Becoming one of Them

I could never understand why parents could and would suddenly lose their own identity upon having a child.  I would see their Facebook posts: baby pictures, toddler quotes, child achievements, lather, rinses, repeat...and while I would enjoy seeing those things, a part of me would be thinking, "yes, but what did YOU do today?  What's new with YOU?  It's YOUR Facebook page, not your child's." 

I remember going to a bonfire once, and literally every person there was a parent, besides me.  All conversations revolved around their children.  I had nothing to add, and again, would think, where is the person inside this parent?  Do they have interests and lives beyond their children?

And now I have Lily.  And I look at my own Facebook page, scattered with baby pictures and videos and cutesy things she did, and open up my photo stream on my iPhone and see nothing but Lily and I think, "Oh Lord, I have become one of Them."

And I get it now.  I really do.  This little human is the clearest example of a miracle I have ever seen.  Would I rather share the story of the plumber who came to our house smelling like an ashtray and leaving muddy bootprints all over my floors?  Or would I rather talk about how my special little snowflake decided she liked another family better than us at a recent basketball game, and spent a half hour sitting with them, charming them, and playing with the mom's scarf without so much as glancing over at us?  (It was adorable, BTW.)  The answer is clear.

So I started this blog.  This gives me an outlet to talk about my daughter all I want without boring people.  If you are reading this you apparently want to be bored.  Why didn't I think of this 9 months ago?? 

A 9 Month Old Bug

MAH BAYBEE is 9 months old and I am actually starting to forget little things from the newborn era. 

We started calling Lily "Bug" when she was just a couple months old.  It started off being Lily Bug, but quickly became Bug, or sometimes The Bug when we are feeling formal.  I worry when she is older she'll be all like "Natasha's parents call her sweetie, and Lauren's mom calls her honey, and you guys call me BUGGGGG!" so we may have to switch her nickname to something cuter when she gets older.  In the meantime, she is The Bug, which just feels right somehow.

When Lily was still in my tummy and we assumed she would be a boy (three stepsons = I thought BHop only made one kind of kid), we called her Blinkin.  That was due to a late night whisper session when I couldn't sleep.  We were talking about baby names, and Brian suggested Lincoln.  We know someone who just had a boy named Lincoln, so I suggested Benjamin.  Brian then said "We could name him Benjamin Lincoln...and call him Blinkin."  Not sure if it we were just punch drunk from sleepiness or what, but it was hilarious, and we called Lily was Blinkin throughout the pregnancy. 

Anyway, that was a nickname tangent I wasn't planning on...back to today.  She went to the doctor for her 9 month checkup.  I always feel I should come into the office, armed with a numbered list of questions and print-outs decrying vaccinations and promoting co-sleeping, with worries of not enough eating and sleeping and too much pooping and crying...but in reality I just sit back and bask in the perfect normalness of my baby. 

So!  Let's document milestones and other noteables. 

Weight:  17.5 pounds
Height:  29 inches
Skills mastered: Saying mama, dada, crawling, cruising along furniture, eating finger foods, drinking from sippy cup.
Skills NOT mastered:  waving bye-bye, playing patty-cake, etc.  We didn't realize we were meant to be teaching her that!  Whoops.  :)
Eating: Likes to feed herself, and isn't too keen on purees anymore.  Drinks bottles like a champ!
Sleeping:  Sleeps through the night sometimes; most of the time she wakes up once a night to eat.  She is super easy to put down - you just lay her in the crib with Minky (her hot-pink stuffed monkey) and head out.
Cutest thing she is doing:  No matter what, if you say "Say dada, Lily", she'll look at you with a smile and say "mama".