Good things

Dylan hit the nine-month mark over the weekend. He's 40 weeks old! He's been out of utero as long as he was in, and I am enjoying this period so much more than I was at 40 weeks pregnant. It's all good.

Dylan reaching for a libation as he celebrates nine months

He has gotten super affectionate and doles out kisses left and right even if you don't ask. Granted, his kisses are open mouth and can include tongue so if that's not your thing, you've got to make sure the kiss is aimed at your cheek.

He's already over crawling. He wants to be standing up or walking, walking, walking (with assistance, of course). He often holds out his arms to me and I think he wants a hug but, nope, he wants to grasp on to my hands and use me to pull himself up and walk. I count "one, two, one, two" or "uno, due, uno, due" and he puts one foot in front of the other all over the house. Below he is pictured walking the house with his stylish nonna.

"I've got places to be"

He's also gotten really smart and I'm not just saying that because I'm his mom. The other day he ducked his head behind the curtain and then ducked it back out again quickly. He did this two or three times and I had no idea what he was doing. He had a glint in his eye and was looking at me as if to say "C'mon, mom, don't you get it?" It finally hit me and I yelled out "peekaboo!" and he started giggling uncontrollably. Strangely, we are not much for peekaboo around here so I'm thinking he's a self-taught peekaboo guy! We are big on pat-a-cake, itsy bitsy spider and "this little piggy went to the market" but we've never really done peekaboo.

He's back to sleeping in his own bed for the whole night. He stirs around 2:30 a.m. but a little pat on the back and some "shhhh"-ing sends him back to dreamland until around 7 a.m. We are very happy about that. In other sleep news, my friend Vanessa (who is from New Zealand but lives in Sicily) picked up a sleep sack for me while in London for the weekend. It's starting to get cold in the apartment at night and Dylan kicks off any cover I try to put on him so I'm very excited for the arrival of my sleep sack, which will be coming to me by way of New Zealand by way of London by way of Sicily. There's no just thinking "Hmm, I'd really like a sleep sack" and just going down to the Babies R Us to buy one. Everything has to be complicated...

Passed out in his dinosaur pajamas

Finally, we've had some really nice sunny fall days. You know what that means? Mamma Michelle (which is what Cristiano calls me and which I think sounds absolutely ridiculous but makes me laugh all the same - look for my line of pasta sauces at your local Whole Foods!) is a happy laundress! If I get the laundry percolating by 8 a.m., I can start hanging by 9:30 a.m. - because the "fast" cycle takes 90 minutes on my very slow methodical energy-efficient washer - and if I'm lucky, everything is dry by 4 p.m., which is when the sun moves off the East-facing balcony. If things aren't dry, I have to move everything to the West-facing balcony where we get sun until about 6:30 p.m. If all goes well, Dylan has bed clothes for the night! With the cough he's had, he's been spitting up his milk all over himself and his sheets at least once a night. But if there's laundry to do and the sun's out, I'm not complaining!