The forty-eighth week

It's been a busy week for us. After writing last week about how we need to get out of the house more, we found activities for every day this week. We've spent time at friends' and family members' homes and went to the grocery store, the gym and a Chinese restaurant for lunch. We haven't had to visit a big-box store yet, although I'm not ruling that out as the cold winter days continue.

As I expected, Madeline has enjoyed being out. I've also been letting her walk around more when we're out, even though she usually wants to walk in a direction where danger lurks, such as the parking lot. And, surprisingly, she has little interest in holding my hand while we walk around - she wants to let go and take off. So much for timidly exploring the big new world. She's ready to pounce and experience everything she can, with or without daddy.

On another note, today we attempted to use another barrette after the last one caused us so much trouble. This time she was not out of our sight while it was in, and she hardly seemed to notice. It kept her hair out of her eyes and looked pretty cute, too!

Eleven months

Since today is Madeline's 11-month birthday, I thought I'd get out the video camera this morning and see what fun things she would do for me. Sort of a snapshot of where she is at 11 months.

There are skills she has that are not in the video, such as talking. She can say "bye-bye" (almost always accompanied with a wave, and almost always uttered after the subject has left), "da da," "ma ma" and sometimes "ba ba" when it's time for her bottle. She doesn't always reserve these words for their proper recipient - she'll chant "ma ma ma" or "da da da" randomly throughout the day - but she's pretty good about using them at the right time, too.

Notes:

Eating: Madeline's eating pretty normal adult food these days. Lacey often makes versions of our dinners for Madeline, and even creates special quiches and other concoctions for her. I have enjoyed making scrambled eggs (a favorite of mine) for Madeline, too.

Napping: Several weeks ago I wrote about Madeline suddenly stopping her normal nap routine. We decided to play more to her schedule, and it turned out she was telling us she was ready to transition to two naps per day, instead of three. Now she naps at about 9:30 and then again at about 2, both for 60-90 minutes. Bedtime is around 7:15.

Going up (and down)

For several weeks Madeline has been pretty adept at climbing the stairs. In a matter of seconds she'll climb halfway up, stopping only briefly to look over her shoulder (where she always finds one of her parents, of course).

But it's been only recently that she's been able to get back down the stairs. I didn't realize she had been practicing, but yesterday she was going down almost as fast as she got up.

She gets plenty of practice climbing up and down by using the ledge between our home's entryway and the living room. She's been getting up on the ledge without difficulty for a long time, but has had a little more trouble getting down. I'm thankful, however, that she at least realizes there's an elevation change and doesn't walk or crawl off the ledge at full speed!

To get down the ledge, she initially approached slowly, lowered herself onto her stomach, placed both hands on the lower level and then slid the rest of her body down with a thud. But this week she's taken a new, more inventive tack. She approaches much more quickly and confidently, but now she stops at the edge, turns herself 180 degrees and lowers her feet down. Once her toes touch the ground she swivels around again so she's facing forward and is ready to go. In fact, she is often able to walk away from the ledge because her feet are hitting the ground first and she doesn't have to pull herself up.

One of the most entertaining aspects of watching her motor about the house is watching her work to solve problems. One of the least entertaining is that she always wants to climb!

Getting out

Over the past few days I've come to a realization that seems astonishingly obvious when I look back over months of Madeline's behavioral patterns. She wants to get out.

The frigid January weather has kept us mostly indoors - we don't stray far on weekdays and Lacey has stopped taking afternoon walks with Madeline. Blame it on a combination of the bitter cold, the effort it takes to get everyone bundled up, and the fact that we don't have many errands to run. But it's starting to have a noticeable effect. Madeline's getting cabin fever.

It really hit me yesterday when Madeline's mood swings perfectly illustrated the situation. She was grumpy all morning, fussing through playtime and breakfast and then taking an abbreviated morning nap, from which she awoke in tears. So we took a walk in the neighborhood, stopping at an estate sale on the next block. Madeline loved looking around an unfamiliar house and watching the hordes of strangers walking around. On the walk back home she was bouncing happily in her stroller and laughing with me.

Once we got back home, though, the fussing resumed. After lunch we paid a visit to a friend of mine who has an 11-week-old boy and a big, excited dog. Despite her lack of sleep for the day, Madeline completely opened up during our visit - happily chattering and exploring and playing with the dog. And then she talked with me from the back seat on the entire car ride home.

It seems so obvious - she's happy when we're out and about. And then I started thinking about her tendency on house-bound afternoons to continually get into things and go places she's not supposed to go. She's bored! She's tired of the same toys and the same seven rooms, day in and day out. She loves walking and visiting new places. And she loves looking out of the large bay window in the living room (see the pictures here) - is she longing for escape?

So what do we do about this? It's still pretty cold outside, so playing in the yard or visiting the park isn't really an option (the root of the problem to begin with). I've heard of parents taking their young children to big-box stores like Lowe's just to look at all the stuff. I hate to encourage that kind of consumerism (and besides, I might be tempted to buy things I don't really need), but that actually seems like a good idea. It would give Madeline a chance to see new things and get us all out of the house (she's not the only one suffering from cabin fever).

Maybe this week we'll give it a shot.

The forty-seventh week

The story of this week has been a pretty big one - Madeline started walking by herself on Sunday evening and hasn't looked back.

In those first couple days she was only walking from one object to another - from the coffee table to the chair to the television cabinet, etc. In other words, she was walking to a destination, and generally one that was within about 7 or 8 feet. Something she could steady herself upon.

But later in the week she started taking longer jaunts with no particular destination. She walked from room to room, around corners and objects. (Imagine my surprise when I looked aside while brushing my teeth this morning to see Madeline toddling around a corner toward me, instead of crawling as she usually does.)

At first she usually walked toward me, wild eyed with arms outstretched. But now, when I sit on the floor nearby, she sometimes veers around me and carries on to bigger and better things.

With all this walking have come a few spectacular collapses. Mostly she loses her balance gradually, teetering for a moment and then plopping down on her bottom or her knees. Sometimes she loses control more quickly and ends up with a belly flop. And while she can steer herself in wide patterns, she has trouble avoiding obstacles that are directly in front of her feet, such as toys and table legs.

I find myself cringing occasionally when she's going full-tilt and there's nothing nearby for her to grab - like she's riding without training wheels. I find myself picturing, again, all the bad things that could happen. But, aside from a couple minor bumps, she's survived her first week of bipedalism in splendid fashion.

Scaredy pants

One of Madeline's favorite pastimes recently is to have the stuffing scared out of her. I wrote earlier about how she plays hide-and-seek around pieces of furniture. Sometimes she'll slowly peek around the edge, craning her neck to see what's around the corner. If she doesn't see anything, she creeps out a little farther. Then, when mommy or daddy suddenly appear, she jumps in fright, but her scream quickly turns into a laugh. And then she does it again. Maybe she'll be one of those people who likes haunted mansions and roller coasters when she grows up.

Feeding time

Madeline's been getting the hang of feeding herself. We've been letting her handle her own spoon occasionally for several months, and she's learned to handle the sippy cup like a pro.

For Christmas she got a couple training spoons - they're curved to fit her grip and the spoon is designed to prevent the food from sliding off. She has been using the new spoon for several weeks now and has gotten pretty good at getting most of the food into her mouth.

She's still working on getting the food out of the bowl - for now she holds her spoon out while mommy or daddy puts food on it, and then she chows down.

Toddling

Madeline is officially a toddler now. Yesterday, for the first time, for real, Madeline started walking. I'm not talking about taking a few unaided steps before tumbling into someone's waiting arms (or onto the floor).

I'm talking about standing next to one piece of furniture and walking across the room to another piece of furniture, without diving at the end. I'm talking about confident steps, stopping midway to survey the situation while standing unaided and then continuing to the destination. I'm talking about arriving at the endpoint and still standing, even turning in a new direction and walking again.

It started small - an out-of-the-blue stroll from the rocking chair to the coffee table almost five feet away. Then back to the chair. Then from the chair to the television cabinet - also about five feet. And today it continued with several confident walks from the coffee table to the front entryway, about 7 feet. And she could easily go farther, if there were no obstructions.

We also played a fun game with Cheerios - I put a pile on her Exersaucer a few feet away from where I was sitting. She would walk to the Exersaucer, grab a handful of Cheerios and, without using her hands to steady herself, turn around and walk back to me.

There's no doubt about the fact that she's walking now. And you can tell from the grin on her face while she's toddling around that she loves it!

Baby steps

Aunt Amy came over to visit yesterday, and with the extra set of hands I was able to snap a couple pictures of Madeline taking a few steps on her own, and then tumbling into mommy's arms.

The forty-sixth week

Madeline has been taking lots of her own steps this week. Always eager to walk, she'll crawl up to us and deliberately grab our forefingers, swing around and begin to walk forward. If we happen to be sitting when this happens, Madeline gets agitated and begins to fuss. She wants to walk.

So she's starting to learn that she can do it without help. If I walk her to within about three or four feet of her destination (such as a chair or table to stand against), she'll unlatch her grip on my fingers and walk the interim distance. Or, when she's standing against a table and I'm sitting close by, she'll take steps in my direction before tumbling into my arms.

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When Lacey and I are both home, we sit several feet apart and encourage Madeline to walk between us, usually with good results. But Madeline also thinks it's lots of fun to fall into her parents' arms, so she sometimes starts to fall and laugh as we catch her, instead of trying to walk the entire distance.

Another trick we've tried is to give her something else to grip as she walks, such as the drumsticks that came with her noisemaking Christmas gift. Then, we she's not suspecting, we can let go of the drumsticks and she'll walk alone for a few steps.

At most she's taken four or five consecutive, unaided steps at a time. But her balance is improving quickly - as evidenced by how well she can stand on her own, especially when playing with a toy or drinking from her sippy cup - and she's learning some basic footwork, such as stepping up on stairs and kicking things that are in her way (or that are just fun to kick). It will be interesting to see what she can do by the time her first birthday rolls around (or I should say when she's a year old - her first birthday is still three years away!).

Planting the seed

Lacey and I both graduated from William and Mary. The College is where we met. We both have parents that attended. It's a large part of how I got my current job. In other words, it's a family institution.

With an eye toward preserving (and perhaps extending?) that history, we took Madeline for her first visit to the campus yesterday. We strolled around the Old Campus, including the Sunken Gardens, where these pictures were taken. We took Madeline by Tucker Hall (the English building where I spent much of my time) as well as the Geology department, where Madeline met many of Lacey's former professors. And a trip to the campus would not be complete without a stop at the Cheese Shop, a Williamsburg institution.

I had the chance to visit the campus when I was in middle school, and from that point I never really considered any other college. Maybe someday Madeline will feel the same way . . .

Adaptation, cont.

Today we unveiled the latest step in the migration away from "our" home to "Madeline's" home. Since we moved here four years ago, our upstairs loft area has served as a quiet retreat, with books, a couch and a television. Since Madeline was born it's also been home to our computer.

Recently we decided to bow to the inevitable and transform part of the loft into a play area for Madeline, so she can stay occupied while we work on the computer (or sit on the couch). We wanted a place where she could play and learn and scatter her stuff all around.

So we got rid of the tv (we never really used it - we don't even get cable!) and brought in a kid table (that Lacey's dad made for Lacey when she was younger) and toys. It's gone from "our" area to Madeline's area, and she seems to like it so far.

The forty-fifth week

Madeline has mostly been her normal, fun self this week, but she's shown us flashes of the other side. And it's not a pretty place.

For months now, when something is not to her liking, she would let us know with fussing and a little squirming. But this week she threw down her very first temper tantrum - a full-blown, writhing-on-the-floor screamfest. It happened when Lacey took Madeline away from the computer keyboard she had been happily playing with. Madeline dissolved into a heap of wailing despair and none of the normal distraction techniques seemed to work. But Lacey handled it well and in a few minutes the storm had passed.

I guess we can expect more of this in the coming months (and years). Madeline wants to investigate everything but doesn't have a good way of communicating with us, except through pointing and making noise. And pointing is too subtle for some situations.

The pictures here, however, were taken during happier times. Madeline and I were playing peek-a-boo around the ottoman in her room (below) when mommy walked in and elicited the response pictured above. Madeline couldn't have been happier at that moment.

Let us out!

The gate at the top of the stairs is good at keeping Madeline from tumbling down. She likes to grab and shake it as hard as she can - I guess because of the noise it makes, or because she just seems to love shaking everthing she can get her hands around.

However, our cat has also been stymied by the gate, and wrongly seems to have placed her hope in Madeline figuring out how to break it down and let them both free.

An odd talent

Over the past couple days Madeline has discovered a new noise. It's hard to describe, but it's something like a muffled, staccato throat clearing. I call it her dolphin noise (even though it really doesn't sound much like a dolphin at all, come to think of it).

Anyway, she can make this noise on command, and enjoys doing it. I, on the other hand, am completely incapable of replicating the sound. The funny thing is that Madeline knows when I am trying to do it (even though it sounds nothing like her version), and she starts smiling and making the noise in answer to my attempts. She's taken mimicry to a new, insulting level. It's like she's saying, "What, Dad, are you trying to do this . . ." and laughing as she flaunts her peculiar ability. That's my girl!

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Tonight - I believe for the first time - Madeline, Lacey and I had the same thing for dinner, and that's the last time I eat strained peas! But seriously, Lacey concocted a tantalizing stew of sweet potatoes, chicken and various seasonings, and all the ingredients were suitable for Madeline as well. Madeline's meal was all mashed up, but otherwise identical to ours, and she devoured it appreciatively.

Climbing

Madeline enjoys climbing everything she can grab, especially dressers with several levels of handles. I guess the next step will be figuring out how to open those drawers and scatter their contents in a pile on the floor.

The forty-fourth week

This week we've been settling back in after several weeks of holiday activity. The tree has been taken down, but Madeline still casts a lingering finger point to the corner of the living room where it once stood when I ask "where's the Christmas tree?" (She always pointed at it when it came into her view or when I said the words "Christmas tree.") She knows where it was, but likely its memory will fade in the coming days.

Much of our playtime these days is spent in variations of hide-and-seek or peekaboo. Often Madeline will crawl around a chair, ottoman or other large piece of furniture and peek tentatively from behind the object to see if mommy or daddy is still there. When we see her peek we usually exclaim something, and she erupts in laughter and either crawls quickly toward us or shimmies back around the object to peek from the other side.

I took this video while was I was sitting at the dining room table and Madeline and Lacey played peekaboo on either side of me. You can see Madeline peeking around me to find mommy and how she reacts when Lacey pops up.

Good morning, 2009!

2008 was a momentous year for us, for obvious reasons. As the years begin to scroll by, 2008 will always be remembered as the year Madeline joined us. Just like my ears perk up whenever I hear 1977, Madeline will forever be an '08 baby.

It's hard to say what we'll be looking toward in the new year. Madeline has already hit most of the major physical milestones in her first 10 months. Of course we'll have solo walking, and perhaps some words, but overall I've gotten the impression that the second year is somewhat of a plateau when it comes to gross physical development. Or, at least it's less eventful than the first year, when babies make the radical transformation from helpless newborns to walking, crawling, babbling bundles of curious energy.

Most of her development will be in her intellect and her personality as she learns more about herself as an independent entity. That likely means more meaningful interaction, from playtime and learning to fussiness and tantrums. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to plenty of out-of-the-house activities this year as her mobility and intellect mature. Maybe our first family camping trip? Parks? Arts and crafts?

Other tidbits:

In 2008 Madeline gained 14 pounds and 1 ounce, grew 8.25 inches and sprouted 6 baby teeth. She was also the subject of 2,420 pictures and 180 blog entries.