Month 9

3/4 of a year old! Simply amazing! I think it goes by faster and faster as she gets older. Hadley had her 9 month check up and she's doing great! She weighed in at 16lbs. 5oz. and 27 1/8 in long. She jumped up from the 5th percentile in weight to 10-25th percentile so the doctor was of course pleased with that. It doesn't surprise me at all, she's a good eater, except when it comes to finger foods.

I've mentioned before that finger foods are the one thing in the universe that she won't put in her mouth, well I think that's changing. The doctor gave us the go-ahead to branch out to "real" foods now, so we've tried some regular crackers which she seems to enjoy the most. She's tried turkey, colby jack cheese sticks, and avocado. She seems to like them all but she'll only eat a few bites and then it goes straight to the floor. She still has a little difficulty using her pincer grasp so we're working on that.

Another new development....she is mobile. Usually she'll drag her legs behind her and pull herself along, however once in a while she'll get her knees under her and take a few small movements forward. The best part of it all is when she gets on her hands and feet. She can't move anywhere and she usually does it to reach something, but her feet start slipping and she ends up doing the splits. She's also trying to pull herself up on the table. She can get to her knees but she can't push herself up on her feet.

She's doing great otherwise, we moved her crib mattress down since she knows how to sit up now. Hadley has also taken to crying when she gets frustrated, she hardly did that before, so we try not to pay too much attention to it. We can't believe how close it is to her first birthday and how soon she will be walking and talking. We are looking forward to every moment of it though.

To whom it may concern:

Let me start by saying, my husband and I enjoy your restaurant. Your delicious fatty food that is full of mayonnaise and veggies so cold they hurt your teeth is only the beginning. The fact that you have the best french fries in town including the decadent ranch dressing to dip them in keeps us coming back. Although, I must say the cherry that tops it all off is your wonderful fruity drinks. While I prefer only the strawberry flavor, my husband enjoys your November flavor of the month, Cherry Cider. Kudos to the person who thought that changing it up every month would be a fantastic marketing method.

My reason for writing to you this rainy Tucson day is to ask a simple question, WHY DO YOU HATE THE WORD "MEDIUM"? I travel to your fine dining establishment to enjoy a refreshing drink and as I am happily greeted by one of your customer service specialists I order my medium strawberry drink. I am immediately told that you do not have medium, so am asked again, what size I would like. At this my head drops in frustration. I turn to where the cups are displayed for the customers to see how big each size is to pick the size I want. I notice that there are five different cup sizes. Now if I recall, an odd number of items makes it very clear that there is a size that stands all alone IN THE MIDDLE of all the others. My eyes land on the cup in the very middle, the cup labeled 'large'.

I realize this may be just a matter of semantics but it comes across as very confusing. Your cup sizes include 'kids', 'small', 'large', 'quart', and 'Big-ee'. One of those (the large) is in fact the middle size, so when someone asks for a medium, let's just assume they are really requesting the large. There's no need to say you don't have a medium, because you do, you just don't want to call it that. While the rest of the world goes along using the word 'medium' with no problem, you stand by and claim that a medium doesn't exist. It's absurd.

While we're on the topic of sizes, let's look at your drink packs for parties. There's two sizes, a 'fun pak' and a 'party pak'. The normal, every day, Tucsonan doesn't know the difference between the two so when a customer calls and says they need "the fun pak, the one that serves 25 people" just write down whichever one it is that serves 25 people. Don't act like they should know they used the wrong term. If the 'party pak' serves 25 people and the customer wants to serve 25 people but they mistakenly ask for the 'fun pak' there's no need to act like they're the biggest moron on Earth for not knowing.

I hope you'll take our concerns into consideration as you look for ways to improve your business. Perhaps these were mere oversights on the planning committee. Until then, we will be sipping our cold, fruity drinks and shaking our heads at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Yours truly,

The Hashbrowns