Drink up

Our latest adventure has been teaching Madeline how to drink from a cup. It seems to be one of her favorite activities, even if it doesn't always end prettily. She's great at grabbing the cup and bringing it to her mouth, but sometimes has trouble tipping it back.

She enjoys it so much that she gets visibly excited - fast breaths, wide eyes and kicking feet - when she sees Lacey or me drinking something, and she reaches for our glass if she's close. Consider this a warning to anyone who may be holding her in their lap while trying to drink something - it's best to keep it out of her reach!

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On Saturday morning we fed Madeline bananas - her first fruit. We've been feeding her solid food once a day - at dinner - up to this point, and only vegetables or rice cereal. The idea is to introduce sweeter foods, such as fruits, after the child has already gotten used to vegetables. Madeline really seemed to like the bananas, and now the test will be to see if she still likes those green beans and squash.

The twenty-sixth week

Madeline was born six months ago today. It's both exciting and sobering to see how far she's come in that short period.

The exciting part has been watching her transform - literally before our eyes - from a completely helpless newborn who slept most of the day to an active, curious and intelligent ball of energy. She's moving on her own, holding conversations, sitting up, eating solid foods and sleeping through the night. She's curious and fascinated by just about everything. She has a beautiful smile and perfect, tiny hands.

The sobering aspect is the knowledge of just how fast the time is passing. There have been nights that seemed like time had slowed to a crawl. But, surely enough, they all ended. One of the first things I noticed when she was born was her toothless gums - with the arrival of her teeth last week I realized we will never again see her smile without any teeth.

It's exciting that she's growing up - we love playing with her and watching her learn. But there are times when I worry that it's going too quickly, no matter how much I try to slow things down and enjoy each moment. It's as if the moments you enjoy pass more quickly - the more fun you have, the faster the time slips away.

Squirm, roll, repeat

Putting Madeline down on a single square blanket to keep her off the dirty floor has become a losing proposition lately. Almost as soon as we put her down, Madeline will start rolling and twisting, either to reach for a nearby toy or just to be moving. This series of photos was taken over a span of about five minutes. At this point Madeline usually only rolls and squirms to one side, so she ends up moving in a circular pattern.

Support

It's amazing to realize that Madeline has complete, unquestioning trust in Lacey and me, and it's an amazing responsibility. Though she has yet to develop a rational comprehension of the concept of trust, it's obvious that Madeline has a deeper feeling of comfort and safety with her parents. She's working to discover herself, and our duty is to provide an environment where she's loved and supported unconditionally.

I thought this image portrays a taste of that dependence and support; it captures in a frame the limitless devotion that I've seen in Lacey since the first time she held her daughter.

Homemade

Lacey loves to cook, and she happens to be very good at it (which has benefited me greatly over the last 10 years!). Tonight she prepared her first homemade food for Madeline - strained green beans. (The other foods Madeline has eaten so far - rice cereal and squash - have been store-bought.)

While hardly the most complicated dish she's ever made, I think Lacey got a warm feeling inside when Madeline gobbled down her dinner tonight. There's just something rewarding about making Madeline's food from scratch, just as Lacey enjoys making our dinners in the same fashion. It's one of the first opportunities for Lacey to share one of her passions with Madeline. It's like she's putting a little of herself into it. And it's satisfying to know exactly what Madeline is eating.

The twenty-fifth week

Our hunch was right - Madeline is sprouting teeth. At this point all they amount to is a couple of bulges on her lower gum, but one of them is becoming more visible after breaking through a few days ago. (You can barely see it in the picture above - it's exceedingly difficult to photograph an active baby's sprouting tooth!)

Surprisingly, Madeline seems to be handling things well. We haven't experienced the drama that's normally associated with teething. It's true that she has many more teeth to go, but so far, so good.

In fact, Madeline has been an all-around great baby this week. She's been napping well and is energetic and happy during playtime. We had another laughing spell on Thursday, where Madeline would laugh at the least provocation from us. She laughed so much that she made herself spit up.

One thing I've noticed is that she seems happiest when all three of us are together. She'll smile and laugh when it's just her and me, but when we're all playing together or even just in the same room, Madeline is likely to laugh and talk more. Could it be that she finds comfort in all of us being together? Since her parents are happier around each other, does Madeline pick up on that feeling of happiness and security?

Another note from this week is Madeline's tummy sleeping. Yesterday she rolled onto her tummy in her crib for the first time. In fact, she did it three times that day, but was awake and energetic each time. This morning I found her asleep on her tummy for the first time. Of course, this makes her parents fret - since before she was born we've been bombarded with the admonition that she should always sleep on her back. But, aside from checking on her during the night and turning her back over, there's not much we can do.

Crib craziness

Now that Madeline knows how to move around, it's hard for her to stay still. She can often be found sleeping on her side in her crib, having fallen asleep in mid-squirm. This morning we found her all the way on her tummy - it was the first time she's completely rolled over in her crib, and she seemed proud of herself.

Sitting up, and . . . a tooth?

As I've written in recent posts, Madeline is getting much better at sitting by herself. She still topples backward occasionally, but can mostly right herself if she begins to lean too far in any other direction. She likes playing with toys that dangle or are placed in front of her on the ground.

But the big story over the past few days seems to be the arrival of Madeline's first tooth. On Monday night during bath time Lacey noticed a new spot on Madeline's bottom gum - nothing more than an elongated red mark. On Tuesday the area seemed a little more white. The problem is that Madeline isn't very good about letting you look into her mouth. She won't open on command and, when she does open up, her tongue gets in the way.

She has been a little more fussy over the last week, she has lots of drool and she likes to chew on everything - all possible signs of teething. And it's right about the time that many babies start getting their first teeth. But I guess we won't know for certain until that first pearly white makes its appearance.

Lightening locks

Madeline was born with an unruly whorl of dark hair and slate-gray eyes. In a world of bald babies, Madeline often draws notice for her thick locks, and while her eyes have become deep blue like her mother's, her hair has remained dark.

We expected that her hair would lighten over time. After all, both her parents were flaxen-haired toddlers. It's not uncommon for babies born with very dark hair to lose that hair in the first months and become brunette or even blonde within the first year.

But Madeline hasn't lost her baby hair - it's just getting longer and thicker. And recently, especially in certain light, it appears that her hair is also lightening, taking on an auburn tint. Will she eventually be blonde? Only time will tell.

Getting away

Lacey and I took the weekend off. From parenting, that is. Saturday was a milestone birthday for Lacey, and we celebrated in style. We dropped Madeline off with Grandma and Grandpa England for the weekend and headed for the posh Tides Inn resort in Irvington. The Tides is only about 30 minutes from the Englands' house, so we were close enough in case we were needed.

While Lacey and I were getting custom treatments at the resort spa, swimming in the pool overlooking Carters Creek or dining on crab meat, Madeline was enjoying the afternoon and evening with her grandparents and Aunt Hannah. We hear things went pretty smoothly for them.

This was our first night without Madeline since she was born almost six months ago. We didn't have too much trouble with the separation, although we sometimes were curious how things were going. I was pleasantly surprised that Lacey and I were able to refocus and not spend the entire time talking or thinking about the baby. We had fun adult conversations and enjoyed a carefree, mostly unscripted weekend.

Madeline didn't seem to have too much trouble without us, either. Her sleeping schedule was thrown off a bit, likely because of the change in surroundings and the different people. But she still slept through the night on Saturday and was otherwise an "angel," according to Lacey's mom.

Also this weekend:

Madeline had her first taste of "real" food tonight when we gave her some squash with dinner. We've been giving her rice cereal for three weeks now and it's as if she's grown bored with it. From what I hear, the rice cereal doesn't taste like much - its purpose is to give her practice with solid food and not necessarily to enhance her palate. Madeline is still working on her mastication skills but she seemed to enjoy the squash, or at least wasn't wholly offended by it.