Swollen foot.

Luke dropped a can of tomatoes on my foot this morning. Not the tomato paste size either. The biggest size whole tomato kinda can. It hurt. I cried. Luke thought I was laughing at first. He got so excited and laughed too. Then he realized I wasn't rocking back and forth and holding my foot cause I was happy. He got so concerned. He stopped laughing and crawled over and patted me while babbling in a soothing way. It was almost worth the hurt foot to see him do something so cute. Almost.
Have I mentioned that I LOVE living in the city? It fills a little spot in my heart I didn't even know was empty. Running errands is an adventure every day. We had to get Luke's health insurance sorted out today. The office is downtown so Luke and I walked there. It was fun to finally go into one of the big high-rise office buildings. It was fun to have the doorman make us sign in and then tell us to take the elevator to the 15th floor. It was fun to look down on the roofs (rooves? Roovi?) once we got up there. I wonder if the novelty will ever wear off?
We went to the opening of Anthropologie in Harbor East after that. It was amazing. It's a huge store and it's laid out in a really cool way. I think that with the exception of the Anthro at Rockefeller Center it's the prettiest one I've seen. I have a feeling that we're going to be spending lots of time there browsing.
We rode the bus home and I came to the reluctant realization that this stroller is just not practical for the city. Some bus drivers let me keep it open on the bus, but most make me fold it up. There is absolutely no way to fold it while holding Luke and whatever bags I have stowed away in the bottom. Plus it's huge, so I can't carry it one handed. I have to rely on strangers to help me every time. I think that we might to need to get one of those cheapy umbrella strollers for any time I suspect we'll be using transit. Of course, it is fun seeing how kind people are. I have yet to ride a bus and not have several strangers offer to help me.

The everyday.

One of my favorite things about being a mom is that the everyday things we do are now so exciting when seen through the eyes of a 10 month old. Like touching water. Before I had Luke, when was the last time I bent down to put my hand in water as we walked by a fountain? Uh, not often. Now we do it all the time.
There's this park near us that has a shiny metal fence. Part of the fence is a xylophone that you can tap to play music. Luke loves to put his hands on it and feel the vibrations when I hit it. Now every time we pass a metal fence his breath catches and he starts waving his arms to touch it. This makes me look very funny as I try to oblige him by producing vibrations out of wrought iron.

A letter to Lucas at 10 months.

Hello little one!

Ten months has been a fun age for all of us. We've had so much fun watching you grow. We’re starting to notice more and more traits that we associate with toddlers. Like the way you now prefer to wander and explore between bites of food. How you love to point at each new thing you see, waitingfor us to notice and then identify it for you. How you like to play with your toys now in a totally different way. You’re using them now, not just as chewtoys and objects with which to hit things, but in the way in which they wereintended to be used. You’re favorite at the moment is a small foam ball thatyou roll and then chase all over the apartment. You like to hit it with thehandheld cheese grater. The grater is flat so it looks like you’re playing cricket. The other day you spied the cheese grater in the dishwasher and crawledup into the dishwasher to get it.

Lucas in the dishwasher, trying to get to the cheese grater.

We've moved to Baltimore and have been settling into citylife over the past month. You've handled the transition really well. There hasbeen a lot of clinginess to me, but that's really to be expected sinceeverything is so new here. You've been having a great time exploring our newapartment. It's huge - over 1100 square feet -so you've been getting yourexercise crawling all over it. You've banished that belly crawl once and forall. You've got serious space to cover now and you've decided that it requiresserious crawling. Hands and knees only!

You're trying to talk to us all the time now, and you talkto yourself a lot too. We can understand some of the babbles. When you want toeat  you do a really distinctive coughing sound in the back of yourthroat.  When we're out of your sight youdo this high pitched sound that reminds me of a sonar. Perhaps you're hopingit'll ping off of us so you will always know our exact whereabouts?  When you wake up from your nap and you wantme to come get you, I swear you say "Coo-eee" in a sing-songy voice.You know, like an upper-crust, 60 year old British woman? When I go in to getyou, I always expect to see you sporting a gray chin-length bob, wearing an ill-fittingmen’s hunting jacket and waving your gardening gloves at me. Perhaps somedayI'll be changing your diaper and you'll confide to me that Mrs. Watkins downthe street is letting her rose bushes get into the most dreadful state. ThenI'll know that it wasn't just my imagination.

You aren’t in a car that much anymore. We either walk, ortake the train or bus now. You love not being confined to your car seat whilein a moving vehicle. The only challenge has been to stop you from licking everysurface on said buses and trains. Well that, and getting you to not press thebright yellow strips running down the sides that say “Press To Signal Stop”.More than once you’ve pressed them and I’ve had to yell to the front that it wasa mistake. I’m seriously thinking of writing the city and asking them to paintall of those strips a very boring Soviet-style gray. It would no longer beattractive to babies and since it would be hard for everyone to find, the busdrivers would no doubt have far less stops to make.

Lucas on the train. Isn't he pretty?

Living close to daddy’s work has been wonderful. It meansthat daddy can come home for lunch. This means that twice a day as you hear daddywalk in the door you start waving your arms excitedly and then crawl toward thedoor while saying “dada, dada” over and over. It's adorable. It’s a  long hallway you have tocrawl down to get to the door, so you’ve also learned to say ” I’m just goingto take a little breather”, “Water, please” and “I’d be there faster dad, butmy sciatica is killing me.” 

We love every minute that we spend with you sweet boy, and we love that you make everyday so much more fun as we see it through your eyes.

We love you little bear,

Mommy and Daddy