Ten-Month Stats? Already?

At ten months, Milo is approximately 27.5 inches long and 19 and a half pounds.

At ten months, Milo is a bouncy, happy baby.

At ten months, Milo throws his head back to laugh.

At ten months, Milo has started cruising around the furniture, though still quite tentatively.

At ten months, Milo once stood unassisted for about five solid seconds before slowing easing himself into a sitting position.

At ten months, Milo hasn't had any ear infections in the last month. I am a fan of the tubes.

At ten months, Milo's hair is long enough to get mussed when he lays on it.

At ten months, that hair looks kind of reddish brown, maybe...?? It's still thin.

At ten months, Milo loves jumping and will readily bend his knees for bouncing time.

At ten months, Milo's favorite toys are the little yellow spoon that came with a kitchen set, balls, and the wooden blocks from Stephanie.

At ten months, Milo plays lots of little games, including "stick out your tongue until Mama laughs," "drop Cheerios onto the floor," "bang my hands against my head," and "make a sound when Mama taps on my open mouth to make the sound wobble."

At ten months, Milo has two teeth!

At ten months (or probably any age), teething is a bitch. Seriously, why didn't anyone warn me about this?

At ten months, Milo opens his mouth for Ibuprofin and Orajel, but refuses to eat any solid foods. This has been going on for almost a week, and we're starting to get worried, despite having already been to the doctor and told that nothing is wrong.

At ten months, Milo's weight is close to 20 pounds, but he may be losing some due to the aforementioned lack of eating.

At ten months, Milo might be self-weaning, as he is nursing less and less and for the last couple of evenings, wouldn't even nurse before bed. Perhaps this is part of teething? I hope so; I'm desperately not ready for him to wean yet.

At ten months, Andrew and I hate teething. The only positive side effect of teething (other than ending up with teeth) is that the pain makes Milo ultra snuggly. He will sleep in my arms like he did when he was tiny, and he loves to lay his head on my shoulder or my chest. It is my favorite thing.

At ten months, Milo has learned to wave "hi" and "bye-bye" but still needs a little prompting.

At ten months, Milo's "vocabulary" is quite large and I couldn't even begin to tell you all the sounds he makes. He's constantly getting better at making those noises sound like real speech, with the same intonations and whatnot. To my delight, he's back into saying "mama" and sometimes just "mom." His vowel sounds range is expanding, too.

At ten months, Milo is looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby. When I see him standing there, holding onto the coffee table or some other thing, he just looks enormous.

At ten months, Milo is starting to seem too big for his car seat. But we don't have a convertible one yet, so we'll keep using this one awhile longer. He's awfully heavy to carry around, though.

At ten months, Milo has mastered the sippy cup. He has managed to drink from a straw a couple of times, too, but it may have been a fluke.

At ten months, Milo still flips around and doesn't like to lay still for diaper changes.

At ten months, Milo has basically outgrown all his six-month clothing. He can wear some 6-9 months, 9 months, and 12 month clothing. He has a couple things that are 18 months, one of which sort of fits. We could really use more clothing that is 12 months and up. Pjs and long-sleeved onesies especially. If anyone's interested.

At ten months, I am down to baby weight minus five pounds.

At ten months, I have days where I feel so exhausted I just want to cry. And I'm so grateful to have family around to help out. And I'm so grateful for a husband who washes all the dishes.

At ten months, I have begun planning Milo's first birthday party. Milo is practically one year old. Can you even believe that?

Ahh, Motherhood

Today I changed two poopy diapers, one of which involved a new outfit and the need to wipe poop off Milo's back and shoulder. Today I was peed on. Today I rinsed vomit out of my hair. Today I changed my shirt because there was medicine on it--medicine that had been in Milo's tummy just moments before.

But today I snuggled my exhausted baby. And today my baby laughed and laughed--at nothing, like when the pen dropped from Daddy's hand--even though I know he wasn't feeling well. And even with all those fluids, it was a lovely, lovely day.

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Teeth: the remix

Well. Remember that one time when I thought Milo totally had a tooth but then crazily enough it turned out he did not have a tooth? No? Let me refresh your memory. One time I thought Milo had a tooth but then crazily enough it turned out he did not have a tooth.

But now! Now he does have a tooth! And I'm really certain of it this time. It has been confirmed by at least three other people, all of whom have stuck their fingers into my baby's mouth to feel around for said tooth. And they all have said with a certain amount of authority, "Oh, yes, I can DEFINITELY feel a tooth. What a sharp little nugget!" (Can you believe they all said "nugget"?) The tooth was first discovered last Tuesday, January 4. I've been waiting to mention it because of December's toothtastrophe. I needed confirmation from unaffiliated parties. But I have sufficient evidence, so hooray for teeth! And chewing!

(BTW, it's on the bottom, right center. Milo's right. Someone should really make me a tooth chart, like someone made that one time. (ahem))

I don't want to get your hopes (or mine) up, but there is something else. There just might actually be TWO teeth in that little gummy mouth. This morning as I poked around, I am pretty sure I felt two teeth, right next to one another. But that silly Milo wouldn't open his mouth to show me, even though I asked nicely.

Musings on "Jagged Little Pill"

Alanis Morissette's "Jagged Little Pill" was the first album that I ever felt moved by and loved. It was released in 1995. I was in seventh grade, squarely in the middle of puberty and out-of-control hormones. Yesterday I heard "Hand In My Pocket" on the radio and the memories of this album came flooding back. Let me share them with you.

I asked for and received the album for Christmas in 1995. I have no idea where I heard about Alanis Morissette or why I wanted this music at the time. Maybe I'd heard her first single on the radio? Don't know. Anyway, Christmas of 1995 was spent with my Uncle Bob and Aunt Kathy in their (super cold) South Dakota home. I remember I got the album that Christmas for two reasons: 1) I took a photo of all my Christmas loot, and I can clearly picture the album cover laid out on the carpet, along with a pair of fruit-patterned tights, among other things; and 2) I recall sitting in a room by myself, listening to the music over the stereo, when my Uncle Bob walked into the room during "Hand In My Pocket." He entered the room just in time to catch the line "I'm brave but I'm chickenshit" and he totally called me on it. "Did she just say 'chickenshit'?" he asked, laughing. My cheeks burned bright red from embarrassment to think that someone in my family heard me listening to something that had a cuss word in it! What if Bob told my mom?!? Shit! I mean, shoot!

For reasons I cannot recall, my best friend Emily and I decided to lip-synch to "You Oughta Know." But it wasn't just any lip-synching. We did that thing where we painted a nose and eyes on our chins, then flipped upside down and covered our real nose and eyes, creating a weird little face with an oddly large mouth. Then we performed the song for Emily's mom. Obviously. With such lyrics as "Would she go down on you in a theater?" and "Are you thinking of me when you f**k her?" I'm not sure why we WOULDN'T sing it for one of our mothers.


An example of upside-down singing for you. Nice, right?

Someone once pointed out to me that the last lyrics in "Hand In My Pocket" were "hailing a taxicab." Not sure why anyone thought this was worth mentioning, but for whatever reason, it stuck with me. Even now when I hear this song, I still think about that.

When I found out that the song "You Oughta Know" was probably written about Dave Coulier, I was shocked. SHOCKED. Uncle Joey? What?

The song "Head Over Feet" used to be "our song" to my high school boyfriend and me. Even after we broke up, some of the lyrics still fit our relationship: "It's all your fault."

I was intensely irritated by the fact that all my classmates seemed to think that the things mentioned in the song "Ironic" were actually ironic. They weren't. They were mostly just a bunch of unfortunate instances of rotten luck.

I hate making resolutions.

But this year, I actually have a couple of them. And in order to help keep me accountable, I will share them here with you.

1. In typical New-Year's-resolution fashion, I want to lose weight. (More weight, that is, on top of the 40 pounds I've already lost since Milo was born.) Twelve pounds, to be exact. This will get me back to my college/living-in-New-York/wedding weight. And I will be satisfied with this weight.
2. I want to decorate our bedroom. I absolutely hate it right now, and I have lots of ideas to decorate it. Unfortunately, these decorating plans of mine all cost money. But this is the year I no longer want to just live with the room I hate. I want to make it a place I love to be, rather than just a place I sleep in. I'm thinking navy, light gray, butter yellow, and crisp white...