Maddie, back home again

Maddie is now home. The CT grandparents brought her back on Thursday night. A bit lighter (likely due to her decreased exposure to kiddie scraps), but none the worse for wear.

Maddie and I didn't end up hiking in the mountains since it was supposed to rain all weekend. Turns out that Friday and Saturday were sunny and beautiful, except for Saturday night which we could've handled without any problems. And Sunday had lots of big, towering clouds and sun with gusting wind that was amenable to flying a kite on the Mall.

Anticipating rain, Maddie and I wimped out on the backpacking, and we were (or at least I was) a bit bitter about missing out on some great backpacking weather all weekend. When I told the guy at the Patagonia store about how we'd missed out on a trip to the mountains, he said, "Well, there will be more opportunities in the near future, no?" Even though I had Teddy at the time (Margaret was at the Air and Space Museum with the grandparents), I didn't want to point out that kids seriously affect one's independence. At the end of the day, I didn't want to dissuade an impressionable youth from having kids - it's a lot of fun and very rewarding, but the prospect of backpacking trips should be heavily discounted.

How is Maddie doing? Well, she isn't shaking uncontrollably whenever she sees Margaret at this point. So that's good news. There is some evidence that she still gets upset when Margaret fusses since she'll leave the room, but it's not as bad as it was. Hopefully, we can keep it that way. And it's great to play ball with Maddie again. Margaret also appears to enjoy playing ball with the dog, so maybe Maddie will realize that Margaret is really a potential source of fun.

Here are some pics from the past weekend including our trip to the Mall to fly a kite and Teddy in the "command post" for the first time (here's a video of Margaret in the command post around the same age.)

And here's a video of Margaret teaching Teddy how to play in the command post including some self-congratulation on her part ("Yeah, Margaret!")