arlo lee lewis.

goodness gracious....

nine months (a repeat).

dear arlo,
today you are 9 months and 4 days old, 21 pounds, and 29 inches tall. your head is 45 centimeters. your hair is getting long, your eyes are staying blue/gray, and you steal the hearts of all manner of passerby.

though you were never short on personality, you are becoming a little more you these days, or at least we are all figuring out who that you is.

• you smile at everyone.
• unless you're eating, and we're not feeding you fast enough. then you get angry. angry arlo is funny. you actually growl.
• you now want to stand up all the time, and have a very funny proud face when you've managed to pull yourself up without your feet slipping away behind you.
• you still hate socks, and when you manage to pull them off, you hold your feet up in the air and wiggle your toes.
• you will crawl across the room to play piano, play with your drum, or take all of your books off the bookshelf. thank you for playing fair with your parents, and going out of your way to show that you take after both of us.

what i will tell you, though i feel like i shouldn't: every night, after your dad gives you your bath, i take you into the rocking chair and nurse you to sleep. we listen to iron and wine and you put your hand on my chest and i can feel you completely relax. once you're good and asleep, i lift you to my shoulder and rock you for a few minutes more. i savor this time with you. i can almost feel you growing too big for it, as we sit there and rock. sometimes, when i press my cheek against the back of your head, your hair still damp from your bath, and i whisper "shhh," i can feel my heart slow down, and my head spin a little bit, and its all i can do to not cry. i get woozy with love for you.

xoxo
mama

what happens when i turn my back to answer the door for fedex:

what we've been up to; MLK Day edition.

the beautiful weather continued, and we spent MLK day with your girlfriend lyra and her parents peggy and joel. we went to the park next door to their house and ate sandwiches and chips, and played on the swings and the seesaw. then we went back to their house, and you played with (read: stole out of her eager little hands) her toys.

 

sunshine in january

so we brought a blanket out into the front yard and played.

until you fell. bad mama.

you said it.

so last night, or rather very early this morning, around 5 am, you woke up.  we've lowered your crib mattress, so your new favorite thing is to grab the rails and pull yourself up, halfway to standing, which you did, and gave a little holler.

when i got there, your holler became a little more focused, and you saw me and said "mama."

thanks buddy, i needed that today.

a funny thing happend on the way home from target.

so...you outgrew your carseat. yup, the one that was supposed to last til you were one year old.  yup, you're only eight months old.

so i spent a good few days researching what the best convertible car seat was that wouldn't take us to the poor house, and finally found it. then, two weeks later, even though the target website said it was out of stock, there it was, on the shelf at target, $20 cheaper than i'd seen it anywhere else.

so, i bought it.

we looked pretty funny navigating target, with the carseat box propped on top of the cart (it wouldn't fit in it). i never thought how we would get it into the car.

(you'll like this about me when you get older.  some might call it absent mindedness. i call it a healthy sense of adventure).

long story short: i couldn't get it in the car. so i called your dad from the target parking lot to come help us. in the meantime, i put a blanket in the target cart, threw some toys in there, and bingo! instant play pen. 

you are such a great kid!