This is a question I hear again and again. As the mood strikes me, I’ll add some photo answers.

This is how I get to cook!

THIS time, we really did the whole hike, accompanied by my upstairs neighbor, Sam. The weather couldn’t have been better, but we were about a week or two too early for the peak of Fall color. Guess it’s been too warm this year.

Maya and Sam, in front of a sample of how this hike got its name. I was laughing that this could be a kitschy hike for when Maya’s older…we’ll bring our own pancakes and syrup and do brunch on the rocks.

Another example. For an idea of scale, notice the hiker sitting toward the right side of the rock formation.

Artsy shot of a twisted pine — this one would probably look great in b/w, but I only shot color, so that’s left to PhotoShop.

A bit of Fall color — but only the yellow. Give this area a week or two, and orange and red will join.

The hike’s end overlooks a valley that’s filled with aspen trees, but they were mainly still green. Again…give it another couple weeks, and this will be amazing. Problem is, after reminding myself of how un-fun the switchback are (you know, the ones I did a couple months ago without getting to hit the top?), I’m not sure we’ll go back this season. A drive through Phantom Canyon in the next couple weeks will be good, though.

Maya finally got her third tooth! Now if the *other* top tooth will just come in…

At the rate we’re going, I think I’m looking at constant teething until she’s two, sigh.

For perhaps the third night in a row, I’ve had to leave my (our) bedroom in the middle of the night. By this time of night, we co-sleep (she joins me in bed after her first wake up then nurses off/on through the night). Lately, though, around 4am, she’s restless. Maya tosses. She rolls around. She kicks me in the stomach. She rolls around some more. She crawls toward the edge of the bed. She pulls on my hair some. She rolls some more. Through all of this, she nurses for two seconds, then stops, then starts again.

I try to hold her, and she squirms out of my arms. She wants to be close, but not held. Then she kicks me again.

After several gentle warnings of “you must settle” and “go back to sleep, please,” Maya is in her crib, bawling pitifully, as if I’m the meanest, most heartless mommy to ever live on this earth. I’ve given up and am moving to the sofa.

No wonder I’ve been exhuasted during the day lately. It’s a good thing my sofa is comfortable. We need a bigger house. Maya needs her own room somday.

Update: 7:40am. The pitiful crying not only didn’t stop, it got worse. I went back to the bedroom after perhaps 10 minutes of escalation and picked up my shivering, sad little girl — who still struggled to get away, then clung to me like superglue. She decided that nursing again might not be so bad, and went back to sleep, thank God. Of course, then she decided that it was time to get up for the day at about 6:30. Honey! It’s Sunday! Yes, we’re going hiking today, but we sleep IN on Sunday!

Left: Allison, 10 months. Right: Maya, 11 months.

But she’s still way cuter.

Baby G had a nifty activity cube that Maya loved to both play with and push around. This time, though…it didn’t work out so well. Of course, instead of getting her down, I ran for the camera. THEN, I got her down. Oh, she was *so* mad…

Shhhh…don’t tell Maya, but she’s getting something similar for her birthday.

Maya and I are headed to the Pacific Northwest to meet up with Alison and Baby G! We’ll be back next Tuesday, and I’m sure I’ll have a ridiculous number of photos to post.

Update: Yes, I really am home…but the idea of picking only a few photos out of the 200-plus images kills me, so I’ve put off blogging. Yet. Check back here for pics in the future — I’ll likely date the posts with the actual dates of the photos.

A while back, I posted a photo of my view from the bathtub … if I’m *bathing*. Until now, once I switch on the shower, Maya bounces around the bathroom, playing with various toys. She works on learning cause/effect by dropping toys into the shower to see if I’ll toss them back out (I quickly learned to keep only water-safe toys in the bathroom toy basket!).

Not today. Today, she was fascinated with the shower process. I wish I’d had a camera, because there was something simply precious about seeing her little face, normally so giggly, looking very serious as she peeked around the curtain to study how I scrubbed myself, washed my hair, and went about taking a shower.

Maya spent last night and all day today in FuzziBunz, and it was enough that I’m now pretty close to certain this isn’t the system for us — if nothing else, because of sizing. The borrowed ones I have are smalls, and on the largest thigh-hole, they seem too snug (leaving deep indentations on her legs from the gathers), but I have them on the *smallest* size possible in the waist. Moving up to the medium or petite toddler size, the legs will fit, but I’m betting the waist will be waaaay too big. She’s spending tonight in Huggies.

All of this has gotten me started on a cloth-diapering crusade, though, and now I’m obsessively looking at what other options are out there, including starting “Elimination Communication.” At this point, I’m infatuated with the idea of using my existing (enormous) pile of flannel receiving blankets as flat diapers, then making knitted wool pull-up covers. I’m obviously losing my mind.