8 months

Eeeeeesh. Little Ellie turned 8 months old yesterday. And BK and I definitely feel like the parents of an 8-month old: struggling to interpret her new nighttime crying; struggling to keep her from leaping out of our arms toward the neat-o, super interesting pot of boiling water on the stove; struggling with the guilt of not spending every single moment with her. Maybe that last one is just me, dealing with being a working mom.

The last few weeks have been cray-zee. A few days after my dad and sister visited, we welcomed BK's folks for a nice, long weekend, sharing them with Marnie's family. We all went to breakfast at a popular place on the East side of Madison one morning, and lo and behold I recognize a fellow customer. Except I can't place her. After the awkward moment when she catches me staring at her, I open my mouth and bluntly ask how I know her. Her answer seems to happen in slow motion: Kate (and my mind races, thinking I know her through my good friend Kate) Sample (OMG! It's DR KATE SAMPLE!!!). Dr Kate Sample is the ob/gyn who delivered A) the exciting news that our baby was going to be born and B) baby Ellie! It was really fun that she got to see Ellie. Dr Kate Sample was there with her family, including her young son, who serenaded us and the rest of the patrons for the rest of the meal from his perch on the second floor. Now I wish I had reminded her of a couple moments from the birth, that maybe she would actually remember us. Because of course our birth story is unforgettable. Well, I did tell her that she was in our blog, so maybe she'll google herself and have the unmatchable thrill of finding her name on some weirdo's website. At least we have only good things to say.

Back to our crazy month. We traded one batch of Minnesotans for another and had a great weekend with BK's brothers. They came down for the cinematic debut of our friend Tommy's movie, Darkness. Even sister Marnie got into it, and followed up the movie with some gently worded questions about how in the world I can stand BK's sportbike riding, as well as some technical questions which I could only half (or less) answer about things like hanging off the bike, sparkies and darkies.

We had some great babysitters chipping in to allow us to attend the movie and then the after party. I had a fantastic time at the party. It felt superb, even kind of elating, to spend those hours with friends, laughing at their jokes, having them laugh at my jokes. The 5 hours of sleep I managed after falling into bed around 1 am were well worth an evening with friends.

Well, now that I've blogged to my heart's content, it's time for new pics of our cutie.

Man. It only takes a glimpse of this beautiful little person to make the
aforementioned nighttime struggles just ... poof ...