Month: September 2005

M. decided not to nap on Tuesday. We attempted to put her down six times over the course of the day. Only two were successful, and each of those turned out to be very brief naps. The process of getting her down for what should have been her morning nap but turned into a midday nap ended up being magic, though.

After two attempts, S. was spent and was trying to get a nap of her own on the living room couch. I got M. out of her crib and took her into our bedroom. We laid on the bed, and for the next 45 minutes had great fun. She never tried to get off the bed, she just rolled around until eventually we were lying with our heads at the foot of the bed. She decided she wanted to bite my hand. She would grab my thumb with one hand, my little finger with the other, and start pulling it towards her face. Her mouth stretched open showing her eight, fierce little teeth. I applied just enough resistance to make her strain. As she fought laughter, she bared her teeth further and stuck her tongue out in strain. I’d let her pull my hand all the way to her mouth, then pull it back. She’d double her efforts, which caused her legs to shoot up into the air as she tried to gain leverage. We continued this tug-of-war for at least five minutes before she gave up. Then, she tried to bite my nose, which was harder to avoid.

Next came grabbing daddy’s glasses, which is fun for her but not for daddy. By the time she grew tired of that game, my lenses were smearing and nasty. She had bananas for breakfast. Next, she spent ten minutes pinching, scratching, and flicking my nose, lips, cheeks, and ears. This is tolerable until she gets those sharp little nails against something tender.

I don’t know if it’s just my kid, but she gets more ticklish as she gets more tired. I was making bear sounds and pawing at her when she let loose her Tickle Me laugh. A dad can’t ignore a signal like that, so I went in for the kill, tickling her ribs while I tried to give her raspberries on her neck. Gasping laughter as she tried to get away from me. I’d let up for a second so she could catch her breath, but she would immediately do something to provoke me. No parent can resist the laughter of their child when it is being tickled. Soon we were both laughing like idiots.

Eventually she was laying on her back with two pillows surrounding her, me with my head on one of the pillows. She stared up at the ceiling fan, eyelids slowly drooping. Finally, they fell shut, her mouth slid open, and her breathing deepened. 15 minutes later, I woke up and carried her into her crib where she finally napped. That, my friends, is a great way to spend a morning with your daughter.

During one of the gaps between attempted naps in the afternoon, I stood in our entryway while she peered down at me from the bannisters outside our upstairs bedroom. She began dropping her smallest stuffed animals at me, which I immediately threw back to her. This back-and-forth went on for about ten minutes until she disappeared. I heard her making a strange noise; not noises of distress but as if she was trying to keep something secret. I crept up the stairs softly, carefully stretched over the gate at the top of the stairs, and tip-toed into her room. I couldn’t see her, but she was still make the same periodic noises, now with more urgency. Last week, she had been disappearing into the corner behind her crib where she would wait until we said, “Where’s M.?” before leaping out and laughing. I headed for this corner. But rather than peeking around the edge, or announcing my presence, I stretched my body across the crib and looked over the top into the space between it and the wall. She was pressed against the crib frame, leaning forward, peering around the corner, waiting for me to appear. I stifled my laughter and after hearing her anticipatory squeals getting the better of her, finally said the magic words: “Where’s M.?” She jumped, looked up, and shrieked with delight all at once. Another fantastic moment with the girl. Makes up for the very nasty diaper I had to change earlier in the day.

I haven’t given a detailed update of M.’s doings in several weeks. Part of that is because we had our first extended rough period with her a few weeks back. In fact, the Saturday before Labor Day was by far the worst day I’ve ever had alone with her. Nothing seemed to please her during that stretch. Not Motrin, not food, not naps, not playing. Happily, it seems as though she’s gotten through whatever her issues were and is back to being her normal funny self.

First, the picture I’ve included above is one of my absolute favorites taken to-date. I wish the color and focus were better but it’s still a great shot of her. One morning, she picked the paper up off the floor and just started walking around, talking like she was reading it. Eventually, she took it into my office and threw it down, then left, acting like she was totally disgusted with the state of world affairs. My little girl is going to be a cynical contrarian like her old man!

Walking appears to be her favorite thing to do. Some nights, she just walks around our kitchen island over-and-over. Other times, she’ll circle through our kitchen, dining room, entryway continuously. She babbles to herself while on these little walks, and smiles if you acknowledge her, but generally keeps on moving as if she’s got a schedule to keep. She seems to enjoy a modified version of hide-and-seek, too. We’ll be sitting in one room and she’ll take off on one of her little adventures. When she reappears, she smiles as big as she can, and says, “HI!” in her high-pitched voice. It’s as if we’ve been gone for days and she’s pleased to see us again.

Speaking of greetings, she pretty much guaranteed she’s going to private school one day last week when I picked her up after my class. She’s always happy to see me when I pick her up from my in-laws. But last Wednesday, as soon as I came in the door, she dashed towards me, threw her arms open, yelled “Hi Daddy!” and then gave me a hug. Top five moment of fatherhood, right there. It cracks me up when I’ve been sitting in my office or just been doing something in another part of the house and she’s gone maybe 10 minutes without seeing me and she says “Hi Daddy!” as soon as I reenter the room. It’s good to be missed.

The girl has always been in love with her reflection, but she’s taken it to a whole new level of late. First, she loves to push/pull the door from our living room to our sun room open and closed. Each time it swings by, when she sees her reflection in the glass, she says, “HIIIII!!!!” She’ll do this for 5-10 minutes. We also had some professional pics taken of her last month and have a framed one on my desk and another on the wall in the room off of our bedroom. When she sees either one, she points at it until she has our attention, then does the obligatory “HI!” yell. You’d think she’d get tired of looking at herself. I hope this doesn’t mean she’s going to demand to be in beauty pageants one day. She may have to get new parents if she wants to do that.

Another new word, or sound more properly, is her cow sound. “What’s a cow say, M.?” “MMMMMMMMMM.” She furrows her brow when she says it, so apparently she’s very serious about the cows.

Back to the walking, she can actually get going pretty fast sometimes. What makes it funny is she’s only successful with the fast walking 15-20% of the time. Sometimes she just gets going too fast and goes down in a heap. Other times she forgets the concept of cornering and ends up running into a door or wall. What’s funniest is when she gets all proud of herself and is too busy looking at you, showing off, and her head ends up going a different direction than her body. As long as there are no sharp edges near, that situation is usually good for some pretty spectacular crashes.

If you can’t tell from the pictures I’ve posted, her hair is totally out of control. She will definitely hate her parents for giving her the curly hair genes when she’s old enough to realize her hair is going to take a lot of work.

Food has been a struggle as well, although it’s gotten easier to feed her in the past week. Until about a month ago, she would eat whatever you offered her. Then, suddenly, she even refused her old favorites. She’s not back to her omnivorous state, but after some adjusting of her diet, she’s now eating a little better. Baby foods are no more. We offer her lots of cereal, toast, oatmeal, and whatever else we’re eating at breakfast. Lunch is often a piece of cheese and turkey, then hopefully some fruit. Dinner tends to be some kind of pasta with bits of our dinner added. Vegetables are hit-and-miss depending on the night. Unfortunately, she’s decided she loves chips. If she sees either of us eating some, she starts begging and whining for a bite of her own. Not a good habit to start at this age.

We got her some Quatro blocks last week, which are the Legos for little ones. She hasn’t quite grasped the concept of stacking so the blocks snap together, but she loves to throw them around, and most of all, dump the entire container over when it’s full. S. and I build large structures then our little Godzilla comes over and destroys them. The blocks seem to get more use by mom and dad than kid most days.

Overnight sleeping now tends to stretch until 6:30 or 7:00, which is the greatest thing ever. She’s even made it to 7:45 a couple times.

The best part about this age is she truly is becoming independent. Between walking, the ability to entertain herself, and knowing when to yell when she’s in trouble, you can confidently leave the room to do other things. One night over the weekend I had to run upstairs to get some more diapers. She had a Baby Einstein DVD playing and was arranging her toys. I knew I had plenty of time to go open a box, stock the diaper basket in her room, and then grab some to bring downstairs. A few weeks ago, she would have screamed as soon as I left the room. Six months ago, I would have had to put her on the floor and surround her with couch cushions so she couldn’t roll herself into trouble. We can turn her loose while we’re making dinner, reading, or doing other normal activities. It’s great that developing her freedom in turn helps us rediscover our freedom.

That’s what our little girl us up to at 14 months of age. More-and-more like a little person every day.

As if there was any doubt about M’s paternity, over the weekend she demonstrated a new trick that sealed it. For several weeks, she’s been able to turn the portable stereo we keep in our three season room on-and-off, using either the remote or the main power switch. We ended up having to take the batteries out of the remote, because she also discovered the Volume Up button. We’d be in another room, hear the stereo come on, then quickly crank all the way up, followed by screaming. I’d run in and see her sitting in front of the stereo, in tears, still pointing the remote at it with the Volume Up button depressed.

Several times over the weekend, though, I found her sitting in front of the stereo, rocking back-and-forth to the music, smiling. She’s already turning into a music fan! I remember playing with my parents’ record player when I was little, listening to Sesame Street, Really Rosie, and Winnie the Pooh albums for as long as they would let me. M. is one up on her old man, though. She was listening to current acts like Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie along with older music from artists like Mellencamp, Fleetwood Mac, and the Beatles. Kid has some taste.