Simple pleasures

Forget all those colorful and noisy toys - sometimes the simplest things seems to capture Madeline's attention. The other day I gave her a paper-towel tube and she loved it. An empty 2-liter bottle kept her enthralled for an afternoon. She also is quite content to be placed in front of the full-length mirror in our room.

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.