*seis meses

Vera had her 6 month check up yesterday. She weighs 16 lbs. 1 oz and is 25.25 inches long. I believe both are about the 50th percentile. She was born at about the 95th (I still can't believe she was over 9 lbs.!) so she's slimmed down a bit.

She's changing every day - sitting up pretty well now and constantly talking or blowing bubbles. The other day she actually whistled - I caught it on video. She also won't stay on her back, but rolls over to her tummy right when you set her down. Yesterday she even pulled her knees in with her little bum in the air, like she wanted to crawl. It's so much fun to see each day's new development :)

*los cater(s)

When we got married and became "the [Montana] Caters," I thought it would be clever to have that as our email address, but in Spanish. A little Spanish lesson: if you want to say "the Smiths" or "the Garcias" you say "los Smith" or "los Garcia" - there's no 's' on the end. ¿Entiendes? At the time I thought, well won't all our English speaking friends get mixed up and always spell it wrong? So I did "los caterS." Then I applied for a Master's degree in Spanish and had a grammatically wrong email address - a little embarrassing. I should have just gone with "los cater." Anyway, I know it's not a big deal [at all], but I've always wanted to send out a mass email explaining myself. So that said, the blog is now los cater(s). Like I said in an earlier post, it's fun to get to use the parenthesis add-on :)

[Also, I'm not sure if I like the new header. I kept trying to make it smaller and smaller - but no matter what, it still won't fit in the border! Also maybe there's a little too much pink? Oh well, I've already wasted one of Vera's micro-naps trying to figure it out.]

*sweet potatoes

* i love almonds - and ice cream

The past few nights I've been having vanilla ice cream (in a perfect world it would be haagen dazs) loaded with toasted almonds and just a touch of chocolate sauce. Around 5pm I start thinking about it, wishing we could just get dinner over with so I can have my dessert. Last night, Ben was saying grace and I had to ask him to start over. Instead of thanking the Lord for a wonderful day, I was thinking about how much I love almonds and ice cream and was planning how I could post a picture of it on the blog with the title "love" - is this a little ridiculous??

*the (m)other

In graduate school I had to take a class on Literary Criticism. The professor was a little crazy and very obsessed with the theories of Jacques Lacan - I can still hear his super thick accent - LacAH (how do you write out that nasal sound?) Anyway, I wrote a whole paper using this theory but I pretty much didn't know what I was talking about then and certainly don't now. What I do remember is that there is a moment when a baby sees herself in the mirror and realizes that she is herself, and that the mother is someone else: an other [or (an)other - I loved getting to write it that way]. There's some sort of split in the "self" and the result is a bunch of post-freudian junk (I really don't get it). Anyway, Vera has been fascinated with her image in the mirror for a long time - it's a sure way to get a smile out of her. I wonder when she saw her image and realized that she and I weren't one and the same?

*in action

A couple of videos - they're not terribly exciting, but they're cute and part of "the everyday life" no? When I was uploading them this morning, Vera was really excited, smiling and squealing - I'm pretty sure she knew she was watching herself :)

*ciao zia!

My sister left yesterday after staying with us since the beginning of December. She's off to Italy on Sunday for 8 months at a shoe design institute! While she was here we had lots of fun parlando italiano, stringing together as many frasi as we could [e bella la bambina? si, e molto bella e molto inteligente]. Mi piace. Anyway, she's going to keep up a blog [you have to, liz] while she's there. I can't wait to hear all about the experience - especially all the cibo italiano she gets to mangia - lucky.

*or anne

The reality is, it's most likely "or anne" who will be doing most [all] of the postings on this blog. Although the site is mostly for me to share pictures of my sweet little Vera, I'm also going to use it to ramble on about other things that interest, excite or inspire me. This is going to be difficult at first as I have a hard time sounding natural in a journal-like setting. I'm much better at writing letters - when I used to try to keep a journal, I'd have to start it off with "Dear Tamara," in order to get the writerly flow moving.

So, here's something that excites me lately: my new metal crate that I use to store all my letter-writing materials. I wish I could say that it's a flea-market find, but I actually got it at one of those stores that can charge a ridiculous amount for a metal box because they make it look so stylish and flea-marketesque. Anyway, it makes writing letters that much more fun.

*sitting up (kind of)

Propped up with blankets and stuffed animals she can hover for about a minute before falling over to the side or keeling over frontwards, in which case she'll invariably spit-up. Also a picture of me with my babe (and my new sweatshirt that I love :). I've had to take most of the pictures of the two of us - it usually takes many tries and most end up with half my face showing.

*snow

We got about eight inches of snow last night and this morning. Ben was in heaven and has already been outside shoveling three times. No school today so we went on a little family outing to get coffee and scones [I included a picture - it is very artsy to post pictures of mugs of coffee on your blog]. I was telling Ben that it was the kind of snow where you could shake off a little slab that would maintain the exact imprint of your moon boots. Remember that?

*three

I think I like capturing a moment in threes...

Last night:

This morning:

*a good morning

I like me and Vera's [Vera and my?] morning ritual . She's always so happy and jolly - and it's just the two of us while Ben sleeps in a little more. I remember when she was tiny and I couldn't even put her down for a second without her crying. Eventually I was able to put her in her little chair while I made coffee and peanut butter toast for myself. Now we get up and she plays for a bit on her blanket while I get things ready in the kitchen. She lets me know when she's tired of being on the floor and either joins me at the table, we head downstairs to check email or she plays in her little jumper. She thought having her picture taken was especially fun this morning...

*an apple

*bundled up

Ready for a walk with Aunt Liz . . .

*rested

I feel rested today - Vera *only* woke up last night at 8:00, 8:45, 12:30, 3:30 and 7:00. You can imagine how it's been previous nights? Anyway, here she is playing with her little monkey this morning. It was cute - she didn't just stuff him in her mouth, but held him, looked at him, turned him over...

(Does the picture look a little funny? I found the camera frozen in the stroller pocket..)

*la bebita

Here's our little babe - Vera Winters Cater. She was born on July 29 which makes her just over 5 months old. Her current interests are grabbing her toes, sticking out her tongue, and sipping water from a cup, a bottlecap or a measuring spoon. She is not interested in bottles, naps or seeing mommy walk out of the room (well really just when she's tired...). Being new parents hasn't been easy, but we love love love our little bead and are so excited to be a family of 3.

*blog?

I've been thinking about setting up a blog for a bit now... I love checking my friends' pages - especially to see how their little ones grow and change. I always think, aw nobody would check mine. Anyway, it doesn't matter :) It will be a fun way for me to chart my own little family's growth and perhaps sometimes someone else might take a peep - be it my mom or ben's mom...

So here goes...