Tuesday Morning, 8:24 AM

Mama: Gaz, would you like to go to the library today?
Gaz: Nuh.
Mama: Would you like to go to the library next Tuesday?
Gaz: (shakes head)
Mama: Do you even know what a library is?
Gaz: (stares at Mama with a happy yet blank look on her face)

We had to wait for some work to come to me, so we had to stay home regardless. Next week, though, we're going to hit the cool sounding infant communication workshop thing.

Right now she's throwing her red rubber ball around, then giggling and chasing it. She is suddenly walking more than crawling, which is the most fun thing ever. This truly is the world's most entertaining science experiment.

one year later

Sometime around a year ago (I don't remember the date, which is strange coming from me, I know) I was still quite gravid and my blood pressure was trying to scale Mt. Everest. On this particular anniversary-I-can't-quite-nail-down, my OB sent me to the hospital because my blood pressure was dangerously high. If it came down, I could go home; if it didn't, I would be induced straight away whether I liked it or not.

It did, of course, come down and Gaz was very healthy, as we all know now. Today I remembered how bleak that day was. One year ago, give or take a few days, I didn't know if things were about to go badly. I had no way of knowing if Gaz would be okay, if I would be okay, or how anything was going to turn out. It's all very easy for people to be dissmissive and say "oh, things will work out just fine," but there are no guarantees of that. Last year I was awash in that horrible uncertainty.

Today when I see Gaz toddling around, throwing books at the cat, and nodding when I ask her if she wants more macaroni and cheese, I am grateful beyond words that things have gone so well. There is no expression yet conceived to convey my absolute happiness with my daughter and our little family. This is the most precious thing I have.

There is no moral to this story. I just love my girl.

newsy

Walking: There is so much more walking, completely away from all furniture. Much video has been shot of late of this walking, including some diaperless pre-bath walking last night.

Destructo: She tore the question mark & slash key off my laptop keyboard. It wont' pop back on, so I think this counts as the first big thing she's broken.

Words: All sorts of almost words, including today's effort: baby. We looked at her reflection in the mirror while she was feeling mellow in between pre-nap tantrums. I pointed to the mirror baby and said "Baby. Bay. Bee." and she tried really hard to repeat. It ended up "bah-beh" but this is pretty good progress.

Tiptiptiptiptip: She drank from her sippy cup! For real! Right in front of me! I can't believe it!!! I thought she would never figure out how to hold the sippy cups right side up, but it finally clicked.

I think she's just showing off for Grandma Judy and Grandpa Will, the little ham.

Hugging the cat

Hugging the cat
Originally uploaded by georgiegrrrrl.

She's figured out how to "pet the cat nicely." After yesterday's kitty trauma at the vet's office, she's been a paragon of good behavior towards one's fellow creatures. I guess seeing him howl and bark in the car and in the exam and waiting rooms inspired some empathy.

You can just barely see the cat carrier behind her. This was the source of much fun after we returned home. The game went like this: Gaz opens carrier door, cat goes in, Gaz throws shoe in with cat and closes door, Gaz opens up door again and looks at cat, Gaz closes door and cat complains, Gaz opens door and cat gets out. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We're still waiting on a test, but so far the cat is not full of any more evil than ususal.

Mr. Mitchell, open the gate! Mr. Mitchell, tear down this wall!

Now that Gaz is stong enough to pull the fence (that formerly separated the baby-safe living room from the clutter of the dining room) out of its moorings, we've taken the whole thing down. She now has run of both the living room and dining room.

She is completely ecstatic. She's already broken something in the once-forbidden zone.

Getting ready for a birthday

I've just been fiddling with Gaz's Amazon Wish List in preparation for her birthday. There are a variety of new things on there to inspire. There is one thing I couldn't fine anywhere online that I saw in our local Babies R Us store that was pretty cool and Gaz seemed interested in. It was a Baby Einstein (I think) car toy that is good for rear facing and forward facing seats, has a mirror, and (this is the cool part) has music and flashing lights which are controlled by a remote that clips onto a visor. For when you absolutely positively have to distract the upset car seat-bound baby right now without twisting around and killing everyone in the car! What a concept!

Something is being planned for the first weekend in August to celebrate the natal anniversary. Call us or email us for details, you who are local. You who are of the Mitchell persuasion: we'll be seeing you the weekend before, so don't feel like you *have* to come. You who are of the Rizen persuasion: we're planning on coming down later in August, so don't feel like you have to come. There's plenty of Gaz to go around!

To add to our bad, bad luck this week, our car was broken into sometime Thursday night/Friday morning, so we're carless for a while. The nice people at our local garage offered to store the car in their garage over the weekend so that no one else would mess up the car while the window's still broken. Today we took buses to Lakeview and strolled around. We stopped at My Place for Tea and had a great time talking to the proprietress (a nurse who's worked labor/delivery, NICU, ICU, and outpatient surgery) who got the biggest kick out of holding Gaz. If I'd had half a brain when we left, I would have grabbed the camera. At the comic shop Gaz fell in love with an Ugly Doll, and so "Jeero" has come to live with us. We will stop caving in to her whims one day, probably on the day we remember to bring toys out with us so that she won't go nuts for the first thing at eye level she sees.

Lead Scare

It's not lead poisoning. Hopefully we will avoid that. Anyway, it went like this: Gaz was tested in May at her nine month visit; who ever processes the tests reported her results to the state (might actually be the state that runs the tests) and the doctor; the state reports the results to the local health department; the local health department sends us spooky notices that scare the hell out of us because the doctor's office doesn't contact patients that have test results that don't require treatment. There is lead in Gaz, but not enough to cause any kind of damage, just enough to give me a couple of sleepless nights waiting for the situation to resolve.

And resolve it has: we've got lead in the kitchen, pantry, and back porch. A nice inspector from the city health department was out today to check everything out, and that was his verdict. Both Mr. Inspector and the nurse from Dr. C's office concur that the level of lead in Gaz's system is "very low" but that we should really try to get it down to zero, a sentiment I completely agree with.

I've already talked to our landlord and told him basically what was going on and that he'd be getting more detailed information from the inspector. We don't blame the landlords, of course, because had they known they definitely would have fixed it before now, and he did look quite vexed when I spoke with him earlier. Mr. Inspector said something along those lines too. They aren't "out to get" anyone; they simply want to prevent children from getting lead poisoning.

Gaz's lead level is so low that treatment isn't necessary, so there's nothing to do at the moment but keep her out of the kitchen, work with the landlords to fix the problem areas, and wait for her doctor appointment next month. I can handle that.

Happy Fourth!

We've had a wonderful holiday--great weather and generally good baby temper--and now, somehow, our Gaz baby is sleeping through the insane fireworks bombarding the neighborhood skies.

I hope none of youse has grabbed the business ends of any sparklers! (And if you have, well you learned your lesson didn't you?)

All the way to eleven (months)

Yesterday marked eleven months since Gaz's birth. I've been feeling introspective and philosophical about the whole business, and I'm sure that will go on for a little while longer. I've been thinking about the death of the me-that-was and the birth of the me-that-is, which is the same me-that-was only different; different enough that it's not extreme for me to talk of the transition as a death. I'm more and less patient, more and more loving, more creative in my problem solving. I think I'm more focused now, and I guess the thinking of such things is what is important so I guess I should start saying that I AM more focused. Gaz inspires a lot of things in me, all of them good so far. We'll see what later years bring about. ;)

As we get ready to celebrate her first year, I look back and see a hale and hearty infant who is rapidly becomming a hale and hearty little girl. You can tell that she is happy. She is happy to see me when I've been in the kitchen for a minute or when she sees me poke my head around the chair as we play in the living room, she's happy to see Mark when he comes home from work or when he comes around the door as he follows us down the stairs to run errands. She's happy to see all the people she recognizes. Sometimes she needs reassurance and extra cuddle time, but you can tell that she trusts more than she distrusts. She gets scared, but she does overcome fears little by little and that's all I can ask of her.

Now I go back to my regularly scheduled puttering and Gaz continues with her nap. Soon will be time for more errands and happily greeting Daddy when he gets home from work.