The Littlest Walker

I can't believe it, but Roxanne is walking. It took a little over a month to go from taking a few steps at a time to now, when she is a full-fledged walker. She takes teensy little steps most of the time, which is hilarious, since when she wants to get somewhere faster, she just takes the tiny steps at a faster rate. My favorite part was the few days it took her to learn to stand up without pulling up on anything. She did it by getting into a tri-pod position, which looked an awful lot like a yoga pose. I don't know how many times I watched her try to thrust her upper body upright only to topple over again, but she was so determined! Now she can stand up easily with no support. She's even mastering the ability to walk over bumpy ground and up and over little steps. She still needs a hand sometimes, but she's making a lot of progress. And she's so brave! Sometimes I wish she would have a little more fear. I guess most parents do...

Age guidelines...

Since it was just Christmas AND my daughter's first birthday, our house is literally flooded with toys. In going through them, I can't help but be stumped by the age guidelines on the boxes. There are toys that seem extremely basic and baby friendly that are marked "18 months +" or even "3 years +" which seems to be the standard for the super cheap toys. On the other hand, Roxanne has some toys that make me a little nervous but are marked "12 months +" or even younger. And while I don't want to be one of those super smug moms who completely ignores age guidelines, my husband and I decided to let our little one use her finger paints, even though they are marked safe for toddlers 18 months and older. As you can see from the photo, she really enjoyed the paint, and I don't think we were putting her at risk, even though she is more than 5 months too young for them. One of these days I want to do a little research and figure out where the age recommendations come from and how the toy companies determine them. Lastly, I would love for them to come and explain to my little one that the teensy plastic dinosaur she fished out of a goody bag leftover from her birthday party is not safe for her for another 2 years. I don't seem to be getting through.

To Santa or Not to Santa

I guess I'm a terrible mother. I haven't taken my little one to see Santa yet. I keep meaning to take her to the Atlanta Botanical Garden to see Santa, but we just haven't made it yet. Then I thought about taking her to a mall to see one of those Santas, but I know the lines are usually pretty terrible and I just can't deal with the screaming kids. But in the back of my mind is that little voice saying, "maybe you should just wait until next year..." Is that unspeakably horrible? I probably should just take her. Maybe this is just my psyche kicking in and taking me back to my early childhood when Santa brought me to tears. But I should give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she will better understand and intuit the inherent awesomeness of Santa. And if not, the Santa photos with the crying baby are oddly charming.

Babies first REAL Christmas

Roxanne was born on December 19, 2007, so even though last year was technically her first Christmas, I'm not sure she got a whole lot out of it. Although if she did remember it, she would also remember the Santa outfit we put her in. I could blame that outfit on my sister, since she gave it to us, but that would be unfair. I got a kick out of it, too. But look how cute she was in it! She was such a tiny thing! This year I think we'll be skipping the Santa outfit but there are lots of new and exciting things that will be just as good. Maybe better. I think I'm going to do the whole Santa experience with her. Justin will be dragged along for the ride. But we will be making special cookies and setting them out for Santa. We will wake early to see what's been left under the tree. We will keep opening the days of the Advent Calendar one by one. We will probably only do one or two gifts, and hopefully Roxanne won't be scarred for life.

This year also marks the start of what I hope will be a family tradition. I got the idea from an article in one parent magazine or another. The idea is that instead of doing lots and lots of presents, you take a family trip. That way, you can spend time together. We realize that there will likely be some lean years where we take a family trip to somewhere close and inexpensive, but that's OK. I just think it will be fun. This year we are hoping to go to Asheville, North Carolina for a few days after Christmas with my sister and her family. We're still working out the details, but I'm really excited. I want Roxanne to think of the holidays as a nice family time, and not just a toy bonanza. I have such wonderful memories of being at my Grandparents' house for Christmas and eating huge meals and watching each member of the family open their gifts. I think my favorite part was my stocking. My Grandma knitted it just for me, and my sister had one that was similar, but just different enough that we could tell them apart. The little goodies in that stocking were always the most fun to find.

I hope you all have wonderful holidays! And I apologize for being so sparse in my postings. You know how it goes.

Atlanta Botanical Garden

My little muffin (on the bottom) with her two cousins at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens.

Since my husband are pretty squarely middle class income earners, we are somewhat limited in terms of living intown in Atlanta. It's a trade off, but we are happy with it. If we wanted to live thirty minutes or so outside the city, we could probably afford a larger place to rent, and maybe even a whole house...! But as it is, our lifestyle at this point is just more practical living closer in. We only have one car, but it's never been a hardship since my husband is able to use the Marta rail system to get to work. And it only takes me about ten minutes to drive to work. These are the kind of commutes we can handle... Justin does not handle Atlanta traffic. We both know this, and so we avoid it whenever possible.

Anyways, one of the drawbacks about living where we live is that we don't really have a yard. I mean, we sort of do, but it's not really our yard, and we wouldn't feel comfortable littering it up with baby toys. Fortunately, there are lots of parks close by where we can take the baby and the dog, and we have memberships to Zoo Atlanta and the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. Both are fun options for our family, and definitely make it less scarring that Roxanne won't grow up with a tree fort in her backyard. I think at the moment, the Atlanta Botanical Garden is one of my favorite places in Atlanta. The kid's garden is wonderful, even though Roxanne isn't quite old enough to fully appreciate it. But in all honesty, I love the other side of the garden. The grown up part.

There is a small Japanese garden that looks like the kind of place you could sit and meditate in for hours. There are greenhouses that are full of lovely orchids and one that feels just like the jungle. It's a wonderful place to go when you feel like the city is just dirty and noisy. It's easy to forget where you are at the Garden. Add to this that I just found out about the fantastic holiday assortment of attractions, and I'm just totally sold. On December 6, they have the Reindog Parade, which will feature dogs dressed in holiday clothes parading in the park. I think there is still time to register your dog if you've got the perfect Rudolph-meets-Lassie at home. Then there is the Holiday Ride-on-Train that will start running November 28, and they are even having a "St. Nick," who will be wearing Victorian Santa-attire. You can get your little ones' pictures with a classy Santa in a beautiful outdoor setting! That sounds much better than the mall...but I'm probably biased. I kind of hate the mall. Actually, I just hate some parts of it. There's certainly part of me that thrills in walking around a crowded mall during the holidays, but only if it's over-decorated, playing tasteful holiday music at a tasteful volume, and I'm sipping some kind of fatty coffee drink, like a Gingerbread latte. Mmmm, I'm ready Black Friday!

So anyways, I just wanted to recommend the Atlanta Botanical Garden as a fun place to go during the holidays. They will even be open Thanksgiving weekend! You can waddle some of those biscuits off as you take in the sights.

Voting with baby

Since tomorrow is election day and lots of my fellow Georgians will probably be stuck standing in line for hours, I just wanted to take a moment to gloat. I voted last week! In fact, on Thursday afternoon, I went down to the early voting spot for my district, which is a building in downtown Decatur, and I was in and out in under half an hour. Of course, the line was supposed to be two and a half hours, but after about twenty minutes of waiting, a glorious woman carrying a baby came over and told me that she had heard that anyone with a baby could go through a side door and vote right away. I was a little nervous to lose my spot in line, but I figured it was worth a shot. I sheepishly followed her in pushing Roxanne in her umbrella stroller, and to my shock, we were admitted through a side door and told to wait in some big comfy easy chairs at some tables. Then we could sit while we filled out our voting forms, and hand our ID and completed forms to some lovely poll workers, and wait to be called for our turn to vote, which took under ten minutes. It was fantastic!

The next day (Halloween) my husband left work early to try and vote, and when he arrived at the building, he was told it would be a three and a half hour wait. He called me, and I suggested that he wander around downtown Decatur until I got off work and then use Roxanne to cheat the line. Turns out I got off a little early, and we met at Dancing Goats (delicious delicious coffee) to make the baby swap. It all felt mildly shameful and suspicious, and on some level, we were convinced that one of the employees would recognize Roxanne, or our bright orange stroller, and accuse Justin of cheating and kick him out immediately. Obviously, this did not happen, and Justin was able to vote pretty quickly. Of course, Roxanne threw a fit while he was trying to decipher all of the endless choices for positions he had never heard of, and he ended up tearing his shirt while retrieving a toy that she threw across the room. I got to spend almost an entire half hour by myself at Dancing Goats, sitting outside with a magazine and sipping a Pistachio White Mocha Latte. I called my mom and gossiped with her. It was heavenly.

So yes, I think those 13 hours of labor were worth it. I mean, the baby is nice, too, but this whole convenient voting thing is awesome.

Burt's Pumpkin Farm

Last weekend we went to Burt's Pumpkin Farm. I highly recommend the trek. It's absolutely gorgeous, and even though it's totally packed, it's fun. The hayride is good, and Roxanne really enjoyed it, even though I assumed it would be more fun for an older baby. Being up near the mountains in the fall is fabulous, but if you are planning to stop at Amicalola Falls afterward, be prepared to wait in traffic. It seems to be a popular course of action. Also, be prepared to be driven mildly insane by the smells. Hot boiled peanuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, popcorn... Irresistible.