Ten months

I've written so much lately about Madeline's recent accomplishments that I won't belabor them here, but suffice it to say that the 10th month has been a whirlwind of activity. In mid-November she crawled for the first time, she started pulling up and she even sat up by herself.

Only a few weeks later she's almost forgotten about crawling as she attempts to walk everywhere. She only takes to her hands and knees begrudgingly when it become apparent that no one's going to help her walk. She shifts from crawling to pulling up to sitting as seamlessly and effortlessly as someone who's been doing it for years. She climbs steps tentatively (but is still getting the hang of going down).

A relatively slow fifth month forced me to think about adding new activities to our daily schedule. At 10 months Madeline seems to be doing new things every day - she's peeked behind the door of exploration and is getting ready to use her new mobility to kick it down and rush in. Today she led me on a walk around the front yard, stopping every five feet to bend down and inspect some weed or fallen leaf. I even taught her how to blow a dandelion - although the little seed puffs were attached too firmly for her gentle breath and she had better luck just shaking the thing.

Her energy level can be hard to match sometimes, but I'm so enjoying all of this. I'm excited to see what the eleventh month brings.

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10-month check-in

This month Madeline weighs 21 pounds, 3 ounces (with a dry diaper) and is 28.75 inches long. She's grown about an inch and a half since her last appointment, but last month's height was less than the previous month's, so something was awry. She's 12 ounces heavier, meaning she's put on just under a half-ounce a day (maybe some of that is holiday weight!).

Cousin Ozzy

Today we attended one last Christmas gathering, making the short trip to Lacey's parents' home to visit with some of her relatives from far-flung areas. It was nice to see everyone, and even Madeline had someone her own age to play with.

Little Ozzy, Madeline's distant cousin, was born about a month before her, and they share many similarities in mannerisms. I've always found it interesting to see other babies the same age as Madeline - you realize that many things they do, from their noises and motions to the way they react to certain objects and situations, are almost exactly the same.

Madeline and Ozzy enjoyed playing together and Madeline quickly opened up, unlike the last time she had an organized play date and took a little longer to warm up. I wonder if her weekly visits to the daycare at my gym have helped acclimate her to other kids? She seems to be opening up in public much more easily - sometimes I wonder where her outgoing nature comes from.

The two babies were the center of attention all day, but the highlight of the afternoon came during our stroll along the quiet road where the Englands live. At one point the two strollers were about a foot apart, and both babies reached out to hold the other's hand as we walked!

The curious case of the missing barrette

It was there, and then it wasn't.

For Christmas Madeline received some small, colorful barrettes to keep her increasingly long hair out of her face. That afternoon she was wearing one, well, until she wasn't wearing one. Once Lacey realized it was missing, she completely deconstructed the area in which it was last seen, stripping things down to their base elements and searching places she had just searched moments ago. It quickly became apparent that the barrette was likely inside Madeline.

A quick Google search showed that once swallowed objects reach the stomach, they're likely to pass on through with little trouble - the esophagus is the tightest squeeze. You just need to be careful of sharp objects that can perforate the GI tract's lining. The barrette was small, smooth and rounded. Madeline wasn't showing any signs of distress and was pretty much her normal self. But upon recommendations from our pediatrician's office, we took Madeline to the hospital for a confirmation x-ray this morning.

The procedure was quick and painless (not that Madeline enjoyed it), and within about 2o minutes the doctor informed us that, in fact, the barrette was visible on the x-ray. "It's down near the bottom," she said, indicating that any adverse reaction was unlikely at that point. We just had to wait and watch.

As a fitting coda to the entire episode, Madeline took her regularly scheduled poop as we were packing up to leave the ER. Sure enough, buried within last night's pumpkin and oatmeal was the missing barrette!

Final tally - harm to baby: 0; big lesson for parents: 1

The forty-third week

Our house is quiet tonight - a hectic season has at last come to an end. Madeline seemed to enjoy her Christmas and was duly showered upon, although she would have been happy to just play with the bows and ribbons that adorned the gifts piled under our tree.

She also enjoyed the company this week - there were grandparents, aunts and uncles everywhere in sight, and everyone was eager to spend time with Madeline. She has a way of soaking up the attention from everyone else and then, right when I begin to suspect that we could be replaced in her affections by any adult human, she lets us know that she still holds a special place for mommy and daddy.

Earlier this week I wrote that Madeline suddenly wants to do nothing but walk around our house. We had plenty of helpers here this week to offer fingers for Madeline to grasp as she made her laps. And she must have made a hundred of them - she could probably walk for a half-hour straight if our backs were up to it.

Occasionally, as we pass by a reflection during one of our strolls, I'm struck by the vision of my little baby (who, in some ways, still seems so new) walking intently, her head turning from side to side as interesting objects emerge into her sight and syllables of delight spill from her mouth. She's a real, tiny person, and that's something that sneaks up on me from time to time. Physically she's not that much bigger than the helpless infant we brought home from the hospital 10 months ago, and yet she's walking! Imagine if, as adults, we could achieve the relative level of physical and mental development over the course of 10 months as an infant. We'd all be Olympic athletes who belong to Mensa.

I imagine it will be a little difficult to watch Madeline grow and strive for independence because I always want to keep her so close to me. Someone said this week, as I complained about the discomfort from the awkward slouching position required to walk Madeline around, that I should enjoy these moments when she reaches for each of my hands, one by one, before leading me on a breathless sprint across the room. Because soon enough she won't need my fingers.

Merry Christmas!

Madeline's holiday portrait, 2008

First steps

Last week, Madeline would step forward tentatively while grabbing our extended fingers for support. This weekend she suddenly wanted to walk everywhere, leading mommy or daddy on laps around our downstairs as she babbled happily at the passing scenery. And then tonight, as she steadied herself on the Christmas tree, she took her first faltering steps toward Lacey, who sat a couple feet away.

Madeline's journey to walking has born little resemblance to the long, slow development of her crawling. In just a couple weeks she's gone from pulling up to taking her first steps. She's always loved standing, at first in our laps and later when she pulled up on furniture or people. It hasn't surprised me that she's taken to walking so quickly.

Obviously there's a long way to go before she's joining me for a run around the neighborhood. It will probably be months yet before she really is walking on her own, but all this practice she's getting is sure to help.

Tilt it back

Madeline is becoming quite the sipper. Our attempts to teach her to use a cup began more than three months ago, and now she's handling the sippy cup like a pro.

We got a new cup a few weeks ago that is easier for her to hold and has a miracle-of-science nipple that holds the liquid inside unless she's actively drinking.

Since her arms are pretty short she has trouble tilting the cup up far enough to get water when she's holding it with two hands. So in a remarkable display of Darwinian cleverness she's learned to turn her head to one side and use one hand to lift the cup higher.

The gates

Today we brought out the baby gates for the first time. With Madeline scampering around faster and faster every day, we knew it was time for some barriers - it just took us a couple tries to find gates the right width to fit our halls and doorways.

Today, when confronted with the gate, she didn't whimper or whine for the other side, as I thought she might. Instead she accepted her confinement with the stoicism of the British and, after a moment, cheerfulness. She pulled up on the gate and started singing and pointing at everything in sight, blissfully lost in her own little world.

The gates are the latest attempt at making our home mostly childproof. Every day Madeline discovers another object or latent danger that needs to be addressed. We've come a long way just in the past couple weeks, but I imagine there will be more comfort casualties along the way to living in a completely kid-safe zone.

The forty-second week

It's been a busy week as we gear up for next week's holiday. Not only have we had to finish up our shopping, but we're going to be hosting both of our families here on Christmas day. Madeline and I had fun on Wednesday and Thursday as we drove around town, from store to store, ticking things off the list and soaking up the holiday atmosphere.

Inexplicably, Madeline's nap schedule has returned to normal after last week's derailment. The day after we returned from Roanoke she was back to normal. I have a feeling that it took the major disruption of traveling for two days to get things back into synch.

Sometimes I find myself thinking that Madeline is at the perfect age right now. Despite the occasional grumpiness or naptime issue, she's just so much fun. I love watching her learn and explore, and when she crawls to me and climbs my leg. It's fun to see her stare wide-eyed as we walk around town, and when she points her tiny finger and issues a soft word. And I could listen all day as she talks noisily to the oversize book she's holding in her lap.

Then I realize I've thought she's been at the perfect age for about four months now. My dentist, who has a 5-year-old daughter, told me recently that he's experienced the same phenomenon - every age seems like the perfect age. I guess I have a lot to look forward to.

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Notes:

- Last week we finally stopped Madeline's acid-reflux medication. She had been taking it since she was 7 weeks old, and we were told she might be on it for most of her first year. We had tried a couple times to stop it earlier, but each attempt seemed to cause increased fussiness. Looking back, that fussiness could have been related to other factors, such as teething. Or not. In any case, she's done with it now, though I think she quite enjoyed the taste.

- Speaking of teething, it looks like she's getting a couple more. About 4 weeks after we spotted her top front teeth, the teeth to either side of those are now pushing through. I didn't expect we'd see any more for a while, but a baby's teeth seem to be the most unpredictable of the major developmental milestones.

Little bookworm

From an early age, Madeline has enjoyed books. She's gone from sitting motionless while they're read to being more actively involved. I've written before how she points to pictures and words, helps turn the pages and loves operating the flaps on pop-up books.

At last weekend's family Christmas gathering she received a shelf-full of new books, from classic nursery rhymes to oversize board books with lots of tactile delights.

Her father, an English major who works at a newspaper, and her mother, who reads entire books in one sitting, would love to see Madeline develop a love for reading. It seems to be getting harder in today's digitized world, but at least we can try to lead by example and make sure plenty of books are on hand (we only have about 4,000 in the house, so that shouldn't be too hard!).