Wren is circling back around the blanket again, she’s half regular crawling, half bear crawling as she tries to balance with one hand because the other hand is holding a stollen snack from another baby. She has her own snacks, but stollen snacks taste better, apparently.  I don’t know where this little girl came from. I put her down and she’s off to explore, and sort of gently paw at her friends. She’s a curious one and loves spending time with other kids of all ages. She gets so excited when she sees other babies/kids and will verbally exclaim, usually with an “AH!” Which is great because we usually see friends every day of the week. Our social calendar, for the first time in my adult life is packed.

Making friends as an adult is hard, but I put in the work because community is everything (next to family). But having a baby has made it easy to make friends. It used to take months to make a few friends, now I have this giant community. From close friends we see weekly to acquaintances we see whenever our schedules place us at the same location. We have weekend brewery dates, weekday lunches, week night summer festival outings. It’s pretty incredible. And contrary to popular opinion nearly all the moms I’ve met have been awesome, laid back people. No judgement, no one-upmanship. Just support and camaraderie. It happened naturally, which is great for an introvert like myself. We just showed up to things, and met other parents with their kiddos. And then kept showing up, and then we made friends, and then more friends through their friends. Plus now that our lives are so Wren-centric, its helpful to have most of our community on the same page. I do have some non-kid related friends through running which is also a great escape. Maybe this is normal, and I just didn’t know it. But I’m loving our little lives right now. Yes, Alex’s schedule is tough and we live in this tiny apartment but the bonus is we’re forced to take advantage of our off-time, to get out and explore the outdoors since we don’t have a backyard. Plus Wren is just getting more and more fun every week. She’s starting to express herself differently, and using her voice. She has clear opinions about things now.

Earlier, we were all standing in a circle after stoller strides and one mom was handing her son strawberry pieces, Wren wanted them and starred down my friend until she looked up, then promptly, and somewhat aggressively yelled “BA, BA, AH!” It’s so cool to see her start to express herself verbally (as opposed to just fussing/crying if she wasn’t happy). She’s developing at such a rapid pace lately, or maybe she always is, but now it feels more interesting. She’s becoming more and more mobile and seems to be understanding her world and relating to other people. Plus the babbling is just the cutest thing ever. She also starting clapping. Which is a milestone that I used to eyeroll at before having kids. Like, congratulations on your little genius smashing his hands together. Now of course I think it’s the cutest thing ever and was SO EXCITED when she did it for the first time. We’ve also found we have to be careful about our reactions to her. She’ll try something to get a reaction (like yelling) and if we react will do it again and again, which we’ve never dealt with before! Overall though she’s a pretty relaxed baby so it hasn’t been much of an issue. I just love the little glimpses of her personality.

Every month has been more fun than the last, but I could pause here. It feels like a sweet spot, before she’s walking (and then subsequently running), still containable but interactive, excellent sleeper, overall just fun. She’s still just sweet and little. Nine month olds are the best!