My baby was so funny today. He has just turned nine months. He has four teeth coming in on top that are just peeking below his upper lip when he grins. So, he is not a gummy grinner any more and it makes me excited for him. I am not lamenting the loss of this baby feature, which surprises me because it is the first time.

I was eating some french fries for lunch... the baked in the oven kind. I always share with E because he's a pain-in-the-butt nag if I am eating something and he isn't. I try to give him softer fries for my piece of mind. Now that he is getting some true chompers I don't fixate as much but anyway... We get down to the last french fries and they are all the little tough ones so I am eating them on my own. E has chipmunk cheeks stuffed with the potato bits anyway so I don't feel bad I've stopped sharing. I'm holding the last french fry in my hand. E grabs my hand, pries open my fingers, snatches the fry and shoves it in his mouth all in about 3 seconds. I was so shocked (not that I would have tried to really stop him). In any case, he totally manhandled my hand, stole my fry and then looked at me like "WHAT UP?!" with exploding chipmunk cheeks. He didn't really have room for that last fry, but he was not going to let me eat it.  I died laughing at him, it was too cute.

We went to the beach with some friends after church on Easter Sunday. E dug in the sand and enjoyed having his feet buried, though he was confused at where they went. E also ate some sand. We haven't been trying to control what he puts in his mouth very much. Obviously it goes with out saying: things that are dangerous for him, we don't let him have. Sometimes Marc and I have conversations like: 

"do you think it's a good idea for him to have [something weird] in his mouth?"

"I don't know how it could hurt him, do you?"

"No, I guess not"

And then we just don't make a big deal about it. If you make a big deal about something it sparks the curiosity. For example, E knows electrical cords and computers are off limits because we always stop him from touching them. Eye glasses too. And when he see any one of these things and he thinks he can get it, you can watch the exclamation point go off in his brain (sometimes you can hear it too). People wearing glasses think he really likes them for all of about three seconds until SNATCH. He's a quick little baby.

I notice regularly how much E has grown or changed. A lot of the time when he is put down to sleep for the night I think "wow he looks so much more like a boy and so much less like a baby" I am pretty sure those will be my thoughts until he's like 25. But I think if I am putting him to bed at 25, we've messed up somewhere :)

Life otherwise has been really interesting. I really like living in Denmark, though I am starting to get annoyed by all the little things that come with moving to a new country. Danish is not an easy language to learn. Right now I am still taking courses. But since my sister is not around to watch E, I don't study the language everyday, as much as, I just try to get my assigned lessons done on time. I think most of my learning is coming from the TV now, so I have started to understand a lot better. But, my vocabulary is too small so trying to speak beyond the basic polite phrases is still killing my confidence.

I think I'm also just growing up more and thinking it is related to moving, but really it is not. I'm not partying any more. I don't miss that, but I miss socializing. I like seeing friends, I look forward to it. I miss my best friends (besides Marc) and I wonder if I will have as close friends here. I feel like as you get older, your family is who you socialize with. But my family is my husband and my babbling baby. Facebook makes it plainly obvious to me that I don't have any friends who are really experiencing life like I am right now; I guess I just feel lonely because of that. I know I'm not the only person who feels too far away, who feels like building a new life takes too much effort. But, I know in a few years I will only remember this feeling because of this blog post. Also, I have to be thankful for the friends I have made here because it truly is a blessing that there is a group of people who care about me and mine, and they aren't related to me.

I can't imagine what kind of person I would be if I lived within 30 miles of my mother for my entire life... not this person, not in this place, not with this husband and child. I really am who I always wanted to be as a little girl- though it comes at a bigger price then I want it to. Now to just allow E to become everything he wants to be with less price to pay. And that is why I think it's nice he spent his first Easter eating sand.

I gave up using soap, shampoo, conditioner- basically all skin application products about four weeks ago. I stopped using them on E as well. The exceptions are on my hands and face and on E's bottom we still use wipes and bum-bum balm when he has a rash. I got the idea from a post on boingboing which led me to a whole bunch of other places on the internets. I found it is generally well documented on a variety of blogs.
We had been experiencing some issues on E like dry skin spots and way too stinky feet. The reasoning made sense to me: your skin is an organ that can regulate itself, why use chemicals to try and mimic that? instead let nature take its course. So it does take a bit of time for your skin to balance everything. The internet led me to believe it would be about two weeks, but I really wasn't convinced for myself until after three. E's skin was better than ever after about a week.
The hardest effect to overcome for myself was having greasy hair, but the benefits during the experiment kept me from turning to the shampoo. Eliminating soap etc. has totally simplified my life. I wasn't the type to shower everyday or really more than twice a week because soap dried out my skin and hair. Now I can shower everyday which gives me a place to start our daily routine. I don't have to think about what to do first which maybe sounds kind of lame to those who haven't been at home with a baby all day every day, but trust me it's like magic for putting me in an optimistic place mentally. Plus, since I don't have a to-do list in the shower it can be as long or as short as E says :) A bonus- our recent trip to Paris was easier to pack for. This summer we hope to get Marc off soap as well, he needs a few weeks off work where he can be stinky and greasy.
I'm a fan of no soap! And I highly recommend it to everyone, especially new mothers and babies.