June 2004 Archives
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Due to popular demand, we've uploaded a few new pics. Alecia built the new photo album, so there are actually captions for a change. Unfortunately, I assigned the wrong color for text, so the captions are in hard-to-see white. Just highlight them with the mouse for easier reading.
Click here for the new pics.
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A very Happy Birthday to Grandma Horvath. We love you and hope you have a great one!
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Well, Madness is finally crawling for real now, which is a big milestone. It's so scary how fast she's growing...and how strange she's getting. She's one weird baby.
For one thing, she has developed two new favorite foods: electrical cords and dog food. Take your eyes off of her for a minute, and she'll scramble across the room like a little mouse, and will pop one or the other into her mouth. The electrical cord thing is, of course, the most frightening of her fixations. For one thing, she can now pull heavy lamps and appliances down on top of herself. But she's also got one razor-sharp tooth now--like a little Fang Face--which means she could probably bite through the cords if we let her. We're doing the best we can to prevent that, but she's fast and tenacious.
As for the dog food thing, we're trying to keep her away from that stuff. This morning, however, she beat me to the chow. When I saw her reach her hand into the dog's bowl and raise it to her mouth, I swooped in and snatched her off of the ground. I pried a piece of the chow from her fingers and began lecturing her on the difference between people food and dog food. She just stared blankly at me.
I kept her on my hip while I got my lunch ready for work. After a few minutes of her usual mumbling and reaching for whatever I was working on, I noticed that she was drooling brown drool. "Oh, Maddie, you didn't!" I stuck my finger in her mouth and scooped out a huge chunk of Kibbles and Bits. She had been chewing it for about five minutes without me knowing. Yeah, I freaking ROCK at this parenting stuff! The worst thing is that she seemed so content with the dog chow in her mouth. Makes me think we're really wasting money on those expensive baby snacks.
Anyway, she's like greased lightning lately. Now that she can crawl, and can walk while holding onto furniture, it's like she never wants to sit down again. She refuses to stay in one place, and views her crib as jail. This requires us to constantly head her off at the pass as she lunges for things babies shouldn't have, and it also means she no longer sleeps. Sleeping means sitting in one place, and that doesn't work for her. It takes us hours--HOURS--to get her to bed. The good thing, I suppose, is that we're watching less TV.
Thanks, by the way, to all who sent on Father's Day wishes. We had a good weekend, hanging out and doing things as a family. I really can't believe how lucky I am sometimes to have such an amazing wife and such a beautiful (bizarro) baby. After all the dumb things I've done over the course of my first 32 years, I really lucked out to get to this point, huh? ;)
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Alecia's birthday was yesterday (Wednesday), so please leave a comment to wish her well (and to remind her that she's still young and beautiful). :)
Sorry I didn't let you know the importance of the date yesterday, but we were busy doing birthday stuff! (More on that later.)
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We have some new pics to share. Sorry we didn't put captions on them. I've been too busy with a MAJOR project at work, and Alecia's only been home for a few days this week.
The first set of pics is from Alecia's sister's graduation. Michel graduated from Southern Union a few weeks ago. Congrats, Mic! It was yet another trip I couldn't make, so Alecia was stuck holding Maddie AND taking pics, which is why there are so few.
The next set of pics is from Maddie's first pool party. Alecia's a member of a mommies' group, and they meet regularly for play dates and events. Maddie loved the party, apparently, which is no surprise--she's a freak for water. She thinks baths are playtime, and she never wants to get out. She splashes so much, I get soaked more than she does.
The final group of pictures is from Alecia's trip with her mom and sister to Chicago. Her brother, Rob, graduated from Columbia, so they went to his graduation. I couldn't go--again, due to this MAJOR project at work--so Alecia and Maddie flew up without me. It sucked for me. When Maddie got back, it was like she was a year older. She looked so different, and was doing new things that she didn't do before she left (for example, she now has a crack habit). Seriously, though, a week was too long to be away from my girls.
Finally, congrats again to Michel and Rob on their recent graduation. That's a lettered family, right there! We're proud of you guys and we love you!
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Maddie and I just returned from our trip to Chicago. It was her first experience traveling on a plane and I have to admit that she did AMAZINGLY well. I was prepared for the worst, having heard horror stories from the ladies in my mom's group. But instead Maddie just smiled and laughed and babbled to anyone that would look her way. She especially loved trying to look around or over my seat at the other passengers. The girl is such a glutton for attention, but it's so adorable. She will actually stare at someone until they make eye contact with her, at which point she'll then pull out the megawatt smile.
We visited Chi-town to attend my brother's graduation from Columbia College. I was glad we could be there for it, and I was so happy to see him. He hadn't seen Maddie since Thanksgiving so of course he was shocked by how big she has gotten.
Just like our trip up north at Christmas, it seems as if Maddie grew and developed in strides during the week we were there. Even Bill noted when we returned that she seemed like a different baby. A couple of new changes:
- She is SO ready to crawl. She's this close. At my brother's she suddenly got up on all fours and scooted her way across the floors. This also included crawling backwards, much to her frustration. She would attempt to go for a toy and end up farther away from it. At one point she scooted herself under the coffee table and couldn't get out. She's also mastered the "downward dog" pose of yoga. (She can get up on her feet with her hands on the floor.)
- She stands. This scares/excites me most because it shows that she's close to walking too. Maddie has started to pull herself to standing on anything within reach. Then she turns and gives you the biggest "I did it!" smile you've ever seen.
- The girl can say "dada". Oh boy, can she. Her vocabulary now consists of only "dadada dada dada" and "yeah yeah yeah". So cute and a great welcome to Bill when we met him at the airport.
- She really can wave bye-bye, and say it. I thought a few weeks ago that her full swinging arm was her attempt to say bye-bye, but this is the real deal. She can wave just her wrist and say "bah bah" to anyone and everyone.
And finally, our little girl isn't so little anymore. We got home the other night to realize that Bill and I needed to lower her crib mattress. I nearly cried as he got the wrench out and made the adjustments. It seems like this is just the beginning of our baby no longer being a baby anymore. I go in her room now and find her sitting up in bed, playing with toys when she wakes up in the morning. What happened to our little squiggly peanut?
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