Today I saw a picture on Facebook of Francesca (my cousin, Ian, and his wife, Sarah’s baby). She was sitting with a little pink soccer ball that we’d given her when she was born. She was so cute. It reminded me that you, too, had a little soccer ball that you were given from our friend, Marc. You received it right before you were born. I decided that you were probably just about the right age to start playing with it. So I dressed you up in your sporty outfit from Aunt Nancy and cousin Ali, and we had a little photo shoot. Adorable.

We took you to your first CU football game today. CU requires that even infants have paid tickets. We have season tickets, but we only have two seats. Therefore, your nana was going to watch you today while we went to the game. As we were getting ready for the game, our neighbor came over and mentioned that she could get us two tickets from a friend. We were so excited to take you to your first game, and your nana was going to join us. It took us awhile to get out of the house, so we were a little late to the game. The plan was that your dad and you would go in the game and meet up with our neighbor to get the tickets, then your dad would come give them to your nana and I so we could get in. Your dad decided to test the ‘even infants must have a ticket rule’ and handed the ticket guy only one ticket. And you guys got in!

Then, your dad walked half way around the stadium to where the neighbors were supposed to be sitting, and couldn’t find them. He couldn’t reach them on their phones, and was so frustrated and upset, thinking that we were all there but didn’t have enough tickets for us to get in. So he walked back around the field to where nana and I were waiting outside the gate, and handed us the two tickets, one of which he’d already used, thinking that we might as well try to get in since we were all there. I handed one to your nana and said ‘well, one of us won’t be able to get in’ and we just walked to the gates without a real plan. It turned out your nana had the already-used ticket, and the ticket checker could not figure out what was going on. I just walked through and stood with you and your dad, and your nana somehow was able to convince the guy to let her in. So we all went in and took our seats for your first CU game. You did pretty good, just looking around for a bit, then playing on the floor next to our feet for awhile. Around halftime you fell asleep. We left shortly thereafter since CU wasn’t doing well and so that we could get you to bed. But all in all we had fun adventures at the game.

This afternoon we were all invited to attend a party at the house of one of dad’s co-workers. The party was for everyone that your dad works with. We had lots of fun meeting new people and seeing those that we’d previously met at other events. There were lots of babies there, and it was neat to see and compare you to those that were lots younger or older. You did great at the party, falling asleep for awhile and even letting a few strangers hold you. One person even commented how much you look like me. For probably your first six months or so I literally did not hear one comment from people mentioning that you looked like me. Everyone proclaimed your likeness to your father. But over the last couple of months I’ve been hearing more and more statements that people think you look like me. I don’t think that you’ve changed much in how you look, though you’ve definitely filled out a bit and you have the cutest, round cheeks now. But apparently to others, you’re now at least partially resembling me. I don’t know who you most resemble, but I know that you are 100% adorable.

Your brother, Moguly, had surgery yesterday to remove two cysts from his face. He has a big cone around his neck that he has to wear for the next couple of weeks. We are all generally unhappy with him having to wear the cone. Moguly of course finds it awkward and uncomfortable, and the rest of us are just sick of having him ram it into our legs or hearing it scratch against the walls and furniture.

You, however, seem really enthralled and happy with the cone. You cannot get enough of it and are constantly crawling over to him and grabbing at it. Your dad proclaimed that you are definitely the only one in the family who’s happy about the cone.

For almost two full months you’ve been sleeping through the night. We put you down between 7 and 8 pm, and you sleep until 6 or 7 am. Except for the last few days. You’re now waking up in the middle of the night, around 4 am, for a feeding. You nurse and then quickly go back to sleep. We’re again experimenting with different things to see if anything helps you sleep through the night again. Your nana and papa suggested that you’re probably cold, since the weather has shifted and it is much colder at night, yet you’re sleeping in the same thin pajamas you’ve worn all summer. So we started doubling up your pajamas. But that didn’t prove to be the problem; even with two pajamas on, you’re still waking in the middle of the night.

I wonder if you’re just hungry since you have become so mobile and active during the days. I’m trying to really feed you well and get you filled up before bedtime, but so far nothing is satiating you enough to get you through the night. Previously, we had been giving you one serving of solid food and then nursing you before bed. Now we’re giving you a serving of food, some rice cereal, and nursing you. But alas, you’re still waking. For now I’m taking in comfort in the fact that you’re happy and healthy and growing like crazy, that you go to sleep immediately after I nurse you in the middle of the night, and that in wee hours of the morning you are sleepy and snuggly, which is not a very common occurrence during the days.

We’ve still been dutifully introducing new foods every four days or so. We’ve yet to find one you don’t like. The latest was apples, which we were fairly certain you’d love due to their sweetness and your fondness of pears. And true to our prediction, you gobbled them right up. The doctor suggested that we could even hand you a large slice of apple and let you suck and chew on it. Now that we know you’re not allergic to apples, we’ll definitely do this, especially when we’re out at a restaurant and need something to keep you occupied. I can’t wait to see what you think of your first apple slice.

Every time we give you a bite of food, whether it’s something I’d generally consider yummy (pears, apples, avocados) or something that I’d prefer to not stick in my mouth (peas, rice cereal), you make a soft little ‘ummmmmm’ sound while you’re eating it. You do this with every single bite, without fail. And it gets me every time. It is the cutest thing in the world. Ummmmmm.

We’ve been feeding for many weeks now using the hard plastic, molded chair that we were given. It has a tray on it and provides some support to you, which was perfect as you were still perfecting the art of sitting. It’s worked great for feeding you, though it’s not the most stable and it’s not meant to be used on raised surfaces, like countertops. So we’ve needed to get you a highchair, and we’ve been spending some time researching them and trying to determine which would be best.

Finally last week we decided on one, ordered it and your dad put it together last night when it arrived. We used it tonight for the first time to feed you and you seemed pretty happy with your new seat. It has a little rest for your feet and a nice big tray for you to pound on. You liked looking around and got a swift hand on the watering can sitting on a ledge behind you, but thankfully it was empty. We’ve now repositioned the highchair so that you can’t reach anything else.

Our house is still in a bit of a state of disarray from all the clothes sorting. When I came out this morning your dad was helping organize the hat and sock and accessory drawer, and so were you. You were sitting in it, with a too-small hat sitting on your head and a big smile on your face. You were busily looking through everything in the drawer. It was a priceless moment.

We’re so fortunate in that we’ve been given literally hundreds of articles of clothes (and shoes and socks and hats, too) for you from friends who have little girls older than you. Before you were born I sorted through everything that I had at the time, categorizing them into newborn girl clothes and newborn gender-neutral clothes, and then binning the rest by size (0-3 months, 3-6 months, etc). We had clothes through roughly 12 months. But over the last few months our clothes stash has grown to include clothes through size 3 years. As you’ve quickly grown through sizes, I’ve had a hard time keeping up and staying organized. I’ve been relegating outgrown clothes to bags in the garage, and hand-me-downs that we keep receiving also get dropped in the garage. All this has resulted in a huge mess of boxes, bags, and Rubbermaid bins filled with clothes in no particular order at all. Your dad was getting frustrated by the seemingly endless supply of clothes that I was randomly depositing in the garage, and I was overwhelmed with constantly trying to find bigger clothes for you while pulling too-small clothes out of circulation in your current wardrobe.

Then, I had the perfect solution – your nana. She loves all of the little girl clothes, and even has a large supply of baby clothes that she’s collected over the years. Some of them are dear favorites of mine from when I was a little girl; others are clothes that were just too cute to resist that she’s bought for her doll collection. So I asked her if she’d mind helping me by sorting through all of the clothes, organizing them by size, and adding some sanity to the chaos. She was so excited that she agreed immediately, and undertook this mission today. Every once in awhile she’d come into my office and show me something she’d found that was just too adorable to pack away without first celebrating it. And then a couple of times she came in with you dressed in one of the new finds. She was having the time of her life, and you didn’t seem to mind playing dress up with her.

About mid-morning I came out from my office to grab some water and I think every surface in the living room was covered in a pile of clothes. It was a huge mess. But by the end of the day she had put all the outgrown clothes, organized by size, into appropriately-marked bags. She’d grouped the clothes that were still too big for you, with the largest on the bottom and the ones that you’ll be wearing soon on top, and put them into a big Rubbermaid bin. She had a bag of items that were well-worn and loved and a bit past their prime to be donated to Goodwill. She also had a big pile of clothes to launder, clothes that are either perfect for you now or will be soon.

Today we took a walk up to the park where you swung for awhile, you had your first trip down a slide, and then we all went for a swim. The pool felt a lot colder to me than last time, and in fact I was shivering in the water and abandoned the pool for the hot tub. But you stayed in the pool for about 20 minutes, happy and content the entire time.

This evening your nana and papa watched you while your dad and I ran out for a quick drink. We went to the Breckenridge Brewery, where I remember sharing (9 years ago) a nice, special, quiet meal amidst the chaos of our upcoming wedding, just two days away. And where your dad and I took our first solo outing after having you, when you were just two weeks old and I needed to get out of the house. It’s amazing now, looking back at how overwhelmed I was during that day months ago when you were so little, thinking about how much fun we’ve had, and how much we love you so.

Your nana and I got a massage today, than we met you, your dad and your papa in Frisco for lunch. We walked around town a bit then found a place to eat. We put you in a highchair and tied a few toys on and you were pretty content for most of the meal. I have to admit that we felt pretty proud of ourselves for coming up with the solution of tying your toys on to the chair so that when you drop them off, they don’t get dirty or roll away on the floor.

When we got home we watched the CU game. We’re really trying to keep you from watching TV, and so your papa found a good little space for you in the corner, between the couch and the chair. You’re contained back there, can’t see the TV, but still have a little room to move around. There is the handle for the reclining chair right there, and you enjoyed playing with it. You kept grabbing it and trying to get it in your mouth, and before we knew it, we looked and you had taken it off from the chair! We’re not sure what happened, but it caused us to proclaim that you’re going to be an engineer just like me. Also of note on this day: CU finally won a game.

And the last noteworthy item from today is that you had your first piggy back ride! You seemed pretty happy there, on top of the world on your dad’s shoulders. I can only imagine how many times in the future you’re going to ask for a ride up there.

We drove to Breckenridge tonight, and unfortunately got a later start then we had planned. We hit traffic on the way, and it was a pretty slow drive. It was the first time that we drove all the way there in one straight shot, without stopping somewhere to get out and give you a break. You did really good, though you certainly were ready for bed when we got here.