Madeline Crawls

Well, she did it!



When Eric got home shortly after this video was filmed, I told him that we had a crawler.  His eyes opened wide in worry, and he glanced at the floor.  Naturally, he thought I meant that we had a mouse.

Nope, just a mobile Maddie Bear.  So much nicer than a mouse!

Of course, she promptly tried to pull all the furniture down on her.

She also got her passport today.

I wouldn't be surprised to check on her tonight only to find that she's crawled away to Japan with that no-good baby from down the hall.

Vermont, Nous Vous Aimons

A year ago, I couldn't hardly wait to bring my future daughter to Vermont.

This past weekend, Madeline made her visit to visit Grammy and Bob's little cabin on Lake Champlain.

We relaxed by the water...

We ate lots of great food...

We were endlessly entertained by the cuteness that is Madeline...

This is her forget-college-I'm-joing-the-circus outfit

And we got lots of family time.   

 We can't wait to go back.  

43 Weeks

Good golly Madeline is changing so much, so quickly...I don't even know where to start.

She gets around a little bit better every day.  Every time she gets up on her hands and knees we hold our breath waiting to see if she will crawl.  It's going to be any day now, I just know it.  Even her early intervention teacher was impressed.  We've been quite busy chasing her around the apartment.

It's becoming clear that when she babbles, she's trying to imitate our words.  During her lesson yesterday, she kept trying to repeat the word "baby" because she was playing with a book of baby pictures.

Speaking of which...boy, is she fascinated by other babies.  Usually when she's dropped off at day care in the mornings, she's excited to see her teachers.  Eric said that today she was more excited to see the other babies than the adults in the room.  It was if she missed her friends over the past week and couldn't wait to tell them about all her adventures.

When we see babies in public, she lights up like a firefly.  Her favorite books all have pictures of babies.  She squeals in delight when she looks at her reflection in the mirror.

I think she's starting to realize that she's looking at herself when she looks in the mirror.  Today I put a tissue (unused, obviously) on her head while she was looking in the mirror.  Instead of turning away and taking the tissue off like she usually does, she reached for it while keeping her gaze locked on her reflection.  I've heard that's a good test to establish whether or not a baby recognizes herself.  Who knows? Might be.

She's still a silly-willy most of the time.  When she is standing holding onto the side of the couch or the coffee table, her new favorite trick is to let go and let herself fall backwards like a tree being chopped down.  She lands on her butt with a thud, cracks up, and scrambles to stand back up so she can do it again.  Every time she falls, there's a moment where a look of panic mixed with pure joy crosses her face.  I have a feeling Madeline may be a daredevil.  I don't know where she got that from.  Her Mumma hates roller coasters, flying, heights, and just about anything that could possibly involve falling.  If Maddie keeps this daredevil streak up, she just may give her Mumma an early heart attack.    

Madeline almost always refuses to let me feed her now.  The only time she seems to take food from a spoon is when she's really, really hungry or when she really, really likes the food.  Otherwise, she'd prefer to do it herself, thank you very much Mumma!  This is both awesome because it means she's growing up, and frustrating because it means most of her food ends up on the floor instead of in her tummy.  I'm always worried that she's hungry.

Good thing we've got a steady supply of Cheerios, Mum-mums, and Gerber Puffs to serve as between-meal snacks.

Two Very Special Men

Today I'd like to take a moment to reflect on two very special men in my life.  These two wonderful men have been there for me since I first met them in the early 1990s.

They've helped me ring in the new year.  They comforted me when I watched the final episode of Sex in the City.  They've been privy to deep conversation with friends.  They've been for breakfast when there was nothing else in the cabinets.  In short, they've influenced who I am today....mostly in the way of my waistline.  

These two special men are Ben and Jerry, and damn, do they make great ice cream.

This weekend was special because Madeline was introduced to Ben and Jerry for the first time when we visited the Ben and Jerry's Factory in Waterbury, Vermont.

First, we entered the magical land of peace, love and ice cream

Then we waited in line for...

...this deliciousness! 

Then Madeline had her first ever taste of ice cream!
(Scratch that one off my summer bucket list!)

But she wasn't quite sure if she liked it?!

So we gave her a teensy bit more.  

"Good God, Dada, what are you feeding me?"

Wait, on third thought, that was pretty good.  Where'd the spoon go?

After we ate, we visited the Flavor Graveyard 

Where we paid our respects to poor Bovinity Divinity. 

And Madeline's sugar high kicked in.

Does she make a better Ben?

Or a better Jerry?

Madeline, I hope you have as much fun with Ben and Jerry as I've had.  

P.S. More Vermont photo explosions coming soon to a blog near you!
   

42 Weeks

Madeline is becoming such a big girl!  I was watching her play with her toys today, and she almost looked like a real little kid instead of a little baby.

She's getting around like crazy all of a sudden.  We amuse ourselves by watching her roll from one end of the room to another.  She absolutely demolished her bedroom this afternoon rolling around, tearing things off the shelves, getting herself stuck under her crib.

It's amazing watching her problem solve.  Last week she tore all the DVDs off the shelves.  She figured out that if she held on to one of the DVD cases, she could use it to swipe at the ones that she couldn't reach at the back of the shelf.  She's a clever one.

As I write this, she sitting at the table across from me feeding herself Cheerios and drinking from her sippy cup.  Whoa, now.

With all this curiosity and independence, also comes some new challenges.  Bedtime has become difficult again.  Instead of sleeping, she rolls around her crib for hours.

Our girl is quite headstrong.  She does not like to be told no.  If she wants something out of reach, she will wiggle and writhe away from us to get it.  Diaper changing should be an Olympic sport the way we have to wrestle Madeline to hold still.

A second tooth is coming in...right next to the first one.  It's popped the surface, but is still quite tiny.

Her personality is still quite charming.  She's gotten so silly recently.  She'll play little games that she thinks are hilarious...like put the book on my head like a hat.  Isn't that hilarious, Mumma?  She'll play with a handkerchief for an hour.  Who knew a piece of fabric could be so entertaining.

And, she's developed this odd little laugh that's half snort, half hiss.  I don't know where she learned it.  It's completely her own laugh.  A nerdy one...but it's hers.

Madeline's First...

Fourth of July!  

We had a jam-packed weekend of fun, frolicking, and frivolity.  (What is that from?  I know I did not make it up.)   

On Saturday, we introduced Madeline to the wide, wonderful world of public transportation.

 We walked along Mass Ave. in Cambridge.  We went into just about every store along the way to browse, and I drank 1/8 of the world's largest Bloody Mary.

On Sunday evening, we showed America just how much we love her by wearing these outfits...

My hometown has a big Fourth of July celebration on the town common every year.  There's music, food, games and lots and lots of people.  Eric, being king of the band geeks, plays in the band every year, and I go and watch him.  I was very excited to take Madeline this year.  She made it till 8 pm and then decided she'd had enough, thank you very much, Mumma.

 The following morning, we showed America some more love by attending the Fourth of July parade.  People set up lawn chairs along the parade route a full week before the actual parade begins.  That's how seriously parades are taken in these parts.  My hometown loves America.  So does Madeline...obviously.

Of course, the parade was hot and long, (That's what she said!) so Madeline quickly went from this...

 To this...

 To this...

 She spent the first five minutes of the parade waving at all the people and looking very confused as to why everyone was applauding when she hadn't done any tricks. (Obviously all applause is meant for Madeline.)  After that, she slept through the entire thing.

I had been worried that all the guns going off would freak her out.  (It was part of the parade; there wasn't a gang turf war going on or anything like that.)  Every child within a five mile radius seemed absolutely traumatized by the guns.  Not Madeline.  She didn't bat an eyelash.  At one point, she looked at me as if to say, "Mumma, those people are being really loud and annoying, and I'm trying to sleep.  Tell them to be quiet please," and then she went right back to sleep.  Maybe she'll be more freaked out as she gets older...or maybe it's a product of being raised in the ghetto.  I'm not sure.

Either way, she missed Dada going by.  One does not get to be King of the Band Geeks without participating in a few parades, does one?

Can you pick out which one is Eric?

Can you pick out which one is the fake Rod Stewart?

Luckily, she woke up in time to see him after the parade.

We wrapped it all up with a BBQ at Emily's house, where we kicked back in the shade and watched Madeline watch all the doggies.

Happy birthday, America.  You don't look a day over 234.  Thank God for Botox.    

ICA, Here We Come!

This is a sample of Madeline's school work from this week...(She's in the infant room at daycare.)

And this is a sample of mine...(I was in a Graduate Postmodern Literature course.)

Postmodern enough for you?

Madeline's is a worm...I guess.  Mine is supposed to be a map of a city...where monks live...I guess.  The strange thing is we actually did spend a surprising amount of time talking about woodworms this week, so Madeline's picture would have fit right in.