FUSSY BABY!!!

Margaret has begun to "talk." I put talk in quotes because it's babbling and yet is more than babbling since it really involves a couple of things. First, noises that are made repeatedly in a particular context. For example, she clearly knows Maddie and can occasionally make reference to the dog (as "Mah-eee".) She can also say "Mama," "Dada" and "Bah-bah" (bye-bye?), but those are not exclusively said at appropriate times although they do occur frequently enough at correct times that I think she does have some sense of their meaning. Second, she can repeat words such as the name of her giraffe "Zee-Zee" (GiGi.)

As the last few posts suggest, Margaret has become VERY fussy. Actually, most of the time, she is a very sweet baby. But at various times, she has learned that fussiness elicits a strong response from her parents. Primary example: dinner. Margaret refuses to eat any new finger foods off of her tray. It's really quite infuriating especially since she'll eat mangos, peas, carrots, etc. when they are mashed up and fed to her, but put them on her tray in front of her in little pieces, and she screams. In fact, her first reaction to any food on her tray other than bread, and sometimes cheese, seems to be to scream. Inconsolable, heart-wrenching screams of despair and rage about the lot that life has dealt her. We are counting on it being "just a stage," but she hasn't even hit her terrible twos yet, so who knows what future battles lie on the horizon. As the pediatrician said on our last trip to the doctor for her 1 yr check-up: "She's got a lot of spunk and some temper doesn't she?" Darn tooting.

We're flying to CA in May for a wedding celebration. Two of my colleagues, upon hearing of our upcoming trip, clucked with sympathy about the likely outcome of that flight. The worst time to travel, it would appear, as one of my colleagues described his two year old running up and down the aisle banging into everyone on a flight to Hawaii. Should be lots of fun.