Nom, nom, mom

I ate 24 ounces of milk today, and boy are Mom's... on second thought, maybe this isn't such a good opportunity to riff on the "just flew in" joke.

Finally

My duckie requisition has been approved. Nothing brightens a bath like a good duck.

Tomboy

Sugar and spice? Don't have time for that stuff. I gotta scrub the gunk out of my Harley's carburetor jets.

An Apple a Day

Any day now, I'll be able to get my pacifier into my mouth by myself. For now I'll settle for this apple's hands. (Don't ask me what an apple needs with hands; I barely know what mine are for.)

Saturday Morning Excitement

Saturday mornings we often go to the farmer's market, stopping by a cafe for breakfast first. It's riveting. I'm on the edge of my seat.

Welcome to the Orchard

The Minimum Security Daycare Facility held a welcome breakfast. We met some of the inmates I'll be sharing a room with in October, and I spent some time playing with Warden Maria. She knows the "fly" game just like Dad, and she'll play it in exchange for smiles! Who would have guessed?

The other babies in my ward are all much bigger than I am. I figure that means I'll get the most flights. There are advantages to being svelte.

Fish TV

Most grown-up entertainments don't interest me much, but TV is pretty engaging. My favorite channel is Fish TV, which is such a premium station it comes with its own chair. Bubbles, music, dancing starfish... It doesn't get much better than this.

Fee, Fie, Foe, Thumb

My pediatrician says it's okay for me to eat solid foods now, so I've been chomping away at Dad's finger. Tasty, but tough. Spit won't dissolve it (oh, how I have tried), and without teeth, separating it from his hand is going to take a while. Seems like life's big challenges always come down to unhinging your jaw.

I'm now officially 24" long and 10 lb 6 oz. That puts me at the 45th percentile in length (up from the 20th percentile last month) and the 3rd in weight (up from the 2nd). Although I've more than doubled my weight since birth, I've still gained more inches than pounds. We ladies prefer svelte to scrawny, thank you very much.

One week, 26 baby outfits

This week's laundry contains: 1 baby bath towel, 1 woombie, 2 nightdresses, 2 hats, 2 burp cloths, 2 duckie bath sponges, 4 pairs of pants, 5 footie pajamas, 8 bibs, 8 baby blankets, 9 baby washcloths, and 19 onesies. Oh, and one changing pad cover. I'm having a baby arms race with Penelope to see who can wear the most stuff. We even have dueling diaper pails, but I'm not going there.

Distance and coverage

I started a new reflux medication, and horked my second dose all over the floor, the table, and Dad. There was a secondary benefit, too: I was so much hungrier than usual today, we had to break into the frozen milk stash. Mmm, May was a good vintage.

Traveling in Style

We had to change concourses in Chicago on the way home. I think we landed in Gary and departed from Evanston. (Hey, is that where my cousin Evan lives?) I kept an eye on Mom and Dad's lunch. Dad kept an eye on mine.

I wanted to ride on the baggage carousel, but Dad insisted on taking me out of the carrier before getting on the plane.

What an even bigger bed!

While I was stuck in the crib, someone put these pillows in my usual sleeping spot on Mom and Dad's bed. At least they afford a good view.

For some reason, I slept for 7 hours straight last night. If it's this hotel room, Mom and Dad are in for an expensive few months. How long is the commute from Albany?

Meeting the Family

Although the occasion was not a happy one, I hope I was able to inject a note of hope into the weekend. It was good to meet Mom's East Coast relatives, especially the ones who wanted to hold me. Who knew there were so many aunties in the world?

What a big bed!

Since we're traveling, I don't have my normal, cozy bed. Instead there's this huge, mesh-sided crate for me to sleep in. Mom and Dad made me a pair of bumpers so I don't get lost; the shoe is solely to keep the bumper in place.

I'm thinking of holding a slumber party. Want to come over to my crib?

I just flew in from San Francisco

...and boy, are my arms tired.

When there's a smile in your heart
There's no better time to start

I can fly! I can fly! I can fly!

Economy Plus

We're off to the East Coast, my first plane ride. I like flying in Economy Plus because of the extra headroom.

Happy Birthday, Penelope!

Happy zeroth birthday to Penelope, Rebecca's new sister. She's the same length as I was at birth — and two pounds heavier! I'll have to work hard to keep ahead.

She's already borrowing some of my clothes, which is only fair, since I've been wearing Rebecca's for months. But she'd better not swipe my pacifiers.

Write On

Dad took me to a NaNoWriMo write-in at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. Even though I had bare feet, they wouldn't let me roast any coffee. What's with that?

Since it's not November, and thus not NaNoWriMo, I think it was only a convenient excuse to drink $5 coffee. But I helped some people with writer's block anyway.

Roll Initiative, Part 2

Everyone should have a goal in life. I can't decide on mine: either to reach the chocolate, or to beat all my friends at Nintendo. Either way, I'm now one step closer to achieving it, because I can roll from my tummy to my back (as long as someone props me up first). Skeptical? Here's proof:

My producers have uploaded this and a handful of other videos to my YouTube channel. You can subscribe or add me as a friend if you want to hear about new additions more often than I write about them here.

Forget the record book; just bring me a towel

What goes in must come out. And when it comes out so far it gets in your belly button, the only thing to do is jump into the sink for an impromptu bath. Mom, can you hand me the duckie, please?

No, no pictures. Be glad.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Milk

Avast, me hearties! Today be cousin Yash's first birthday. Massi Santosh and Uncle Henhuh threw a pirate-themed surprise party, so we got all gussied up. Here I be in me finest deck-swabbin' hat.

Baby Needs a New Pair of Shoes

What do you give the baby whose feet never touch the ground? Shoes! Because, you know, feet get cold.

Back to Work

Dad has the month of August off, so Mom headed back to work today. I'm OK with that, because although Dad isn't quite as soft to lie on, he's much better at burping.

And at burping me, too.

The Scales of Justice

Since Dr. Griffin says I'm still just a skinny little thing (I prefer to call it svelte), Mom and Dad rented a scale to better track what I'm eating. Mom weighs me before and after every meal, and the scale automatically calculates the difference. Now I salivate when I hear the scale beep.

We've learned that a pair of pajamas weighs 3 oz, a onesie plus a pair of pants are 4 oz, and a diaper will hold 5 oz if I try hard.

A new perspective

I've been working on broadening my horizons, and I have recently come around to a new point of view. That's right, I can sit up! (For this momentous occasion, I choose to accessorize with a full wrap-around chair.)

It is nice to be able to see my friends coming, and to take some pressure off the increasingly flattened back of my head. I get tired after a little while, though. Now I understand why grown-ups are so stiff-necked about everything.

Baconmas

Baconmas is that special time each year when friends get together and roast a pig. This year Ted and Vicki had a small enough pig that they used their smoker instead of the cinder-block oven, but ol' Porky was still way bigger than I am. Mom says babies survive by trading cute for food. I can tell you, that little piggy did not bring a lot of cute to the table.

A special shout-out goes to Jennifer for cuddling me most of the afternoon.