Dear Lucille: Month Nine

Our sweet girl! Your eigth month was full of big mobility and personality developments. You have four teeth now, a taste for blackberries and a love for lift-the-flap books.

You are now very fast at “army crawling” – where you drag yourself around on your belly with your legs kicking behind you fruitlessly. It must be exhausting. You also do “planks” and a sort of “downward dog” movement. The baby gates and baby-proofed electrical outlets are getting their workout. You’re also fascinated with doors of all kinds.

With your new crawling, our leisurely mornings in bed have taken on an action movie flair. It was your singular goal for a couple weeks to crawl off the edge of the bed while I pumped. We did our best to prevent you, but one morning you dashed full-speed, Wile E. Coyote-style off the end, just an inch away from my grasp. I can still picture your two little feet disappearing over the edge. Thankfully, it is only about a foot off the ground and with a rug below. Despite your initial upset, you seemed to proudly carry the forehead lump the rest of the day.

You are getting good at pulling yourself up to stand.

You love to feed yourself now and are skilled at picking things up with your little puffy fingers. You have a strong preference for ripe blackberries and grilled corn tortillas. We end up with a lot of yogurt in your hair.

You also love sourdough garlic bread, which – along with baked beans, pit grilled tri-tip and pork ribs – constitute the “food of our people” in San Luis Obispo. You will eat a lot of these dishes at graduation parties, weddings and birthdays in the future.

You had your first real “baby illnesses” this month. One week where you had a high fever and it broke our hearts to feel your hot skin. And a second week where you broke out in an all-body rash straight out of a medieval textbook and had dark red circles around your eyes. You looked so terrible that we took you to the after-hours clinic at night convinced you were going to be quarantined with measles, but the doctor was wholly unconcerned and sent us back home where you recovered in a couple days.

Your top two teeth cut through in April, which you didn’t mind too much except for a couple painful nights.

You still sleep mostly with your arms behind your ears like a little boss. We do catch you sleeping in funny facedown positions or with your legs hanging out the side of your crib.

You have become a champion sleeper again, but occasionally get too amped up on crawling and have to be physically pinned down in order to fall asleep for a nap. Which means we often get to take a nap with you.

At the start of the month, we went to visit your grandparents in Fresno. You liked the rocking horse that your Aunt Skye painted. A bit scared of the horses and goats you met for the first time.

That trip was followed by a visit down to San Luis Obispo for Easter weekend. You were SO cute in your tights and bunny shoes…

…and your pretty spring dress and eyelet bunny ears.

The cutest spring chicken!

Back in San Francisco, it was time to volunteer and protest – like we do so many weekends. We made signs to support science with your Aunt Jean (biologist) and Jackie (epidemiologist)

You are getting too heavy for this ergo carrier at 20 lbs!

We also got to spend time with your baby friend, Joan, this month. You have just recently started being interested in other babies. It is so sweet when you crawl up to give a hug!

Less sweet when your fascination with eyes and teeth leads you to scratch at your beloveds’ faces.

Our daily routine is much the same still. I watch you in the mornings. We have breakfast together and get dressed. Often go for a walk and a coffee at the neighboring cafe. Your father takes the afternoon after the babysitter returns you from an adventure around the city. We have dinner together at the table and then we all go to bed early.

You are fun to dress up everyday!

We ended the month with a trip to a beach house at Pajaro Dunes. You loved getting to play with your cousins and reading books with your grandmother. Ev is maybe your biggest fan.

Your grandfather is right up there with Ev for thinking you are pretty great.

Eleanor likes you best when she gets to boss around the baby – especially putting your pacifier in your mouth and bringing you food. She likes you least when you crawl to her or try to play with something she has. She started the weekend with lots of asking for “space” but ended with a few instances of saying “more baby.” Progress.

You got to meet your namesake on this trip too, the famous tap-dancing, cruise-shipping Aunt Lucie:

How did we even survive this fatal cuteness of you in the flamingo bathing suit and sunhat?

You girls!

We are so lucky!