seven months

Dear Oscar,

On your seven-month birthday I flew to California in short leather boots and a dress that was impossible to nurse in. You stayed with your Daddy all day, as usual, practicing sitting up and working on cutting your third tooth. You ate banana and sweet potato and pureed ham and bean soup, but hardly any milk, and when I got back home just before your bedtime you had your final meal in great big gulps.

I trimmed the crazy alfalfa pouf off the top of your head last weekend after Nana scolded me, so it is shorter now but it still sticks up and I like it. You still have a few of those two-and-a-half inch hairs from birth scattered across your head, long and fine and silvery when they catch the light.

I love your ears. I love the muscle in your forehead that looks like a second set of eyebrows, and the expressions that both sets let you make. I love the way your tongue keeps curling to the top of your mouth to feel the edge of your brand new tooth.

You like to catch someone's eye from across the room and make a cawing creaky gear sound that your sister can perfectly imitate. You like to laugh when Lucy jumps for you and plays peek-a-boo. You like to snuggle, to be kissed under the chin, to be held upside down.

You smile less at strangers as you get older, and stare more; your eyes are still a dark slate blue, but a ring is emerging around the pupil that suggests a gray hazel. We're waiting to see what settles in. 

Happy seven months, little one!

I love you.

Love,
Your Mama

friday cute shot

boo!

At close to the last minute, I got my Halloween mojo back. Inspiration came in the form of an orange glitter skull marked 70% off at JoAnn Fabrics, a package of Fimo for my long-imagined crown and belt of bones, and a big bowl of Texas red chili to share with a little frog and a little Christopher Robin and their parents.

Shaggy took one for the team and stayed home to put Oscar to bed and hand out candy while the rest of us went out to trick-or-treat. Lucy and Luca were way more into the whole thing than either of them were last year, racing each other to the doorbells and never hesitating to yell out "trick or treat!" and "happy Halloweeen!". Scarlett, a little younger, was a little slower getting from house to house.

We went up one side of the street, and down the other, Lucy eagerly finding every porch light that was on with the glee she typically reserves for spotting streetlights. Lucy collected chocolate and lollipops, and at one house a "cheese ball" that I later discovered was a tiny box of milk duds. At a certain point in the evening, Lucy and Luca decided they were done, so we passed the rest of the houses on the way home without knocking. (Scarlett wasn't quite ready to quit.) We parted ways in front of our house, Lucy and Luca chanting "cheese ball! cheese ball!" on the way to their front doors.

an open letter to everyone

Awhile ago I read this writing station idea from a mom with a son just a little older than Lucy--the ideas were wonderful, with accessible stationary and a desk and a visual address book for the child to select family or friends to write to. I haven't gotten around to setting up a formal space for letter writing yet (though I would still like to), but we did introduce the concept, and every once in awhile Lucy will want to get out some stationary and write a letter.

Often the letters have been drawings, but lately she's been asking me to transcribe her letters in words. If you start reading her letter back to her, she gets even more excited. When she's done she asks for a stamp and puts the envelope out on the hooks at the mailbox.

The "letter" below was some sort of dictated stream of consciousness she did with her dad at lunch, sketched on the back of an envelope. I came upon the evidence on a break from work earlier this week, and when Shaggy saw me holding it he said when she made him read it back to her she just laughed and laughed.

Dear Gramme and Grandpa,
I miss you guys. Can you come back to Portland?

Dear Oscar,
Do you want to come?

Dear Nana and Papa

Dear Daddy
Dear Mommy
Dear Little Bear

Come back Nana and Papa!

Come back, note!

Come back Nana and Papa.

Come back little lamb.

Dear Oscar,
Do you want a little bear?

Dear Oink

Dear Giraffe

Dear Monkey
Dear Giraffe
Dear Monkey
Dear Giraffe
Dear Monkey
Dear Tiger
Dear Bear
Dear Leopard

Dear Jump jump jump jump jump jump giraffe

Laugh, Oscar!

Lucy, jump!

Laugh, Oscar! Lucy, jump!

Dear Oscar

Lucy jump penguin Oscar penguin Lucy jump laugh

friday cute shot