just a day

You never notice how noisy a place can be until you've tried to keep a baby asleep in it. If it isn't someone banging, yelling, laughing loudly right outside the window, people having a party in the courtyard or the rattly beeping elevator, it's something else. We signed our new lease on Saturday, and to say I'm excited would be an understatement.

Ben has been sick, and it's been challenging. Challenging because of course I want to make him feel better but can't, and that's frustrating. It's also sometimes frustrating to stay compassionate when he's screaming in my ear, or crying inconsolably for seemingly no reason. I'm constantly having to test my patience and remember that he's not feeling well. He took a two and half hour nap yesterday, which is basically unheard of for him, and afterward was so sweet and happy for a good three hours. Sleep is such a key element for him, sick or not, and I'm just not sure how to insure he gets more of it. I'm doing my best.

He will be nine months soon - crazy.

Also, today I heard about a house in San Francisco that cost 550,000 dollars, and my first reaction was, "That's so cheap, something must be wrong with it." Thanks California, for warping any sense of real estate normalcy that may have existed.

updates

Hot on the heels of my last post is our amazing news: we found a house! To rent, not buy. And I'm very excited. I haven't lived in an actual home for a very long time and I'm looking forward to having a place to really be able to grow in. It's the little things I'm most looking forward to. A driveway. A little yard that I don't have to share with anyone. A back porch where I can drink coffee in the mornings and not have twenty other people all doing the same thing, awkwardly looking at each other. I'm still a little nervous that it's somehow going to fall through, but I'm having faith that it won't.

Ben is doing all kinds of crazy things, like starting to pull up on things. Crawling is not necessary when you can just walk over and get it, right? At least I think that's what he's thinking. I think walking is a ways off, but he will probably walk sooner rather than later. Besides that, he just looks older to me on a daily basis. Not so much a baby as he is a little boy. Weird and awesome. And amazing, just like him.

By the way, Mother's Day was fantastic and full of pancakes in bed, surprise picnics and hiking through Redwood forests. Pretty great.