A Year of August

I cannot believe that my baby will be one year old soon.

I have a feeling I will be saying such things for the rest of my life..."I cannot believe that my baby can walk...is going to kindergarten...can swim...can drive..." Yeeks. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but now I understand why parents especially say that time flies. Time flew before, but now there's a human being who is evolving before your very eyes to mark exactly how rapidly the planet is spinning.

Because NOW, instead of just breathing, cooing, smiling, sleeping and just being generally soft and sweet, August is THINKING. I mean, he probably was before, but now we have EVIDENCE. If you ask him something, he responds. He points to things. He chooses books. He bounces balls. Somedays he eats avocado, other days he doesn't. He adores meat and bread and cheese. He stands up. He crawls from place to place. He makes growling sounds on purpose. He relates objects to one another. He uses sign language. He recognizes people. He makes jokes! His current comedy routine includes offering you something (a piece of food, for instance) and as you go to bite it, he pulls it away. Psych! That is gold, ladies and gentlemen.

Oh, and he has teeth. I thought he was the most gorgeous creature on earth before, but the teeth are the most amazing addition to his face. His smile is beaming and spacious and full of personality.

We finally bit the bullet and made the transition to the crib. It took a lot of gearing up. We took a class, we had a consultation with an RN, we made a plan. We created a routine - bath, pjs, books, nursing, dim lights, fan, white noise, lovie. The first week, we put a mattress on the floor in the baby's room and we all slept on it. The next week, James slept on the mattress with him and I slept in bed in the other room. The next week, we braced ourselves to put him in the crib. We talked through it, rehearsed scenarios, steeled ourselves against the guilt and fear. The first night, Augie was asleep in six minutes and didn't wake up for hours.

And it's been like that ever since. Pretty much. For the most part, he sleeps from 8 pm to 5 am without waking, and then after an early morning nursing, snoozes in until 7. It's unbelievable.

I am curious if my eyes will ever lose the purple/brown rings around them that I have acquired this year. I suppose that's why makeup exists. Perhaps a solid year of not sleeping for more than 2 hours at a stretch takes some time from which to recover. I'll give it another month before I look carefully at my face in the mirror. Maybe if I whiten my teeth and darken my hair, the circles will be upstaged.

I am up far too late, and I must turn in, but I can report that James and I are absolutely, completely, and blissfully in love with our Augie. He delights us and challenges us. He forces us to organize ourselves. He unwittingly pushes us to what we think are our limits and then he pushes us a little further. He entertains us. He makes us work to be better people. He is our joy and our life's work. He is our son.