A Little Christmas Cheer

I'm listening to you ring bells and sing on the front porch in Ocean Springs. The Christmas tree here has already been undecorated but there's still lots of family around to make the house festive and busy (sometimes very busy!). While our original plan was to head back to Atlanta today our car is currently busted up at the shop (this makes it's third trip to the shop in two months) and your dad and I are planning how to spend our extra day . I'm thinking we'll head out in a few minutes to take you to the seashore or some other exotic locale (like Hudsons...very exotic).

Your first Christmas was really wonderful and as predicted, the best presents were the bows, paper and Lemur's wooden spoons. You've knocked around at your drum set and bounced in the Exersaucer but nothing beats those wooden spoons. I won't get into all the details but it appears that Santa did track your movements carefully and was able to deliver the goods in time for Christmas morning.

It's time to move on right now, I'll follow up with a fuller Christmas report soon.

Santa's Lap

A few have asked if we're going to see Santa in the mall this year. Because of our buy-nothing-new-year commitments, I'm able to spend this holiday season mall-free. So, we arranged to have Santa sit on your lap (kind of). You seem alternately over and underwhelmed by all the glitz of the holiday season.

Something to Chew On

It's almost Christmas and you couldn't care less. You do love the sparkling trees that have, inexplicably, popped up in every house you visit and sometimes appear smack dab in the middle of the street. A well decorated tree (read: lots of hand-blown glass ornaments and those expensive Radko glitter encrusted ones) will keep you occupied for a good twenty to thirty minutes. Next year, we'll have to erect a security fence around the tree but this year your immobile and I'm really thankful.

The big news this Christmas will not be the gifts (although your dad and I are making you one pretty awesome set of drums out of thrift store pots and pans which we may regret when the decibel level starts to rise) or the big guy in the red suit. This year it's all about Christmas dinner; finally you'll get to join in the feast! Christmas falls just four days shy of your 6 month birthday and by all accounts you're ready for some culinary exploration. And of course, as I've quickly learned in this journey of parenting, every milestone reached wrenches the heart just a little.

For the past five months and few odd weeks you've foraged for food in just one place. Sometimes you've stopped by Ma's House of Delectable Dishes for a quick snack, sometimes for a prolonged linen-napkin and candle-lit affair. Basically, it's been a table for two for as long as you've been alive and I'm a little jealous of our time together. Obviously, the tap will remain open for as long as we both find it convenient but the table settings are about to change.

I love food so much that sharing this experience with you is also a little exciting. We're planning to skip the jars of mish-mashed stuff and move straight to the real stuff--sweet potatoes, carrots, avocado (if you can beat me to it), squash (no worries there, it's all yours), pears, bananas, apples. The idea behind this baby-led-weaning, is that you experience food in it's original form and start to make decisions about how much you eat and how you eat it. You get to mix the flavors together (there's no pureed "mixed vegetable" involved) and I won't have to make the sound of a choo-choo train to get you to open up. Less stress for me and more fun for you--what's not to love?

As your dad and I were eating at the Dekalb Farmers' Market last night I watched kids at a table next to us lap up a plate full of Indian spiced vegetables, leafy spinach and fried okra. I hope you learn to love that kind of variety of texture and taste. Then I bit into a heart of palm and was briefly reminded of the way your breath smells--a smell I would love to make a scratch 'n sniff sticker of if I could figure out how to capture it. There's something so unbelievably pure about that smell and I'll sure miss it when it's replaced by carrots and pears. I guess I'll be buying lots of hearts of palm. But for now, I've got a table for two reserved in about thirty minutes at your favorite little diner and I hear the dishes are always served up with a smile.

Stimulating the Brain

The other night I made the comment to a friend that I was finding the stay-at-home gig intellectually stimulating. It hasn't been something I've thought about a lot and I haven't had any deep conversations about it with your dad or anyone else. But somehow, suprising even myself, I'm finding that your brain is challenging mine.

It's a beautiful thing to track the developments of a five month old. Sometimes it's hard to keep up; you're consistently going to sleep doing things you weren't doing when you woke up that same morning. For intsance, we went to the zoo a few days ago and it was a whole new experience. The first time we went, with Chad and Molly, you slept through 99% of it, waking for a quick peek at the pandas. This last time you saw everything. When the zebras moved across the yard, you followed them and you were delighted by the Meerkats tumbling over one another. I swear, you even chuckled watching the baby gorilla play in the leaves. Wherever I pointed, your gaze followed.

I don't think you're brain will ever be quite as active as it is in this first year or two and watching it whirr is quite an experience. Granted, we're not solving global warming or discussing the pitfalls of the protestant work ethic, but we've got plenty of time for that. You've mastered connecting the word "Peanut" with the furry thing that loves to lick your face. That's a good place to start.