Mischief

This baby is always making me laugh with the high jinks she gets herself into. She's always up to something!

A whole refrigerator full of fascinating things to play with, but of course she goes for the wine!

And here's what she does when I take away the forbidden item...

Listen for the happy noise at the end when I give her the camera!

Papa got a new job

Tim got a new job, and we're so proud of him!!

He started during his new company's holiday crunch time though, so he's been working very long hours. Lucy's been asleep every night when he gets home. I can tell that she misses him a lot. Last night she sat straight up, wide awake, when she heard him get in bed. She climbed over me (stepping on my eye like it was nothing, of course) and jumped on him. She even sang him a baby-coo song about how happy she was to see him.

Today we were able to video chat with Daddy. Lucy loved it, but I think Tim loved it more.

So what have we been doing on these very long winter days without Tim?

I've been putting Lucy to sleep for her morning naps in our new wrap. This wrap must be woven from magic sleep dust. Lucy wasn't able to fall asleep while I'm wearing her around the house until we got this. It's so sweet to snuggle her against me, rock her while looking out the window, and sing lullabies while she breastfeeds to sleep.

We've been playing dress up and taking ridiculous pictures of ourselves in the mirror. I need a 15 year old to teach me how to take better mirror photos!

We had lunch with a mama friend who lives in our building today. She made autumn minestrone soup and brownies! Lucy had her first pear, and actually liked it. So far she's only liked broccoli, onion (doesn't take after her Grammi I guess!) and the pear. Lucy's really not too big on solids yet, she'd rather just eat breastmilk and paper.

We've also been taking long Christmas walks in the late afternoons. It helps get me through the home stretch when Tim used to be home to help with Lucy before she goes to sleep. Lucy and I go out when it gets dark and walk through the neighborhood. We stop to look at all the Christmas trees and decorated store windows. Lucy especially loves the flickering LED trees--she watches them for whole minutes yelling "oooh! eeeee!" Today we window shopped at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and took this distracting and rather unflattering photo. (I really do need self portrait lessons!)


This polar bear is finally sleeping. All that Christmas sparkle tuckered her out!

Lucy learned how to dance!

Lucy danced for the first time last week. We were listening to Christmas music (and have been every day since October! I'm glad she's too young to judge me...) and this song got her moving. She started out with the normal baby booty bounce, and then switched to toe tapping. I've never seen a baby dance like that! Aaaaah I love her.

things i want to remember forever #2

your first joke! about a month ago...we were smooshing around in bed while daddy was at work. i was lying on my back, trying to feed you. you were breastfeeding for a little while, then unlatching and climbing me like a jungle gym, and then returning for more milky. you unlatched from my breast and crawled down to my stomach. you latched on to my stomach, sucked a few times, looked up at me, and laughed. then you latched on to my knee, sucked, looked at me, and cracked up again.

Field Trip!

My friend from high school, Maureen, was in town this week. So we took a field trip to the Met. I was surprised at how quickly Lucy took to Maureen...usually she's wary of people she doesn't know touching her. But Lucy gladly let Maureen hold her while she grabbed at Maureen's necklace and coat buttons. She even let Maureen play with her while I went to the bathroom, out of her sight! Maureen has a special kind of baby magic, and she'll be a beautiful mom someday.


Here Lucy and I are in an Assyrian temple. We were exploring the Central Asian gallery, on the hunt for art from Kazakhstan. We didn't find any Arts of My Baby's Peoples, but we did find an elderly European man who shook Lucy's hands while crowing, "I have found the most beautiful work of art in the whole museum!"

I was, of course, on the lookout for anything boobs related. (I really have turned into my mom!) There were many boobsy artifacts to choose from, but this was my favorite. I want my own boobs jars! (Jugs? Ha!) I loved the wooden figures in the Arts of Africa gallery. The women's breasts were shaped almost like faucets. Breastfeeding has certainly given me a newfound fascination with breasts!

I let Lucy down from the carrier so she could stretch her legs and explore the museum on her own terms. She couldn't see much art from there, but she did notice her shadow for the first time. As she crawled towards it, it crawled away from her, until she pinned it against the wall with her forehead.

Lucy was the only baby loose in the museum. She charmed all the visitors, especially an older lady with a walker that Lucy tried to pounce on. One man walked past her and laughed, "Starting her young, good for you!" I thought it was a riot to walk around the exhibits with Maureen, while Lucy followed a few feet behind. Now that she's mobile she can participate in our lives on a new level, and I adore it.

I'm beginning to get a glimpse of what having Lucy as a daughter will be like as she gets older. One mom I know, whose daughter is 3, said that she doesn't feel like a mom. Instead she feels like she has a tiny friend, a silly little playmate to skip through life and make glitter paintings with. I can't wait for that. I see it sometimes already...like when Lucy clowns around, trying to make me laugh by smashing her face against mine or diving around in bed. I love Lucy at this age, but I still can't wait to see her at 2, and 3, and really every age forever. I just can't wait to watch her as she grows up and becomes more and more her.

things i want to remember forever #1

in our dark bedroom, quiet but for the whoosh of the fan, helping you fall asleep. you breastfed softly and then rolled away. i watched for a moment as you stirred, not quite sleeping. i curled up around you, my stomach to your back, just like we were when you were still in me. i nuzzled my face into the back of your head, and felt the warmth radiating towards me. your hair was sweaty, it smelled like sunshine and the earth. we laid together, breathing together, until you were sleeping and i was left lying in the dark, overwhelmed with love.

Field Trip!

Tim dragged us to the Museum of Natural History today. I was nervous about how Lucy would handle it, but she was a champ. She napped on the subway and woke up ready to go!

Can kangaroos nurse while they're wearing their babies? I can!

Games with Daddy!

Tim really wanted to see the giant whale. But the whale section was closed for a special event, so we saw dinosaurs...

And...something with curly horns.

We walked through the Asian and African Peoples exhibits, looking for some babywearing mamas, but couldn't find any. Really, women didn't babywear in Asia and Africa? Speaking of which, my mom just got Lucy a baby book with pictures of babywearing around the world. It makes my heart happy! And Lucy likes to read it on the potty.

Lucy had so much fun at the museum! This is the first field trip she's been on that she seemed to appreciate. She kept trying to dive out of my arms to get closer to the exhibits. We let her stand up at a few exhibits, and she banged on the glass with so much excitement. She even gave her biggest seal of approval--a super fast arm bounce while yelling "yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!"

So we didn't see any whales, but we had a great time.