Your first hurricane!

Dear Pea,
Hurricane Sandy stormed through our life and neighborhood a couple of days ago. It was a crazy storm, flooding lower Manhattan and waterfront Brooklyn as it blew through.

no Baby Boot Camp today!!

We were extremely lucky to have kept our power and water on throughout the storm and to have minimal clean up to do. Daddy's office is in lower Manhattan where the power has been off since the storm and is expected to remain off all week. So, he's working from home all week. You love this 

helping Daddy work from home

The storm lasted a very long time, probably 24 hours that we didn't feel safe being outside and another 20 or so that we were just cautious.  We stayed inside from about 6pm on Sunday night to about 2pm on Tuesday afternoon.  We went a little stir crazy. I ate lots of Halloween candy and Daddy introduced you to The Muppet Show. You now love The Muppet Show. You sat for an hour or more, staring at the TV, while I apologized to you for rotting your not even 10 month old brain with TV.  Oh, well, special circumstances call for special treatment.  And it was a hard few days to be cooped up-you are not feeling your best. You have cut one of your top teeth (top left) and have three more coming in any time, so you are uncomfortable.  Your teeth are coming in atypically, too: the right canine is coming in faster than the right front one; you look like a real life Jack o Lantern.  

Speaking of  Jack o Lanterns, today is Halloween!  Hooray!  Last Sunday, right before the storm hit, we went to a Halloween party with your friends.  It was the cutest thing ever, all you crawling costumed babes wiggling around the floor of a bar.

Just a fraction of the party-goers!

You in all your Godzilla glory

Buh Bye!

Dear Pea,
You said buh bye to Daddy as he was leaving to go to work this morning! So so so so so freaking cute! I was nursing you and you were babbling as usual between "bites" and Daddy kissed you goodbye and said "bye bye!"  You said "Buh!" and so we both said "Bye bye!" again and you looked right at Daddy and said "buh bye!" and then waved.  Made our day, if not week and month.

Okay, probably not month, because there have been other great things, too.  You now play peek a boo with us! You hold a blanket or towel or shirt over your eyes, then dramatically pull it down to see us. If we yell Peek a boo! you do it again and again, laughing as you go.  It's amazing to watch your comprehension of your surroundings so dramatically shift. You know get things.  You are an agent of your body and go where you want to go, when you want to.  You are a speed crawler and are cruising around the couch and coffee table.  You enjoy making obstacle courses out of life and will intentionally climb over a barrier instead of avoiding it.

climbing over my leg to wave at yourself in the camera

You wave now, all the time.  Your arm doesn't bend when you wave, so you either flap your entire arm or you open and close your hand.  You do this when you're greeting someone, when leaving someone, or for emphasis.  You still flirt with people on the street all the time, and now you've added waving into the mix.  I sometimes see people smiling on the sidewalk and haven't noticed that you've been waving and smiling at them first. It's like you've made it your mission to bring a bit of joy to everyone you see and you really do, Sweet Pea.  People leave your presence smiling. It's amazing to watch. It fills me with such joy.

spreading joy! This is you flirting with my friend

Lately I've been trading some childcare with another mama so that she can study and I can go to business meetings.  You and little H are sort of friends-you have similar personalities and sort of compete for the mama's attention.  When I have you, I end up holding both of you a lot, playing in the mirror and getting a double dose of snuggles. It's such a nice way to grow up, I think; these little communities of helping hands.  You get to play and interact with other babies and we mamas get a break once in a while, which also helps us be better mamas!

You both always want the same toy

Babyness

Dear Pea,
You are such a delicious baby these days! Of course, duh,  you've been a baby this whole time, but now we're really in the 'what you think of as a baby' stage: you are crawling but not walking, you babble incessantly but aren't talking, you're tasting food, but not eating meals. You still love to be held/carried/worn and are just at the beginning stages of wanting to do things yourself (eating being the big one). You laugh every day, at being tickled, at being thrown in the air, at having your hair and teeth brushed.  You've also started laughing in reaction to other people, not just your own stimulation.  Basically, when Daddy makes a silly face or funny noise (I'm not nearly as funny, but everyone knows that).

But you're growing more and more aware of your body and it's abilities.  Changing your diaper these days is like wrestling a slippery fish.  Luckily your marathon poops have decreased to once or twice a day, so I'm not constantly wrestling a poopy fish.  But as soon as the diaper comes off, you roll over into crawl position.  Sometimes you pull yourself up to standing, sometimes to sitting, other times you just try to crawl off the table (yikes).  It is very difficult to diaper a moving target.  You find this funny, and, honestly, most of the time I do, too.  I've learned to allocate a lot of time to each diaper change and if we're not rushing out of the house, it's fine. And even if we are rushing, I've learned it's okay to be late. 

You also are less and less inclined to sit still for anything.

 Here I am, trying to take a cute picture of you and your BFF and you're not interested.

And here you're hosting a cocktail party. 

That's okay, Sweet Pea. I love that you'd rather you explore all of your surroundings and play with your friends than sit still. You are already such an adventurer.

First Spinning class

Dear Pea,
Since you were 10 weeks old, I've been teaching Spinning classes.  I started teaching early in the morning while you were still asleep and have added more and more.  Sometimes you hang out with Daddy while I teach. Once a week, you got to the YMCA babysitting.  Which you usually enjoy, or at least tolerate.  But not today. You have *four* teeth coming in, almost breaking the surface but not quite. You had a very busy weekend with shortened or missing naps.  You didn't want to go to babysitting when I had to teach.  So, halfway through, you came to class. You wore neon pink headphones to protect your ears. You stared at all of the people pedaling furiously, giving each person the once over.  And then, once you got used to the black light, the fact that sweaty mama was yelling at these people and they wanted her to, and the music, you started cheering them on.  You chattered encouragements and, after class, clapped for them.  It was so sweet.

I eat dried mango after Spinning and a couple of weeks ago you decided to eat some, too. You love it-we both walk home from the gym munching on the tough sweets.  Today, two people (mamas themselves) stopped me on the street to tell me how great dried mango is for teething babies. So, there you go, Sweet Pea, you sure do know what's up!

Finally food!

Dear Pea,
Finally, in the past week, you are eating solid food.  Two, sometimes three meals a day. Carrots, yogurt, broccoli (still a favorite), avocado, dried mango (big favorite!), cheese...In India, many people are vegetarians.  Some have little choice in the matter, at least at first as that's how their families eat, but some children, though born to meat-eating parents, refuse meat right away and are considered innate veggies and respected as such.  As one of the principles of API states, we strive to feed you with love and respect. And though I strongly believe that a vegetarian diet isn't the optimal one, if you had innately been an herbivore, I would have respected that.  No need to worry.  You love meat.  Chicken especially, but beef is good, too.  Salmon? Yum.  You really aren't into eggs so much, but everything else is full speed ahead.  A few nights ago, I shredded a bunch of leftover chicken for chicken salad for me. I added mayo and spicy dijon mustard and figured I'd give you a taste.  You must have eaten a least a tablespoon, one fingertip full from me at a time.  Delicious.

 oatmeal

In conjunction with your new found affinity for solid food, you have started standing up by yourself.  Usually you pull yourself up using a table, chair, wall or your parents legs and then let go, standing wide legged and grinning for a few seconds before plopping down on your tush.  A few times you've stood up from a squat position in the middle of the floor.  Most of the time you applaud for yourself while standing untethered; it's ridiculously cute. Clapping has become another favorite activity and you tend to do it at correct moments.  When you've accomplished some feat of strength or cleverness or when someone else has.  Or, lately on weekends, when someone on the TV scores a touchdown.

clapping while talking to Bobob

And, finally, extreme validation for your parents: you have been a champion of independence. When I take you to any open play space, you immediately crawl away from me towards the middle of the room. You will happily chew on a ball and watch the other kids and adults without so much as a second glance in my direction.  In music class, while all the other babies stay close to their parents, you cross the room to the good stuff: the lovely singer and her guitar.