scrawls.

scrawls

still cheaper than therapy*

2.8.08

ten months

was when you, my little world traveller, got two new teeth for a total of six, and when you pulled up and let go. No unassisted steps yet, and you weren't standing for even a second, but you did it. And now i can believe you are going to be really walking and running around and at some point we are going to switch from calling you a baby to calling you a toddler - and that's such a lovely word, now, somehow. Like bum. Bum goes bum! when you fall on it. Very onomatopoeia.

Went to the Czech Republic, again, to the little village, with Daddy of course but also L and A and met K and M and D and P there - and P is just not quite two and you played together beautifully and it was really cute and many photos were taken (Flickr friends will note this. P is the little angel-headed curly tot). And we did indeed go swimming every day last week, including at K's parents' house. And you were very good on the train despite us not having a compartment on the way back so you couldn't get down and crawl. This weekend we are going to Budapest and that train ride is four hours, instead of one and a half, so probably then if we don't get a compartment it might be much more complicated and we won't have any more people to hold you then than we did now, except L was sleeping on the train, so maybe one more, except if i can help it i'll be sleeping, so maybe not. Except, again, that M needs to sleep more than me as he's got Lyme disease and a busted hand.

so, yeah, that's been fun. And with M's busted hand he can't walk the dog, which wouldn't matter except i got no sleep last night with first going to the outdoor opera with L and A and then you woke up at two in the morning, hungry, and all that not sleeping was bad for Mommy's head and my body decided it was payback time with a migraine. Not an awful migraine, but still. V. glad i don't get them more often. Once a year is way more than enough.

You like to eat food. We went to the pediatrician for your regular checkup and you are 8.9kg, and 72cm, right on the 50th percentile Austrian for height (and it's height, now, not length, because baby can stand up) and about the 55th for weight, which makes me feel better because i thought you were looking like a baby that was all long and tall, limbs all over the place, legs hanging off the far side of my lap. Your feet are too big for the twelve month Robeez shoes now. And they say breastfed babies usually go like this on the formula baby charts, that they fall down percentages, so i'm not particularly worried by it. The ped says you're meeting all your milestones, and that since me and Daddy both wear glasses we have to get your eyes checked when you're two (i'm not sure how they check baby eyes; but you can point at a dog alllllll the way down the block), and that you're a very nice baby. You didn't scream at this appointment: the stethoscope was cold, compared to how warm he keeps his office, especially, but at ten months you didn't get any shots.

Next time you get chickenpox/flu, tick-borne encephalitis (in Austria, that one is important), and MMR. We might ask to make sure - the MMR is the one people have a reaction to, so we might give you MMR at one appointment and then chickenpox and flu and TBE a week later. Boy would you hate the doctor then. But i told him i wanted to go mostly by the American schedule and he said that was fine - and if we give you MMR at 12 months, then that is october, and flu in flu season, can be november, and we can do chickenpox later until you are six, and the tick thing won't kick in again until summer. Um, plus the ped doesn't take bankomat cards, and i never know how much cash to bring for your shots - the basic ones are free, but we had to pay for some - and i know the flu one and the TBE are optional.

I think you are going to like Hungary, bunny bunny - though i have to start calling you monkey monkey instead, because now you can really get onto the futon by yourself and i think you are becoming a Climber based on the way you are always trying to pull up above the top of my head, clawing your way up, and hanging on my earrings - there is so much good food there, potatoes and langos with cream and savoury pancakes and goulash and bread and i have to remember what that thing is called with the raisins that have been soaked in liquor. aha! When one googles "Hungarian dessert raisins" Google gives you: Somloi Galuska, the rum-soaked chocolatey walnuttey vanilla-spongecake-lemony atherosclerosis-in-a-bowl with the whipped cream on top. This is your heritage, all this food. But then i ask for Velveeta and Quaker brand instant oatmeal, strawberries and cream flavor, specifically, from the states, and my parents think, what, we never gave her that. Or the Cajun things i learned, or how my chili is so many miles better than Dad's (tip number one, old chap: leave out the carrots! are you mad?), or the way i always want hot and sour soup and fried rice when i'm sick. Baby girl, you won't be the same person as i am, but one word we should teach you is going to be umami. Mmmmm. More onomatopoeia: ummummmy, which is the sound one makes when one's mouth is full and happy. It's a good sound to be very familiar with, and we'll do our best.

Labels: baby, milestones

scrawled @ 19:30