The above is Rydia’s official first word. Surprised? She’s a daddy’s girl, so no. Depressed? A little; it did take her 2 months to go from da-da-da-da to ma-ma-ma-ma (and even so, she still only yells it when she’s poopy). But I’m more patient now than I was before I had her, so it’s okay. It’s just too darn cute.

And she still has no teeth. LOL.

I know I’ve made myself scarce lately, but nothing much has been going on. BTW, Rydia is now 9.5 months old, weighs 21 pounds (75 percentile) and 29 inches tall (90 percentile). I have a model singer on my hands. Oh yeah, she’s taken a liking …

So when I was pregnant, I started feeling Rydia kick and move around at ~5 months, around the same time I acknowledged her existence. She would kick the holy hell out of my bladder, then around 6 months, her activity and size as I later found out caused me pain to the point where I was limping, not wobbling, but limping. Lots and lots and lots of pain. When she was born, she slowed down slightly in the activity department, but…the moment she started to crawl and sit up (around 6 months), we have the activity issue again.

Now it’s good that she’s active. But she’s gotten to the point where she’s damn near doing shoulderstands while …

After this picture was taken, she took a dip in the bathtub and got her hair washed (to her dismay), thanks to having a mixture of pear and green beans finding itself in her hair and down her onesie.

Now that Rydia is 6 months old, I can probably feel safe starting to look for jobs. However, to be perfectly honest with ya, I wouldn’t mind staying with my little girl while working at home. The first year especially is the most important¹ and I would love to not miss any of her milestones. I almost missed her sitting up for the first time since it was at 3:30 am. What if I actually left the house? I would miss her first steps. And that would break my heart.

So before I start looking for family dollar jobs or something else, I’m looking for jobs where I can work in the …