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.