We've got a climber!

G's newest trick....scaling the heights....of the stairs.


Both of these pics are taken at the TOP of the stairs after G climbed up all of them all by herself!


Oh, and she has also started "cruising"-that's what all the baby books call it when they stand holding onto to furniture and then walk around holding on. She can turn around, too, like from the coffee table to the couch, without falling! I think she is going to take after me and be a monkey! My mother never lets me forget how I was able to climb up the bookshelf (yeah, literally up the bookshelf) before I could walk. Hooo boy!

Haute Cuisine, it's not

This is Giuliana tonight at dinner.

Too bad it was mostly pears tonight, you can't tell in this picture how ABSOLUTELY COVERED IN PEARS SHE IS!!!

I was taking the advice of the Gerber mailer I got today about feeding a baby on the verge of toddlerhood. Wait a minute! On the verge of toddlerhood?!?!?! That's what Gerber said about my tiny little baby! Well, anyway that's what they said about 9-12 month olds, and G will be 9 months next week! So, their advice was to give her a lot of choices at meals and to let her play and smear and throw her food...all in good fun (obviously not good clean fun!) So, I let her have at it.

Now I know it will come as a shock to all of you who think I am uptight about messiness, but this is not so different from how we have been doing most meals. I let G take the reigns with the spoon(s) as often as she likes, which is almost always. I let her have lots of different things and don't force her to eat any one thing. I don't usually encourage finger painting with pears, but, what the hey, I say!

However, G has proved so far to be a "challenging eater," as I like to say. It's not that she is so much "picky" as that she just can't be bothered to eat. She will always take her bottle, that's no problem. But she dines almost exclusively on Cheerios these days. She just isn't interested in most other foods most of the time. And forget about taking food off of a spoon or from Mommy! She clamps her little mouth shut so tight you would need the jaws of life to pry it open. And her new thing is to shake her head back and forth so I have no hope of getting anything anywhere near her mouth. So, I give her the spoon and about half of the time some of it makes it into her mouth. Sigh...John tells me I get too worked up over it and she will eat when she is ready. But it just seems so important. I am really trying to be zen about the whole thing and just relax and let G take the lead. But I am always up for good advice.

Hence, I was pouring over the Gerber mailer that showed up today like it was The Bible! Look at all these pictures of happy babies eating all these healthy foods! Their mothers must be so relaxed and carefree! Is that child actually eating cereal off of a spoon from his mother's hand?? How did she do that??

Double sigh. These are the things that keep me up at night, people. World peace, it's not. Oh, and by the way, Max is a HUGE FAN of the "let the baby fling her dinner everywhere" method of eating! HUGE FAN.

On a less neurotic note, look at this close up.


See anything ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE?? This is the day I have dreamed about (after I have finally fallen asleep from the hours of pondering baby feeding strategies.) I was able to accessorize G! This is her very first hair accessory, a little tiny clip! How freakin' cute is that?!? I have always wanted a little girl so I can play with her hair (shallow and petty, I know, but there it is. Oh, back off! There were other reasons too!) YAY! This totally made my day :)

Cats and Dogs and Babies, Oh My!

John found this article online today (off of one of my blogroll links heehee). I feel like I could have written it myself, except the part about abandoning our three pets for a week with no dire consequences. I have to admit that if that had somehow happened to us, we would have come home to cat hair fluff balls all over and little else (ewww, I know, but it's true, Max and Petey are just biding their time.)

For those of you who might not know our family history, here is a pic of our cozy, furry crew PG (and minus me, I was taking the picture).


The couch has always been the "safe zone" for the cats. For some reason, they do not feel as threatened by Max there as anywhere else. I private hunch is that they are just too damn comfy to care.

So, anyway, back to our pet family history. Petey is the eldest of the bunch. She and I go way back. About ten years (this week, I think!) to be exact. I got Petey from some people who were found her as a stray kitten and were going to take her to the shelter. I was looking for a cat and gladly took her in. I have ALWAYS had at least one cat and I had just moved out of my parents' house and into my very own first apartment. And I needed the comfort of a furry housemate. Petey, though she can be standoffish, was a lovely roomie. She needed me and I needed her and it worked out great.

A few years later I acquired Suzy in an odd set of circumstances. I had also always grown up with a Siamese cat, and missed having one around. For those of you who do not have any experience with Siamese cats, they are entirely a breed unto themselves. They are beautiful cats with gorgeous coloring and fabulous blue eyes, and they know it. And exploit it. All Siamese except Suzy that is. But that is not germaine to the story, and I didn't know this about her at the time anyway. So, my birthday was coming up and I decided that I would love to have a Siamese. Now, normally I do not believe in spending a lot of money for any animal when there are so many who need a home at the shelters, but I really wanted a Siamese, and you just don't find those cats in a shelter. You have to buy them from a breeder. This story will explain why this was the first and last time I will EVER buy an animal from a breeder. So, I found a breeder who had several cute Siamese kittens for sale, and I went and picked one out for my birthday. The breeder showed me these cute kittens in his living room, which was clean and normal. I picked out a little female who was scrawny but cute, and named her Delia. (Stay with me here, yes, Delia.) I took Delia home and Petey FLIPPED! She hated having another cat in her home. But they adjusted over the course of a few weeks and things settled down. About a month after I brought Delia home I woke up one morning and couldn't find her. Eventually I did, on the bathroom floor, dead. I was so shocked and heartbroken!! Nothing was visably wrong with her, she just died. Well, since I had bought her from a breeder, I called him up and told him my tale. I wasn't looking for another cat, I just wanted to let him know what happened and see if he had any information as to why my cat would just die for no reason. Anyway, he must have thought I was looking for a replacement and told me that he didn't have anymore kittens. But he did have two older cats he would give me instead. "Older" in this case meant 1 and 2 years old, a mother and daughter, who had each already bred a few litters. So, I went over to his place again. This time he took me into his cat room. It was horrible! There were all these cages and several cats and it smelled like a horrible litter box! I felt terrible. He showed me the two cats. They were nearly identical. Mai Ling was the mother and had 3 toes on her right front paw. Sui Ling was the daughter and had three toes on her front left paw, and was cross eyed (probably from inbreeding, I would guess.) I was so horrified for them that I took them both home. Again, Petey wasn't happy, but she got over it. I called the cats Maizy and Suzy. Though all my cats are indoor cats, somehow Maizy got out of the house after only a few days with me. I put posters up all over the neighborhood and looked all over, but I never found her. So, that's how I ended up with Petey and Suzy. Who now love each other, but there were a few rough patches there for a while.

Enter Max, the massive black beast in the picture. John and I lived happily together with the two cats in our apartment for three years, but quietly we both longed for the romping, slobbery love only a canine can give you. So, when we bought our house we promptly went down to the Humane Society and got Max. Actually, we had been looking at shelter dogs for weeks before we closed on our home in anticipation. Anyway, Max stole our hearts with his big brown devoted eyes. And I happen to loooove labs, so there was that happy coincidence. Now, this time, Petey had just about had it with animals invading her space. She is considerably older now (in cat years) and she just lost it!!! She literally tried to kill Max, who is at least 8x her size. I had to take her to the vet for some kitty tranquilizers and put her in the "kitty psych ward" (now G's nursery, but then unused) for 6 weeks!! These days, I wouldn't say harmony reigns, but most of the time all three animals tolerate each other.

If you are still with me after all of that, I am finally at the point of my post. I have fought for and with all of these animals. I rescued all of them from a doomed future. And I love them. They have all given me quite a few headaches and heartaches, but that comes with the commitment of pet ownership. I like to think they all have a pretty good life now. However, now we have a sweet, innocent, fragile little baby. She loves all the animals dearly. In fact, one of her first true words was "Maaa" said while looking right at Max. She loves to pull on Max's snout and get handfuls of cat hair whenever she can. And for the most part the animals leave her alone. I can't say they love her, it is more an indifference to her. Sometimes when she is crying Petey will come to see what is wrong, with this poor, cute concerned attitude. And Max will give her doggy kisses sometimes.

But, oh, how annoying these animals have become since we brought G home!! These cuddly, furry, dirty animals. Who shed everywhere. Who have dirty feet that walk all over the floors my baby crawls on. Who don't always watch where they are going and walk right over her or knock her down when she is standing (Max). Who decide to pick a fight in the upstairs hall while I am this close to getting G down for an ever elusive nap! Who have lately decided that though our bedroom has been off limits for, oh, the last 5 years, they would love to nap on our bed everyday and leave it covered with cat hair (cats, obviously).

I have always firmly believed that having pets is a commitment. You can't just give up on them or give them away when it doesn't work out. Especially animals that you rescued-how could you doom them to that fate again?? They need you and depend on you (even the cats, who believe you need them really.) But, boy have I been close sometimes in the last 8 months!! I would love to have one day that I don't have to sweep up mounds of dog and cat hair just so G can crawl around without getting absolutely covered head to toe with it. I would love to not have to constantly be pushing Max away because he just doesn't get how big he is and that he is going to hurt her! Oh, and to have all those interrupted naps back!! In fact, Max woke her up just this afternoon with loud barking.

But, here are a couple of things I know. I know that I honestly believe that it is a good thing for children to grow up with animals. It helps make them compassionate toward animals. It prevents a fear of animals, while teaching proper respect for them at the same time. And, I honestly believe from my own experience, that in some children it helps prevent allergies from developing. And I do know that I still believe that adopting an animal into your home is a lifelong commitment (although this is a decision every pet owner has to make for their own families.) So, even though they make me nuts somedays and make me want to scream at moments, I do love these furry guys, and G does love them too, and they will be staying in our happy, cozy, fur ridden home. But this IS a warning to all of my friends who have "furbabies" but no human babies yet. Your relationship with your animals WILL change after having children. Accept it. It happens.

Confessions of an arts and crafts supply junkie

Somebody stop me. I may have lost it. Here's my story:
I went to Kmart earlier with G. It was totally innocent. I needed to get formula and milk and a couple of other things. I picked up a few shirts for me that were on clearance (this is not my confession.)
Then, I saw the back-to-school supplies. Kate, I know you will support me on this, there is nothing like new crayons and markers to make you lose your mind. I have a kid now, so I can justify this craving for fresh arts supplies, right? She's only eight months old, you say? What's your point?!
So, I had the presence of mind to realize that even though Kmart's prices were pretty good G would probably spend more time chewing on the crayons and ripping the paper than actually creating object de 'arte at this point. Sooooo, I went to the Dollar Store! And bought this stufffor my eight month old. I really wanted to buy little scissors and glue sticks and construction paper too (and a nice container to put it all in because, oh, yeah, I'm a storage/organization supply junkie, also), but didn't. No, it was not the fact that G will not be able to use these things for, oh, 12 months at least. It was the fact that the crappy Dollar Store near my house didn't have them.
I wonder if G will mind if I test out her new markers??.....

Let me tell you about Saturday mornings...

Here's G, her pj's covered in blueberry stains from breakfast-bananas, blueberries, and waffles (Aunt Jamima's, not mine). She is crawling around downstairs (ok, so her pj's are more than just blueberry stained...there may be a pound or two of dog hair on those knees...Wait a second! Where's Max?? Oh, that's right, he's on the front porch chasing a moth. Uh oh, G wants to be a moth hunter, too, hang on.)
Ok, baby is corralled (ha! yeah right!).
Where was I? Oh yes, describing the happy homey scene in my house right now. Hang on, more baby moth hunting.... you should see this. I go out to the front porch and there are G and Max with a poor trapped moth, G smiling huge and waving to me, or the moth, I'm not sure. Hey, I just noticed my yoga tapes are all over the floor...when did that happen?
So, my home, always clean and organized, no slouch am I when it comes to chores. Wait, G is whining, we need a little baby dancing interlude...
Whew, that was fun! G is a fabulous dancing partner, she doesn't care that I have no rhythm, unlike her father. She just giggles the whole time :)
Back to my clean house. Was the dog's dish always in the middle of the kitchen floor? And didn't I just pick up the yoga tapes? Why are they all over the floor again? Max must have caught the moth, because he wants to go outside now. Where did G go, I just turned my back for a second to let Max outside...oh, she's back on the front porch, the dirty, dirty front porch. Used to be clean, not sure when it got so dirty. G's little feet are gray from crawling out there. Hmm, I see someone is on their way back to the yoga tapes. I think I have a culprit!
What was I writing about? How I always use Saturday mornings to catch up on chores? Oh hell, let me tell you what we have really been doing this morning! G exercised her lungs and vocal chords first thing this morning yelling in glee at Blue's Clues and Franklin. She and Daddy and I played gymnastics (with more loud yelling) on the couch. G loves to do somersaults, and you should see her fly! There were about 5 minutes of playing with actual toys and lots of time playing with cds, magazines Max's dish, the yoga tapes...we played peekaboo with the kitchen dishtowels, too. G has been eating the magazines again. How much paper do you think an 8 month old should include in her diet? And we have been baby dancing as I mentioned. Somewhere in there we did have an actual nap! And when did the chores get done? Hmmm, maybe next Saturday. I'm having way too much fun right now.

Nothing Much

Random observation: I have posted enough to now have an "older posts" link! Cool! I feel more like an official blogger. Yay.

Unexpected Blessings

I received this card in the mail yesterday from Sarah Phillips, our Vermont host. This beautiful card was 10 times more beautiful on the inside with Sarah's sweet and thoughtful comments about watching me as a wife and a mother. It made me cry and totally made my day. Thank you, Sarah.