Momma wants a pleasure pen

It’s official. Julian is mobile. He gets around in his own crawl/scoot combo in a fine, fast fashion. Like a solider on a reconnaissance mission. You put him on the floor, step into the kitchen to pour yourself a cup of coffee, and he’s suddenly right behind you, checking out what’s underneath the refrigerator. It’s slightly maddening, I admit, and was a real source of tension in the house earlier in the week. Julian was always grabbing at cords, sticking Xbox controllers in his mouth, picking up leaves or dog toys and attempting to get them in his mouth. Julian’s newfound movement, not Julian himself, was driving us nuts. Finally, we gave in. Covered all the outlets, moved the flashing, cord-riddled electronics to higher ground, bought a play pen. (Which we agreed to not call a “cage.” “Pleasure pen” will be the preferred term.) Now we’ve got a leg up on the little guy, that is until he starts pulling up. That gives us about two weeks of having it together before he catches up.

The physical growth spurts will surely be followed by the emotional ones, which my mom assures me are likely more difficult. Once again, we’ll get what we can handle I guess. It’s weird enough dealing so intimately with my partner’s growth spurts in addition to my own. Now, we have another person whose growth patterns are so seemingly different than our own yet so intrinsically linked. It’s an interesting thing, this parenthood…

We celebrated my birthday earlier this week. Ian did an amazing job of making my first birthday as a mother so unique, including breakfast in bed and surprise margaritas with friends at Matt’s El Rancho, our new favorite place, followed by a trip to the Cathedral of Junk.

I took about 500 pictures with my new camera, which I edited down to 160. I won’t subject you to every single shot, but there will be some new galleries posted here in the next few days.