Time Flies

I thought this evening's post was going to be all about my brilliant nine-month-old daughter. How she's getting ready to crawl, how she still doesn't have any teeth but I'm sure that four are going to pop in at once on the bottom, how she doesn't eat solids yet and that worries me but no one else so I suck it up and keep trying.

Yes, I have spent the past week thinking about Maia being nine months and what a milestone it is. I've been excitedly telling people about it today. Nine months. Wow. Where have the past three months gone?

Yeah. Maia is eight months old today. Somehow my brain farted away an entire month. Between two weeks ago and today, she has aged an extra month in my head.

Ooops.

So let me tell you about my brilliant eight-month-old daughter...

No teeth. None. Big gummy grin...she grins a lot and laughs so that her eyes crinkle up and her nose scrunches delightfully. She does this when she bounces. She loves to bounce. We took her on a completely unplanned trip to San Diego last month. While there we visited with John's uncle and aunt who "snow bird" there. We were with them in their super-deluxe RV for a little over an hour and except when I fed and changed her, Maia bounced on my knee the whole time. If you stop, she'll pump herself up and down until you begin to bounce her again. Literally hours of fun for her.

No teeth. I swear I see the tiny white heads of her four bottom teeth ready to burst into being at any moment. Four bottom teeth. I don't see any signs of top teeth, and man, if this is her teething pattern we're in trouble. Because she's been mouthy and cranky for two months now. It's getting old. For all of us, poor dear.

No teeth...and she hates having her mouth toyed with. This is the reason I think she just isn't into solids yet. She doesn't like having things pushed on her and she doesn't want you messing about with her mouth. I've had some luck with these mesh-bag-ring-pop-looking feeding tools, but they are messy messy messy. Especially with banana. Which she likes. Sort of.

She's been getting up on one knee lately and reaching for toys out of her grasp and becoming quite the wiggle worm. Again. I remember--because it was oh so long ago--when she first really wanted to sit up instead of just laying about...this new movement is like that only she's headed for crawling. So many moms are put off by crawling. I'm really looking forward to it. I think she'll have a grand ol' time scooting about. Really. Our house is so small, I'll always know where she is. No stairs to worry about. Just some cabinets to sort out and some TV/stereo/computer equipment to secure away from her and hey....she can crawl all she wants. As it is now, I sit on the floor and read or surf the 'net while she plays and she bounces in her Exersaucer when I need to pick up the kitchen or cook. I don't see crawling as interfering with the chi of our day.

Speaking of the chi of our day: 2.5 miles walked this morning to and from class. Plus a nice hour long, with a pause to check out the new hair salon, 2.4 mile nap walk. That's a total of almost 5 miles today. Woo-hoo.

Then we chatted and played with the neighbors for an hour. M has an adorable two-month-old boy...also M. She let Maia (another M...hmmmm) try out the Jumperoo. Miss Maia didn't want to get out. She rocked the Jumperoo, as expected. Nice visit, with plans to go for a walk on Tuesday, but all this was to the detriment of kitchen cleaning and diaper folding and Maia room cleaning. I've not really been doing housework this week. Naughty naughty wifey. Next week I'll have to be better. Plus, it's nine o'clock and I have no idea what to do for dinner. I'm thinking about skipping it altogether. Or just eating sausage.

Get your head out of the gutter. I'm here alone.

That's it for this evening. Tomorrow brings us breakfast in the Central Valley with Grandma NorDelle and Grandpa Jack. Then dinner with Grandpa Gene and Grandma Susan. At least tomorrow I don't have to worry about what I'm going to cook.