Eleven and a half months

Lucy is more than 11 months old now, coming up on the big 12! Back when I was younger and single and childless and ignorant I used to ask people how old their kids were and they'd tell me something like 1,456 months. I'd roll my eyes internally and think, damnit, just tell me how many years because I hate math, especially dividing by 12 and carrying those extra numbers and why does it really matter anyway, just tell me 2 or 3 or 5 or whatever! But now I know. Everyone one of those months is earned and matter and are full of so many firsts and important learnings. Crawling, teething (and no one every fully prepared me for this milestone), disovering doors - slamming doors, standing up, throwing food, grinding teeth, snorting glees of hello and the list goes on. If you just said she's 1 or 2, you'd feel like you were cheating your child of hard earned life lessons.

We celebrated Lucy's 'first birthday' a month early with family. My parents were in town from Georgia and it seemed like the best time to get all the family together for the big celebration. My mom came up with the brillant idea of a rice crispy treat cake for Lucy, since she can't consume most of the ingredients in a real cake.

All going well, mom putting fire in front of baby.













Mom convinced she'll 'figure it out' and blow out the candle herself.













Quickly blow it out, but not in time. Baby's tender hand covering the flame burning her flesh.













Grandpa brushing the tears of pain away.













This is a might fine cake, even though my mother let me burn myself to get it.













The big first birthay is September 19, 2006. That's when she'll be 12 months old, and I'll say she's one year old for just that one month. After that, it's back to number 13.