No one ever said that life with a baby wasn’t going to be exciting. Friday night, we were sitting in the living room visiting with two sisters-in-law. M. was taking turns playing with a remote control and one of our cordless phones. Right around 8:00, we got a call that the caller ID listed as from the City of Carmel. Thinking it was some kind of sales call associated with the up-coming Carmelfest, we let it ring through. About five minutes later, the doorbell rings. I answer it to find two police officers standing at the door.
“We had a 911 call from this residence,” they say.
Shit.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I think our baby dialed the phone.”
They seemed mildly annoyed but once we satisfied their curiosity that everyone in the house was ok, they left. We found it pretty funny once the got out of listening range. M. loves to push buttons on the phone, and generally she’ll push everything but the Talk button. Once in awhile she will push it, though, but even then she’s often pushed an odd combination of numbers that won’t dial through. It’s pretty amazing that she managed to push only 9-1-1-Talk in sequence so it went through. I’m not sure why none of us heard it dial (we keep the handset volume pretty high so we can hear it dialing if she gets ahold of it) and intercepted, but no biggie. We talked with some neighbors and it seems like everyone’s kids have dialed 911 for no reason at some point. Our tax dollars at work!
Sunday, we tried to take M. to the pool for the first time. We bought some Little Swimmers swim diapers, put her into her first bathing suit, lathered her up with sunscreen, and went to the pool in my in-laws neighborhood. It’s been really warm here for a week (hit 90 yesterday for the first time in almost two years) but the water still had a bit of a chill to it. The plan was for me to get into the wading pool, hold her, and slowly introduce her to the water. She wanted nothing to do with it. Before I even touched her feet to the water, she was crying. When her skin did hit the surface, she howled. We tried a few times, but she was never interested at all. S. sat at the edge of the pool holding her, and she just eyed the water warily the entire time.
There were some other kids in the wading pool, mostly 3-4 year olds, but there was one boy that was 13 months clinging to the edge with his mom (who was already 7-8 months pregnant again!). He seemed cool with the pool, but not without some concern. He was a pretty good walker, so when he got his confidence up, he would venture away from the edge chasing one of the many toys floating in the pool. He’d take a few steps, lunge towards the object of his pursuit, and face plant into the water. Great fun to listen to another kid lose it when there’s no injuries involved! Meg just stared at him like he was crazy.
So Meg’s first trip to the pool was a dud. We laughed that in the not-too-distant future, she’ll beg us to let her go to the pool everyday all summer. We’ll be pulling out the video of her crying the first time we tried to get her in the water to show her she wasn’t always such a pool fiend.
What other new tricks does she have? She’s cruising, which I didn’t know was a developmental milestone until two weeks ago. Cruising entails walking sideways while holding onto something (i.e. couch, table, cabinets, etc). She’s getting quite fast. We got her a push-walking toy last week. She’s just starting to grasp the concept, but I bet she’s pushing it all over the house soon. When we were picking it up at Toys ‘R Us, I was amusing S. by doing my imitation of M. this time next year when we take her into a toy store. “Mommy, M. want. Mommy, M. NEED!”
Another new trick is climbing the stairs. She powers up the sixteen steps that go from our entryway to the second level. What’s hilarious is she babbles the entire time, as though she’s telling someone either a great story or she’s doing a rather extensive play-by-play of her activities. She’ll stop every few steps, turn to make sure someone is watching her, give you a huge grin, start talking again, and continue up. We let her get to the top then pull her down by her ankles, which sends her into hysterics. When we get to the bottom, she charges back to the top again.
It really seems like she’s getting taller, too. She’s at a strange stage where some days, she still seems tiny and others she feels like she’s really a little person rather than a baby. The fact she stays upright so much and is getting so verbal only enhances that feeling.
New pictures will be posted at her website later today, for those interested.
Now Playing: <strong>Moving To L.A.</strong> from the album “Bang Bang Rock And Roll” by <a href=”http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Art%20Brut%22″>Art Brut</a>