First Blood

It had to happen sometime, and I guess I really should be happy it hadn't happened yet.

Chase had his first bleeding owie today.

I was in the garage, with the door to the house open, and Chase was amusing himself by banging on the keyboard of my laptop. I don't know when he realized I wasn't in the room, but I heard him coming - he is very loud when he crawls fast!

I expected him to crawl to the edge of the step and babble and gesture for me to come get him, the way he always does. But either he was going to fast to stop, or he wasn't watching where he was going, because by the time I looked up he was face down on the door mat.

He started crying, so I swept him up and spoke to him the way I do after any tumble. "Oh, baby, are you OK? That must have been surprising, to fall like that. And I bet it hurt, too." I thought at most he'd have a goose egg on whatever part of his face he'd landed on, but when he finally let me look, all I saw was blood. I cleaned it off while he cried (and cried, and cried...) and finally figured out it wasn't a bloody nose as I thought.

It doesn't look like much in this photo, but there's a nasty scrape under his nose. It looks like road rash from the rough scrape-your-boots door mat. Poor little fellow.

I held him and cuddled him and kissed him while he cried, and then put him down for a long and recuperative nap. This afternoon he seemed just fine, although at least one woman at the coffee shop thought he had a bloody nose.

I'm sure we're in for a lot more bumps and scrapes through his life. I just hope they are all as easily cured with mama kisses.

Two cute

I have a backlog of photos I want to share, but I'm too tired tonight to do that. Instead, I'm posting because I want to remember these two really cute and incredible things Chase did today.

First, we were in the living room and he was standing with one hand on his little walker-wagon and one hand on my leg. He'd been trying to get to my cell phone - and becoming very upset when I wouldn't hand it over - so I handed him his cell (an old inactive one we had in the garage). he was so excited to grab it, he did so with TWO hands - letting go of both of his supports. I don't think he really noticed; he was intent on opening the cell, standing wide legged and only a bit wobbly while I grinned for ear to ear and shouted (in my head) "Look at you! You're STANDING!!!" After about 10 seconds, he started to wobble, and rested his hand on my leg while he sank to kneeling. He did it again this evening, just letting go and standing for a few seconds. I don't think he'll be walking by his 14-month birthday (another week), but it won't be long now.

A little later, we were sitting on the kitchen floor, where he was insisting on drinking a strawberry smoothie from a "big boy cup" without any help from Mama. We both had our legs out in front of us and we were facing each other, with Chase between my knees. Well, he must have gotten frustrated with how I kept helping him and reminding him to hold the cup steady (and then reminding him to "tip it a little more" when he was trying to drink) - he suddenly pushed on the floor with his heels and spun around, facing away from me! This made him giggle. He took another sip of smoothie (and dribbled a little on the floor), then did it again, ending up facing me. Another giggle, another sip, more spinning. Soon he was just spinning himself around and around, stopping every once in a while to giggle and sip more smoothie. :-D OMG, I about died holding in my own laughter.

By the time he was done, there were plops of strawberry smoothie all over the floor, a dab of strawberry in his hair, and several dribbles of strawberry down his shirt. Addie (our dog) and I both took a stab at cleaning the floor, then Chase got a bath to wash off all the sticky. (He did more cute stuff in the bath, but I said I'd talk about two things...)

Gosh, I love my boy!

Rock on, baby!

My baby loves his keyboard, yes he does.

A boy and his..er..giraffe

Chase has had a giraffe "thing" for quite a while - his favorite toy off his play mat was a giraffe, and we used to make sure it came with us everywhere. Then someone gave us a second play mat giraffe and that lived on the dining table for a while. And who can forget the giraffe costume at Hallowe'en time?

But the giraffe of all giraffes came to us at Chase's birthday, courtesy of his paternal grandmother. At first, I was a bit skeptical; Chase has many stuffed toys and barely pays attention to any of them. Plus, this one was HUGE. OK , it could have been bigger - we saw one at Goodnight Room that came up to my chin. But still, I admit thinking, "What are we going to do with this??"

Then one morning - and I have no idea why - I decided to make the giraffe talk to Chase. I took hold of it under the "chin", wiggled it's head, and said, "Good morning, Chase. How are you today?" What a smile the giraffe got in response! I couldn't stop. "It's so nice to see you today," the giraffe said. "Can I give you nuzzles?" And the giraffe rubbed his face against Chase's. More smiles!

I've done this for a few weeks now, though not every day. Chase now smiles when the giraffe turns to face him, and I've seen him pet it once or twice. Today, though...well, today, he actually PLAYED with the giraffe.

He pulled it's feet. He rubbed it's tummy.

And he even lay down on it as though to go to sleep.

The trick was on me, though, when I took this position to mean he was ready for a nap. No, my guess is he just wanted to love on this special giraffe a little bit more. Sometimes giraffe "kisses" trump mama kisses, even if they both come from the same place.

A better day

Well, there was no baby insomnia last night. Thank goodness! So, despite the drizzly weather outside, I'm feeling much better this morning. Plus, I get to go to Pilates! Hooray. Then grocery shopping. Not so hooray, except I am making new-to-us meals this week; there's a touch of adventure in that.

Feeling a little blah

As if the title wasn't enough, here's another warning. This isn't a feel-good post.

It seems my desire and creativity for blogging just don't exist anymore. I guess I'm in a waning cycle with blogging, writing, and the Internet.

Blame Chase, I guess. He is very busy, which keeps me busy. If I try to get on the computer while he is awake, he does what he can to reach the keyboard and pound away. Makes it hard to do more than get in quick snatches of reading or commenting. And I'm using the computer for other things, as well - making mothering connections, finding recipes for creative and cheap dinners, figuring out how to better manage my house ('cause I'm terribly disorganized and the house is getting downright dirty), making "green" cleansers at home, and figuring out what to do with my garden.

I try to get online when Chase is napping, as he is now. But there are other things I'd like to do when he's napping, things that are also difficult to do when he's awake. Exercise, cook, clean, knit, read. Some days, it's like I'm cramming seven or eight hours worth of stuff into two, and hoping he doesn't wake up early! Other days, I think "Oh, why bother!" and just watch Martha and the noon news.

The past couple of nights have been Not Good. They haven't been horrible, and certainly not as bad as some of my friends' regular nights with teething toddlers. But they've been Not Good by our standards. Chase has been cutting a molar for two weeks, in addition to an incisor that is still only halfway in (those two appeared within days of each other). On Saturday, I noticed he has another molar popping through. Molars are really terrible. Really. They will be so useful once they are fully in, but in the meantime? Awful.

Knock wood we are healthy, financially secure, and reasonably happy. I'd like four straight hours of sleep and some sunshine, but all in all life is good.

It just hardly seems worth blogging about.