To Etta, at 8 Months

Dear Etta,

Happy 8 months, my sweet baby!  In the past month, you've become much more mobile.  You aren't crawling yet, but you are scooting around enough that you often end up in a very different place than where you were set down.  Not only are you pulling yourself up to standing now using anything near you, but you're now cruising, walking along the edge of the coffee table and couch as you stand.  To go long with your first tooth, you've begun eating more food- not just tasting it, but actually eating it.  Sweet potato and frozen banana are your favorites so far, though you've only tasted a few foods.  Your hair is becoming blonder, and I don't think it's from the sun, as you wear a sunhat everywhere we go.  I think you just may be a blondie after all.

The biggest change I've noticed in the past month is that you're making your needs known and vocalizing more often.  Today, when Tye let you lick her ice cube and then took it back to lick it herself  again, you screeched.  She offered you another lick, and again, when it left your mouth, you screeched.  You really wanted that ice cube, and you let us know!  You also yell when you see but can't access something you want- a toy across the room, or food on our plates.  My favorite is your new, happily excited "Ahh! Ahhh! Ahhh! Ahhh!" sound when you know you're about to nurse.  I love knowing you're looking forward to your meal from me as much as you love table food.  Even with all your new vocalizing, you're maintaining your easy-going ways. When we're out and about with you riding in the carrier, you couldn't be happier, no matter where we are.

And I'm doing my best to soak up every minute of it.  You'll only be this cuddly in the carrier this often until you start walking.  I'm also making a conscious effort to pause and appreciate each time you excitedly grab on to me and bury your head in my shoulder or arm, as if you're just so excited you can't handle yourself.  Oh, how I love that.  I'm loving seeing so much of your personality and getting to know more about you as an individual.  I already love you so much, dear Etta Maeve.  I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Love,
Mama

The BBG

Welcome to...

...our new favorite hideout in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens.  

The Children's Garden has a selection of hands-on activities, like a stream, a water pump, a water table with floating aquatic plants, and a compost pile with worms and shovels for digging, plus fragrant plants, butterfly plants, and flowers that tower over even me.

Exploring the rest of the gardens provides an escape from city living as we walk among tall trees and through open spaces.  Our favorite places so far include the Japanese Gardens for the koi and turtles swimming in the pond, the Native Species Garden for the ten foot tall walls of thick prairie flowers, and a little tree cave that covers a portion of a stream running through the middle of the gardens.  

One of the things I love most about our neighborhood in Brooklyn is that we're surrounded by playgrounds.  We have more than I can count within a one mile radius of our home- at least 10 or 12.  We can stop for a quick climb on the way home from running errands or have Tye ride her scooter to one without worrying about her tiring out on the way home.  We could easily visit a new one each day of the week.  The playgrounds provide Tye with a great opportunity to climb, run, jump, hang, and usually interact with other kids.  

Recently, though, I've begun to feel playground overload hitting.  Maybe it's just the end of summer, or maybe we need to walk further and explore some new locations.  Maybe we really have spent too much time in the chaos of kids running, screaming, tumbling everywhere we look.  Whatever it is, I feel like the BBG provides exactly the opposite- peace, greenery, quiet, opportunity to explore- while also outdoors.  

The Gardens have boulders for Tye to climb and jump from, open spaces for running, and stairs to tromp up and down.  I can put Etta down in the grass.  We can all engage our senses smelling flowers, leaves, and dirt, looking at the colors and shapes and light and space, feeling the water and plants, and listening to the sounds of nature- which Tye points out by saying, "Do you know what I hear, Mommy?  A jungle!"  

Do you know what I hear? Imagination growing.

Look out, world!

This smile is now equipped with a tooth!

I'd like to thank amber teething necklaces, drool bibs, raw carrots and frozen mango slices for their contributions towards this new achievement. No matter how much they were gummed, no woven wraps or fingers were harmed in the making of this milestone.

Things I've Learned This Summer- A Summer Summary

We're back!  I'm typing to you from my new laptop- a tiny little 11" beauty that will soon be outfitted with covers and protectors on almost every inch, and will never, ever, ever be placed on the same table as a glass of water.  

After a few weeks of being unintentionally unplugged, and with Labor Day approaching, I thought a list of things I've learned this summer felt really appropriate.  Hope you enjoy catching up with our new knowledge as much as we've enjoyed our summer. 

This summer, I learned...

How to carry Etta in a woven wrap on my back.

Younger siblings really do reach some milestones more quickly than their older siblings- like pulling up to standing.  Wow, Etta.

When fishing in Prospect Park, you're more likely to catch turtles than fish.

Target is always hot.  The local grocery store is always cold.  I should dress us appropriately.

Although it may sound counterintuitive, the more people who share an air mattress, the easier it is to sleep.

Real men wear non-toxic blue toe nail polish.

Each adult entering a NYC public pool is required to have a padlock, and all children under 4 need to wear a swim diaper.

This recipe for coconut flour zucchini bread is just as good as regular zucchini bread.  Really!  (Cook's note: drain the shredded zucchini first and add a generous amount of dark chocolate chips.)

Tye thinks I look like this- and, apparently, that I have a mustache.

Any chux absorbable pads left over from a home birth make easy toddler mattress protectors.

Cheap travel spray bottles from Target make awesome replacements for water guns.

Breastfed baby sweat smells strikingly similar to breastfed baby poop (at least, Etta's does- do I just have a stinky baby?).

The Bronx Zoo's Asia Monorail ride provides the perfect opportunity for a 20 minute nap.

BabyLegs makes mesh versions with SPF to keep baby's legs cool and protected.  Genius!

No matter how many flavors of ice cream she tries, Tye's favorite is always "white."

Hot dogs are delicious- when they come from our CSA and are made from local 100% grass-fed beef.

It wasn't that Etta didn't like baths or water.  She just didn't have the right company until recently.

Stonyfield Farms Yogurt Squeezers, those plastic tubes of yogurt marketed to kids, can be frozen to make super easy frozen yogurt popsicles that happen to be Tye's favorite food right now.

Cornstarch and water, combined to form that solid/liquid goo, keeps Tye entertained for literally hours- but some will always end up in her mouth, so spending money on organic is justified.

The wine fridge makes a great overflow storage option for farm share vegetables that won't fit in our compact kitchen refrigerator.

Sometimes the hardest part of toilet training a toddler is convincing her wiping is an important step.

This tree is called a Rose of Sharon and is a type of hibiscus tree that thrives in urban (read: poor) environmental conditions.  We have four in our backyard and they are blooming all over Brooklyn.

During early summer, Rose of Sharon trees attract aphids, which attract ladybugs.  Ladybug larvae do not survive in bug jars, even when supplied with aphids.

Lightning bugs do survive in bug jars, for over 24 hours if supplied with a variety of leafy herbs from the garden.

Tye's favorite playground doesn't have a slide or swings.  Just bars to climb.

And, I saved the best for last---  I'm going to have a niece!  And Tye and Etta are going to have a cousin!!!  Tyler's sister is due with a girl in December.  This little girl is already a member of our family and we can't wait to meet her.  I'll finally be Auntie Em!

Unplugged- Unintentionally

A couple weeks ago, Etta napped and Tye colored quietly at the kitchen table as I read emails on my laptop. When the doorbell rang, I grabbed my keys and answered the door: just a delivery for our upstairs neighbor, for which I signed.

Did you catch my mistake in there? No? Well, neither did I. I left my laptop on the table, open, next to Tye and returned to find an empty drinking glass laying across the keyboard. A puddle engulfed the laptop's footprint. As I tipped it up, water ran out from between the keys.

It never recovered.

I miss writing. Emails, blog posts, lengthy Facebook responses. But for the past few months, I have been making an effort to spend more time living in the moment and less time online. This has been a great opportunity to practice that.

I hope to be back online with a new laptop soon. Until then, just know that we're enjoying our summer. Every unplugged moment.

To Etta, at 7 Months

Dear Etta,

Happy 7 months, little one! You have grown so much in the past month! You recently entered a phase in which you are completely unsatisfied in my arms if there is any activity around us. You insist upon being down on the floor. Except that once you're there, in your attempt to move towards the action from your seated position, you usually perform a faceplant onto the floor. You are *this* close to crawling- you just need to start moving those hands and feet once you're on all fours. Oh, how that development will change our lives!

Wherever you are, you try your hardest to follow the action. If you sit with Daddy or me on the couch, you pull yourself up to look over the back of the couch and watch the movement in the kitchen. When we walk alongside Tye with you in the carrier, you hang over the side of the carrier as far as you can to watch Tye walk. You so desperately want a piece of the action that I'll be very happy for you once you can get there on your own.

Sometimes at night when I wake from a deep sleep to see you beside me, I panic. I think the girl laying beside me is Tye and my heart skips beats as I search desperately for my baby. And quickly I realize that the girl beside me is you- my baby- and you're just already that big.

I'm not sure where the time has gone and how you, my baby, have grown so much already. As we sit on the brink of you becoming mobile, I'm spending
every possible second holding you in my arms. You, my sweet, smiley, almost-mobile baby. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

Love,
Mama

Our Future Olympian!

Tye spends her time at the playground practicing "flips," as she calls them, for her floor routine... 

 working on her parallel bars skills...

perfecting her finish on the beam...

and greeting her cheering section.