Baby Evan was born on Sunday, April 5th and every Sunday since I’ve taken a picture to mark one more week of growth. Since it took 40 weeks (and 5 days) to grow the baby, I thought 40 weeks was a good point to put together a slide show of his life so far.

(Confession: I’m also getting really bad about taking a photo on the right day and figure I’d better do this before I totally forget a week and he notices some day. Like, “Hey Mom, why are weeks 46 and 51 missing from my baby book?” “Well Son, that’s because Mommy didn’t love you as much once she had to live with you for that long.” KIDDING.)

(Warning: I got all fancy with my slideshow so there’s music in the background. Make sure you mute your speakers if you’re someplace where watching baby photo slideshows isn’t part of your job description. Or if country music makes your ears bleed.)

(Also, apparently I’m too stupid to figure out how to embed a slideshow in my site so you’ll have to click through to view it. I’ve spent every nap time for the past TWO DAYS trying to figure this out and it’s time to just call it good enough despite my overwhelming desire to redo the whole thing with a FOURTH program. I also don’t want my kid’s first words to be “work dammit!” So you’ll just have to click.)

From 40 Weeks of Baby Slideshow

So 2009 was kind of a big year for me, what with HAVIN’ A BABY and all. I guess that was pretty much all I did though, besides stay married for 5 years and write a bunch of crap on the internet. Hey, let’s talk about that!

My 10 20 favorite (and most popular) posts of 2009

1. My first post with an actual baby: He’s finally here!

2. Birth story: Part 1 and Part 2.

3. Same and not the same: Pregnant vs. Drunk

4. Free show? Not so much: I think we need to discuss this.

5. Beautiful belly: Maternity Photos.

6. How to have a baby: Advice, for real.

7. Father & son adorableness: Daddy Time.

8. Real time baby care: 24. and 24: season 2.

9. Everything I know about breastfeeding: Your new breast friend.

10. Baby & dog video cuteness: Ten seconds before…

11. Hey, I’ve been married a while now: 5 years

12. Drama! Suspense! Vaccinations!: Can open, worms everywhere.

13. By far my most commented on post: Confessions of a secret co-sleeper.

14. Ooooo the cooking post: It doesn’t count as making dinner if all you make is a phone call.

15. Cute: A little man of many hats.

16. Bebehblog’s Babywearing Guide!

17. Guest post: Erin’s Breastfeeding Story (one of the best posts on my blog ever, even if it wasn’t the most commented)

18. The president luvs mah bebeh: Getting his political future started.

19. Loss: Knowing what to say.

20. Baby’s first visit with Santa: A little holiday cheer.

Thank you to everyone who reads, thank you to everyone who comments, thank you to everyone who has supported me on the internet, thank you to the mamas I’ve met in the last year, thank you to my friends at Papoose, thank you to my friends at Stroller Strides, thank you to my family, thank you to E’s family, thank you to every single person who has ever held a door for me while I was trying to push the stroller, and thank you to YOU for making 2009 the best year of my life so far.

Coming soon in 2010: Baby Evan eats food, learns to walk and talk, has first birthday. E turns the big 3-0, finds out if he makes officer, Navy possibly transfers us to different state. I, well, I plan to write about all that. And lose 30 lbs. Stay tuned!

Y’all. There’s something wrong with my bebeh. First it was chewing on anything made of leather. Then it was the carrying stuff around in his mouth. Now it’s this:

Do you want to know WHY he is doing that? It’s because the tile is cold and hard and his delicate little baby knees don’t want to touch it. On the one hand, those are some mad problem solving skills for a 9 month old. His little brain figured out how to avoid doing something he doesn’t like. This bodes very well for his survival in the world but not so well for my chance of getting him to mow the lawn someday. On the other hand, I want to tell him Dude, can you not SEE your knees? They’re the chubbiest little baby knees ever and if all that baby fat isn’t protecting you from cold hard things then I don’t know what it’s for.

Also, I am slightly jealous of his flexibility. I’ve always sucked at Downward Dog.

I’m not really prepared to be the mother of a 7 month old. How did my baby get this old?! I don’t know why I never really got past 6 months in my head, but for some reason it never occurred to me time would keep going. I think it’s because 6 months was supposed to be our big milestone, the end of the exclusive breastfeeding and the moment when I no longer had to be Baby Evan’s only source of food. SURPRISE. Motherhood lesson #1: babies don’t give a crap about what you want. Really though, I don’t mind that much. He’s old enough now that he has to be really really REALLY hungry before he starts screaming, so I’m able to get some baby free time while E gets daddy time. I even missed bedtime last night so I could attend the mom’s knitting group at Papoose and made my first baby washcloth. Or at least I WILL have made my first baby washcloth when someone shows me how to finish it. I don’t think it will work very well with a knitting needle stuck to one side.

As for milestones…we have achieved forward momentum. It’s not really crawling, since he still hasn’t figured out how to get his knees under him while in motion (although he can get up on all fours while stationary and rock back and forth as if he’s trying to will his body forward). No, Baby Evan gets around by sort of half dragging half kicking his way across the floor, in a way that could only be described as “desperate gun shot victim crawls for safety” or “injured animal attempts escape”. Although I doubt either of those would move at the incredible speed Baby Evan can reach. There’s this corner of the kitchen where he always pauses and looks back, as if daring me to remember closing the baby gate, right before he disappears towards the HALLWAY OF DOOM, which holds the dog food, a bathroom and the basement stairs. In the 7 month old mind, all those things should be explored with one’s mouth. Unfortunately, the gates can’t do anything about his amazing ability to find the ONE piece of paper or bottle cap or dog kibble or dust bunny on a floor covered in baby toys and immediately try to eat it. We should send the babies to Afghanistan and say “Whatever you do, DON’T put Bin Laden in your mouth.” BOOM! Problem solved.

Our new nighttime routine is going…well, not really WELL, but better than I expected. More nights than not we make it past midnight before a feeding and until 4 or 5 am before the only way to get any more sleep is bringing him to bed with me. I’m hoping we get down to one early morning feeding followed by a couple extra hours of sleep by 9 months, so I’ve started checking stuff off Dr. Sears’ causes of nighttime waking list. We bought a space heater to keep the nursery warm (it’s now the most comfortable room in the house). We dress the baby in a cotton onesie before putting on his cozy jammies so they won’t itch. We set up the humidifier to help with his congestion. We play the Baby Go To Sleep cd on repeat all night. Even the worst insomniac in the world would fall asleep in that room, and yet it’s not quite good enough for my darling babycakes. The GIANT GLARING PROBLEM with this plan is that all the eating Baby Evan was doing at night now happens during the day. And I think his top teeth are coming through. So lets just say our days are  mostly spent topless.

As fast as the last 7 months have gone, the next couple are going to just fly by. We’re going to Pennsylvania to be godparents to my best friend’s baby next weekend, the weekend after that we’re going to Virginia (shh!! it’s a surprise party for my grandmother!), then it’s Thanksgiving. We don’t know yet how our holidays are going to play out or where we’ll be but I am ridiculously excited for Baby Evan’s first Christmas. The excitement on his face when he realizes all that wrapping paper those presents are for him to eat to play with is going to be fantastic.

For your viewing pleasure, a baby escape. He made it from the carpet to that spot in the time it took me to turn on the camera. If you listen carefully you can hear his cackle of laughter as he disappears: