39 Weeks

This has been a big week for Madeline.  She has learned to wave AND to clap.

She's very proud of her waving skills.  So proud, in fact, that she may never stop waving.

I'm happy she's learning to clap her own hands, because she has spent the last few weeks clapping me.  In other words, she hits my face, shoulder, leg, whatever she can get her hands on because she likes the clapping noise it makes.  Now that she can clap herself, I'm hoping her fascination with smacking me will cease a bit.

Another trick is clicking her tongue.  She does it all the time.  I'll hear it over the baby monitor in the mornings, and from the backseat of the car, or from her stroller when we're going for a walk.  

Madeline is eager to get moving.  She's trying so hard to figure out how to crawl.  Every now and again she'll figure out how to go backwards a step or so, but that's about it.  When she sits, you can see her trying to figure out how to get up on her hands and knees.

She's become such a little mischievous baby.  Her curiosity gets her into everything.  This morning she managed to grab her wipes, squirt bottle, a sock and a tube of diaper ointment while I was changing her.  Then, she grabbed all of her shoes while I fished around in her closet for a pair of socks.  Then, she grabbed the door to the armoire as we passed by.

I can't imagine what a handful she'll be when she actually can get around this place on her own.

P.S.  Just one more week of work for Eric and I, and then the three of us will be on vacation!  Hizz-ahh!

The Incredible Madeline Lee

I used to try to imagine what my baby's face would look like.  What color her hair would be.  What her voice would sound like.  I spent a lot of time sitting in what is now Madeline's room daydreaming about my future child.

And along with all the imagining, I spent a lot of time trying not to get too attached to a "perfect" image of my baby.  Don't get too attached to the idea of a girl because what if it's a boy.  Don't get too attached to the idea of a musical child because what if she's tone deaf.  Don't get too attached to the idea of frilly dresses because what if she's a tom boy.

But, what I couldn't possibly have understood at the time was that my idea of the "best" baby would in no way compare to the amazingly perfect creature that is my daughter.

There was no way I could imagine a baby as good-natured as Madeline is.

There was no way I could imagine a baby as hilarious as Madeline is.

There was no way I could imagine a baby as intelligent as Madeline is.

There was no way I could imagine a smile as beautiful as Madeline's is.

There was no way I could imagine a personality as charming as Madeline's is.

There was no way I could imagine my sweet little daughter with her Mumma's red hair and her Daddy's eyes. (Which are green today, but could be brown or grey tomorrow.)

And even if she's tone deaf or refuses to wear dresses, my daughter will never cease to amaze and awe me...

Even if it did take Eric and I nearly two hours to get her to go to sleep tonight...

Because Madeline Lee is perfect exactly as she is.

Lessons in Bad Parenting Volume One

How to be a Bad Parent Lesson One: Forgetting Your Child at Daycare.  

Yup, that's right, Eric and I forgot to pick Madeline up from school today.  We totally suck.

To be fair, we didn't really forget her.  We had a misunderstanding.  I thought Eric was picking her up, and he thought I was picking her up.

When I walked in the door this afternoon,  Madeline was not in the jumper-roo, she was not on her play mat, she was not sitting with Eric...where he lay napping on the couch....  Wait a second.  My brain stalled.  Something was not quite right.  

"Uh, did you get the baby?" I asked from the doorway.

Eric leaped up with a start and looked at me with slight panic in his eyes.  "Uh, no. Did you?" 

There was a moment of silence between us. Eric stared at me the way one stares at a very hungry lion, clearly worried that I was about to bite his head off.  

"OMIGOD!  We forgot Maddie at daycare?!?  We're the worst parents in the world!!!"  I screeched.

We grabbed the keys and were back out the door in less than two seconds.   "I can't believe we forgot her.  Poor baby!" I kept repeating.  Scenes from Little Orphan Annie, Oliver, and Tarzan played in my mind.  Would no one adopt her because of her red hair?  Would she have to turn to a life of crime?  Would she be raised by a pack of Chimps?

Eric corrected me.  Again, we hadn't forgotten her at daycare.  We both knew where she was after all.  

When we showed up shortly after five, Madeline was the second to last baby in the building, and she was sleeping like an angel in her crib.  The teacher explained that they had tried to keep her awake for us since we were usually there by 3, but she just couldn't keep her eyes open.  Worrying that her parents had abandoned her and that she'd have to earn her keep by scrubbing the floors must have tuckered the poor baby clean out.  (It's a hard knock life, for us!)      

"Sorry," Eric quickly lied, "We got caught up in house stuff.  Buying a house sure does take up a lot of time..."

I guess neither one of us wanted to explain that in reality we are the worst parents in the world.

"Oh by the way," the teacher started, "Do you mind filling out this incident report?  One of Madeline's little friends decided to bite her on the ear today."

Wow.  We had forgotten our baby, and she had her ear bitten??  Her life clearly was turning into a Dickens novel.  Not a good day for the Maddie Bear.  To add insult to injury, it was the ear already scarred from the cat.

Eric and I kept Madeline up an hour later tonight so that we could shower her with love and affection to ease our guilt.

Luckily, she's too young to remember this.

We're the worst.

"Please, sir, can I have some more?"

The Random Thoughts of a Cranky Pants

1. Even though I am not carrying a bowling ball around in my uterus this summer, heat still makes me cranky.  It makes Madeline cranky too.

2. Madeline is wide awake and yelling in her crib right now, and Eric has been out of the house every night this week.  I'll be right back...

3. What's with those baby hairs on the back of your leg that never. go. away?!?  I passed a razor up and down my leg about twenty million times this morning, and they are STILL there.

4. We had more severe weather this afternoon.  (There were tornadoes on the other side of the state last week.  We do not get tornadoes in Massachusetts very often.  Blizzards? Yes.)  This time, I decided to move my storm shelter from our bathroom to our laundry room because, in the laundry room, at least there are snacks. And by snacks, I mean a bottle of apple juice and some cans of beans.  We had some lightning and wind for about ten minutes.  Storm shelter remains unused!  

5.  From now on I'm going to mash bananas in everything Madeline eats.  If it has a banana in it, she will eat it.  Then she will not poop for five days in a row, but at least she's eating.

6.  One, grown men should not be riding on clown-sized bicycles. (Unless you actually are a clown, which he was not.)  Two,  he should certainly not be riding on a clown-sized bicycle without breaks through downtown during rush hour.  Third,  he should not shoot me dirty looks and then hop a fence(?) whilst carrying his bicycle.  Four, it's time to move to the suburbs.

7. I just spent the last twenty minutes in Madeline's room listening to her rant on about what I assume were her thoughts on how to fix the economy.  I'm not fluent in Maddie Bear yet.  I try not to engage my daughter in conversation before bedtime, but it's so hard not to want to play with her when she smiles up at me and tugs my hand closer to her belly.  Good Lord, my baby is cuu-ute.

8. I think the movie White Men Can't Jump is making a comeback because I've had several separate students bring it up in the past week.  I had one student ask me if it was true.

9.  My overly cute baby is still crying overly loud.  La sigh.

P.S. They reset the numbers over at Top Baby Blogs today.  I made it all the way up to 53 and I was psyched!  Please give us a vote if you enjoy us.  Maybe we can make it to the top page for two minutes before all the popular blogs start getting votes :)

Bandwagon Fan

Looks like everyone is jumping on the Bruins' bandwagon....

Don't you think you're taking this whole thing a little too far, Maddie Bear???  Your Mumma does.

Inspiration. (AKA, I totally ripped off her idea...except she does it better.

38 Weeks

I've got a bad case of the Bloggy Blahs this week. We've got a lot going on with trying to buy a house and running like mad toward the last day of school. I've totally lost my blogging mojo.  Sad

Still, I couldn't miss my Tuesday update, now could I?

Madeline is saying words with purpose now. She says "Bubba" all the time!  Her first real word would involve food, obviously. She also has looked right at Eric and said "Dada" several times. She very rarely says "Mumma." (Thanks for the rejection Maddie Bear...). But, Eric swears she said, "Mumma bubba," the other morning after I left the room.

Speaking of leaving the room, Madeline has been a total Mumma's girl this week. (I guess you're forgiven for not calling me by name.) If I put her down, or leave the room, or pass her to Eric before she's ready, she cries. Gal loves her some Mumma.

 Every night before bed she comes to me for cuddles. She throws Ernie off the couch just so she can laugh when I pick him back up. She watches Eric play her toy piano and tries to repeat it.

Her favorite new trick is to open and close her mouth quickly as if she,s nom-nom-noming on something.  Kinda like a fish...She makes a little popping sound when she does it, and she loves it.  It's pretty hilarious.

She's getting more confident in the crawl position. She rocks back and forth on her hands and knees.  She looks like she's at a rock concert.

We had an almost four-hour long home inspection on Saturday afternoon. Madeline was amazing the entire time. She made not a fuss!

 I sat on the porch with her to feed her a bottle, and I pretended the house was ours.  It's going to be such a great place to grow our little family.

I hope it all works out. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Music Appreciation 101

Maddie has started taking music lessons with Dada.  (He puts his instruments on the floor and she looks at them...or bangs on them...or chews them.)

 Perhaps he should start by teaching her that she's playing the wrong end...