Oh, y’all.  Life is so busy happening to me, I sometimes forget that I’m not ACTUALLY that busy, what with the only one kid and the no job and the spouse that gets home at 2 in the afternoon.  Somehow I still end up falling into bed at 8:30, exhausted from… what, I can’t always say.  I’m not really complaining, honestly.  More just noticing.  Funny, eh?

In any case, the last two weekends actually HAVE been busy- a trip to Palm Springs, some out-of-town guests, and a visit with family- all picture-worthy occasions.  Also, Olivia turned nine months old, which did not cause me to be any busier than normal, as it was not celebrated with any more fanfare than a Twitter post and a “hey, Olivia is nine months old today!” mention as we were all sitting on the living room floor.  But it felt kinda big anyways- we are inching ever closer to her first birthday, and then I’ll have a ONE YEAR OLD, and HOLY SHIT, I never really imagined myself here (I think my fantasies of growing up and having kids always just sort of… stopped with a mental image of me holding a baby.  I didn’t even have the imagination to go further than that).

Nine months is pretty awesome so far- she’s pulling up to standing on anything that will hold still long enough, and making the first tentative steps towards cruising along the furniture.  Her babbling has taken on a more word-like texture- even when she’s crying.  She gets MAD now, in a way I don’t think she did before- most notably when I force her to sit on her booty in the bath, when all she’d like in this whole world is to stand, wobbly legged and clinging to the edge of the tub.  She understands more now- “be careful,” “on your booty,” “are you all done?,” “give the baby a kiss” (this last one has her pressing her open mouth to her reflection in the mirror, most times bonking her forehead on the way there).

She has her two bottom teeth, but the two upper ones are threatening to erupt at any moment.  She’s refusing the spoon more and more, so I’ve been throwing all sorts of things on her tray to see what she’ll go for with her hands.  It’s gross and messy, but then she grins with a mouthful of watermelon and the juice runs down her chin and I figure I won’t ALWAYS have to clean it up.

She reaches for me when she’s unsure and crashes her head into my chest when she’s tired and sometimes I rock her to sleep because I still can.  From her first day on the planet I’ve wanted her to grow up faster, and finally now I think I could stay here for a while.

I doubt you came here to see me get all maudlin about my BAYBEEE, so here are some pictures:

We went to Palm Springs for a day, to catch up with all our carefree lesbian friends at Dinah Shore, and introduced Olivia to the swimming pool.

100% Sun Protection

We invited some friends from San Francisco over for a play date, and it was too cute for words, even though Olivia pulled toys out of Daniela’s hands and Daniela wanted to pet Olivia on the head a bit harder than necessary.  I hope I’m able to connect with some nice (and by “nice” I mean “not off-put by my potty mouth and also big fans of wine”) moms with little girls for Olivia to play with.  I think we’d both really enjoy it.

Too Much Cute In One Room

We spent Sunday at J’s sister’s house for brunch, and even though the Easter Bunny skipped our house entirely (I am lazy, also it kind of didn’t occur to me that I should make her a basket), Olivia was well taken care of by her aunts, uncles, and cousins.  J’s sister has a little white dog, some sort of curly mop-like thing that has a breed name that ends in -poo, and Olivia was OVER THE MOON for him.  Walter (that’s his name) play bowed to her and wagged his tail at the speed of light, licking her toes and then her nose, and Olivia crawled after him and pulled his hair and laughed and laughed and laughed, and I hope my SIL caught it on video because I was too busy basking in the sound of my little girl laughing to capture it in more permanent form than memory.

What's That On Your Face, Uncle Curt?

We tried to take a family photo, but getting the three of us to smile at the same time, in the same direction, while standing in the sun seems to be too much to ask for.  Here are my favorites:

I hope you all had good weekends too.