October

It can be difficult to look back over an entire month and remember the small details, but here are some highlights from our October:

Sleeping: Madeline made the transition from two naps to one early this month. We had tried earlier, with poor results. But this time she took right to it, and she started getting better sleep during the day and at night. With the two-nap schedule she never seemed to be tired, and getting her to go down was getting more and more difficult. But now she's tired at the right time and bedtime has mostly been smoother. One critical element to the new schedule has been . . .

Television: We finally introduced Madeline to television - she watches about 30 minutes of Sesame Street in the mid-mornings during quiet time (her former morning nap time). She loves Elmo and is getting to know some of the regular characters and features. She loses interest after about 30 minutes, so I'm happy that she's not becoming infatuated with it.


Skills: Madeline can count to five and is beginning to learn her letters. She can accurately count my fingers when I hold them up in different configurations. She knows her major colors and loves coloring with crayons and colored pencils at her table in the kitchen. She's also learning about written words and numbers.

Halloween? I am sorry to report that we missed Halloween this year. We never made it to the pumpkin patch and had no decorations other than the pumpkin Lacey's parents brought us. And Madeline stayed home on Halloween night. Every weekend was just so busy (or rainy) that we didn't find time for the seasonal activities I had hoped to accomplish. But I think Madeline is still young enough that missing Halloween won't leave a lasting scar, and we'll make sure to make the most out of the holiday season that now begins.

Potty: Without getting into too much detail, Madeline has commenced potty training. She's getting better at letting us know when she has to go, and has even "performed" in her toddler potty a few times.

Here are some photo highlights from this month:

Madeline has apparently inherited her mother's hatred of ants, as displayed by her cool, methodic stomping of them in the driveway.

Madeline was quite excited to hear a woodpecker in the backyard during a brief lull in the seemingly endless leafblower cacophony that envelops the suburbs.

Something I long dreaded to see - my daughter rendered expressionless by the television. But with the elimination of her morning nap, she now gets a few doses of the tube per week.

Madeline enjoys collecting acorns and rocks in the yard.

At some point she learned to climb the stars at the playground by herself. Next she'll be asking for the keys to the car.

Peek-a-boo!

Who knew the playground slide would offer an object lesson in static electricity?

Madeline begins to notice the changing of the seasons.

Too cool for school -Madeline has pockets and she knows how to use them.

Madeline enjoys helping around the house -here she's giving mommy a hand with some banana bread. She also enjoys helping with chores such as the laundry and the dishwasher. We'll see how long this lasts.

Madeline enjoyed visiting with the chickens and her other animal friends at the farmer's market.

What would autumn be without a big pile of freshly raked leaves to redistribute? I generally subscribe to the laissez-faire school of lawn care, so the only reason I have raked leaves this year is for Madeline to kick them.

Madeline attempts to lift a heavy jar of peanut butter.

September

September was a whirlwind for us, as we packed up our old home and moved to a new one. Madeline stayed with Lacey's parents for several days while we were moving, and we were distressed when she came down with a fever on the morning we were set to drop her off. We still went through with the plan, and Madeline was OK aside from cold-like symptoms (runny nose, slight fever, lethargy).

The sickness and the break from her normal routine took their toll, and she was, um, a handful for a couple days when she returned to us (and the new house), but it didn't take long for her to accept the new place as her own. Now when we return from walks she even says, "home!"

This month Madeline's skills continued to impress us:

Counting - She can now count to three. She will sometimes count objects as she picks them up and puts them down in a different place. "Unn, too, tree. . ."

Reading - Madeline has started reading books to herself. And not just baby talk, which she's done for months. Now she picks up familiar books and flips through them, page by page, using real words to describe what's happening on each page. She also picks up inflections that we use when we read those same books to her.

Vocabulary - Taking a walk with Madeline is to experience a vocal accounting for every animal, object and event within view. She'll see an animal, make its noise and describe what it's doing - such as running, hopping, barking, etc. She even anticipates what might happen - at the beginning of a recent walk I said, "Madeline, I wonder what we'll see today." She responded, "animals?" and I said, "what kinds of animals?" She then listed a few of the common animals that we see on our walks - squirrels, birds, doggies. . .

Here's what else we've been up to this month:

Madeline checked out the scene on the back porch while daddy was cooking on the grill one fine late-summer evening.
























Madeline and Pink Bunny helped out as mommy packed one of the 6,387 boxes we filled for our move to a new home across the neighborhood.

Madeline said bye-bye to the only home she's ever known before heading off to spend a few days with Grandma while mommy and daddy (and some other kind helpers) moved all those boxes.

Then she took a tour of the loop to say bye-bye to the neighbors (and their mailboxes, and cars, and trees, and squirrels, and. . .)

Madeline (holding White Bunny and Blue Bunny) even said goodbye to the familiar bump in our driveway.

At the new house, Madeline didn't waste any time offering her own organizational suggestions for the spice drawer mommy had recently finished stocking.

After the move, we spent a couple days getting away from it all in Urbanna, were Madeline met this friendly calf.

Madeline took a minute from happily running around an "old truck" (her phrase) to check for precipitation.

Madeline cajoled daddy to sit with her behind the wheel of the tractor in Papa's workshop.

Standing atop the "big wagon" outside Papa's shop, Madeline makes sure mommy knows how she really feels.

18-month check-in

Today we took Madeline for her 18-month check-in with the pediatrician. She weighed in at 24 pounds, 11 ounces, and is 32.25 inches tall. She's grown about a half-inch since her last check-in, which was three months ago. She did not want to get weighed today, so the measurement above includes her squirminess and the bunny she was clutching.

The doctor was again impressed with her language skills - babies this age commonly have mastered about 10 words. That seems almost comical for us to imagine since Madeline has a repertoire of 100 words or more. These are words that she uses without prompting and in the proper context. The doctor said that this is obviously a strength of hers and that she's on a 3-year-old level with her language/vocabulary.

The video here shows Madeline practicing some of those words with Grandma last week. The last segment is one of my favorites, so I decided to include it even though she walked off camera. She walked over to me, said "hi," gave me a kiss and said "love you." What more could a dad want?

August

August has been a month of ups and downs, but Madeline has taken it all in stride. At the beginning of the month we didn't know if we would ever sell our house, but a few weeks later we're packing things up and preparing to move in mid-September to a wonderful house that happens to be in our same neighborhood. Also, Madeline came down with an unpleasant virus that had her out of commission for several days. The episode made us thankful that Madeline has, on the whole, been a very healthy baby, as this was only the second or third time she's been really ill.

Madeline is showing us that she has a way with words. She frequently utters four-word sentences that involve subjects, verbs and objects. "Daddy lay down pillow," she says to me with a wide smile when she wants me to lay next to her on the large floor pillow. She says "please" and "thank you" more often than not. And, in perhaps the best development of all, she's started saying "love you, daddy" when she's feeling particularly cuddly. (Of course, she also says "love you, bunny" to her favorite stuffed rabbit and "love you, mailman" to our letter carrier as we watch from the living room window.

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Some pictures from this month:

Madeline enjoyed spending time with her cousin Noah and the rest of the Hartsons when they stayed with us for a weekend.

The crazed towel monster appears after bath time each night as Madeline runs from room to room with nary but a towel draped over her head. Sometimes mommy regrets this.

Madeline loves to draw, so mommy set up a coloring area on our dining-room table. (Mommy likes to draw, too.)

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Madeline enjoyed the sprinkler on a hot August afternoon. At first she was timid . . .

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. . . then she became a little more curious . . .
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. . . and then it was all-out sprinkler madness.

Madeline got all dressed up to help celebrate Mommy's birthday on August 16. (Then mommy and daddy went to the Jefferson while Madeline stayed with Grandma for the night!)

Madeline asked how she could be useful around the house, so I told her to start packing for the big move. (In my defense, I was prepared to offer her a medium box. . .)

Madeline loves reading books that she pulls from the living-room book shelf. It's amusing to see a 17-month old engrossed in a copy of Ginsberg's "Howl" or Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover."

Madeline (shown with more age-appropriate reading material) gives me a big smile to let me know she's feeling better after a virus humbled her for several days.

I know I'm biased, but Madeline must be among the top 20 cutest babies on the continent.

July

It's been a busy month for young Madeline. Her verbal skills have exploded in the past few weeks - she learns new words every few minutes, it seems, and even repeats things that she hears other people say in passing (which is making us watch our words a little more carefully). She's enjoying the outdoors this summer - we travel to the park often and spend lazy afternoons at the neighborhood playground.

Madeline has also enjoyed spending time with the babysitter, Chelsea, who comes over a few afternoons each week to allow Lacey to return to more of a normal work schedule.

Here are some pictures of Madeline from the past few weeks:

Madeline shows off those bright blue eyes, and the hairband that keeps her flowing locks out of her eyes.

Here she enjoys a game of hide-and-seek with daddy in the living room...

and then a good laugh with mommy.

We spent a pleasant weekend afternoon playing at the beach near Lacey's parents' house.

At the beach Madeline discovered the indigenous faunae, including this (dead) blue crab...

which she then offered to her father. (I politely declined.)

Madeline also enjoys practicing her phone etiquette.

She learned to blow bubbles in the bathtub...

and exulted in pure delight when mommy issued a shower of bubbles.

June

This month has really flown by for us, between the camping trip, getting the house up for sale and all the other little things that fill up our days. Here are some recent pictures of Madeline (who's major developments lately have included two-syllable words and even two-word sentences!).

Here she is reading a book to daddy.

And here she's having a laugh.

And here she's eating her first corn on the cob, which she devoured.
Walking in some big shoes.

Walking around Maymont park today in her new sandals.

Fifteen-month check-in

Today we took Madeline for her 15-month check-in with the pediatrician. She weighed in at 23 pounds and is 31.75 inches tall. She's grown more than two inches since her last check-in, which was three months ago. She's hardly put on any weight in that time - only a few ounces.

We also got a pretty good idea of how Madeline is progressing developmentally - the doctor ran down a checklist of things to look for at 15 months:

Walking (Can she walk yet?) Check. She's been walking for five months now. She can run at a good clip and ascend stairs without using her knees. She's even started to climb things. And she's coordinated enough to walk around wearing adult-sized shoes that she digs out of our closets.

Stacking (Can she stack two blocks?) Check.

Commands (Can she follow simple commands?) Check that, too. She's good at retrieving and delivering objects, such as shoes and toys, and performing actions, like surprising mommy with a kiss after I quietly give her the order in another room.

Words (She should have four to six words that she uses regularly.) Uh, yeah. The doctor did a double-take when we told her that Madeline has about 45 words in her vocabulary. These are words that she can say unprompted, and doesn't include the animal noises that she mimics whenever she sees a particular specimen. The doc's next question was if we read to her, and of course the answer was yes - every day, several times a day. Madeline loves books, and they seem to be paying off.

We discussed some other issues with the pediatrician (such as discipline, which is something we think about more and more as Madeline tests her boundaries - as she should be doing), but overall Madeline is doing great, and is even ahead of the curve in many aspects.

Camping

This week we took Madeline on her first camping trip - to the mountains of southwest Virginia. We weren't sure what to expect from Madeline, who's routine would be severely interrupted on a trip like this.

Mostly she did pretty well - she was happiest when she was riding in her hiking backpack on daddy's back (we hiked about 17 miles in two days, including to the top of Mount Rogers - the state's highest point). She took most of her naps in the backpack, too.

She had a little more difficulty settling down for bed at night, likely because she was in such a strange environment, and in a big tent instead of her crib. We camped for three days and two nights, and Madeline had fun running around the campsite, even though the uneven terrain provided some challenging footing for her little legs. Between the rocks and sticks and dirt and bugs, there was plenty of stuff to occupy her interest.

Madeline captured many firsts this weekend - first camping trip, first miles on the Appalachian Trail, first mountain summit. We also saw wild ponies near the top of Mount Rogers.

As with any trip, it was fun but tiring, and we were happy to return home Thursday night. It might be a while before we plan another extended camping trip, but this was a good experience to have under our belt.

See more pictures from our trip here.

Moving on

A couple weeks ago Lacey and I finally decided to start looking for a new home. Part of the process, of course, is selling the home we already have, and that is what has been consuming our lives of late.

This afternoon during some down-time we were playing in the garage when it started to sprinkle. Madeline enjoyed being outside and getting wet, holding her hands aloft and looking around in wonderment at the water falling from the sky.

Little gardener

For Mother's Day, Madeline and I bought Lacey a selection of herbs and flowers and we spent the afternoon planting them in pots in the backyard. Madeline enjoys putting on her gardening hat and playing in the dirt with her very own hoe and spade.

She also makes quite a mess as she digs her fingers through the soil and slings it about. She got so dirty that we took her to the front yard and turned on the sprinkler - she got soaked but she loved it (and it was much easier than trying to rinse her arms and hands in the sink inside).