I’m not sure if this counts
Nov 16, 2004 Parenting
My friend B was trying to get Madison to take a couple of steps on Saturday. Madison is adept at cruising and she’s started letting go and standing long enough for us to go, “Oh my gosh! She’s standing! Quick! Come see!”
Well, Madison wasn’t interested in walking on Saturday but today I stood her up then let go of her hands then put my arms back out and said, “Come here, Madison!” And her little face lit up and she took two steps before dropping to all fours. I didn’t believe it the first time — I figured it could have been a controlled stagger/fall — so I stood her back up and she did it again. I think this counts for the baby book but am not sure since I coached her pretty strongly.
She was exactly 7.5 months as of yesterday. So B, does this count?
And here’s a picture of the two kids after Noah has placed a collander on her head for a hat. I think she pulls it off nicely.
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I am loathe to leave the basement
Nov 15, 2004 Parenting
See, when I leave this little room — the one with the space heater and this handy computer — my real life begins again. And my real life is currently one full of snot and tears. Sadly, Madison is sick. I thought she was sick before when she had the sniffles but now she is really and truly mired in her first major cold; she’s blowing snot bubbles and she’s blowing ‘em on me.
I have my own immunity problems. This weekend I was down and out with some kind of yuck-o thing that had all my joints aching and so I was hoping to get a little bit of extra sleep but extra sleep is just not compatible with a sick baby. Even when Brett offers to get up with her, this isn’t the treat it first appears.
Example of Brett so-called getting up with the baby.
(Baby beings to snuffle in a precursor of wakefulness. I lie still in hopes she’ll settle back down. Baby begins to root then to sputter, then cough, then whine.)
Me in a groggy whisper: Brett, Brett, honey. The baby’s hungry.
Brett: grunt.
(Baby — still whining — tries to latch onto my elbow)
Me: Honey? You said you’d get the bottle. Brett, the baby’s hungry.
Brett: grunt.
(Baby, finding no comfort at my elbow, begins a desperate keening noise)
Me: Brett! BRETT! Wake up! You said you’d feed the baby! Oh forget it! (Reaches over to mix bottle quickly, baby is now wailing)
Brett: Wha-? Huh? Oh honey (seeing baby is now being fed in the crook of my arm) Why didn’t you wake me up?
True story. Over and over again. And if he does wake up, he stumbles around so much or has to ask me inane questions (”Where’s the bottle? Oh, here it is.”) that it’s really easier for me to do it. I love this man but he is useless as a night-time parent. Unless they need rocking. I need to give him his proper due and say that he’s a fabulous rocker of fussy babies in the middle of the night and that’s a valuable skill for which I am very grateful. But run-of-the-mill caretaking? He’s not so good at that.
Madison is a much better sleeper than Noah was and only wakes once a night most nights but this cold is frustrating and she’s also cutting not one but two teeth. I think she was up four or five times the past few nights. (As an aside, Noah was always up four or five nights for the first three years of his life and now I don’t know how I survived that. Then again, it was only him and I didn’t have a work-at-home job so I guess that’s it.)
I got dressed this morning and then sometime after lunch, I realized we were going to need to skip Noah’s swim lessons and besides I already had snot and tears down the front of my shirt so I just put my pajamas back on. That was a bit of a let-down. Madison did finally take a nap — 3 hours — but could only sleep on my chest since that let her breathe a bit better. I wasted those three hours watching really bad daytime television (remember, we don’t have cable).
And now I’m grouchy and hiding out here in the basement but feeling kinda guilty about it.
Tomorrow — hopefully — will be a better and less snot-infused day. Poor Madison.
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Music Monday: Songs Sung to Children
Nov 14, 2004 Music
I’m posting this on Sunday, which is likely how this is going to have to work for me.
OK, here’s the deal. Every Monday (Sunday) I’m going to post three showtune-ish songs for the enjoyment of my readers. Of course, songs placed here are meant to encourage you to buy the artist’s recording and if you are the copyright holder of the song and do not want it distributed in this way, please let me know ASAP and I’ll remove it.
Speaking of removing files, each Monday (Sunday) when I upload new ones, I’ll delete the old ones. Also, for some reason I don’t understand, these files are binhexed so you’ll need to unpack them. This is annoying because I’d rather they just open nicely in quicktime. If someone can help me figure out why .mac is zipping them up and how to get them unzipped on the site so folks can open them right away with quicktime, I’d be awfully grateful.
I’m using themes because it’ll help me organize my collection and figure out what to share. My focus is going to be showtunes but not necessarily as they are sung in the show. I’ll try to give background on the show as well as the singer and why I’m sharing that particular version (if there is more than one readily available).
Here it goes. The theme for this week is “Songs Sung to Children.” Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: clomid, Infertility, Music, showtunes, Sondheim
more thoughts on naming
Nov 13, 2004 Parenting
Here’s my advice: if everyone likes your baby name, don’t use it. That is if having a unique baby name is important to you. See, here everyone is saying that they love Violet, they love flower names and you know what that tells me? Pretty soon kindergartens across American will be literal gardens of little girls.
When we were thinking of names for Noah, we should have known when every single person (besides my father who thought we should name him Vic) said it was a great name. That was the best indicator we could have had that Noah would go through life with the first initial of his last name tacked on at every roll call.
Now my sister, she named her son Flaviano. You can imagine the reactions that got. (We call him Frankie.) Then when she said she was naming her daughter Lucia, half the people she told — specifically the non-Italian half — just looked puzzled. But that was good because here’s the other truth I have to give you about baby names: once the baby’s here, people tend to like the names they didn’t like before.
Flaviano? We were horrifed! Frankie? Barely better! But he is the cutest little meatball of a Frankie you ever did see and now I love that name. (I always liked Lucia so that one wasn’t a hard sell for me.)
Interestingly, in my oddball friendship community, there are no Madisons because my friends eschew trends. Or at least they try to. (Emma’s mother and I often lament the fact that we didn’t realize that Noah and Emma were on the way up when we hit on ‘em for our kids’ names.) But then within this same small crunchy-granola group, where everyone goes to the same co-op, knows the same midwives, and keeps track of the gossip at the two or three acceptable preschools, we have three children named Indigo. And one named Azure.
This demonstrates the truth of my “well received predicts popularity” theory. While the rest of the world may frown on naming a child for a particular shade of blue, among my people this rates applause. Same goes for Atticus. Although Atticus isn’t popular in my immediate circle, we all know various children named Atticus who are growing up on peace bumperstickers and soy.
(I wouldn’t be surprised to meet a child named after grains like Millet or Quinoa at the playground where Noah takes his homeschool classes, but my daughter may be the only Madison sitting in those baby swings.)
To sum up, if originality is important to you — and I’m not saying it should be — go for the name you love that gets the most blank stares or outright grimaces.
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Tags: Erica, homeschool, Madison, Noah, preschool
Inspired by Meagan
Nov 12, 2004 Read/heard/seen
Meagan is also a showtunes addict and we’ve been writing back and forth about it. I think I’m going to start posting three showtunes over the weekend so that Monday will be Music Mondays. I figure if I give myself that much time to do it, it won’t be a hardship. In fact, it’ll be fun!
And also, Brooklyn Mama? Elaine Stritch? If Mart is willing, I would totally take you up on that!!! If you get more info, let me know and then I’ll talk to him and see if he’s willing to host us!