11 months - eeek!

with cheerios and apples, the sock is still the snack of choice?

Did I not even mention the fact that Hendrik passed the 11-month mark the other day? Eeeeesh. Well he did, and he will be ONE YEAR old in exactly 29 days - unbelievable! In a way, it seems like the time has passed in the blink of an eye, but on the other hand so much has happened since our first few days and weeks as parents. A good friend of mine had her first, a boy, a few weeks ago, and she's emailed me with a few questions about napping and eating and schedules and honestly - I don't really remember. I mean I do... but the details, those small details just get lost in the craziness that is parent initiation. I did find this in my notebook - Hendrik must be close to two months old (I think):

	And the next day….
8:30 ate	7:30 awake, 8:00 ate
10-12:15 slept in chair	9:15 sleeping in chair – 11/11:15
12:30 feed	11:30 ate
2-2:50 slept in crib	2:30-3:45 sleep
3:30 feed	5:30 ate – 6:45 bath, awake
4:30 sleeping chair – 5:10	9:30 ate
5:45 eat	10:30 sleeping in crib
6:45 sleeping in chair	- 4:30
9:30 ate	- 7:45
- 2:30

What a blur! With that in mind (the blur), I asked our neighbor Fabio, who I'd say is hmmm in his 70s, if time just keeps going at this clip - fast fast fast. Sitting at the mouth of his garage next to his garden a'plenty, he looked at me and shook his head. Then, smiling, he let out a big sigh that said oooooh girl you have no idea: "you think this is fast? just wait thirty years and you'll wonder what happened." Ouuuuuf! Thirty years. We had a great conversation the other day - he was asking about Hendrik and the places we've lived, and whether or not we'll be here for another year or two. He apologized for not getting out of his chair to talk to me, and explained that his back was extra sore from his morning foray into the woods to collect mushrooms - his number one hobby. This guy is a wealth of information for living off of the land - he knows where to collect wild asparagus in the spring, and the spots for more than 150 different kinds of funghi - ! Incredible. He gave me a small but very valuable jar of herbs that he collected at some point this year and mmmmm yum they were good. He worked in the cinema for 37 years, and I imagine he has some pretty good stories.



Anyways, the here and now. I have Hendrik updates! 1. He went down the entire flight of stairs by himself yesterday (16 of 'em) and 2. He pretended! He pretended to eat food! I gave him an empty oatmeal container this morning and he proceeded to pretend that there was food in there and motioned to eat it. LOVE! Oooooh I love it. We started pretending with him, and he shared his delicious food (and drink!) that he had in his new container. And the volumes of love continue to grow.

oooooh time. a family of three... just like ours!