Ode to Aunt Jen

Maggie has a woman crush and it is Aunt Jen. She loses her mind when she sees her and when Aunt Jen holds her she just stares at her with a lovingly gaze (we swear she's thinking "you're so beautiful Aunt Jen...take me home with you..."). Last weekend when I hadn't seen Maggie for a whole day she would not come to me since Aunt Jen was holding her. I'm not jealous...do I sound jealous?

It's adorable and as she grows up I hope she knows she can always talk to Aunt Jen about anything she thinks she can't talk to Mom and Dad about. I think kids need that person they feel safe talking to and parents need that person to know that if anything were going on of concern they would tell them but otherwise their child has someone to confide in. So be ready Aunt Jen because she's going to be a handful, I can already tell. She is already strong willed so I can imagine it only gets worse from here.

Examples...

Maggie is definitely following the classic baby stages. "They" say 1 years olds typically have trouble going to sleep because they realize how exciting their world is and don't want to miss any of it. Just recently Maggie has been learning how to work the system and when we sit down to read books before bed, she never wants them to end. Before you get to the end of one, you have to read a different one, then after a few pages of the different one, she wants you to go back to the first one, and, oh wait, I see a book on the floor, can you start that one? But then I want you to read a page of the first one, no the second one, no...AAAHHH!!! It's exhausting! Then when you put her into bed, the sweet little girl that would just lay her head on her hand, slip her binky into her mouth and just drift off to sleep now screams blood curdling screams even though she's exhausted. So we've had to let her cry it out again...it's only for 10 minutes and then she's fast asleep but heart wrenching nonetheless.

If she can't have something she belts out this scream like you just stabbed her. We clearly have not truly baby-proofed our house because we hear this scream quite a bit these days. Why is the Bose ipod docking station so fascinating to her? I can't even play music with her in the room because she inevitably gravitates to the Bose which leads to me pointing her in a different direction which leads to aforementioned scream. Fun stuff. Believe me Maggie, if I could give you everything you wanted I would, but you are not Veruca Salt and you never will be.

She is ADD when it comes to eating these days and if she sees a Cheerio within 20 feet of her forget it...that is all she wants. Unfortunately for me, we eat breakfast together in the morning and since I have to have my Cheerio's we have a constant battle of wills. So I have to pretend like I'm giving her what is in my bowl when I'm really sneaking her oatmeal on the spoon when she's not looking.

The good news is she is more and more fun each day. We take the good with the bad and enjoy the fact that we have a little girl who knows what she wants and will tell you just that.

A couple of cute updates...

I dropped her off at daycare the other day and she was shaking her hips and dancing to the music they were playing. I've never seen her dance and it could not have been cuter.

She says Mom...but she sounds like Cartman from South Park when she does because the little time I see her during the week it's all about maintenance...clean your ears, clean your nose, cut your nails, take a bath...all I hear is MAAAOOOM!!

That's ok, at least she knows who Mom is.

She's no Aunt Jen.

Once Bitten

Erik picks Maggie up at daycare today and can hear her screaming from down the hall. He enters the crime scene and sees a very guilty looking Alexander with Maggie next to him crying staring at her hand. Yes, Alexander, the kid who I can't stand because every morning when I drop Maggie off he is screaming his head off until someone picks him up and Maggie stares at like "you are such a baby", has bitten my little girl. She has the marks to prove it. An incident report is pending... I expect a full chalk outline and yellow tape when I get there in the morning.

I know there will be many bumps and bruises along the way, but when it's because of another evil child my full defense mechanism comes into play and I want to call Alexander's mother, pretend I'm the daycare director and tell her Alexander is no longer welcome there. A little passive-aggressive huh? Now, the call would go differently if I had a few mojitos in me (if you read Erik's blog the other day you would get this). Anyway, Maggie is fine and will probably kick Alexander's ass tomorrow. She's a tough cookie.

Maybe it was the stairs incident she and I had the other day that toughened her up. For some reason I decide to wear my highest heels to work AND put them on upstairs which would require me to walk down two flights of stairs with Maggie in my arms. Not my brightest moment. My heel gets caught on the 5th step from the bottom and before I know it she and I are on a magic carpet ride to the bottom. Except somehow I am sliding down on my knees and not dropping her. We get to the bottom and I am shaking from the shock of it all, Maggie stays quiet for about 3 seconds, then starts laughing. Thank God she can't say "do again" yet is all I could think. I guess this is one of those unexplained phenomenons where a mother will do whatever she can to avoid hurting her child. If I had anything else in my arms it would have gone flying...except of course maybe a bowl of ice cream.

No more doom and gloom...I have been amazed over the past week how she is becoming more and more of a kid each day and am having so much fun with her. Yesterday as we were (safely) walking down the stairs I asked her "how big?" and forgot that she actually knows how to respond now so she has her arms spread wide smiling and when I didn't pay full attention she backs up as far as she can in my arms, stares at me with a big smile and opens them even bigger. SO BIG!

Girl...you'll be a toddler soon...

Erik and I treated ourselves to an early anniversary gift and stayed in DC Saturday night. Since this blog is all Maggie all the time you can check out Erik's blog (R-RATED for language and offensive humor! But don't worry, he equally offends) for how it went. In summary, Saturday was quite possibly my best day ever...except for the fact that Maggie was not with us.

Maggie stayed with Gramma and Pap and I swear overnight she became a toddler. Apparently she was trying out her stand up routine on the family (Aunt Jen and Uncle Bruce also visited for dinner) and was standing on the ledge of her walker and throwing her arms up like an Olympic gymnast after her dismount waiting for everyone to cheer for her.

As soon as we brought her home she tried it out on us and, of course, we cheered. But now I'm wondering if she hasn't been doing this for weeks and we just haven't noticed. She likes to walk behind the rocking chair and play on her walker (not IN her walker which is the reason why we bought the thing...no she just likes to walk around it) so we never really see what she's doing but I have seen her stand on the ledge so maybe she's been performing her routine all along hearing fake applause in her head. No wonder she likes Gramma's house so much.

And now if you say "how big" she does "SO big!". We've done this with her a few times but didn't know she was even paying attention. Now she gets very excited to raise her arms as wide as she can and smiles SO big!!

AND...it seems there may be a hint of a tooth. I'm taking Erik's word for it as she was not interested in showing me this afternoon but I think maybe my little baby just might have cut her first tooth.

Clap on...clap off...

Maggie claps now! She discovered this new skill while laying on her changing table, of course unhappy that I was changing her which seems to be status quo these days. But all of a sudden she realized that she could make a tiny little noise if she put her little hands together.

And now all is right with the changing table. I just have to start singing "if you're happy and you know it..." and she claps her hands. Even if she's upset and not really in the mood she feels obligated to appease you with at least an attempt, although somewhat feeble at times, of clapping. If that's what makes the whole changing procedure a little easier it's a small price I have to pay. I will happily be on continuous "if you're happy and you know it..." loop.

And for her next act...

She's pulling herself up! I'm not sure what the average age is that kids normally do this but I'm pretty sure it's before 11 months. Maggie is definitely on her own time schedule. She is in no hurry to do anything before she is ready, but when she's ready she will practice her little heart out until she masters it. This gives us trait #3 that Maggie has inherited from me - non-competitive. She could care less what the other kids are doing, she'll get there when she's good and ready. By the way, the other 2 traits if you are counting are her eye shape and her legs (sorry girl).

Back to the pulling up. Erik recently went to check on her in her crib to find her kneeling there like a little prisoner behind the slats. I recently read that it is not a good idea to have bumpers in babies' cribs when they can pull themselves up (I know there is an argument against having them at all, but they make the crib look so cute!) so we removed them last week. Now we have to keep a minimum of 4 binkies in the crib at all times as inevitably 3 will end up on the floor in her attempt to free them. And she can't just drop them out the front or the side, she has to drop them in the very back so you have to crawl all the way underneath the crib to retrieve them. All the while, little miss patience is screaming at you like she is going through binky withdrawal.

Back to the pulling up (again). I have yet to witness the kneeling in the crib act but have seen her get from a sitting position to standing on her own and it's pretty exciting if I do say so myself.

It's the little things these days that make me happy.

Happy April Fools by the way. Erik got me this morning with the old flat tire trick and I got him back with the old Amy got in a fight with random person and now we have to go somewhere else (not that far fetched). I had him convinced we had to find another daycare provider since I got in a fight with the director of ours. Erik - 1, Amy - 1. If this were a hockey game we'd each have gotten one point. Mike, this was for you just in case you accidentally end up on my blog again.

Rush (don't get too excited Erik, it's not what you think)

I have a problem and I'm sure it's not unlike many parents. As much as I enjoy the stage Maggie is in, I can't help but be anxious for the next stage to begin only to wonder what I was in such a hurry for.

It started with wanting her to be in a "big girl carseat". I justified in my mind how much easier it would be walking into daycare just carrying her and not the big heavy infant seat. How it would be nice to actually hold her rather than a plastic handle that was the cause of my calloused hand. How since she was a big girl (I mentioned she's averaged 95%ile most of her young life?) she should be in a big girl seat.

So we moved her into the carseat at the beginning of winter. We didn't think about the fact that in her infant carseat we could put her warm little body in the warm little seat, put blankets around her and plop the seat in the carrier. We didn't think about the fact that since she couldn't stand on her own, walking into daycare with her in one hand, bottles in the other and having to put the lovely blue booties on over my shoes all at the same time was next to impossible. And God forbid I put her down on the floor for a second while I do this...mental breakdown! And we also didn't think about the size of the backseat of my car in comparison to the size of the carseat and the unbelievable blind spot that size issue creates.

Maybe we rushed that one a little...

Yesterday we put Maggie in the "big girl bathtub". I recently read that we have been doing her baths all wrong. The purpose of the small infant/toddler tub is to avoid having to crouch down over the tub, the tub can be placed on a table instead and your back loves you for it. I really don't understand this concept because Maggie is not unlike every other kid in water...she splashes...constantly. And the more she realizes that hitting the water creates a splash the more she splashes! So wouldn't that create a mess on the table, floor, etc? Anyway, I'm sure other parents do this with great success it just wasn't for us.

So, of course after I read what "they" say to do I had to get rid of the little bathtub and put her in the big girl bath. I didn't really consider what all of this new found freedom would cause...her toys are everywhere now and she gets MAD when she can't reach them so she tries to crawl to them (yes, Maggie is crawling*...the stubborn little girl who will not crawl on the floor crawls in the bath). As you can imagine, this is not very safe. And now that she can pull herself up, she's pulling herself up on the side of the tub, the soap dish, the faucet, anything she can get her hands on. I have to admit, her little naked butt sticking out of the water is pretty damn cute but, again, not very safe. And for some reason now she hates getting her hair washed. She used to be a champion bather...she played and played while I did my thing never bothering her at all. Now she just seems aware of everything that is going on and she does not like it!

After 10 minutes of this I am soaking wet and exhausted and Maggie is not too happy because the water is now cold, she is cold, I am cold...and then we get to start the fun process of getting her ready for bed. See February 26th post for a a little background on how much she loves her changing table these days. Let's just say there is a lot of crying and screaming "ma-ma" during this process.

So what's next? Of course I will not change...I'm already rushing the walking, I'm sure I will rush getting rid of the changing table to change her on the floor or something like that. Stay tuned...

* One more note about the crawling...little miss "too cool to crawl"...guess what I caught her doing at daycare today? Crawling with a smile on her face!

A year of firsts

This year is flying by. This past Easter was officially Maggie's last first holiday. No more "Baby's 1st enter random holiday" bibs, ornaments, captions under pictures...you get my point.

So as I sit here trying to think of 1st birthday party ideas I am reflecting on every milestone this year has given us. I won't bore you with them (if you have been an avid reader you already know...if not, scroll down!) just suffice it to say I am feeling very lucky right now.

Now for the one paragraph catch up on what she has been doing the past few weeks:

She waves (real waves, not the backwards ones), she kisses (more like open mouth mauls you but she means well), she drops toys just so she can pick them up (over and over and over), she eats whatever you give her (who would have thought she'd jones for risotto?), she laughs like a kid (you know, where you can't catch your breath) and she is so on the verge of walking she can taste it.

I have a feeling my next post might start something like "remind me why I wanted her to walk?" but for now I cannot wait to see her take her first steps...and just in time to make this year complete. See...she looks ready, doesn't she?

Fine line

Generally I am very happy with our daycare provider and as much as I hate the fact that they really spend more time with Maggie than I do, I like what it is doing for her. She plays well independently, she does not cling to me when a friend or relative that she doesn't see often wants to hold her and she's just a happy kid. But I'm starting to wonder if we don't have a little "Hand that Rocks the Cradle" action going on with one of the daycare workers.

There's that fine line of assuring parents that you are taking good care of their child while they are away and being a little obsessed with your child. And no, I'm not talking about the former daycare worker who had pictures of Maggie on her phone. In my opinion, that was sweet and since her general demeanor about kids was dislike I'm not sure it would have ever turned into an obsession. Surprisingly, she is no longer there...wonder why? Could it be the kid-hatred thing?

I digress...

Ever since Maggie moved into the Infant II room, there is one teacher who feels obliged to attack you as soon as you get in the door with how well Maggie is doing ("she's number 1 girl!!") and how much fun they have (her: "we hold them and cuddle every chance we get"; me: "too bad Maggie doesn't like to cuddle unless she's tired"; her: "oh no, Maggie loves to cuddle"; me: (in my head) "shut up b.." did I say that out loud?).

So this has happened a few times and I have pretty much ignored it, just chalking it up to her wanting to make sure we are comfortable with where Maggie spends 8 hours a day. But the other day when I showed up Maggie was sleeping. I said I would wake her up after I gathered up her stuff. So I walk over to her crib after getting everything ready to go and who's waking up Maggie but HER! What is THAT all about? And the time before that she took Maggie from me as we were leaving so she could kiss her goodbye. I could understand this if Maggie wanted to go to her but she was clinging to me (oh yeah, I mentioned earlier that she doesn't cling, but it's better for the affect in this part of the story).

I need to be more like Erik...he is so no-nonsense. He picks her up, barely says a word to anyone and leaves. This is the reason why when we are sitting in an airport waiting for a flight, the random stranger next to us chooses ME to talk to and not HIM. This is why at parties (like we go to those anymore) I am the one who is stuck in a corner talking to the most boring person alive while he is laughing in the distance. And this is also why I am bothered by mundane stuff like this enough to write a blog about it and he doesn't give it a second thought.