Holy Snow, Batman!

After seeing the Boston Globe's Shaq-o-meter, I got to wondering how many Madelines it's snowed so far.  Stay tuned...more Madelines expected to accumulate.

Ears Johnny!!

True Story.  When I was a very small child, I was afraid of my own shadow. (My family will tell you that I was scared of everything when I was a kid.  Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disney World??  Horrifying!)  But, I mean, I was literally afraid of my own shadow.

I must have only been three or four because my hair was still short like it was before it turned into the big, frizzy mess that it is today.  (More on that later.)  The nightlight in my room was casting shadows on the wall next to my bed, and I sat up so I could see my own shadow looming larger than life before me.  What I saw sent ice through my veins.  I quickly turned my back to the wall, covers pulled up the my nose, too afraid to even move.  That couldn't be my shadow.  That was the shadow of some strange, evil monkey-human hybrid sure to drag me screaming under the bed at any moment!  The ears were just too enormous for that shadow to belong to a human.

Sadly, that monkey creature was, in fact, little-ole me.   Twenty-something years later, I am no longer afraid of my own shadow, but I do still have the same ears.  It's not that my ears are particularly big...it's just that they stick out so far from my head.  I am reminded of this every time I get my hair cut and the hairdresser has to apologize for getting the comb stuck on my ridiculously prominent ears yet once again.  On the bright side?  I've never had a problem getting sunglasses to stay on my head.

Now it seems that my daughter has inherited these same ears.  One day there was this loud "Boinnnggg" noise and Maddie's ears just popped out from the side of her head.  It was the strangest thing!

 I happen to think they look adorable on her though.  Little kids with big ears?  SO cute I want to pinch their cheeks.  The ears only become a problem when you hit puberty and they accentuate the painful awkwardness.

 Thankfully, the Baby Jesus has also blessed me with hair like a burlap sac, which is very useful when it comes to camouflaging my ears.

Since Madeline flies the same ginger flag as her mumma, it seems likely that she will also have hair like a burlap sac, and will thus be able to hide her ears....

At least, I think so.

P.S.  Don't worry grandparents, I realize my baby is probably the most beautiful baby to ever grace the universe.  You don't have to remind me.

Sicky

One of the many great things about my baby is that she has impeccable timing.  Eric and I had another snow day today, so if there was ever a good time for Madeline to get her first fever, today was it.

After being subjected to several awful tests at the doctor's office this afternoon, it looks like she just has a really bad cold.  We have instructions to give her Tylenol and to call back tomorrow afternoon if her fever hasn't gone by then.  

Looks like Eric will be staying home with the Maddie Bear again tomorrow since I really can't miss any more work this soon after my leave of absence.

Poor girl.  Hopefully she gets some good shut eye tonight.

For The Love of a Giraffe

Oh, Mr. Gie-raff....
Others may see your big brown eyes and think you're goofy.  

They may look at your long, colorful legs and think you're slightly creepy.

But this baby sees the pilgrim soul in you.

I love you, Mr. Gie-raff!

Music to My Ears!

I was in Madeline's room getting everything ready for her bath, when I heard her laughing from the other room.  

I ran into the living room to find her playing a game with Eric.  Thank goodness the video camera was nearby.  I've been trying to get her laughter recorded for a while.  Absolute magic!  I love these two goofballs.  She's already such a daddy's girl.  They're going to have a lot of fun together.  





(I was trying really hard not to laugh while I videoed, but it was in vain.  If you listen closely, you can even hear me snort.)

Oh, What A Year It's Been

A year ago this week, I found out I was pregnant with the Maddie Bear.  I don't remember the exact date, but I think it may have been the 26th, because it was only a few days before Bob's birthday on the 28th.  I didn't drink when we went out to dinner to celebrate, and because I'm obviously a lush, my mother became suspicious right away.

After everything that happened with Ellis, it took me and Eric a long time to accept that we were really having a baby. We were very excited...but also very cautious.  I had spotting on and off throughout the first trimester and a blood clot on my uterus, all of which added to my caution.  I was sure I was losing the baby on more than one occasion.  In fact, I can remember driving home from the doctor's office about a week before giving birth and finally saying to Eric, "Oh, my God, we're having a baby!!" Duh, Summer.  That's how long it took me to let myself really believe it.  

Luckily, all the worrying was in vain because it turned out to be a very uncomplicated pregnancy, and now, here we are with a beautiful, healthy daughter.  I thank my lucky stars every day that the universe decided to bless us with Madeline.

So, here we are.  Maddie has been our lives in one way or another for a full year.

It's pretty crazy to think that she's gone from this:

To this:

We love you, Little Peanut.

19 Weeks

Happy nineteen weeks, little Madeline.

I feel like she's learned to do so much in just the past week!  When I brought her to the doctor's last Monday, I was still a little concerned about her lack of interest in her toys.  Lo and behold, she's been grabbing at everything in front of her face.

Her favorite toy is a stuffed giraffe who we have dubbed Mr. Gie-raff.  Anyone remember that Raggedy Anne and Andy movie that looked like a bad acid trip??  If you do, her Gie-raff kinda reminds me of the camel from that movie.  He's quite ugly and sad looking, but she loves him anyhow.  She likes to grab his head and suck on his nose.

The thing she's most obsessed with, though?  Her toes.  Gal can't top grabbing her toes!  There's nothing cuter than a chubby baby holding her piggies in the air.  It always throws her off balance though, (Sorta like a turtle on its back.) and she ends up on her side.  This has helped her realize that she has control over her own body.  The wheels are turning, the muscles are growing.  She hasn't rolled over yet, but I don't think it will be long.

Another favorite game is "baby in the mirror."  She laughs at the baby in the mirror.  She makes sad face at baby in the mirror.  She flirts with the Mumma and Dadda in the mirror.  She spends a lot of time looking at herself in the mirror.  She's so vain, I bet she thinks this blog is about her.  

On the grosser side, she's a drooly-mc-droolerson these days.  I knew she'd eventually turn into a drool monster...all babies do, right?  But, it's still pretty gross.  When Eric hold her up over his head, he finds himself having to dodge the drool drops.

Her vocal tricks are continuing to grow.  She whines a lot now.  (Where did she get that from??)  Her favorite new noise seems to be a miserable sounding, "Ahhh, mumm, mumm, mumm, ba, ba, ba, ba."  In fact, I can hear it coming through the baby monitor as I type this.

She's a pretty amazing little sweet potato.  I'm so used to her presence in our lives now.  She's no longer new to me.  I've gotten to know her personality better, and more times than not, I can pinpoint what's bothering her when she's upset.  Don't get me wrong, there are still times where nothing seems to please her, but for the most part, I've got her number.  And before we know it, that "Ahhh, mumm, mumm, mumm, mumm, ba, ba, ba," will have turned into something more like, "Mumma! Get me out of this crib!!"

Why My Child is Going to be Afraid of Swans

Although breastfeeding and I are not BFFS, it does have its unexpected benefits.  Since I now spend at least three hours a day quietly sitting with Madeline, I have time to read again. 

As an English teacher, it's my duty to make sure I have a literatre child, so I read aloud to her while she's eating.  (Pretty soon Eric will be forcing a miniature trombone into her hands and making her march around the house.)

When Madeline was fresh out of the oven, I read her age appropriate children's books.  The problem with those stories, however, is that they're not very interesting for me.  For example, here's the text from her favorite book: "One, Two, Three, Triangle, Square, Circle."  While it does offer a plot twist jumping from, "Three," to "Triangle," instead of four, I need a book that will take more than five second to read. 

Therefore, I moved on to Winnie The Pooh.  Entertaining for mummas; cute for babies.  Perfect!  Following the same princible, I revisited two of the Harry Potters followed by The BFG.  Sure, these books were a little over her head, but at least they were meant for kids, right?

At that point I ran out of children's books so I read her Three Cups of Tea instead.  Not a children's book at all.  Still, it does deal with schools and mentions children....Besides, let's be honest, Madeline doesn't know her elbow from her bum yet.  As long as I'm reading with a pleasant tone, she doesn't care what I say.  Right?

In between books, I've also been known to read her Outdoors, Entertainment Weekly and Men's Journal.  (We don't subscribe to any of these magazines, they just show up to my house every week....I swear!)  Oh, and O Magazine...which I DO go out and buy on occasion.  Obviously.

Last week we read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, which is a book of short stories by Roald Dahl.  They are not children's short stories.  Included in this book is a particularly creepy tale where a young boy is tortured by some bullies.  With particular cruelty, they kill a swan and tie its wings to the boy's arms before making him jump out of a tree to "fly."  Again, Maddie's not listening, right?

Now, we've delved into The Hunger Games.  For those of you unfamiliar with this young adult trilogy, it's about a group of teenagers who are selected to fight to the death on a reality TV show.  It's even more screwed up than The Jersey Shore. The ending of the first book, in conjunction with seeing Black Swan last weekend, left me with some pretty messed up nightmares.  (What is it with swans these days?!) Still, I quickly downloaded Catching Fire, the second book in the trilogy, to my Ipad in time for Maddie's bedtime story the following night. 

I like to believe that Madeline has no idea what I'm talking about, and I'm doing her a favor by reading aloud to her.  Still, there's a part of me that's beginning to worry about the content I'm choosing for my four-monther.  If the subconcious is as powerful as some suggest, Madeline may grow up with an unhealthy obsession with celebrities like Lindsay Lohan, a thirst for violent television, and an irrational fear of swans. 

Maybe when we're finished with The Hunger Games, we'll try our hand at something a little less violent.  My Ipad does have Alice in Wonderland on it.  No violence...just don't eat the mushrooms Madeline.  

Go! Team! Go!

Go, Team, Go!

For some inexplicable reason, Madeline loves watching football. Every time it's on TV she stops what she's doing to watch.  She's absolutely mesmerized by it.  (She certainly didn't get this from her Mumma.)

She's been sitting happily in her Bumbo for the past forty-five minutes watching the game with Eric.  The two of them look quite cute on the couch together.

We're not sure, but we think she's routing for The Bears.  Although her favorite team is the San Fransisco Gie-raffs followed by closely by the Cincinnati Heffalumps.  Sadly, neither of those teams made the Playoffs.

Oh no, not Green Bay!

Rainbow Baby

With all the recent blizzards and freezing cold weather, we were feeling the effects of cabin fever today.  I decided we needed to add a little more color to our lives.

I present to you: Rainbow Baby!

Eric's exact words when he saw her outfit was, "What are you doing to that poor child?"

 Our little rainbow is so cute!

Madeline's First...

taste of solid foods.  (Although I use the term "solid" loosely because her baby rice cereal is anything but solid.)


First attempt on Tuesday morning?  Fail.

Second attempt this afternoon?  We're getting there.  She ate a few bites before knocking the bowl out of my hand and spilling the gruel all over her jammies.  

 You may not appreciate solids now, little girl, but trust me, food is awesome!  Eat some rice cereal first, and someday you'll graduate to the good stuff....like Snickers and french fries.  

18 Weeks

14 lbs, 6 oz, 25 inches long. As my stepdad, Bob, would say, Maddie's the size of a good Northern. (Meaning a fish.)

Madeline had her doctor's appointment yesterday. She's still a healthy, hearty little gal. She didn't even flinch for the first shot, but the second one did the trick. She cried for the rest of the day. Poor baby.

We got the okay to start on solids. I can't wait to try that out! Mmmm, baby cereal here we come.

Meanwhile, Madeline has continued to talk up a storm. Not only is she still screeching,but she's starting to play around with consonant sounds. Yesterday she whined, "mummmmmm, mum, mum, mum," and "bbbb," to us all day. I'm trying to gat her to say, "mumma," but I think that's still a long way off.

She's started slowly reaching for her toys, especially her rattle and Mr. Girraffe. I was starting to worry about her general lack of Interest In her toys, but the doctor said that about fifty percent of babies grab at this point and fifty don't.

We put her in her jumperroo this weekend, which was a lot of fun. Her feet don't touch the ground yet, but she loves to stare at all the toys. The thing has so many activites on it that it must be overwhelming to a little baby...like when I got to Sephora and don't know where to even start. I've had the damn barnyard song the thing plays stuck in my head all weekend. It's so cute though.

We need to start baby proofing soon too because Maddie's path of destruction has begun. She knocked eric's coffee over on my keyboard yesterday, which means I'm currently typing this on the I pad, which is a pain in the arse. Please forgive my typos. I also can't add pictures from here, which is annoying because I have some new cute ones that my parents took over the weekend. Oh well. At least she didn't spill anything on herself.

P.S. Eric and I have another snow day today! Hooray for another three-day work week!

My Baby is Amazing

Maddie Bear was a sad bear this afternoon.  It's extra sad when Madeline cries lately because she's grown honest-to-goodness tears.  (Newborns don't have tears...one of the most surprising facts I learned about babies.)  For months now, her eyes have been getting wet when she cried, but no real tears.  This afternoon? Tears were rolling down her cheeks.  Heartbreaking!

Then an amazing thing happened.  All Madeline seemed to want or need was some cuddling from her Mumma.

Madeline's always been a cuddle bug, but it's never really mattered much to her who's cuddling her as long as someone is cuddling her.  In fact, when she was experiencing colic, I was briefly convinced that she hated me because she seemed to cry the longest and loudest for me.

Tonight, I felt for the first time that she specifically wanted me.  So I walked her around the house and let her nuzzle her head into my shoulder as she sniffled miserably to herself.  Then she let me rock her in the rocking chair as she started to drift to sleep in my arms.  

She's so warm and cuddly and willing to be loved.  It makes my heart all smooshy and melt-y inside.

She was so sleepy that we put her down to bed early, and she's snoozing away as I type this.  Hopefully she gets a good night's sleep and is back to her normal self in the morning.

Awww, I heart her.  She's the most amazing baby ever.

Deep Thoughts

I spend a lot of time wondering what Madeline is thinking about...

SAHM I Am

Freshly showered, but wearing a big, pink bathrobe.  Also, note Christmas tree in background.  Also, Madeline turns out blurry in 75% of the pictures we take of her.  Could she possible be a vampire baby?

Today is another snow day for me!  Sadly, Eric is at work.  It's me and the peanut today....just like old times!

Last night, as we obsessively watched the school closings scrolling across the television, I was crossing my fingers for Eric to have the day off too.  It wasn't because I wanted to spend time with him...although I do. For some reason, the thought of staying home alone with Madeline was a little bit frightening.  This may seem odd.  After all, I did it nearly every day for close to four months.

But just a few days into life as an out-of-the-house working mom, I feel like I've already forgotten how to use my stay-at-home-mom muscles.  That's because it's no joke when you hear people say that being a stay-at-home mom is the toughest job in the world.

There is no break.  There are no other grownups to share a conversation with. There is no plump pay check at the end of the week.  It's just you and a demanding little bundle of love who thinks she is the center of the universe.  (Which she is...obviously.)  

For example, in my brief stint at a SAHM, I learned that I can go two days without showering without it being much of an issue.  Day three?  It starts to become an issue.  Day four?  Let's not talk about day four, but I've been there...more than once.  

And why did I go four days without a shower?  I mean, surely, there had to have been five minutes in the day somewhere where you could have bathed yourself, Summer!  Nope.

Time evaporates rapidly when you're a SAHM.  I don't know where it goes.  It's one of the world's greatest mysteries.  Still, before I'd know it, it would be four p.m. and I would still be in my pj's...the same pj's I put on last Monday.

Which is why I always laughed to myself when people would give me suggestions of things to do while I was home on leave.  Silly things like...reorganize your closet.  I smell like I haven't showered in four days, and I'm supposed to suddenly care where my shoes end up?!  I only watched three Netflix movies the entire time I was home.  Catching up with old episodes of my favorite TV shows, as many people suggested, was out of the question.  People without children tend to think that staying at home means sitting on the couch watching the telly all day.  Not so.  

But, time isn't really the important issue here. The emotional side of caring for an infant is something I can't even begin to describe.  Let's just say that as happy as you are to have a baby, you are just as depressed to have a baby.  You have no choice; it's hormonal.    

 A young man recently asked me if having a newborn was something like Hell.  I honestly told him that, for me, yes it was.  And all you ladies out there who are eagerly looking forward to having a child soon, don't try to convince yourselves that you will be different.  I know you think that babies have rainbows shooting out of their bums and taste like sugar dumplings so it can't really be that bad.  Sorry, it is.  Sometimes, it's absolute hell.  

 You see, there was a time when I angrily wondered why nobody had taken me aside and explained how hard this was going to be before I had a baby.  Then I realized it would have been pointless because I wouldn't have listened.  I see the same starry-eyed looks in the eyes of soon-to-be mothers that I had when I was expecting.  No shred of reality is getting through that wall of delusional dreams.  You won't and can't understand just how hellish it is until you're in it.

On the bright side?  It's a hell of your own choosing. In spite of the difficulties, there is no place else I would have rather been than home with my little imp during those first few difficult months.  She is the best thing in the world.  However, if you had spoken to me about this two months ago, I might have had a different opinion.  

As you start to get the hang of things, and you get more sleep, the memories of those dark days start rapidly fading away.  If I don't get this all down in writing now, it will soon be too late.  A year from today all I will remember will be how divine she looked when she smiled, and how itty-bitty her clothes were, and how sweetly she slept through dinner when we took her out to restaurants.  I won't remember the bad parts at all, and I'll probably start trying to convince Eric that we should have another one.  Evolution is wise.  Otherwise, cave women would have left their babies in fields to be raised by the coyotes and the human race would never have existed.

As for today, so far Madeline has either been napping or smiling at me.  I haven't showered yet, but I'm sure I'll find the time today.  The dark days are over, and now that I'm back at work, I really miss staying at home with her.  I think I'll go wake her up and snuggle her now.

Snow Day

Due to our non-blizzard blizzard, we were snowed in today.  Most of the day was spent getting stuff around the house taken care of.  Hello, Laundry! (Although our Christmas tree is still not down.)

But we also...

Stayed in bed until nine...

Flew Maddie around the room a few times...

Watched Sports Center...

Took cozy naps in the lamb swing...

Wore the baby around the house...

 Drew hearts in the mirror...

Studied charts of Block Island Sound (Just in case Maddie ever gets lost.)...

 And played video games with The Dizzy Cat.

I heart being snowed in!  If only every day could be a snow day...

17 Weeks

Seventeen weeks seems like way too many weeks, and yet, here we are!

Madeline is adjusting well to daycare.  She's returned to her normal, joyful self.  I'm so thankful for my easy-going little miss.

It's amazing how vocal she has become in the past week.  Her little coos have turned into full blown squeals and yells.  She has two kinds of squeals.  One is happy.  It's as if she makes the noise just because she's excited to hear her own voice.  Sometimes I feel like she's having a contest with me to see who can squeal the loudest.  She'll make the noise, and I'll make it back to her.  She'll make the noise louder and higher, and so on, and so on.  It's really funny.

Observe Madeline in action.  Trust me when I say that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Maddie's vocal abilities, but capturing it on camera is proving to be a challenge.







We refer to her other squeal as "baby angst."  Instead of immediately bursting into tears when she gets upset like she used to, she'll now squeal in disgust.  It's a mad, annoyed, and sorrowful sound.  She'll do it over and over again until she either gets what she wants, or she melts down into real tears.  Pretty soon she'll be standing in the rain while listening to The Cure and crying, "Woe is me!" It's also really funny.

She laughs on a regular basis now.   It's a hearty chuckle that emanates from somewhere deep inside her chest.  It's a surprising sound for such a little girl.  She laughs the most when she gets startled.  Does that mean she's going to be a thrill seeker?  Eric gets her laughing by jumping up at her from under the changing table, or by shaking his head really fast and making funny noises.  She laughs at me when I nibble on her cheek or behind her ear.  I think she's starting to get ticklish.

We've started using her high chair while we eat dinner.  Last night, she happily chewed on the edge of her seat the entire time we ate.  In fact, she's been trying to put everything she can in her mouth lately.  She'll grab onto the edge of her blanket and chew on it.  She chews on my shoulder.  If she's grasping my hand, she'll pull my fingers into her mouth.  I'm sure once she figures out how to hold her toys better, those will be making their way to her mouth as well.

I'm so proud of my little baby.  She's getting so big and human-ish.  She's not only beautiful, but she's pleasant, sweet, smart and funny.

Meanwhile, we're getting blasted with a huge snowstorm tomorrow.  Eric has already been given the day off.  I'm still waiting to see about my school, but I'm already daydreaming about lounging on the couch with Maddie.  Also?  I really, really, really need to take down the Christmas tree.  Oh!  And laundry....there's always laundry.

Madeline's first...

Trip to Brown's!  

I don't remember my first trip to Brown's Seafood.  Probably because I was about the same age as Madeline is now.  My family has been going there for as long as I can remember.  When I was a kid, summer vacation meant trips to Seabrook Beach and, if you were lucky, dinner at Brown's.

 If you want to go to Brown's during the summer months, you have to be prepared for a long wait.  There's usually a line going out the door and into the parking lot.  It's best if you send a member of your party to the dinning area to try and throw elbows for a decent picnic table while someone else waits in line to order.  In fact, Eric and I tried to go a few weeks before Maddie was born, but the line was epic.  Under normal circumstances,  I would have waited, but since I was a fat, hungry, grumpy pregnant lady at the time...we sadly had to move on.  

Today, there were rumors of a snowstorm and it was blistering cold, which meant there was no line at Brown's.  We got a picnic table right by the windows, and I didn't even have to throw elbows.  

Nothing there has changed much.  It's still painted mustard yellow.  The gigantic tank of lobsters that I used to watch crawling around as a kid is still there.  The bathrooms still read "buoys" and "gulls."  It's still BYOB.  The old picnic tables have been replaced, but they are still laid out in the same way.  And, most importantly, the fried seafood is still delicious!

I love the beach in the winter.  It's so quiet and peaceful.  Eric and I like to daydream about living in a beach house during the winter months.  I'd drink lots of tea, write children's books and learn to paint.  Eric would play his trumpet and take our dog for walks on the beach.  During the summer months, we'd rent our house out to vacationers and travel up and down the east coast in our boat.  It's a nice dream.

We'll continue to dream and go to Brown's.  And when Madeline is a big girl, we'll say, "We used to take you here when you were a little baby, and you'd sleep on the table the whole time.  Do you remember that?"

First Week Recap

This week was both ridiculously hard and surprisingly easy.

Monday morning went very smoothly.  We had all our bottles ready to go.  I had Madeline's outfits for the next three weeks laid out. (Assuming she still fits in them.  Iffy...)  I didn't even cry.  All I ever hear from new moms is how hard they cried on their child's first day of daycare.  Not me.  I was fine.  This led me to believe that there was something wrong with me.  Do I have attachment issues?  Are my tear ducts broken?  Am I a bad mumma?

And then...Wednesday hit.  I cried a bit on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.  (Hoo-ray, my heart is not made of granite after all!) By then I was missing my baby like crazy, and I was tired of getting bottles ready every waking moment of the day.  Plus, Madeline was not her usual self.  This made me miss her even more.  I wanted my Maddie Bear back.  She wouldn't look or smile at me.  I worried she had attachment issues.  I worried her smile muscles were broken.  I worried that I am a bad mumma.

Meanwhile, Maddie's teachers assure me that she's been a happy, easy baby during the days.  Again, apparently she saves all her pent-up aggression for me.

Thursday night was better.  It turns out Madeline had been hungry.  I wasn't putting enough in her bottles.  (Sadly my breasts do not come with ounce measurements, but they should so that I know how much to put in Maddie's bottles.)  Anyhow, Madeline was more like her old self on Thursday night.  She smiled at me.  She sat on my lap and stared at me adoringly.  We had some girl talk.  It was great.  Plus, my parents stopped by to bring me turkey soup and a Snickers.  Snickers make everything better.

This afternoon was another good afternoon.  Fridays are so much more meaningful now that I'm back to work!  She's been talking up a storm all afternoon, and now she's falling asleep for the night as I write this.  (At least I'm hoping she's falling asleep.)

As for my job?  That part is going surprisingly easy so far. (Knock on wood.)  Maybe it's because there's a good curriculum already in place.  Maybe it's because I have an awesome coworker who gave me lots of silly drawings of Romeo hiding behind Plymouth Rock to show my children.  Maybe it's because I know Romeo and Juliet so well that I might in fact actually be Leonardo DiCaprio.  Maybe it's simply because my priorities have changed, and worrying about work is no longer at the top of my list.  Who knows?  At any rate, I feel like I never left the building.  I'm in my groove.  I like my students. I like my job.  Hoo-Ray!

So here's to week one of many.  Let's hope we have a smooth course ahead of us!

Week 16

Madeline is sixteen weeks old today!  That means....it's time for another bunny picture!

There is a bit of a debate over the bunny picture this time.  I like this one best...

But, Eric likes this one best....

Madeline is starting to really, really laugh.  Eric was making funny faces at her this afternoon, and she was cracking up.  Her laugh is the best thing ever!  Eric also likes to "fly" her around the apartment by lifting her up in the air on her belly.  She kicks her feet up when he does it, and it really does look like she's flying.  Super adorable.  She's got a good daddy.  

The Sleep Monster is continuing to win. Hoo-ray!  She's been sleeping like a champ lately.  I'm talking like twelve to fourteen hour nights with only two feedings.  In fact, the fire alarm in our building just went off AGAIN, and she didn't even wake up.  I hope this sleeping streak continues.    

She can fit her whole fist into her mouth, and now that's she discovered that she can do this, that's where her fist lives.  She's also started drooling....gross.    

She continues to love baths.  She kicks and splashes the water everywhere.  BUT!  She HATES getting out of the bath.  Tonight she threw a major temper tantrum while I was trying to get her dressed.  She was screaming her high-pitched-I'm-so-mad-Mumma-you-better-cuddle-me-right-this-second! cry.  So sad.

Her second day of "school" went well.  I guess she spent a lot of time sitting in the Boppy Bumbo (too many silly-named baby products starting with the letter "B"), staring at herself in the mirror.  

The only problem is that she's been super over-tired and cranky for us when she gets home.  I feel really bad that I only see her for about three waking hours a day and that she spends most of that time crying.  Hopefully she'll fall into a better routine as she adjusts to her new lifestyle.  Poor baby.  

Can you believe how big she's getting?  

Madeline Goes to School (And So Does Mumma)

Today was my first day back to work, and therefore, Madeline's first day at daycare.

This is what her family communication form said at the end of the day:

"A super day for Madeline today!  She was so sweet and snugly!  She was always smiling and curious about everything around her!  Happy to have her with us!! :)"

When I walked in to pick her up, she was lying in her crib fussing a little while they made her a new bottle.  As soon as she saw me, she started smiling and laughing.  I was very excited that she was happy to see me.  

I guess she was really interested in a toy fastened to the side of her crib.  She spun herself around and flipped onto her side so she could see it better, and they said she was even kicking at it and laughing.

What a  fantastic kid I've got.

Meanwhile, I feel like I never left work.  Nothing there ever changes, and most of the kids even remembered me.

It was sad leaving her this morning, but I'm happy to get back into a routine.  Next up on my routine?  Early to bed!!

Madeline's First...

Cold!  

Boo-hiss, Maddie Bear has her first cold...and she hasn't even started daycare yet.

Her poor little eyes are all red and watery, her nose is running, and she's drooling like a queen beast.  In short, she's a hot mess.

I had a small cold for a few days that had been slowly brewing for weeks, so I think I've passed it on.

Luckily, she's still been quite pleasant today in spite of the streams of tears running down her face and snot dribbling down her chin.  What a trooper!  She doesn't have a fever or anything either.

We could tell she was uncomfortable this evening though.  She was crying, but softly, as if she was just too plain worn out to really put her heart into it.  Poor baby.

Everyone always talks about how tough it is to see your child sick, and I'm getting my first taste of it.  I can't imagine what it will be like when she gets her first really, really bad case of the sicks.  I just wish I could teach her to blow her nose so she could feel more comfortable.  Hopefully, she gets a good night's sleep tonight so that she's in tip-top shape for her first day of "school" on Monday.