Road Trip

Well, Baby Zog had his first trip to Alabama last week. We realized that our nine-month old son has already been to Virginia, Maryland, DC, Illinois, Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, NC, SC, and Alabama. That's a lot of hours on planes, trains and automobiles. We've definitely noticed a decline in how long he's content to sit strapped in his car seat. Now that he can crawl, the car seat is not his friend. Thank God for They Might Be Giants' album, "Here Come the ABC's." I swear it must have hypnotic undertones adults cannot hear!

We had a whirlwind tour for sure, starting with a Friday night visit to Grandma and her new car! We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday catching up with dear friends and introducing our son to our friends' children - many of whom we had never met either. Stops at people's homes, lunch with mommy's "lunch bunch," a walk through the halls of Daddy's old law firm, and even a visit from the Mississippi Grandparents kept Baby Zog quite busy. All in all, we saw over 35 friends, many who go back to college or law school days. It was so strange to see everyone as "grownups" now. Late nights of beer and concerts have given way to respectable careers, beautiful houses and children playing on the floor. It's almost poetic to see life evolve and continue on an expected, yet unknown path. It was comforting to realize the friendships are still there and indeed we chose to keep company with "good people" all those years ago. Of course, along with that comfort is the realization that we miss them on a regular basis and wish our child knew them intimately.

My only regret from this trip is that I failed to take photos of everyone with Baby Zog. We were so excited to see people, and the time went by so quickly that I only remembered about half of the time. If you'd like to see the photos I DID remember to take, look over to the left and click on the photo album link called "road trip."

Nine Month Check Up

I can't believe baby Zog is nine months old already! Hmm..doesn't that mean I'm supposed to have lost all my baby weight? Nine months up, nine months down or something like that...

Well, on to a better topic, here are the stats from the pediatrician visit this morning:

Weight: 23.5 lbs (87%)
Height: 31.5 inches (off the chart)

Basically, it seems our sweet boy has had a growth spurt and it starting to be tall and skinnyish. His weight gain is leveling off - of course, he's still not exactly "light." I'm sure he's burning a lot of calories with the constant crawling, climbing, dancing and general moving he does. The doctor was surprised by his length. It looks like we could have a very tall boy on our hands. Only time will tell.

In general, he's healthy, developing well, and exceptionally smart. Well, maybe the doctor didn't say anything about his smarts...I can't recall. :) She did say we were doing a great job raising him and to keep doing what we are doing. That was nice to hear.

Where did my baby go?

So, I'm sure other parents could have told me this would happen, but it seems that in the last two weeks my sweet "baby" has become a child. And not just a child, a BOY. He throws things, bangs his hands on the highchair tray to demand more cheerios, blows spit bubbles, pulls hair, makes monster noises, grabs boobs (yep, that's right!) and tries to dismantle anything that seems to have "parts." Also, true to the warning we were given when I was pregnant with an ever-kicking child, he NEVER sits still. He's a well-behaved baby who is learning about the world around him, but the pace is alarming. This much fun wears mommy out big time. Oh, the joys of being a first time parent. I just hope that gate we ordered shows up soon. He went from not noticing the stairs to being able to totally climb them in about 20 minutes last weekend.