daddy or I do the change, but I’d much prefer you sucking it up as you had previously.

This morning we dropped you off at daycare and from Miss Betty’s arms you waved bye bye to daddy and I with both hands. Despite me wanting to play with you all day myself, it seems you really like to play there. The other day I walked in to find your BIG lil body lounging in an ity bity baby bouncy seat. Miss Molly told me that you and Avery (the big girls in daycare) climb into the baby seats when they’re empty and just rock and giggle.

You make me giggle,
Mama of a 1 year old

eek! 11 MONTHS

Dear lil G,

FYI lil button ~ time flies when your havin fun! and MAN are we having a blast with you these days. There are no two ways about it ~ you are just funny. You love to tease us (and Willoughby), love to be tickled, chased and even teased with your food/sock monkey on occasion.

You've taken a real liking to your tunnel again. About 20 minutes before you crash for the night you get this sudden burst of energy. And get just goofy. The other night you must have crawled through your tunnel 40 times. Then towards the end you started hoarding toys inside it. I started to worry that i had a 6 year old on my hands who was going to fight me to sleep in her fort. Thankfully ~ you did settle down at some point and went easily to bed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh bed. Regardless of all those folks who insisted on telling us how to raise you and telling us that you SHOULD be sleeping through the night (despite not knowing a THING about breastfed children or our opposition to baby boot camp) You have finally, in your own time, taken to sleeping through the night. And this time its not just cause your sick ;) As wonderful as a full nights sleep is...i really miss you. THEN just to put salt in my gaping heart ~ you don't even want to co-sleep anymore! But if your happy ~ i'm happy. (i suppose)

You just capable of sooo much now:
~ You can hold a spoon and feed yourself. Of course its a great big giant mess but the fact that the right end of the eating utensil goes into the proper hole in your face (80% of the time) astounds me.
~ You help me dress you each morning. Of course you still haate diaper changes, you are willing to play along if (and only if) i promise to leave the diaper off while i take of your jammies and put on you tops & shoes AND if i let you suck your thumb through the process. Also, after one arm goes in your sleeve, you pop out your thumb and anticipate the next arms turn. I don't know why this cracks me up but it does.
~ Still chasing Willoughby through the house
~ Getting in and out...in and out...in and out and surfing on your rocker. In theory you haven't seen your rocker yet b.c. its your present for your first birthday, but since its still in its unfinished stage ~ AND YOUR A BABY ~ i don't really see the harm.

Half of me is eagerly planning your first birthday picnic in the hundred acre woods ~ a tribute to a depressed lil donkey & a lil girl with enough joy for the whole world; while the other half of me wonders if we don't celebrate your birthday you might magically stay my lil baby girl forever. I know each stage of your life is going to be filled with more excitement and laughs than the previous, but the unknown is soo daunting when a perfect life smiles at you every morning.

suspending time,
mum mum mum mum mum mum

10 (thats T-E-N) Months

For starters…I love you ~ I love you ~ I love you!!!

This past month has been quite nice. No places to go nothing major to do. And Mommy’s new job is going well. (and by well, I mean fantastic ~ they are sooo nice! They think I’m smart, and helpful, and funny and its just great.)

Our rhythm of life is pretty much the same. You love love love to eat. A LOT! Since your still a boob baby we figured that you’d eat less table food…apparently we wrong.

Of course you love to play (I know, a shocker for a baby) But what I enjoy is how much I looooove to watch you play. At the end of the day after you’ve napped and had your second dinner you often take to wrestling with your daddy’s head. I often sit on the sofa like queen of the Nile and just smile at the riches that surround me.

You’ve also started to become a bit more of a nudy baby. (genetics perhaps) Last night I was attempting to change you into some sort of night time gear. Since you have this icky diaper rash from the sposies of daycare mommy’s likes to let you pee on the carpet for fun. OK~ perhaps she’s letting you bum air out as much as possible and just when she thinks your ok with snuggling on her lap ~ whoosh ~ you slliiide down from the sofa and take off for ‘Fort Dining room’. Along the way spotting a kitty toy you HAVE to have and somewhere along the way deciding that NOW is the time to go potty. Its great fun I tell you. Someday when you’re complaining because we don’t have the money to send you to Europe for the summer ~ I’m going to pull out this letter and the 80 carpet cleaning bills attached.

Peeing on the carpet aside ~ You are just too fun to watch. You are so proud of yourself for getting off the sofa ~ for walking to the tables ~ for bending over and picking up toys and bending back over without falling down (“yes Giuliane, Mommy’s watching you”) I wonder if the infatuation ever ends. Perhaps that’s why soccer is so popular or why parents subject themselves to swim meets and dance recitals. It’s the joy of watching you sublimely happy and unaware of anything around you that just makes Mom feel like the world is just right. But do you mind if your Daddy and I come with a picnic basket of yummy food and cocktails and sit away from the other parents???

Your loyal subject,
Mommy

Nine Months

Dear Giuliane,

Three – quarters of a year and 100% of my mommy heart. (like the Barosaurus, I have multiple hearts reserved for daddy, family and photography)

This month has been a special one. Not only have you spent an entire month in daycare, but mommy has ALLOWED you to spend an entire month in daycare. Well…almost. Somehow there were already numerous gov’t holidays, a snow day, school delay AND a trip to California!

Admittingly – your life at home has become quite repetitive…
8am: wake up in a panic (how is it 8am ALREADY…wasn’t it just 6am???)
8-8:30: rush to get you ready and walk up to school by 8:30 (which never happens)
4-5p: pick you up
5:30-6: eat & snuggle time
7:30: bed

It makes me SICK that at most, I only spend about 2.5 hours with you a DAY. Somehow in the big wide world of things that matter ~ this doesn’t seem cosmically fair. Hopefully, someday you’ll understand the cost of living, mortgages and perhaps the consequences of bad decisions and forgive me.

But in an attempt to buy your love at such a young and vulnerable age ~ we took you on a trip to California!!! (ok, perhaps we took you out there to meet your Great Aunt Joanne, and see Aunt Jude, but believe me baby…a trip to the beach is a trip to the beach!) You in turn have rewarded us with learning how to wave. Perhaps it was all of the friendly faces you met out there, the warm weather, the sand and ohhh how you loved the swings.

At LAX we were sitting & waiting not so patiently for the plane to board. Daddy had brought me some chocolates and you were playing with the wrappers. (crinkly stuff is a favorite still) You had crawled a few feet away to assert your independence and appeared to be waving at the random passer by. At first it looked like a freak accident that your arm was waving while someone walked past you. Then sure enough ~ your Daddy noted that it was indeed with purpose. It was soo sweet and yet so sad at the same time. Many people giggled at how cute you were and many more smiled as they walked past ~ however there was the occasional traveler who would just walk past you and completely disregard your wave. It took everything I had in my body not to go up to these people and tell them that you JUST learned to wave, no family member has yet to see it and they simply can not disregard you.

But there you continued to sit, waving at each and every passer by and smiling so sweetly.

May karma always return the favor,
Mommy

8 Months!

Oh what a month, what – a – month! Christmas, New Years, Daycare, Mommy’s new job, DAYCARE. (ahhhhhhhhh)

Lets start with the happy stuff. YOUR FIRST CHRISTMAS! Though being honest with myself and thereby you…it should really be ‘your first Christmas.’ While it was wonderful and I got choked up reading ‘The Night Before Christmas’ to my little baby I have to admit it was very anti-climatic. I liken it to my wedding day. Though marrying your Daddy was one of the best days of my life, it was the idea of being married to HIM that made my soul soar ~ not the picture perfect day. Much like your first Christmas. The idea of creating special traditions with you make me weepy ~ not showering you with material objects on one day of the year. I’m not saying that I can’t wait for you to believe in Santa. Or that I can’t wait to see the delight in your eyes when you open that gift that you haaaaaad to haaaaave. But, I also look forward to the day when we can bake cookies for Santa, shop for the perfect carrots for the reindeer (debating, of course, if they would like the stems or not), and see the pride you radiate from making presents for your friends and family (while I vigorously scrub the glitter and paint off the table, walls, floor and your cloths.) I can’t wait to sing Christmas songs in the car with you and giggle in secret about how much Daddy is going to looooooove what we made for him. So while your first Christmas was very special, it was even more so because it is just the beginning of so much more.

Unlike your typical party spirit, your first New Years was to say the least very chilllll. We had planned on taking you (along with your brother and sisters) to the First Night celebrations in Pittsburgh. You however had different plans all along. I’ll grant you it was a crazy week of car rides between Ligonier and Pittsburgh so it should come as no surprise that on Dec 31 you just said STOP. You didn’t take a nap all day and then come evening you were a fussy lil mess. Finally around 8pm you went to sleep. Your Daddy wanted you and I to come downtown with them, but frankly, there wasn’t a snowy chance in hell that I was going to wake you up. So we slept and I watched a movie on Edith Piaf ~ the Sparrow. Good times.

The next morning we woke up early and went to the Mon-Wharf for the annual Polar Bear Plunge. It was a frosty 36 degrees, but mommy had talked a lot of smack for the past year about polar bear cubs and the toasty 56 degree temps of last year. Of course I couldn’t participate in the jump the first year with Daddy and Tyler because I was pregnant, but OF COURSE I’d do it the following. Wouldn’t you know it’d be a COLD ONE.

We returned to DC on Jan 3 and vegg’ed for the rest of that week. The next week your Daddy and I ‘woke up’ from the holiday fog to realize ~ OMG you need a daycare and Mommy’s job starts NEXT WEEK. Frantically we get your pediatrician forms filled out and returned, submit it all to daycare and magically there was an available slot for you. Sunday night I cried, Monday morning I cried, Monday afternoon I did all but RUN into the daycare to grab you. Tuesday I was weepy and cried into work (I’ve now stopped wearing mascara) and Wednesday I was ok. And I use the term OK in the most heart numbing sense of the word. While I don’t flat out cry anymore, I do get giant wells of tears but can now talk them away. The horrible part is I feel just turned off. I truly believe that your perfectly fine with daycare and its probably doing you a little good to be around other adults and children. I think the worst blow is coming to your Daddy. Of course he’s upset as well, but on top of that ~ he’s got to deal with me all day too. Horrible, bi-polar, robotic me. Thankfully no one has a problem with us coming to get you’re at 4pm (1h 21m from now).

You’ve been at daycare for 4 days now and I swear your hair has grown, and you’re going to be a grown up and walking by Friday.

I’m afraid I’m missing it all.
Mommy

Seven Months

Dear Peanut,

Mommy’s been a bad bad blogger. NOTHING posted since your 6 month update! I guess that means we’ve been busy busy.

After coming home from Thanksgiving up in PA your Daddy and I took our class to become Bradley instructors. It was 4 very loooong days but hopefully well worth it. Although we enjoyed our time in class ~ we missed you desperately. Grandma Jan came and stayed with you for a few days and then Grandma and Grandpa Alcantara came to stay. It was fun to share you, and a good daycare tester for Mommy, but I really didn’t like it. Along with 2 other babies, you spent a few mornings with us in class. These kids were cute and QUIET. You on the other hand were lil miss rambunctious. You’d see a marker ~ take off to eat it ~ wind up in someone’s lap ~ snuggle and play for a few ~ see another marker ~ take off to eat it…until you got hungry then you’d seek out mama again. It was funny, but tiring all the same.

Grandma Jan brought you this ADORABLE lil santa dress and I thought it would be just too cute to have you dressed up for a few pics. We were thinking x-mas cards, but with the dress and the hotel...it all looked a lil to Sears-y for Mama. Don't ya think?

THEN as if that weren’t tiring enough ~ the day after we finished classes we had to return to work, AND the contractors came to fix & paint the walls THAT DAY!. Although it took a week and we were without water for 5 days these guys did a great job and you were even better. How you managed to nap while they were here is beyond me ~ but not once did you seem overwhelmed by having to sleep in the living room on a blow up mattress, or by having 5 extra house guests every day.

You’re also becoming a bit addicted to mommy. I revel in the fact that it’s a known phase for this time of your life and don’t do a single thing to stop it.


Somehow despite stealing her toys and chewing on her tail when you catch her ~ Willoughby still loves you. It cracks me up how she actually plays WITH you. You’ll be happily sitting in the living room, playing with a toy or eight and she’ll come about 2 feet away from you (just out of arms reach to be safe). Then you’ll see her, squeal and take off after her. She’ll run and sit about 5 feet from original position. You’ll follow. You two will repeat this until she takes off into your room, which unfortunately is around the corner and thus out of view from Mommy.

May you always seek comfort in my presence,
Mommy

Six Months Old

Happy Half Year!!!

How can you already be SIX MONTHS old?!?! I’ve said it before, but these early years are just too darn fast. I think I’d like this baby phase to be twice as long and in return I’m willing to shorten bits of 13, 14, and 15. (Maybe) Although, if Gene Simmons has taught me anything, its that it IS possible to have teenagers & even pre-teens think their parents are cool and still want to hang out with them. Who woulda thunk he'd be a role model? ever.

Not too much crazy stuff has happened this month. Your biggest feat is crawling and standing. Still no butt in the air, but it moves ya places just about as fast as your daddy and I can roll off the sofa to catch you. Another great accomplishment for you is standing. Just days before your ½ birthday your daddy and I were fixin’ up your room a little more and just like that ~voila~ your hanging onto the side of the crib and bouncing up and down. As surprised and pleased as we were to see this, I have to admit, we would have been just as happy to wait a day or two as it was after 10pm and both of us were DYING to get to bed, not move the mattress down to its lowest setting.

I think my favorite part of hanging out with you every day is learning who my baby girl is. Your starting to develop a lil err ok – a BIG personality. For starters your goofy. You just love to make us laugh. Sometimes with the string you’ve pulled out of my sweatshirt or a ribbon from a gift. You love to chew on it and make silly faces.

You also still LOVE the outdoors. I remember you came into this world with crisp morning air to greet you and the sound of soothing rain falling outside. Each time we go outside you seem to grow a little older, a little wiser and far more peaceful. We took you on a hike with about 15 other people one weekend and just about everyone commented on how great you were, like a true Taurus, you just soaked in every ounce of the experience.


I’m soaking you in,
Mommy

Five Months Old

Happy un-birthday my lil mobile one!!!

This morning after your daddy changed your diaper and before he wrangled you in for a wardrobe change you got the urge to show off your latest and greatest skillz! At one point I think you may have actually done a proper crawl  For the past few weeks you scoot about doing what I refer to as the ‘seal’, but today you seem to have a new nifty mode of transport. The lift and flop. (Its similar to the bend and snap*, but waaay cuter says your Father) Its mirrors the inchworm approach that so many babies start out with, but well…yours looks a tad more painful and is definitely far more enthusiastic!
[video]
This month you’ve given up your predicable schedule in favor of random acts of sleepiness. I’ve been saying this for months now…its cause your teething. Apparently all moms have excuses and this is mine. I used to make fun of those moms…ok, I admit I still do. And I know I vowed I wouldn’t do it and I know I cringe every time I hear the words come out of my mouth (but)…I REALLY BELIEVE IT! You’ve even taken to wearing a bib during the good majority of your waking hours because as much as I don’t mind doing laundry and cleaning your cloth diapers, swapping a slobber soaked shirt every 30 min gets to be a bit much.

Speaking of laundry and all things dirty…I’m afraid I have bad news for the both of us. Now while I do hope you grow up and surprise me ~ I think you have a good chance at being the dirty kid.

Baby Girl you have toys. Granted not as many as most kids I’ve met your age, but clearly more than enough than you need as you’d be happy with the remote control, butt paste container, my pc, all the cords attached and DIRT. How is it at 5 months you can find the dirtiest spot on the porch and decide that looks like fun…lets eat it! At he Del-Ray Art-On-The-Avenue you found…dirt. Dirt, dirt, dirt.

As for food – even though you’re still a booby baby, you are sooooo into food. It may have more to do with the above paragraph (things you can’t have) but clearly your getting ready. Occasionally you’ll get a swished up bite of this, a smashed up finger full of that and if your REALLY lucky…you get some water out of a straw. Man those things are cool!

With everything that’s been going on the past couple of weeks: crazy work schedule, holidays looming, home no longer for sale, and oh yea…that whole water destruction thing ~ you remain my sunshine. When you laugh and giggle it makes all my frustration and sadness disappear.

Eternally grateful,
Your Mommy

Four Months Old

Dear Giuliane,

Personality is what I think of when I think of how you've changed this month. Your really starting to get one my lil peanut. I have to laugh at myself because when I think of you and your ‘big personality’ I’m reminded of your cousin Alyza when she was a baby and her videos that were sent from CA. ‘King Bubby’ always talked about how much personality she had while the rest of us just stared blankly at the television and a googly albeit cute ~ baby.


This month was highlighted with another trip to Pittsburgh / Ligonier. You finally got to meet your Uncles!!! I still giggle that Uncle Randy’s first comment was on your hairstyle ~ leave it to the hairdresser in the family to notice your lil fauxhawk.



Also important, your daddy and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. You went and hung out in Arlington with Miss Becky (and by default her kind roommate Erin). We had brunch at one of our favorite places, the Market Inn, then walked around the National Arboretum. It was so nice to just be the two of us for a few hours, but we couldn’t help but consistently think of the day when you’ll be able to stroll around with us and enjoy the flowers and big trees.

We also went to the Centreville Days fair, apple picking, and you got to enjoy your first ever Steelers game on TV. Clearly your quite at home with the Steeler crowd already.


But more about you... You giggle is still infectious. So much so that we had to video-tape it and sent it off to friends and family alike.

You’re also starting to get the hang of this sitting thing. You def like the comfort of being propped up on the sofa or in between our legs, but if given the opportunity you can hang on your own for a few seconds. In fact, just the other day, your lil Buddha belly proved strong enough to pull yourself up from a semi-reclined position into a full sitting one. THEN you even hung out long enough for me to run and get the camera and smiled for a picture.


Your also becoming very intrigued by food. You watch us eat it and love to smell smells. Especially good wine and fruits. But who can blame you there. I imagine that by the ripe ol age of 4 or so, you'll have quite the snobby palate. No chicken nuggets for you lil one!

But the best of all is that you really know how to love your Mommy and Daddy. I’ve just begun to feel comfortable leaving you in others care (be it the gym, church or with friends) For the most part you are great in their care, but its your sheer joy upon seeing us return that makes every moment being away from you worth it. It’s like coming to get you first thing in the morning all over again.

But don’t worry, I’m storing up these moments of great joy for when your 11 and can’t stand the sight of me.

I’ll never get tired of you,
Mama

Three Months Old!

Dear Peanut
(as this you are called more often than Giuliane)

In two hours you will have reached 3 months. Well officially in 8 hours as you were born at 6am, but let’s not split hairs. I’ve just taken you from your crib beside the bed and put you in bed with me. Daddy’s at band practice and won’t be home for a few more hours and you fell asleep shortly after he left. We hardly got to play, so I’m getting my snuggles in now. I’m amazed that in 95 days – I still haven’t gotten tired of the way you smell, the way your lips fall open, the sound of your breath or that you look like a little smurf in your green jammies.

We have had SO much fun with you this month. Just the other night, you were snug in your Daddy’s arm muchin’ on a teething ring. Sad to say – Mommy said its 9pm and your tired, so I stuck you in your crib and said that’s that. Daddy went in and changed you, played with you and then brought you out and gave you a nice cool teething ring. That’s love.

A couple times this week something has come over you that neither Daddy nor I know how to handle. You just WAIL. It’s uncontrollable and you almost hyperventilate yourself – I worry to the point of passing out. Also sad to say…Mommy thinks it’s kinda cute. (I’m not doing to well here am I?) But timing in human development is quite magical as with this new found uncontrollable cry, you’ve also learned to wrap your arm right up around our neck and give us the slightest little hint of a hug. Equally adorable… When your not trying to raise the dead with you banshee imitation, you giggle. Forget giggle, your laugh comes straight from the belly just like you imagine Santa would do. I wish I could laugh with my whole body like you do just once a month, much less the 20+ times you do it a day.

I’m pretty sure in the past note or two I’ve mentioned what a cute lil thumb sucker you are, but baby…you’ve moved on to champion thumb sucker (declared by me). Nothing but net nearly every time you go for it. It’s amazing. Then you also have this way of using your left hand to cover the right – just to make sure something crazy doesn’t happen to that thumb – like it falling out or something. ;0

I’m doing ok. Aside from my hair falling out – I’m a lil bummed about the idea of you going to daycare. Its been 3 weeks since I went back to work, but since your Daddy and I work from home, we’re cheating and keeping you here with us. Its HARD though. Not only do you demand attention, but we want nothing more than to give you 110% alllll of the time! So it is with heavy hearts that we went and looked at the daycare up the road. I have to say – as far as daycare goes – this is a great one. The owner is crazy about teaching good manners and Miss Betty – the baby attendant – is sweet as pie. She’s totally a Grannie and has a great smile and a light in her eyes that is very important to me if your going to spend every day with her. I don’t want you to be influenced by the Debby Downers of the world. My sarcasm is enough for you to have to learn to deal with. Our home is still on the market, but it’s not looking good. So I’m interviewing in hopes of finding a better job and making the most of the time we have in DC. Besides, we’ve made a lot of good friends here that I’m not too excited about leaving.

Someday we’ll have a home big enough for toys in your bedroom and a garden out back. You will help me pick tomatoes and I’ll teach you how to fry the green ones.

Love,
Mommy