We took Sparrow up to Loose park today to the spray park by the tennis courts. We discovered that some awful individual had shattered a liquor bottle on the concrete, and the park was littered with shards of every size from grains to flat chunks that implied Jim Beam. The scar on the concrete was white: someone had hurled it down with heavy force. There was no smell of liquor left. An empty bottle had been brought along for the sole reason that children would later be hurt.

That was one sick son of a bitch.  Two ladies and i spent a long time gathering up pices, but plenty in tiny pieces was left behind. They wrote a message in sidewalk chalf that there was glass; but it’s raining now.

Pregnancy was a strange time. Bonnie had no particular cravings, which I suppose was fortunate, and not many things made her ill: dishwater and cat boxes were notable exceptions, so she would neither wash the dishes nor clean out the litter. Nothing much, however, changed with that latter one, nor has it changed since. Our main activities were watching pregnancy shows relentlessly–I thought by the end of it I had seen every episode of Special Delivery on Discovery Health ever made–and baby shows, and multiple baby shows, and everything else; checking out health guru sites online and scouring them for every ounce of information we could find, twice over; worrying about nothing and everything; and going back to the internet.

Every night I would read to the little bean, as we called her, and watched as she moved and poked out her feet. I’d push the feet back in, and she’d press them out again; I’d push them back in a second time, and you could tell she was thinking, “What’s going on out there?” because she kept them in after that second time. Bonnie grew larger and larger, but not huge like some do, so that we worried that Sparrow didn’t have enogh room; back to the internet gurus, or our doctor, who assured us everything was fine.

A strange time! not likely to be repeated. One is enough.

Sparrow is fond of brushes.

This begins with tooth-brushes — not your super-duper Ultreo Electric Toothbrush, mnd you, but the common garden-variety baby toothbrush. I began brushing when she was all gums, to get her used to the idea, and kicked into high gear with the sprouting of tooth-nubs. Now she wants to brush her teeth herself, and will take the toothbrush away and get busy herself. I think she just likes the feel of the brush, but I don’t let that get in the way of success. Maybe later she can graduate to the ultraviolet benefits of the sonicare flexcare. No oral irrigator concentrate solution (mouthwashes) yet–it’s not like she can spit on command. But I’m confident that some foundation or good oral care is at hand. (I draw all of these products from a good site with a kot of interesting home dental care products. Check it out!)

Her other brush she is fond of is her hair brush, and when she isn’t gnawing on it she likes to brush her hair as well. I don’t know where she gets all of this stuff, but there you have it. She’s very imitative. You can start to brush her hair, but right away she’ll take the brush away and start doing it herself. She’s monstrous strong when she wants to hold something. So I guess she’ll have strong teeth and good hair when she grows up.

Costumes may not be the first thing on people’s minds right now, even cheap ones. These are tough times, and it’s not really a vital expense. It one has to buy them, they need toi be inexpnsive, since aren’t they otherwise just sort of trash on the hoof? How many times do you wear a costume? They only get worn once. Two or three times at most. Why spend a fortune?

Mens costumes or womens costumes, both, need to be low-cost and to the point. I’d also like to avoid driving all over the countryside looking for them, since gas prices are going up (again, at the worst possible time.)
The other plus of shopping online for a costume is that I don’t have to drag my child into a costume shop. Even in so-called “family-friendly stores”, there are risque, trampy costumes that I don’t really want her to see all over the place, which can be pretty inappropriate for children to look at. But with the online experience, shopping around for a Halloween costume or just an event costume, you can find what you are looking for, settle down with her inthe room or not in the rom, and check out only you want to see and avoid the junk you don’t. I find that a useful feature.

It’s coming. It’s coming with grim, due speed. I need to lower her crib again . . . and there’s just one notch left to do it with!

Scary. But time passes, and I can’t help that. One day she’s eleven months old, and before you know it she is two years old, and no crib will confine you: if I’m lucky for it to last so long. Bonnie and I have already begun searching for kids furniture on line. The set to left left would match the armoire and the changing table. We’ll have to look in a few places in the stores as well. The fantastic prices and free shipping are a big incentive, and they have some neat girls bedroom furniture.Sparrow is going to need a bed early, because she is going to be climbing out of the crib 9and braining herself) as soon as she can. She’s already climbing up things, like her slide–both ways–and stairs. At the library she went up two flights of stairs from the auditorium where we listened to the Mr Stinky Feet show: no problem. The gleam of determination in her eye was unnerving. She is stumpy yet, but the promise, the promise of trouble is there. I don’t want to wait until she is falling off the side of her crib and conking her head in.

Bunk beds are in the running too, according to Bonnie, who wants a trundle bed with the set too, but I do like that set in the picture above.

The thing that disturbs me is that when I am celebrating my 50th birthday Sparrow will be ten. That seems a bit unnatural to me, because my parents were in their early thirties when I was ten, but I guess she won’t really understand the difference. (And as I’ve said, I don’t feel like I’m forty going on fifty at all. Quite the contrary . . . ) But her birthday is soon, and I am a little excited, far more than if it were mine. I haven’t enjoyed a birthday of mine since I was twenty-nine, and if I recall correctly, I probably wasn’t enjoying that one either. Bonnie is going to be making cupcakes, so we don’t have to suffer the destruction of an actual cake, which would be messy and chaotic and not really that photogenic. It’s going to be a small affair, with just a handful of guests. Just a few simple decorations and games, maybe some streamers, and one happy baby, who will be toddling around the place in circles after she gets over the shock of so many people in her house. All for an event she won’t remember!

Oh, but we will remember. And that’s what makes it important.

dada

hi

bye

duck

cat

dog

and possibly no and yeah.

She’s kind of freaking me out.

At least I think it’s called Meyer Gardens. It may as well be, this well-to-do neighborhood south of Meyer Bopulevarde. There’s a little park, and a little wading pool therein, where we too Sparrow one chilly summer morning. It was not yet eleven o’clock when we got there, and this
pool cleaning Orlando informed us that we couldn’t get into water until the crack of twelve. So we went on a little longer walk, which is and was dangerous with her, and returned to find him reading a paperback novel. We had to wait a little while longer, and then he allowed us in.

She was not impressed. Hydrotech Pools might have been there to keep it clean as a whistle, but she would not have any of it. Perhaps this summer she’ll be more interested. She’ll certianly be able to wade around in it.

. . . has yet to be found, because she is so small still. But she’ll need one someday. Already she stands up in her crib, her little arms along the top rail, and demands to be let out. I don’t want to be asleep any more! she wordlessly cries. Howls?
Well, times will change, won’t they? One day you’re ten months old and one day you are two years old, and no crib will hold you. Bonnie and I have already begun grinding through the term kids furniture in the search engines (you see my preference on style already there!) and we’ll have to look in a few places in the stores as well. The fantastic prices and free shipping are a big incentive, and they have some neat girls bedroom furniture.

Sparrow is going to need a bed early, because she is going to be an early climber - outer. I can tell, because she already wants to climb up on things, and lifts her leg just a little when she wants to ascend things too big for her. She is too stumpy yet, but the promise, the promise of trouble is there. I don’t want to wait until she is falling off the side of her crib and conking her head in.

Bunk beds are in the running too, but I do like the set in the picture above.