Little pumpkins

Happy Halloween from Madeline!

(One of the great things about having a baby is that you get to dress them in whatever silly outfit you like!)

The thirty-fifth week

Madeline is learning to show her affection for mommy with a big kiss - but still working on the execution!

It's been a fun week, with several odds and ends to note here:

The gym: I finally joined a gym this week. It's something I've wanted to do for a couple years now but just hasn't been tenable. But I came across a good offer and discovered the gym also offers child care, so Madeline can socialize while I work out. It's the best of both worlds. In fact, it was the aspect of Madeline being able to play with other kids that sealed the deal. Now the challenge will be finding how to work gym visits into our weekly schedule!

Our living room: We finally reclaimed our living room. I recently wrote that baby furniture was giving way to baby toys around the house. Well, last weekend we bought a nice covered basket for those toys. Now, when the toys are put away, our living room looks like it did until about 8 months ago. Eventually Madeline will discover the basket full of toys, but for now we can pretend there's some sort of sanity and order to our lives.

The car seat: Madeline's growing into a big girl. This week we retired her infant carrier, which doubled as a car seat when snapped into a base in each of our cars. Madeline has gotten quite a bit heavier and we never toted her around in the carrier anymore, so we decided to get some fixed car seats. These seats will hold her until she's about 4 or 5 years old. The new seats also seem a bit more comfortable for Madeline.

Eight-month check-in

To celebrate Madeline's 8-month birthday today, I took her to get a flu shot. This was the first time I've been able to hold her while she got an injection - usually the nurses take her to another room while Lacey and I talk to the doctor. Madeline didn't like the shot too much, of course, but she quieted quickly when I held her tightly afterward.

I also got her weighed and measured while we were there. I asked the nurse if we should take care of the measurements before the shot so Madeline would be a little more calm, but the nurse said it didn't matter. Of course, Madeline was screaming after the shot so we didn't go to the effort of getting her undressed for the scale, and therefore her weight this month includes clothing.

Today she weighed 19 pounds, 15 ounces and was 27.75 inches long. She's grown about three-quarters of an inch since her last appointment, at the end of last month. She's only three ounces heavier (and today's weight included clothes and diaper), which leads me to believe that her constant bouncing and squirming/crawling are keeping her weight in check.

And so it begins

"Not with a bang, but a whimper."

That's how Eliot described the end of the world, and how I'll sum up the onset of Madeline's crawling. She's not performing your textbook all-fours crawling yet, but she's moving herself. When she's on the floor and sees something she wants, she goes there. It's more of an Army crawl, with her belly still on the ground and the occasional hands-and-knees flourish.

This weekend we were practicing together - I put Mallory the Monkey on the floor at increasing distances from Madeline, and each time she would shimmy and squirm and work her way to her target. I was getting it on video when I realized that she was actually pretty interested in the camera. So I placed the camera on the floor and, as you can see, she got it pretty quickly. (The distance may seem a little foreshortened in the video, but she started about five feet away from the camera.)

These days we're making sure Madeline's getting plenty of tummy time - she seems to enjoy learning to crawl and is excited to get down and get moving.

Pumpkin shopping

Today we took Madeline to the pumpkin patch to pick out her first Halloween gourd. The patch - a small farm where we got our family's pumpkins when I was a kid - was teeming with small children and parents laden with cameras. We picked out a baby pumpkin for our baby (the one she's playing with in the photo) and a bigger pumpkin for us (the one she's sitting next to).

Playtime!

Today was a big day in Madeline's budding social life. For the first time, she had a playdate with another baby.

The fact that Madeline has not spent much time around other kids is something I have been thinking about recently, now that she's becoming more social and inquisitive. One drawback to not having her in daycare is that she doesn't get regular time around other tots, and we don't have family, neighbors or close friends that have babies and live nearby.

But we do have coworkers. In an odd bit of timing, some half-dozen of the people that either Lacey or I work with had babies at about the same time Madeline was born. Today one of Lacey's coworkers brought his wife and 9-month-old daughter to our house for a visit.

Of course, the two girls didn't technically play together - they stared at each other for a bit, and then started to play with toys on their own while sitting next to each other. Madeline's guest has been in daycare and was vocally cheerful from the beginning of today's session, while Madeline - who was jumping around and laughing moments earlier - became quietly watchful when the visitors arrived.

But Madeline opened up after a while, and the two babbled pleasantly at each other while trading toys. After about an hour both babies started to show signs of fatigue.

I think it was a great experience for Madeline and hope to be able to arrange more playdates soon. It's good for the kids, who can start mastering their social skills, and fun for their parents, who like watching cute babies play.

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(In case you're wondering why one of Madeline's friend's feet is exposed in the top picture - Madeline's first order of business upon being introduced to her new friend was removing her sock!)

The thirty-fourth week

I was planning to write about how Madeline has been coming this close to crawling this week, along with posting this video from a couple days ago, but that was overtaken by events today. This week Madeline has been trying so hard to crawl - squirming around, bouncing up on her hands and feet, and even pushing herself backward.

But today Lacey and I watched as she propelled herself in a straight line toward my guitar, which was laying several feet away on the floor. She got up on her hands and knees and moved herself with intent. She's still trying to get her motions coordinated - she alternates between getting up on all fours and sliding on her tummy. I'm still hesitant to officially call it crawling, but it's about as close as she can get.

Give her a hand, folks

Over the last several weeks Madeline has been learning to clap. Increasingly she will do it in response to someone clapping in front of her - one of the first real instances we've seen of her mimicking us.

I've also found that she'll clap when she's listening to music. When I play my guitar for her she'll clap and sing with me, and when we listen to music together she'll even bounce around while clapping.

Of course she does all of that stuff when she's not listening to music, but turning on the tunes is almost certain to get her dancing and singing along.

When playtime ends

"Whew, playing on the floor can be hard work!"

"OK dad, it's time to put the camera down."

"Seriously, if you don't pick me up in about two seconds you're going to regret it."

You may get the impression from the photos on this site that Madeline is all smiles and sunshine. She's mostly a pretty happy baby, which we're very thankful for, but there are times when she'll let you know when things aren't to her liking.

Try taking away the toy she's playing with, or putting her down when she wants to be held, or leaving her alone for two seconds - well, you might want to reconsider.

A busy weekend apart

It's been a long weekend and I haven't really seen Madeline or Lacey for four days. The two of them visited family in Urbanna on Friday and Saturday, and I was backpacking in the mountains with my brother on Sunday and Monday. It's fun - and necessary - to get away occasionally, but it's always nice to get back home. I'm looking forward to some quality time with Madeline this week!

The thirty-third week

There's not much to report this week - Madeline's doing plenty of fun stuff but its mostly the same fun stuff she's been doing. She seems to enjoy her new Exersaucer, but for short periods. She still prefers playing with me or Lacey on the floor, where her toys are strewn about. And we're trying to give her lots of tummy time so she can work on those crawling skills.

World of wonder

Today Madeline took her first spin in her new Exersaucer - an utter cornucopia of sensory delight. It's got mirrors and dangly things and buttons and, once we put batteries in it, lights and noises. It's a retina-searing display of color and activity. Madeline seems to love it, or at least is thoroughly confused by it. She can stand and bounce and play all at the same time.

And, although it's not the (only) reason we got it, hopefully it'll allow us to leave the room for more than 5 seconds while Madeline plays alone.

The true test of any toy's value is if it entertains the child for at least the same amount of time it took her dad to assemble it. If she plays for 10 minutes with something that took me 45 minutes to put together, well, that's a pretty low return on my investment. The Exersaucer took about 30 minutes, and I suspect we'll multiply that number many times in enjoyment.

It's fitting that I recently wrote about baby furniture giving way to toys in our living area. Now we have a toy that's large enough to double as furniture.

Separation

Sure, she's all smiles here, but wait until mommy or daddy leaves the room. As suddenly as a desert thunderstorm she'll erupt in an ear-piercing shriek when she thinks she's going to be left alone. And when you return to her field of view she calms just as suddenly.

This, of course, is what they call separation anxiety. In an odd way it's actually gratifying to know that she wants us so badly and that she feels happy with us (when else does someone weep when you leave them?). It can make certain things, like a quick trip into the next room, a little more difficult, but it makes me thankful that we don't have to leave her for longer periods or in the care of someone else.

I guess I can understand some of what she's feeling - I don't like to leave her, either!

Biscuits

We're getting to the point where we'd like Madeline to start learning how to feed herself on occasion. She already sticks everything in her mouth, so she's working in the right direction.

We were finally able to find some teething biscuits for her to chew on. She's still a little young for smaller finger foods, but the biscuit gives her a chance to experiment with something that's a little tastier than a plastic toy (but a lot messier).

Fun with mom

Madeline's laughing a lot more these days, and more often because she really finds something fun or funny. It's almost as if her earlier laughter was somewhat involuntary, but now she'll laugh at a silly face or an odd noise (or a tickle from mommy).

The thirty-second week

Madeline's got a lot on her plate these days. She's learning how to crawl. She's learning how to stand by herself. She's already pretty good at sitting and even reaching far to either side without toppling, but the next feat will be to get to a sitting position from her tummy (she can already go the other way with ease!).

It's been an uneventful week, in a good way. Madeline and I went for a run, we played in the yard, we visited family. I happily consider this uneventful because these types of activities are part of our daily routine now. Not long ago I was lamenting how we were just ticking off the days, going through the motions just to make it to bed that night. I devised a challenge for myself - to come up with four new things each month to make us break out of our comfort zone. There are still days we end up just hanging around the house, but filling the other days with activity make the house days more relaxing and enjoyable.

I feel such a responsibility to get Madeline outside, to expose her to new objects, environments and ideas. She just soaks everything up so quickly - we've even seen that she becomes bored with familiar objects - that I want to make sure I'm doing what I can to stimulate her mind.

A little closer

She's up and rocking, every day a little closer to full-fledged crawling.

Toys

Over the last few months our home's decor has been shifting. Our living spaces were once filled with the baby chair, the swing, the playpen and other places where we could put Madeline down. But now that Madeline can sit and play on her own, those furniture-like devices are giving way to toys.

From stuffed bunnies and dragonflies to colorful stacking rings to frog rattles, we have toys in just about every room of the house, ready at a moment's notice.

It's kind of nice, not only because the toys take up less space than the furniture but because Madeline is so much more portable. Instead of carrying her chair from room to room and strapping her in while we work in the kitchen, for example, we can just plop her on the floor and give her one of the many toys that's invariably lying nearby.

And, even though she's moving around plenty these days, we're enjoying her limited range now before she really starts to crawl. Then I guess the playpen will come out once again.

The thirty-first week

It's a rule in my house - if you have teeth, you've got to brush them.

OK, so it's not really a rule, but Madeline has been brushing her teeth (both of them) since we got her a baby toothbrush this week. She seems to like chewing on it, which I guess is about the same as brushing.

It's been another fun week - Madeline is just a ball of entertainment for me. We spend most of the day just playing - on the floor, on the jungle playmat, on the bed.

But now Madeline and Lacey are gone for the weekend - they left this morning and won't be back until Sunday evening. Madeline is attending her second boat festival, but for the first time she'll be camping in a tent, even if it is in a crowded parking lot with hundreds of other campers. I'd like to say that I'm relieved to have the weekend to myself, but in truth I will be spending the time at the office and working on other mundane chores and activities. And I'll be missing my two girls - this will be the longest that I've been away from Madeline in her entire life!