Another Baby-Related Blog Entry

Next week is e-baby's "10 month conference" at the daycare. This is when the primary teacher sits down with the parents of a baby nearing 10 months to discuss her progress, what competencies she must achieve before she can "move up" to the 1-year old class, and what we can do together to help her reach those goals.

Whoa there, little fillies... did you say move up to the 1-year old class? I mean, sure that's in 2 months but Holy Toledo where did the time go? Where is my little bitty baby that just a few months ago looked like a puffy little pillow of baby softness? Suddenly there's this (completely adorable) little almost-toddler who has a recognizable family resemblance, and a whole library of different facial expressions, living in the nursery where just a few days ago I put down a newborn.

Given that babies only grow up, never down, and given that I can't do a darn thing about how fast the time will fly, I need to embrace the growing up. My only consolation is that she just gets cuter, and funnier, and more interesting than before.

This week's tricks include:

*Weaning herself off of baby food. We've been giving her little bits of finger-food for a few months, and starting about 2 weeks ago, she is uninterested in strained baby food, and more interested in feeding herself. So now those strained peas and powdered oatmeal are being converted into baby pasta sauce, and instead of homemade strained zucchini, she gets pieces of the same veggies SNG and I are eating. And in e-babyland, no meal is complete without banana chunks. I've never seen anyone who loves banana that much. Although really, she loves anything that she can feed to herself.

*Saying bye-bye. She started waving and saying "Bye" when people leave the room. It needs refinement, though. She says it (and waves) after they've gone. Probably something to do with babies' slow reaction time.

*Singing whatever song is stuck in her head. She like to dance to music, and makes up her own songs, but the other day, as she rode in her bike trailer to day care, I actually recognized the song she was singing-- it was a Michael Franti song that was playing in the house right before we left. But where Michael says "Lies, lies, lies" she says "Dah dah dah."

Yesterday my friend Zen and her baby Season came over with a loaf of homemade whole wheat bread from flour than Zen's dad had ground himself (how very cool!) and the girls played in the kitchen together. I think we were both kind of taken aback at how much they are changing and becoming more engaged with the world around them. They were playing together, rather than mostly with their respective mommies, and laughing at each other's little baby-babble jokes. It was so much fun. Season's getting so big and her face is gaining lots of character.

I guess I just continue to be surprised at how quickly everything changes. As soon as I figure out how to handle one baby, one set of quirks, of needs, of dangers, another baby appears with a whole new set of quirks, needs, and dangers. I have newfound respect and more than a little guitly conscience regarding other mothers of small children, some of whom I've quietly chided in my mind for their kids getting on my nerves. Still, it keeps me on my toes.

Part of me hopes that the ten-month conference will reveal that e-baby is the smartest, most competent baby ever known. But another part of me is glad that she will stay in the infant class a little longer. I'm just not quite ready to be through having a baby.