Falling in Love

I love fall. Always have. The cool weather, the spectacular palette, the smell of wood smoke on the breeze. Fall, I think, is my favorite season.
But I've been able to fall in love with fall all over again, thanks to N.
Everything is, of course, new to him, and the way he enjoys it and experiences it helps me see it again from a new perspective.
He loves crunching through the fallen leaves, and he loves picking them up to examine them too. He's an equal opportunity leaf-lover. He goes for the brilliant red leaves that have fallen from our crepe myrtles, but he also tries to pick up the leaves so worn and brittle they look more like spider webs than leaves. He loves to pick up acorns and carry them around; I imagine he likes the hard, smooth texture in his tight little fist.
Hooray for fall!

Been a While!

Wow. It's been a while since I updated!
We're looking forward to Halloween tomorrow. N is going as Yoda. Ought to be interesting, since he's not a big fan of hats. We'll see how long it lasts! Hopefully at least long enough for me to snap a few pictures.
Other than that, life has been pretty tame. N is officially a toddler. He spends most of his time walking/running around. He LOVES to play outside. He also loves our kitty, who still won't go anywhere near him. So sad. Definitely a love-hate relationship there.
I received my belated anniversary present last week: we hired a cleaning service. Ah the joy of having a clean house that I didn't have to do the work for! Although it did present me with a bit of a conundrum; I so badly wanted to clean the house before they came! I hate for anyone to see my house dirty. I just had to remind myself that I was paying them to do it, and I managed to not vacuum.

Is It Possible to Sprain Your Nose?

We were playing the other day, and he basically fell on my face. Some part of his head cracked my nose; not sure which of him hit me as my eyes were too full of tears to actually see. Poor guy was wailing as much as I wanted to, but at least he got over it quickly!

I, however, still feel like I broke my nose. I didn't. No blood, no bruises, no marks to show that my nose is now an ever-present, painful part of my face, as opposed to my ears, eyes, chin, cheeks and lips which are perfectly content to continue their pain-free, unconscious existence.

It was so sad. As I was putting him down for his nap today, he was giving me baby hugs. I love those! Except when he bangs his head into my nose AGAIN. Ow, ow, ow ow owwwwwww.

The hazards of mommyhood, I guess! Someday, I will look back on this and laugh...

Zoo-bilations!

This weekend, we took our first trip to the zoo. I thought for sure, as excited as N. gets around animals, that he would be twisting and turning his head like the Exorcist baby trying to see everything. Not so much.
He had great fun, of course, but he was much more interested in the people and children around us than in the animals! He did occasionally notice an animal. He had a nice staring contest with the lion who apparently thought N. and I looked like lunch. And he had a painfully high-pitched conversation with the squirrel monkeys, who were apparently excited to find someone who spoke their language. The star of show, by far, was the goat in the petting zoo at the very end.
In other news, he's started taking independent steps now, and each day his walks get a little longer. My days are numbered. I had to pause in writing this to move all my plants out of the foyer and into the dining room (which is still blocked off for him; it's my temporary office and resting place for all things N. doesn't need to get in to), because his reach has apparently stretched just enough... !

Walking.... Almost!

I feel like we are setting N. up for injury. He's recently started taking his first non-supported steps — hands held high over head, torso leaning forward so he can fall on his face after 4-6 steps. That's because we get so excited and cheer him on, but the cheering is usually happening when he's falling. So I think he's getting the idea that he's landed in a family of sadists who enjoy seeing him fall on his nose! At least he takes his falls very well. He laughs, pulls himself up and wants to do it all over again!
Thank goodness he's a generally happy baby, because he is working on all four of his molars and his two lower incisors. The drool is amazing. Prolific. Abundant. Omnipresent.
Poor guy, though, had an interesting morning yesterday. Our upstairs air has been out, and when we put him down Sunday night, it was warm enough that we put him down in just a diaper (you know where this is going).
Big, big, big mistake.
By the time I got to him Monday morning, the damage had been done.
Poop everywhere.
All over his face, caked in his hair & eyebrows, all over the crib, ground into his sheet... ugh! None of us had a good morning that day! Fortunately, he seems to have recovered well, and I'm not holding the poo-incident against him. We were the dummies, after all, who put him down in just a diaper!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow! Has this month been busy!
My husband has now officially gone back to school — teaching and taking. So N. and I are once again adjusting our schedules to try to juggle fun, work, eating, work, writing and working out. Yikes! Give us another week, and we'll be in the swing of things, but right now it feels a little crazy.
However, we do progress. I've finished my first Web site design. It's still very much a work in progress!
N. is doing well. Still not walking, but my days are numbered. I think he learns a new word every day. "No," sadly, is his favorite right now. I think he's trying to cut a few new teeth; his lower jaw is just a mass of knots. It doesn't seem to bother him much, though, so we're just going with the flow!

And He Walks

Behind his push car, but he's walking!
Today was the first day my mom has come back to watch him while I work, and of course, he previewed his new skill for her while I was upstairs working. Fortunately, he's not at all shy about sharing his new skill. In fact, when Daddy got home (and was duly impressed!), Daddy asked him to, "Show me how you walk." He crawled right over to his push car, stood up and started walking around!
Yay, N!