This is Hard

Okay you guys. Just in case you were wondering... Having a kid is hard. And I don't just mean having a kid as in giving birth, which is crazy hard, but continuing to have that kid while said kid is growing up. I know some of you know this already, but this is for those of you who don't already know the ins and outs of being a parent.

Right now I am staying up later than I should. I've been feeling like I'm getting sick over the past few days, so I really should be trying to get as much sleep as possible, but this is the only time I have to myself. So I'm sacrificing sleep for alone time. This is what it's all about. Sacrifice.

Oh, by the way, I'm hungry too. Maybe I should go down and get something to eat. But eating will compromise my writing in the blog, which I think I need more right now. I actually did shave my legs tonight, in my 15 minute bath. My armpits I did in the shower 2 days ago while Aria was taking a nap. Incidentally, that was the only shower I've had this week. I was peeking my ear out the shower door so I could hear if Aria suddenly woke up and started crying. Luckily, she didn't, so I got to wash everything.

Okay, so the hunger got to me. Now I'm eating and typing with one hand. Ah, yes. And then there's the breastfeeding. Now, don't get me wrong. I adore breastfeeding. I can't even describe the feeling of bonding I get to have with Aria, and the peace of mind that comes from knowing I'm doing the best thing for her health. There are only two things about it that get to me. One is that I can't be away from Aria for more than a few hours, so even if Michael wants to give me a break, it can never be a long one. The other thing is the eating. I'm tired of eating. I know this sounds crazy, but let me explain. Only a few hours ago, I ate dinner. I had a chile relleno, a taco, beans, and rice. That's about twice what I normally eat. I just ate a sandwich. I'm still hungry. I feel like a hobbit. Breakfast. Second Breakfast. Elevensies. Lunch. Afternoon Tea. Dinner. Supper. Midnight Snack. I am so tired of eating. My jaw is tired from chewing all day. Michael should just strap a feed-bag to my head and be done with it.

But I digress.

I was saying that being a parent is hard work. By the way, it's also the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful thing in the whole damn world.

I just need to stay sane so I can enjoy it.

Almost 1 year

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since Aria was born. Time moves slow and fast all at once.

As you can see, she looks much more like a little girl now. She has four teeth - middle two up top and middle two on the bottom - and a couple more are breaking through. Her vocabulary of babble words has expanded quite a bit, and on several occasions she's repeated words back to us - such as dog, bow wow wow, and even butterfly. As we carry her around the house she points to things and makes a sound that I can't quite describe but seems to mean "what's that?".



She's a prolific crawler, able to motor around the living room with startling speed. Likewise she can pull herself up to standing no problem. In fact her favorite game now is to stand up on that chair she's sitting on in the above picture. She hasn't yet taken any steps without holding on to something. It seems like she just hasn't thought of it yet.

Her personality becomes more apparent every day. She laughs whenever we laugh, and she talks a lot. Also just in the past few days she's learned to cry when you take something away that she wants. A not so fun development but hey, what are you going to do, let her play with that Bobby Crosby bobblehead? Oh, ok, sure, I guess she can play with that. No, it's not a big deal. Oh, it broke? OK, whatever.

She's eating a lot more solid food now. She's on to more complex baby food like winter squash, peas & brown rice, apples & plums, rice cereal mixed with breast milk, etc. We like the "Earth's Best" brand for whatever that's worth. Safeway recently started carrying it, they are all organic and the flavors are really good. She also is eating more solid food - she'll take bites of banana, rice, avocado, melon, etc. A couple days ago she ate nearly half a banana for dinner. We've tried peas but she just plays with them, never puts them in her mouth. Of course she's still eating cheerios too, she loves them. Getting into a good routine with the solid food is taking some getting used to. We are so used to the convenience of breast feeding (no mess, little fuss) that we still sometimes forget to bring other food along when we go out. But now we are pretty good about feeding her at least twice a day. She has cereal nearly every morning and some kind of baby food for either lunch or dinner. At dinner time we also experiment with letting her eat some of what we are eating. Tonight we were having tacos with fake ground beef and we let her eat some of that. She seems to like most of the food we give her.

With the food, diapering has changed a lot. I won't go into a lot of details here but I'll just say that it ups the ante a whole bunch when it comes to changing a poopy diaper. She's like the toxic avenger now. We open up all the windows and break out the hazmat suits.

In other news, I took a much-needed vacation for a weekend and went back to King's Canyon to do some hiking. In two days I hiked over twenty miles (13 the first, 9 the second). It was exhilirating. Below are some pictures of the country. Definitely want to go back there. It's a magical place.