My friend and neighbor, Amber,is soon to be a new mother, due on August 18th. She is a whole decade younger than me, and is of course going through the last minute heebie-jeebie/"Out..NOW!"stage that probably all mothers new/experienced go through when the due date is so close by. We were sitting out on my front porch taking in a few moments of peace ( I had just put Senor Cutie Pie to sleep) and the realtivley cool summer eve when she poked a little fun at Cash's ( the soon to be newborn son, named after the late great Johnny Cash ) father, Matt.
" I can't wait to get him out." she gave me a brief smirk. " And I really can't wait to see Matt get nervous about holding him, he'll think he's going to break him.." a little giggle followed but she knew that I would not let her get away with such Girl Power Bravado at the moment.Plus, you know, I'm old and wisened to them ( heh ) and I have to add a little sarcasm in every now and then or they would be dissapointed.
"Now wait a minute girlie!" I said Amber had
already predicted her neighbor/partime sage's next adage concerning motherhood. (I've given her a few I admit, but you get to show off SOMETIME don't you??)
" I know, I know.....I'm going to be scared senceless too!" her eyes bulged out almost as far as her belly, my porch suddenly her laboring room, the furture babe already in mama and papa's arms.
"Exactly." It's like ..." You break, you buy!" Except for that fact that you've already bought and walked out of the store!",
I know these kids ( did I just say that.."kids"? ) will be just fine they already have a lot of love in their hearts and more courage than most 20 somethings or thirty somethings for that matter.
But it brings me to the thought: I was acting such a miva ( my own creation of mother and diva ) at the moment, but my heart stops on average about 55.7 times a day when I see Spencer crawling, climbing, and cruising around our house. ( which even after child proofing the child proofers,still seems to me as safe as a Imana fridge, say circa 1964,rusty, with the door left on, sitting atop the Seattle Space Needle during a hail storm.) I never thought I would be one of those mothers who did a lot of :
" Oh no we don't do that!"
" That's not for climbing!"
"That's not for standing!"
"That's not for sitting!"
"That's not for eating!"
in and out of the house, ignoring whatever curious glances that I recieved from other mothers enjoying the bliss of their silent beaming angels while Spencer wriggles around on the floor like Satan's favorite "Lil Devil".

"Is there an excorsist in the house?"

Part of me has to admit that I would just like to adhere magnets to our sons little feet and lay the carpet with the most stylish print of steel that we could afford.
Oh he's so INDEPENDENT!
I knew that it would happen...or did I?
Did I take other miva's words of caution and experience just as Amber and Matt did tonight? With agreeance, but with the obligatory rolling of the eyes when I was out of range coupled with a nice long naive,
"Geeeeeessssshhhhhh!"
Yeah, I probably did.
And on other advice that I will be lucky enough to recieve
I probably will again, for
so is the urge for a mother to mother other mothers about mothering.
And so for the mothers hearing this mothering the urge to retreat back to adolecence and push that little tidbit back in the "I'll use that later" data base of the brain that only reacts to the aforementioned eye rolling/sighing heavily.

But pretty soon you learn, as I have.
Yeah...right.
But I will no doubt doctor my remedies for such possible meltdowns and send them on to Amber.
And of course any other new mother with a child respectivley younger than our main man, Spencer Louis Kautt-Smith.
I'll be a card carrying miva till the day I die. Watch out Maddonna.

While waiting for our beloved ( ahem ) computer to restart ( AGAIN ) I pulled down a little notecard and wrote this for Spencer L. :
 
Dear Mr. Louis Kautt Smith:
               You are hearby deemed the grand poohbah of cuteness. This title pertains to and includes both the benifits and obligations of the entire universe as we now know it to be.
                           Thank You,
                                                     Sincerly,
                                                                             Your Mama
 
Well I hate to say it, but it's TRUE! Okay I don't hate to say it, but a lot of you readers have children and well, we all want at some time to achieve the above letter, but alas Spencer Louis Kautt-Smith has luckily been awarded the title.
 
Our man has been focusing on walking lately, covering all possiblities at learning.Cuising the wall, pushing a little cart around the living room and finally the little crawl/drag that borderlines on standing up and having the whole thing conqured once and for all. He is very determined and I have probably lost 5lbs ( some of it I owe to the un-portlandesque summer we have been having ) and a small percentage of sanity. I never thought that I would become an overprotective mother, I always just kind of rolled my eyes at the mama grabbing her baby while he was trying to move and groove away.I am now that mother. And while I have probably saved a few bumps and bruises, I have to admit to feeling guilty for possible stunting his mastering of the task. I have assigned myself to laying off a little in this up coming week, and who knows?
He also can point out and say diaper ( diee pah ) when he needs one, still adores nothing but fruits and vegetables ( with the occasional pasta or chicken ) . And cheese of course. ANd blueberry pancakes. okay maybe he likes a little of everything, but  that's good. We have been watching his calorie intake everyday since our last well visit showed us that maybe Spencer wasn't as much of a "big boy" as we thought. We would be great to be in his position, anytime he remotely implies that he is hungry, Chris and I jump to give him the fattiest( yet healthy) gnosh that anybody no matter the age could want. He was just about 5lbs under, but still. Still still still.
Over the last month, we've also been coloring a lot, Chris and I have that is, showing Spencer that the colors, although astsically pleasing are not for eating. We've got  a few good lines on various toys and what have you, and of course I deem that they are signs of an early Pollack.
What else could they be?
Also this summer he has aquired a small tamborine, and a four note primary color explsoion of a piano.
The boy dances when ever he can, and most of all likes to shake an old perscription bottle I filled with macroni to the song : "        
 
                            Shake, shake.
                            Shake the macaroni.
                            Shake, shake.
                            Shake it like it was baloney,
                            Shake, shake.
                            Shake the macaroni.
                            Shake the macaroni cuz it's supah cool!
 
   Destin to become a classic huh? Well Chris at least gets it in his head at work from time to time and me. Well I operate on a completly different syntax now when it comes to language. Beware the next time we meet in public!
          But it makes Spencer happy and that is certainly enough. I was never much of a chit chatter anyway.
          I'm going to close now, try and get a shower in tonight, as I forgot how nice they were last night. ( AHEM )
take care all, and yes your son or daughter may apply for a position in Spencer Louis Kautt-Smith's Court of Cuteness if they so desire.
ox
mamaj

We went to the zoo today and much fun was had..Spencer was a bit overwhelmed with all the children, but he thought they were pretty cool too...maybe more interesting than the animals! They should have an actual childrens petting zoo..just corral all the strollers into a certain area and there you go, a whole new exhibit, and mamas and daddies get a break!
Spencer's favorite animal were the fish and of course, his beloved ducks. Like I
said he was almost more into the children than any of the animals!
But it was nice out, and we certainly enjoyed it.
I'm sure there will be many more visits.
We'll get the pictures developed soon and post them on the yahoo site.
take care all.

Just a short note before I shower, Spencer stood up sans support in his play pin on Tuesday, arms out stretched, whirling quickly for purchase, a quick smile to me to make sure I was watching and then a soft landing on a pillow adorned with a vintage M.Mouse Club pillow case. It was beautiful.
Also, it looks as though we are just going to have to start taking showers.
ahh well, he leaned over and gave me an Eskimo kiss while taking one tonight, so he's happy, I'm happy, I'm wet, he's clean.
Plus I was surfing tonight and came along babel fish the translator site, and I wrote something about our lil man in GERMAN, so you Kautt's ,well you should understand it.....;) or
you can always copy and paste and just go to babel fish... I wont tell. ;)

Spencer Louis ist das schönste überhaupt geborene Baby. Sein Lachen ist wie Himmel, seiner reine Freude des Lächelns, und seine Bewegungen haben die Anmut, der nur Kinder und Engel posess.I gerade gesegnet würden, um ihn einmal zu sehen, aber haben das privledge des Sehens er täglich und lieben ihn jede Minute, jede Sekunde.