Here’s Nina at almost nine months, rooting for the Hoyas in DC. We visited there over the past weekend, and Nina got to see her first basketball game. She liked it, finding the cheering the most exciting. Nina likes a lot of noise!

Her new trick is waving. She waves in all kinds of ways – with one hand, with two hands, at friends, at herself, the Royal Wave, a full-arm-flapping wave…she has gotten very good at it. I think she’s starting to understand English, as she seems to be able to wave when I ask her to. She’s getting close to walking, and tonight she took several steps using her push-able lion from Jim and Liz. She likes to eat Cheerios but can’t put them in her mouth by herself, yet. She’s also eating spinach, avocado (of course), sweet potato, tofu, flaxseed, yogurt, oatmeal, asparagus, cauliflower, carrots, pears, and a few other foods. Soon I will start her on some meat. At her nine-month doctor visit, I learned that she weighs nearly 22 pounds. I also learned that she can take a shot and not cry. She sat on my lap, flinched a bit when the needle went in, and then seemed perfectly fine once it was done.

One other new development: for the first time, she’s a wee bit wary when she meets strangers. She doesn’t recoil or cry, but she just looks at them very seriously and quizzically. I noticed this first at the doctor, and then again today when a few of John’s comics friends came over. After a few minutes, she gets used to the new folks and starts waving.

I’ve been obsessed with New York City real estate on-and-off for the past few years, as we’ve been shopping for apartments around Brooklyn. As we now struggle with the question of whether to buy or rent in this market – more and more I am thinking we rent until this whole thing shakes out in a year or two – I’ve discovered this guy Jonathan Miller. He’s very clear and insightful. Here he is speaking to some Fox news people on one of their shows. I thought this was an excellent bit, and I like that he addresses what I suspect is going to happen in the Spring: a brief uptick in Manhattan (and I assume also Brooklyn) home sales stats that will make people think this whole thing is over but will really just be seasonality. I think the downturn in home prices in this area will last much longer. I also wonder if there won’t be a reversal or at least a slowing of the gentrification that has boosted prices in the parts of Brooklyn where we’ve been looking. I’m frustrated that, nearly 3 years after moving to New York, we remain in the same lovely but overpriced one-bedroom rental. Sharing a bedroom with a nine-month-old is getting difficult. Just now, at 4 AM, I woke up Nina when I got out of bed to get water and pump, and now I’m waiting for her to stop crying and go back to sleep so that I can get back to bed myself. Can’t we just buy a bigger place already?! Jonathan’s Miller’s insights are helpful as I try to exercise patience. His insights…and the idea that a year or two from now, that Cobble Hill or at least Fort Greene townhouse may actually fall within our price range.

I’m hurtling forward in space and time, alone, and things are out of my control and cold and gray. And my eyes are bulging out of my head, and I’m wearing a bolo tie. And there’s a weird conductor guy interrupting my reverie. And the babysitter is telling me my daughter’s PJ’s are dirty. And someone at work is calling to excoriate me about not being “truly collaborative.”  And a bottle of breastmilk spilled on the floor. And my coffee spilled on the computer. And hyperinflation looms.

Tomorrow surely will be an improvement. Nina is turning nine months. Happy Birthday! She said her first word over the weekend in Washington DC, and it is CAT. And attended her first Georgetown basketball game.

I wish that I had made this for you!

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”

In a very odd coincidence, I have stumbled upon this quotation from Henry David Thoreau three times in the past two weeks. A trite phrase, but true. I am working on removing the quiet desperation from my life, little by little. My child helps me with that. Not checking my Blackberry helps (I use it mainly as a watch). Some things I’ve been reading about the Catholic church also help. Drinking helps.

Just kidding re the drinking.

For an incredibly moving depiction of some not-so-quiet desperation, please refer to the movie Snow Angels. Wow…how did this one slip under the radar? Apparently the reviews aren’t that great, which probably explains why it’s such a great movie. It’s directed by David Gordon Green. Nothing like the other movie he put out this year, the so-so Pineapple Express.

It’s an excellent, excellent new Darren Aronofsky movie. We saw it over a week ago and I’m still thinking about it. It doesn’t try to be too much, and it’s quite touching, but not in a corny way. Mickey Rourke is amazing. See it, everybody!

…and we’ve got a crawling, cruising, teeth-cutting spunky lil’ gal! Actually, the teeth cutting is quite new, having started just a couple of days ago. It’s one tooth, on her bottom gum, that feels like it’s coming in, although we can’t really see it. Nina doesn’t seem to be bothered by it, although she’s often feeling the gum with her tongue, which makes her look very cute.

Nina moves constantly. It’s amazing how she can just go and go and go. She follows us around the house on all fours, and then pulls herself to standing on just about everything. She apparently has no fear of falling. Over and over and over she tries, and gradually her balance and coordination is improving. She’s a very headstrong little girl — in more ways than one. She has recently taken to banging her head against the crib in anger when she doesn’t want to go down for a nap, resulting in a few bruises. I discovered this one day when I hid under the covers of our bed to watch her try to put herself to sleep. It was rather shocking, but Nina’s doctor says it’s nothing to worry about. We just have to ignore it, and help her lie down when she’s standing up in the crib, and eventually she’ll stop. Nina is already showing us her strong will. She’s going to be a very feisty little lass, I suspect.

And, she’s sleeping clean through the night! John and I, meanwhile, are not. The slightest peep or rustle from the vicinity of Nina’s crib, and we wake up. I suppose we will outgrow this.