TOS: She Crawls!

Yes, on the evening of Friday December 23, during her naked time before her bath (we try to give her 10-20 minutes of "fresh air" every night to help avoid rashes) at my parents' place, the munchkin crawled. I mean, full out, hand over hand over hand, motored across the floor (to an excited grandfather and more importantly an empty water bottle to mouth. As I anticipated, she did give us an early Christmas gift.

Her big gift from Santa was a sled. It's a red plastic one (the "nicer" traditional wooden ones were all stapled together and felt like they would fall apart with her in tow) with a sloped seat and two-point harness for some degree of safety. We have not taken it out yet, as the rain we got up here over the holiday has washed away most of the snow. From Mommy and I she received her first tea set (all plastic - baby friendly) and a velour leopard print track suit (chosen by me). She gave me a plaster mold of her hand that was turned into a tree ornament. I didn't cry, but I will admit to being somewhat overcome with emotion. She gave Mommy a keychain with a laser engraved photo of herself (the munchkin) and an inscription "I Love You Mommy".

Overall it was a great Christmas. As usual, we all received far more than we needed; Christmas is probably the most "over-done" holiday as far as gift giving goes. It gets to be a bit much by the end, but she enjoyed herself so it's all good.

Probably the highlight of Christmas Day itself, though, followed dinner. She was sitting on the floor with Mommy, playing. Then, she found the box of tissues (kleenex) and pulled out one. She brought it to her nose, then discarded it. She repeated this act several times, and as grandparents are apt to indulge, my mother insisted she be allowed to continue. Several minutes later there was a three minute clip on my digital camera, and two piles of tissue on the carpet (she used both hands). It was quite the hoot. We even made a 20 second clip and emailed it to MTM's parents who were spending the holidays up north at the cottage (with dial-up... hence the abbreviated clip).

In addition to the dramatic increase in mobility, she is also showing the beginnings of language development. Many things are vocalized as "Dada" (including me when I enter or leave a room). However, when you get right up to her and look her square on and say a word slowly (instructively) she will attempt to repeat it in a slight whisper. It's actually pretty cool to see how she is putting things together.

I'm really enjoying the time off (I've been off since December 23, and will not return to work until January 3). It was very busy there for a while, and I was feeling more than a little negligent in the parenting department. I mean, I understand that people have to work and that it is necessary to go to work to earn money, and that the fact that I work allows MTM to stay home with the munchkin. Nonetheless, I feel like I don't spend enough time with her. Don't get me wrong; I have the great fortune to have a job with flex-time and working from home options. My typical workday is 6:30am to 3pm, which means I leave the house while my girls are asleep and am home between 3:30pm and 4pm most days. That gives me up to four hours with the munchkin a day, which in comparison to other fathers (working parents) is pretty substantial. On top of that, once every 2-3 weeks I schedule a work from home day that affords me the luxury of working on the livingroom floor sprawled out next to the munchkin while she plays (thanks to batteries and WiFi). I just feel like I want to spend more time with her. Logically, I know it's an unrealistic endeavour, but it's how I feel. Oh well.

Hope everyone has a safe New Years. Play safe, be responsible, take care.

TOS: "Happy Holidays"

Honestly, I have been intending to make another entry sooner, but as everyone knows, the holidays are filled with time consuming events like parties, shopping and pre-shutdown engineering maintenance (OK, so maybe not everyone knows about the last one.)

First, I have a comment about the Santa photo taken at the local mall. The Santa there was pretty good (he looked the part and seemed to be reasonably tolerant of the little ones). My issue is with the photographer (a teenage girl). The look the munchkin is giving the camera is "OK, wait a minute… Mommy (and Daddy) – why are you leaving me with this strange man?" About two seconds following this look, I faked a sneeze (never fails to get a laugh) and she smiles. The photographer tells me it’s too late – she already took the photo. Frustrating.

So anyways, before I forget by going into our events of the last month, everyone have a safe and happy holiday season. (To digress for a moment, why is it politically correct to wish someone a Happy Chanukah or Kwanza, but an insult to say Merry Christmas? When did being the more common religion in an area (where I am there are more Christians than other faiths) mean that your celebration was somehow inappropriate or offensive? Call me what you will, but equality means being equal, not evening up for years of oppression or omission or ignorance. If society is to become truly egalitarian, we need to wipe the slate clean; otherwise the previously dominant and oblivious will be at a disadvantage as they perform penance for their sins against humanity. OK, that was too heavy. Merry Christmas everyone!

So the munchkin is all ready for her first Christmas. She has her Mommy’s present purchased and wrapped (I can’t tell you what it is though, since there is a chance Mommy could be reading this blog before Christmas). She has already opened some presents, and we have learned that wrapping paper, ribbon, and tissue are all far more appealing than the gifts they enclose. Oh well, one day she will appreciate the toys inside the extremely fun boxes!

She’s a LOT more mobile than she has been lately. As of today, she can get herself from lying flat on her back to a sitting position (via rolling to her tummy, getting up on all fours, and rocking back and forth for momentum before sitting on her bottom). We’re pretty excited about that. She still hasn’t really crawled (save one or two “steps” before slumping forward). However, she is very close and extremely motivated for motion. We suspect our Christmas morning present will be to chase her across the floor.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we got our family Christmas photos done at the local grocery store, and they chose one of the munchkin’s photos (where she is naked in a wreath of glass ball ornaments) for their advertising. There’s an 8x10 of her up on the front of the photo studio. Our little model! (So sue me for being a proud Daddy.)

Well, I think that’s all the big news for right now. Again, everyone be safe and have fun over the holiday season. Take care, and enjoy.

TOS: An Update...

In the middle of September I went to see U2 play for the Vertigo Tour (thanks to my sister). The show was incredible. For those who don't know me well, I have been a huge U2 fan since the mid 80's and have never seen them live before. I really enjoyed myself. The next morning (really) we left for our first family vacation to Vermont. We were going for my friend's wedding, and decided to make a week of it, getting to Stowe and the Trapp Family lodge as well. The munchkin was such a great traveller, and was a hit at the wedding in her silver party dress. We even had tea in the tea room at Trapp... and MTM breastfed the munchkin there too (much to some people's chagrin).

On that note, what is the deal with breastfeeding in the US? I mean, up here in Canada it's not exactly common but it's not as rare as it is down south (relatively speaking Vermont is down south for me). To give concrete examples, if I am at the local mall for more than an hour I am pretty much guaranteed to see someone nursing at a table in the food court or heading to a nursing room at Sears or something. In our week in Vermont, my wife was the only breastfeeder I saw. I don't know; I just found it odd. One woman even went up to MTM in a mall to encourage her... that was a nice gesture, but the fact that she felt the need to encourage her at all tells me something.

But I digress.

So, once we were back from Vermont, things were pretty normal (at least as normal as life can be with an infant). We started out a modified Ferber method after Thanksgiving (Canadian - early October). We started out letting her cry for one minute, then two, then three, and so on. (Ferber's ten minute intervals seemed unnecessarily cruel.) It was really hard, especially for MTM. (Being the non-lactating parent, I was somewhat accustomed to feeling helpless in my daughter's hour of need.) I even developed a small utility in MS Excel that let her schedule her "Mommy visits" and give her a countdown timer to the next one... apparently she would stare at the timer at 2am waiting for the "permission" to go in and reassure the munchkin. After about a week to ten days she was more or less going down without much fanfare. (We did have to take the pacifier away after the first night, as she was spitting it out throughout the night and waking without it. She never seemed to miss it much.) Oh, and just to be complete, we have heard Ferber's psuedo-recant of his method.

Since then, however, the munchkin has resumed waking throughout the night. Most recently, she has been up every hour to two hours. Typically she is waking and is unconsolable without nursing. We have concluded it is likely teething (although the syptoms - wailing, sobbing - are not present during waking hours) and are working with baby-orajel, chamilla, and patience to try and soothe her.

Hmm... she's into a lot more solids now. Her favourite (at least this week) is... meat! Well, turkey to be precise. If it were up to her she'd have meat and cookies (farley's biscuits) - she really is turning into Daddy's Little Girl. :)

Last weekend we had a surprise party for MTM's 30th birthday. I did most of the planning (getting the hall, preparing the menu, plans) months in advance and spent the better part of the final week getting all the stuff and hiding it in the trunk of my car. On Friday I took part of the day, went to the grocery store, and took over my sister's kitchen preparing food. With my sister's help on Saturday morning, the party went "live" at 1pm. The surprise was kept until Friday night, when I had to come up with a plausible excuse to be absent all morning on MTM's birthday... I chose work, although she knew I would sooner quit than miss her big day. She sort of waffled between suspicion and certainty that there was nothing going on until she arrived at the hall and saw familiar cars. Oh well. She was happy with the result, as was I.

Thanks for reading.