a good day to be a baby

We do own a television set; we just never turn it on. We rarely even use the room it lives in, because during the winter it's just too cold down there, and then that space becomes a vortex, sucking in laundry, receipts, stuff that we intend to donate when we get around to it, more laundry, and garden gnomes.

When it's hot enough outside to melt your eyeballs, that space is nearly warm enough to not cause frostbite. So it would make sense that we'd clean it up and USE it during the summer, and we would, if we didn't have a baby to focus on and if all of the really important stuff in our house -- the kitchen, the puppies, the laptop -- didn't live on ground-level.

So for the past week or so, mostly because we need clean clothes and only partially because my dad & stepmother planned a visit for today, Jacqui and I have been spending time down there washing and drying and folding (and flinging, if you're Jacqui) clothes, and stacking storage bins (of clothes I haven't quite decided to give away yet) and boxes and bags (of clothes I will give away as soon as I get around to it, unless I decide I really might need to keep them, which is why they are still vagrantly bumping up against each other in my basement) into room-height replicas of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Walking around in there is very exciting.

This morning we rediscovered the television just after I reintroduced Jacqui to her wonderful slightly-bigger-than-Jacqui-sized wooden rocking chair, which was a gift to her from my dad. And I did what has never been done in her tiny life: I turned on the television, and I found Elmo.

She squealed. She rocked in her chair, drinking milk and watching Elmo, for fifteen minutes. Today he was focused on feet; by the end of his time-slot, one baby-hand was tight around the sippy cup while her other hand hung onto her foot. He only scared her once, when he got very excited and talked very fast in his Elmo voice -- and NONE of us enjoy that.

Later, after I'd read There's a Wocket in my Pocket for the 18th time, we decided to go outside and play. She played on the deck with me for over an hour -- there are a couple of pictures up at moblog.co.uk showing her good time. Her daddy came home while we were out there, and he & she played while I ran the bath.

Because oh yes, she NEEDED a bath. Today was not only her first Elmo experience, but also it was the first time I could say to her, "You are filthy!" It felt great.

Bath, then food (macaroni and cheese -- this is how much I love her), and while she was chewing her noodles her head started to teeter a bit, while her eyes rolled up into her head, while I kept feeding her just-one-more-bite(s) of noodles ... and then I picked her up and she was out.

She laid on the floor asleep for over an hour. She woke up shortly before her grandpa arrived, and then we went out to dinner. She ate more noodles. And then? Then ... she had another first: she ate CAKE. Lynn, my dad's wife, makes wedding cakes -- and she's GOOD. She brought a couple of leftover tiny cakes she'd made for a function that happened yesterday, and Jacqui fell in love.

After the sugar-rush had worn off a bit, we left for home. She fell asleep in the car, Geoff took her upstairs, and still she snoozes.

I wonder what exciting thing will happen tomorrow. :)