Holly of the sea

We took Holly to the beach this weekend. We expected her to fear the waves and love the pool. Goodness were we wrong! She loved the beach practically from the moment her toes touched the salty water. I put her down on the beach to take my cover-up off and she immediately started crawling towards the water. She wasn't terribly excited about the sand. But she loved every second she was in the water. Above is just one of many photos and videos we took of her playing in the ocean.

11 months!

Holly is 11 months old today! I still can't believe it. I realized this week that my baby will soon be a toddler. I am so excited to see every step of her growth as she toddles along.

You can also really see her little personality. Last week I came home from picking her up at Chelsea's, came around to the back seat and found her sitting with the entire head of the rubber duck in her mouth. As soon as she saw me laughing, her mouth broke into a wide grin and the duck fell out. She likes to do things just to get a grin out of us.

She still adores the cats and chases them all over the house. Cubbie is quite gentle with her despite the vast quantities of hair that end up in Holly's little fist while I try to encourage "GENTLE!" play. Frank still doesn't seem to know how to handle Holly. He looks at her with loathing one minute and the next he kisses her forehead. I have a hard time separating them when it's time for Holly's naps. He wants to curl up next to her and when I carry him out of the room, Holly cries.

Obviously from the photos, she's pulling herself up very well. She hasn't quite figured out walking yet. She pulls herself up on the shelf to grab something, then she'll see something to the right just out of her reach. So she'll sit back down, crawl over closer and then stand back up. I feel like it's only a matter of time until she figures out that she doesn't need to crawl to mobilize. But no hurry. She's growing up fast enough!!!!

September- Close up

Until our head hits the pillow

So Holly is just 8 weeks away from being a one year old. She's doing all sorts of amazing things these days. She knows and points us out when asked. She points out the ducks in her favorite book (10 Little Rubber Ducks). She chases the cats all over the house. She is standing up and holding onto everything and doing a little belly dance moving her feet back and forth---walking just doesn't seem that far away. She makes all sorts of great noises. She giggles up a storm. She seems to crawl at the speed of light. And she sleeps fairly well (at least, for Holly).

Related to Holly's sleeping, I should say that I think we reached a point a few months back where instead of trying to change Holly, we've changed our expectations. We no longer expect an uninterrupted night of sleep. We've given up on pushing her into a crib in her room at night. Nor do we keep our fingers crossed that she'll "sleep through the night" anytime soon. We get plenty of sleep--- most nights. She generally nurses a few times and since she's in bed with us, it's not a problem. I know I need to start night weaning and weaning her in general in preparation for my travel to come. But I have a bit of time yet before that happens. So we're just enjoying our snuggle time with her in bed and the best sleep we've had in almost a year.

So that's what this post is about--us. I have to say that I listened for years to the parental lament without much sympathy. We all chose to have these little joys in our lives and with it comes all the trials and tribulations of parenthood. So let me start out by saying that I'm not complaining. But until I lived it, I had no idea what it was like to be constantly on, constantly moving, all day every day. Until our heads hit the pillow at night, Tom and I are either at our paid or unpaid work. And of course, parenting doesn't end when you head hits the pillow either. Children of all ages wake up for many reasons every night. My friend Lisa likes to joke that we'll sleep when our kids are in college. Tell that to a parent of a college-age kid and they'll tell you, "oh no you won't!"

I'm at work most days by 7:30am and sometimes have conference calls as late as 9:30pm. Tom's still working half time as an architect, but he's a full time dad. He's working on waterproofing our foundation every weekend since we couldn't afford to pay someone to do it for us. He's studying for and taking registration exams (4 down, 3 to go). We're both struggling to keep our house somewhat clean and all of us (including the cats) fed. We spend our "free time" looking up the millions of questions we have about our little one every day:

• What's the best way to cook an eggplant for a 10 month old (skin, seed, steam, etc)?
  
• If she cuts herself on the metal AC vent, do we need to be concerned about tetanus?
• How do we encourage her to be independent, while also thinking about discipline?
• How do you get tar off a baby?
  
• What are some methods of night weaning?
  

I think I will listen a little more closely to the parental lament in the future. I think I would describe this summer as the both the most rewarding and the most challenging of my life. Although, look above at the photo to see my reward.