Invented by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr.

Month 10

Dear Claire,

Today you are 10 months old. You are getting so big, and wanting to be so independent, you're not going to be my little baby for much longer. You would rather be crawling around, getting into everything and forcing me to re-baby-proof everything.



We are getting ready to go on your first airplane ride tomorrow. Please please please behave. I've been that mom with the screaming baby on an airplane before, and I'd really like not to repeat that experience.

We passed out Halloween candy last night, and everyone loved you. You loved looking at all of the kids in their colorful costumes. Your personality emerges a little more every day, and you are going to be the most wonderful person.

I love you baby.

-Mama

The Nightmares Before Christmas

Cheeses!

Roasting Marshmellows!

Punkin Patch!

Month 9

Dear Claire,



Today you are nine months old. Wow, time does fly by. You are such a happy baby, all smiles all the time for everyone. Until they try to touch you. Then it's shrieking and huge alligator tears.



You have abandoned all baby food in favor of Cheerios. If there are Cheerios around, you really don't want any of that Gerber crap. You love to eat pasta, bread, and pretty much anything you can shove in your mouth before someone swoops in to take it away. You even steal food from your sister's plate!

You still say 'mama' for everything, although you are getting some other sounds as well. You wave bye-bye, but only when you feel like it.

I love you so much it's overwhelming.
-Mama

Wait, I'm supposed to SLEEP here?

A study in self-portraits.

If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck

Flashback!

Ham is not people.

Oh yes, my child, it is.

And this one is tired.

This one is hungry.

Apparently we don't feed our kids enough.

These are the days.

So's first day of pre-school.

Month 8

Dear Claire,

Today you are eight months old. And boy, does time fly when you're having fun. We are approaching the end of summer, and last month you experienced your first earthquake (heck, mine too!) and your first hurricane. After a hot, dry summer that was absolutely relentless on the plants & garden, suddenly it won't stop raining.
Speaking of rain, the stupid mosquitos won't leave you alone. Today I counted five bites on you, one on your face. Poor baby.

But back to you! You've started eating Puffs and Crunchies, and all kinds of baby food. You also love bread and rice and pretty much anything you can grab when nobody's paying attention. I swear, you eat and eat until we stop giving you food. Yesterday you stole your sister's bacon. Today you cried when I took away a French fry. This is probably why you are now wearing 12 month size, and those are getting small. You're my little chunky monkey.

You say 'Mama', but that's kind of your thing, and I don't think that it means anything in particular yet. But I still like it.
You still laugh on the inhale, so it sounds like an excited gasp, and is really funny in itself. You're a very smiley baby, and interact with absolutely everyone. Until they get too close to you, then the game's over. You don't let most people hold you, although the Mama Fever is kind of easing up. Maybe. A little. Okay, not really.

You have a slight problem with the biting. Really, you need to cut it out. I have little bite marks all over my shoulders, and it hurts! Some people think they can get away with anything just cause they're cute.

And yeah, you're really cute.

Happy 8 month-day, my baby bear.

Love,
Mama

The State of Aquaria, August 2011 edition.

Looks much different from a year ago.

We still have the peppermint shrimp. The tiger brittle star had an accident about a month ago, and we had to re-home the coral reef shrimp as he developed a taste for expensive fish. Current inhabitants are: 2 percula clowns, a coral beauty, a yellow tang and a scooter blenny. We've got lots of inverts, including a plethora of snails & hermits and an emerald crab. The foray into corals include button polyps, 2 mushroom corals, green star polyps, a hammer coral, a galaxia and a Captain America brain coral.
The freshwater cichlid tank is also doing very well, I'll post a picture of it sometime. We also have 2 geckos and a fire-bellied toad that we've had for over 10 years, and a female betta keeping me company in the kitchen.