Eight Months

It was a major motor milestone kind of month. Crawling! And it was a big deal. With the onset of crawling skills, Baby Grady has blossomed into the charming sort of baby that he always wanted to be, if he hadn't been so frustrated about being a baby. We always suspected that he was a baby who would handle life much better once he could move himself about and, well, do stuff. You know, and be less babyish?

We.were.right.

Grady will now spend a surprising amount of time just puttering about the kitchen and family room. Wait. Allow me to be more clear. There are now huge chunks of the day when Grady is not fussing, weeping, or screaming. While he's awake. And we are not actively soothing, shushing, or otherwise ineffectively comforting him. He's just... content. It's a revelation, really.

And oh, he is so busy. Just nonstop motion and exploring and tasting and grinning and laughing. Really fun stuff these days. Hence the out-takes from his Bruce de Bruce portrait. It's markedly more difficult to get a decent picture of the kid these days. He doesn't want to stay still ever. Even in his sleep, he'll roll onto his tummy (because who doesn't love sleeping on their tummy?) and then he will just instinctively pop up onto all-fours-crawling-position. And then he's pretty pissed because... People, I'm trying to sleep here, who put my baby in a crawl? Why is there not a boob in my mouth? AAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH! But, generally speaking, he is orders-of-magnitude more happy now. Jasper would probably tell me my math is flawed, but it's true and also it involves logarithms.

This personality transformation occurred in spite of the fact that Baby Grady also spent his entire eighth month of life sick in one way or another. First it was Coxsackie Virus (otherwise known as Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease, which no, does not come from goats. or sheep.) Then it was a really bad cold, or a string of colds, that lasted more than three weeks, and is maybe even still hanging on a bit. (It is.) When it was bad, he slept propped on my arm for drainage, and when he would get too congested and have coughing fits, we would shut ourselves up in the bathroom, turn on the shower, and sway in the steam. At least a couple of times a day/night, the coughing fits would lead to voluminous vomiting. It was kind of a rough time, if I'm being honest. But Grady was such a trooper. He really cried and fussed far less than would have been reasonable under the circumstances. He just tried to nurse as much as possible, without suffocating. It was sad, and hard, and I hated it.

As a result of all the sickness and possibly also the crawling workouts (major calorie burning there), Baby Grady didn't grow this month. In fact, our non-clinical records reveal that he shrank. I assure you he is not wasting away, and his team of doctors (since we met a few new ones this month, I'll refer to them thusly) are not concerned. Apparently that baby had rotundity to spare.

How much Baby Grady weighs: 20 lbs., 12 oz. 
How tall Baby Grady is: 28.5 inches
Size of Baby Grady’s clothes: 6-12 month; 9 month; 12 month (Same as last month, due to the growth stoppage.)

Baby Grady’s eye color: brown
Baby Grady’s hair color: blond 


Number of times I have been told that my baby is the cutest, the most adorable, the most handsome baby, akin to a baby model really, and etc.: so many
Percentage of those times Baby Grady was being a flirtatious hambone: 100%
Number of times I have been told that my baby is so well-behaved: 2
Number of weddings Baby Grady has attended: 1; birthday parties: 3; baby showers: 1


Baby Grady’s favorites: crawling, hanging out on the lawn, baths with Daddy, the crabby pool, strawberries, peek-a-boo, "Call Me Maybe"
Baby Grady’s least favorites: coughing, sniffles, having his nose sucked out, getting his diaper changed (because it means he has to stop moving, NOOOOOOOO!)

FFFA: Little Farm

The cow made Baby Grady feel concerned.

But the chickens and ducks were a hit!

Chickens and ducks.

Still looking at chickens and ducks.

Checking out the fence around the chickens and the ducks.

The best part of FFFA Day is the pub.

The best part of the pub is the menu.

Daddy has funny, giant hands.

Things that are fun

The days just fly by too quickly for blogging lately. Grady has been sick with one thing or another for what feels like always; Jasper went to Sweden for a week; work has been demanding for everyone... but we're still here and Grady is still adorable. 

I haven't been great about taking pictures since Baby Grady went mobile. It's much more challenging to get decent ones since he's always on the move, and I am usually occupied with preventing him from doing grave bodily harm to himself. Because he would. Definitely still does not see "preservation of the baby's well-being" as one of his jobs. But we've captured a few moments here and there, and so here you go. I promise I have more substantive thoughts to share, just not the time in which to share them. Soon, I hope.

Overturning the baby gym and sitting in its roof parts:

Goofing in the yard with mom:

Playing fetch:

Playing with blocks, and especially the lid of the blocks-box:

With Dad #10

Baby Grady, professional wedding guest, now available for fall bookings.

Playing fetch with the baby

Puppet is seriously considering becoming an outdoor dog. (Mostly joking. Puppet actually lay there attentively as Grady crawled up and bonked his baby head on Puppet's doggie nose.) (It was quite cute.)

In my box #1

I'm not sure if I mentioned it here (I think I did?), but this year we joined a CSA. I have been thinking about doing one for years and this year it just all came together. With Grady starting solids, I wanted our food to be organic as often as possible. I also wanted his first tastes of fruits and vegetables to be the fresh, local, seasonal versions, rather than their watery supermarket counterparts. I could have accomplished this by going to the farmer's market each week (and we have about a zillion to choose from), but I wasn't really looking for another errand to add to my schedule and also? Baby Grady hates farmer's markets. It's true, though we're working on it.

So, when Blue House Farm started a CSA delivery program right to my office, I told Jasper I was signing us up. I really didn't get his opinion. I just told him I was really excited and that we were DOING IT. And he said alright.

We've been getting a box of produce every Thursday for about a month now, and I kept thinking I wanted to photograph our haul and tell you about it, but when I get home from work on Thursdays, that Baby Grady usually attacks me like the remora he is and I don't get a chance to take pictures before Jasper kindly stuffs it all in the fridge. And then I don't exactly drag it back out for a photo shoot. Obviously.

Somehow this week, I made it happen. What you see there in our batch of produce from the farm is rainbow chard, baby spinach, French breakfast radishes (radishes for breakfast? those crazy French!), cauliflower (one little head that we'll feed to Grady), strawberries, summer squash, mini purplette onions, romaine lettuce, and oregano. We still have kale left from last week too.

Thus far, my experience with the CSA is that I love it. I usually get some things I wouldn't buy -- I'm looking at you, fennel! -- but I have fun figuring out what to do with it all. I view it as a challenge to get through the whole box even with just our little family, and not to buy produce we are more familiar with as a crutch. This week should be easy. These are all things I often buy anyway, even if I buy slightly different varieties.

We'll probably have some of the spinach, a little purplette onion, and maybe a little summer squash on our pizza tonight. Ooh... maybe oregano? I had some of the radishes on my salad at lunch and I also finished off the fava beans, beets, and red lettuce from last week. By the way, how delicious are beets? Jasper hates them so I get them all and it's a good thing because I have trouble sharing when beets are involved.

Feel free to chime in with any of your favorite ways to use the treasures from our box this week.

Bad news first

I recently mentioned our forced family funtime adventures and you were probably thinking “What’s that?” and “Sounds fun!” and “How can I get involved?” and “Can I have forced family funtime adventures in my own community?”

You can.

Early on in Baby Grady’s life, it was obvious to us that we did not have the sort of baby who would be toted about happily (or sleepily) to brunch, museums, street fairs, races, the movies, dinner, wine tasting, etc., and so on with all the things the other babies on Facebook are doing.

Admittedly, we dealt (and continue to deal) by staying home a lot and going on lots of walks and hikes. But every few weeks or so, I get a bee in my bonnet to try something a little more ambitious. So we go on a forced family funtime adventure and inevitably Baby Grady weeps. Hike and lunch? Weeping before we made it to the lunch part. Indoor birthday party? Weeping. Outdoor birthday party? Weeping. Farmer’s market? Weeping. First Friday? Weeping. MarsBeer at the pub with the other rocket scientists? Weeping. The beach? Weeping.

This past weekend was FFFA time. I announced that we would be taking Baby Grady for his first ride on the Tilden Steam Trains and then out for a snack on the roof deck at Triple Rock. Jasper said okay because he is exceedingly patient with my big ideas and also there’s really no good in stopping me once that bee has gotten into my bonnet.

So off we went. And the steam trains were a total bust. Whether it was the noise, the other people, the wind, or a general distaste for travelling by rail, we couldn’t say. But Baby Grady was not happy and it was sad.

After that we were going to take him to the Little Farm to see if that held greater appeal. He’s started to be highly amused by our dogs, so logic dictates that he would also enjoy goats. When we arrived we discovered that he had just fallen asleep, so we decided to head on to the pub and let him get a little nap in.

When he woke up, we found a perfect shady corner on the roof deck, with an older baby at the next table over. And, well, Grady loved it. He chewed on the menu while waiting for the food, and then he mauled some french fries. I had a drink and no one wept. It was amazing.