In Her Crib, Napping.

At the very beginning, for the first two or three months, she would eat and scream and eat and scream, sometimes taking a break to nap -- but not often, and she wasn't sleeping through the night. Then she started sleeping through the night. That lasted until she was seven or eight months old -- but she never napped.

Recently, around noon or noon-thirty, she'll look at me with those sleepy eyes, and I'll think, "Okay, self, here comes the fight." And I'll pick her up, and she will exclaim vociferously that she is most definitely NOT TIRED, and we'll walk in circles around the living room and kitchen, and ten minutes later she'll be asleep. (Then comes the "can I get her into her crib without her screaming" challenge.)

A few minutes ago I changed her wet diaper and then I picked her up. She flung her arms around my neck (I LOVE THAT!), and ... she was asleep! Just like that! And now she's In Her Crib, Napping.

If this is what "they grow up too quickly" means, I'll take it. (But only this.)

some plastic bowls have suction cups on the bottom

... but those are just to get your hopes up.

She's one year and one month old, and she's amazing. She walks now, albeit tentatively; she eats the same food I eat; she pets the dogs (and feeds them her Cheerios); she is a little person, just waiting to have the vocabulary to tell me off when I won't let her press the keys on my laptop. She wants to be big: she won't eat mushy food -- even applesauce; she eats better when I give her a metal spoon instead of the plastic baby spoons we've used since she first ate bananas -- and speaking of bananas, she eats one every day. I'll stand at the counter slicing round banana-circles, she'll pop one into her mouth and then grab my hands to go for a walk, and we'll be halfway across the kitchen floor when she realizes it's time for another slice: gotta go back! Repeat til the banana skin is a floppy castaway, and then it's time to do laps around the livingroom with her push-toy. She decided two days ago that it IS a handy thing to have about. There's so much more, but the child wears me out like a disposable diaper, and if that image isn't enough to end on, I don't know what is.

and she walks!

As Jacqui learned to keep herself upright over the past month or so, she'd grip your fingers so tightly that the ends would turn cold and blue within seconds. Desperately you'd squeeeeeze your finger out of her vice-like grasp, only to have her immediately replace it with a fresh one. She'd drag you in laps around the ground-floor of the house: through the kitchen, through the dining room, through the living room, back through the kitchen. Nothing would sway her from her course -- she was the Little Engine that Could, and you were simultaneously cargo and support.

Two days ago, all that changed. Now she will hold on for a few steps, let go, and walk a few steps to take your hands again. Now her hand in yours is more companionable, less like a tourniquet. And yesterday, she walked straight out into the middle of the room with no apparent destination; she traveled about five feet before she had to take an abrupt seat on the carpet.

For her birthday we bought her a dual-purpose ride-on or push popcorn-popper toy that she refused to walk behind. She'll ride on it if you push, but fair warning: if you start pushing her around on it, she'll be Very Upset when you stop. Maybe tomorrow I'll pull it back out into her path, and see if her opinion of pushing it has changed.

Banana Baby!

Jacqui just asked me for a banana.

She handed me her book of "Mes Premiers Mots" (first words, in French). She wouldn't let me turn past the second page, so I kept pointing and repeating "pomme! banane!" (apple! banana!) She got so excited! She bounced! And then she said "nanananana?" And I said, "Are you really asking me for a banana?" And she didn't say no, so I got her a banana, and at this very moment I'm cutting it into tiny bites for her and she's eating it.

Wheeeeeeee!!!!

lovely weather we're having

Today's highs were in the low 70's, no clouds were to be seen, and Jacqui and I spent the perfect afternoon meandering through downtown Annapolis with my mom.

We found a fabulous dandelion-colored jacquard tablecloth in April Cornell (and an outfit for a baby), we dined on the deck at Phillip's (I had the portabello mushroom appetiser, which allowed me to save room for the apple dumpling; Jacqui enjoyed a jar of spaghetti-and-cheese, bread, whole milk that she drank through a straw, and a bite or two or three of vanilla ice cream), we sat in front of the used bookstore while Jacqui napped for an hour or so in her stroller, and then she and I spent too long hanging out at my mom's house. Jacqui decided she'd had enough about 15 minutes before we were ready to leave ... which delayed our departure by about two hours.

She slept in the car though, and when we pulled into the driveway at 11pm Geoff came out to collect her. She fell right back asleep as soon as she hit her mattress ... and I'm about to decide she's down for the night. This will guarantee that she'll wake up screaming exactly 35 minutes after I'm actually asleep.

button button

I posted recently about my new moblog. Now there's a handy-dandy button over at the bottom of the left-hand column on this page which will take you there directly. It looks like this:
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Yesterday was cold, grey, blustery ... the perfect sort of day to go to Ikea for dining room chairs and spoons. My mom came over, we all piled into her SUV, and then we spent four hours wandering around the Kingdom of Pine.

Jacqui spent most of that time riding around in the cart. When we got downstairs to the self-serve areas though, we decided to let her walk around a bit. She was SO EXCITED. She held onto Geoff's hands for a while, and then she had one of us on either side, and she kept looking around with this "Do you see what a Big Girl I am?" expression. It was just priceless. :)

the rundown

We haven't had a real update since Jacqui's birthday on 17 March. There's been no time to type; too much has been going on in this house.

First, we had a teaparty/birthday party for her on 19 March -- the Saturday following her birthday. About 30 of her honorary aunts/uncles/fairygodparents attended, drank tea, ate cake, and applauded her many accomplishments. These included, for that day: walking with assistance, refusing to eat cake, and pummelling the other children. (Her doctor says that reaction to other children in her space was entirely normal and to be expected.) The weather was lovely and folks spread out onto our back deck, which was nice.

The day before her party, I cleaned and baked (banana bread, devilsfood cake, yellow cake) and ran to the Heidelberg Bakery for her official birthday cake. Jacqui spent the afternoon in Tyson's Corner with her daddy, picking out tea (the peach oolong was a big hit, but my favorite was the jasmine phoenix dragon pearls).

Then the day after her party, Jacqui decided to put something very hard, edged, and unidentified from near the front door into her gaping maw and swallow it. I know what it felt like because I tried without success to pull it out of her mouth while she was choking on it. It went down, and on Tuesday (March 22) after her one-year checkup, she received her first chest x-ray to make sure nothing was caught in her esophagus. (Nothing was.) Since then, she hasn't had any issues, but we also haven't found whatever-it-was on the other end (ahem). I'm certain that it was actually a piece of rubber from the bottom of our screen door ... and from previous experience with a certain DOG who loves to swallow indigestible items, we know that rubber is unlikely to survive stomach acid. So given everything, we've stopped examining her output. It was a very exciting few days, though.

The next Saturday was 26 March, and Jacqui went with her daddy to Potomac Mills (an outlet mall) while I hosted a baby shower for a friend. Everyone had a good time in both places, and for the first time in months, Jacqui slept ALL NIGHT afterward. And at the risk of jinxing it, she's slept at least 7 hours per night since!

On Easter Sunday, her Grandpa, Grandma Lynn, and her great-grandmother (my Mom-mom) came over to see her. Grandpa brought a rocking chair he'd restored for her, and she had the BEST TIME rocking in it! It's still too big, but that didn't stop her! We caught it on video, and one day I'll put it online.

Today, Saturday, April 2, she and I drove over to my grandmother's house to visit with her, my aunt Marie, my cousin Cindy and her family. Jacqui didn't beat anyone up.

Drama Child.