if everything happens that can't be done

In the middle of packing up stuff to move to our new place (more about this coming soon), I found a program from our wedding way back in 2003, when Maddie was around but Margaret was just a gleam in her mom's eye. And I remembered how much I liked one of the readings (which poor Joe S. had to read):

if everything happens that can't be done
by e.e. cummings

if everything happens that can't be
done
(and anything's righter
than books
could plan)
the stupidest teacher will almost guess
(with a run
skip
around we go yes)
there's nothing as something as one

one hasn't a why or because or
although
(and buds know better
than books
don't grow)
one's anything old being everything
new
(with a what
which
around we go who)
one's everyanything so

so world is a leaf is a tree is a bough
(and birds sing sweeter
than books
tell how)
so here is away and so your is a my
(with a down
up
around again fly)
forever was never till now

now i love you and you love me
(and books are shutter
than books
can be)
and deep in the high that does nothing
but fall
(with a shout
each
around we go all)
there's somebody calling who's we

we're everything brighter than even the
sun
(we're everything greater
than books
might mean)
we're everyanything more than believe
(with a spin
leap
alive we're alive)
we're wonderful one times one

HOYA SAXA!!

The Hoyas are going to the Final Four!!!! Oh yeah! We watched the game while Margaret snoozed for the first half, and I was really peeved by GU's performance - grab a freakin' rebound, pick up a loose ball, do something for pete's sake! But the score never got too bad, and then they started getting back into it a bit, and next thing you know it's tied, and then they get it into overtime, and then GU ekes out a lead, and then really starts sticking it to them, and Abby, Margaret and I are jumping up and down in front of our TV yelling, "They're going to win!!!! I can't believe they pulled it off!!!!"

Socks

I think that the ladies at the daycare center really, honestly, legitimately are very fond of Margaret. They always run to grab her in the morning which is undoubtedly encouraged by Margaret's bouncing and outstretched arms as soon as she sees them. Unlike some of the other kids, there's no hesitation about leaving Mama or Papa for someone more exciting. And, at the end of each day, they always tell us new tricks that Margaret has displayed.

She's added a sharp scissors motion with the arms to her head shakes and declaration of "DOP!" when another kid tries to take her toy. She has few qualms about taking toys from other kids, but no way she'll accept similar treatment in reverse. Whenever the phone in the center rings, Margaret yells "Daaaaa!" They also like to talk about how she "flirts" with, but pushes away, the boys in the center. Maggie Moo with her "pageant queen wave", which is also a big hit at the dog park, appears to be quite the diva. Even the GSA security guards say "Hey there Margaret!" as she waves and slaps their palms on our way into the center. Since the weather has been nice, they've been taking the kids out for walks in a really big stroller, and the guards say that Margaret gets very excited about heading outside. Someone, I'm not sure who although I have my suspicions, apparently likes to wave at passersby during their walk.

She also tried to pull the blue shoe covers that they use at the center onto her feet today. And last night, she messed around with my socks as if she was trying to put them on her feet. Her coordination is lacking, but she appears to have the correct idea. Things are definitely percolating in her little head.

Margaret loves GiGi

She hasn't been a great sleeper lately (up at 1:00 for a brief time a few nights ago, and on a monumental night, up from 3:30 until at least 5:30 when Dad finally fell back asleep despite Margaret's continued complaints about her plight in life), but she does love her giraffe!

Margaret's new favorite food

Sure, they're bland (c/o Trader Joe's), but babies don't have very sophisticated palates. And who can't love the kitschy name and picture on the box?

Then and now, part 1

As Margaret approaches her first birthday, I figured that I'd post some early photos juxtaposed against some more current ones. So here's a couple of her in her stroller. The left one above was taken just before her 6 month, while the right one is recent, just before her birthday.

New tricks are coming fast and furious. In addition to shaking of the head, which has become a favorite gesture in all sorts of settings, Margaret now does the following:

• When sitting in our bed, she'll pat the bed a few times to attract Maddie as I do to get the dog up on the bed. As with most tricks, it wasn't clear what she was doing the first time, but now its clear that she's trying to get the dog to "c'mere."
• She takes a brush, either Mama's or her own, and rubs it on her head. Suggestive of good future grooming (or perhaps a narcissistic streak.)
• She'll say "DOP!" very clearly and emphatically while shaking her head. The ladies at daycare say that she often says it while reprimanding another kid who is trying to take a toy from her. Their theory is that she's trying to say "STOP IT!" They might be right, but she could also be saying "DROP IT!" which is something that we often say to Maddie to get the dog to drop a toy, ball, found garbage, etc.
• One of the dog books gets a "Woof" sort of sound. It's not clear if she's trying to go "Woof," but it's a consistent sound that accompanies that book.
  
• She'll hold a Cheerio or pea for me to eat when she's sitting in her high chair. If I eat it, which I'll do if it hasn't been taken out of her mouth beforehand, it gets peals of laughter. This trick only shows up after she's sated and about ready to finish - there's little time for tricks at the beginning of a meal.
• Margaret has learned to climb the stairs. To be sure, stairs are an interesting device as people appear and disappear using them. Earlier today while Mama was talking to Aunt Eleanor on the phone, Margaret scooted over to the stairs, waved bye-bye at Mama, and headed up. She can manage them ok with someone behind her, but she's inattentive enough that she could easily tumble backwards. We're trying not to encourage stair-climbing, but given my observation of the cousins in Philly along with stories from other parents, I think that the fascination is inevitable.
  

We watched an old piano player at Nordstrom's today while Mama shopped for shoes. Margaret was intrigued by his fingers on the keyboard and seemed to like the music. For at least 10 minutes which is a pretty long time given her current attention span. I think that the piano player really enjoyed his audience too.

How to leave comments

I've gotten some feedback from my dedicated readers suggesting that they'd like to leave comments, but don't want to go through the whole rigamarole of setting up a Google/Blogger account to do so. To avoid having to create a Google account, click on comments at the bottom of a post, then write your comment (a glowing one, no doubt), then either pick "anonymous" or "other". In the latter case, you can enter your name if you wish while in the former case, you could always "sign" your comment with some identifying info. Then be sure to "post" (or "publish") your comment. Upshot is that there's no need to actually create a Google account to leave comments.

There are reports that Blogger isn't great at actually showing comments, but I've managed to leave a few for myself (since I'm naturally a dedicated reader of my own blog), so it can be done.

And thanks to all of our fans out there!

New and improved videos

I've figured out how to post videos with better audio on YouTube. I haven't figured out how to make the pictures better (although I think that the current videos might be better than the earlier ones), but the audio now matches up with the video. So for those of you who are really baby junkies (is there anyone out there since we don't get any comments!?!), you should revisit the videos in earlier posts. Personally, I think that the videos are now completely different (!) since the appropriate audio makes a world of difference.

I did get a random comment from some 21 year old saying "Cool dog... Aussie?" regarding one of my YouTube videos of Margaret and Maddie, but nothing from the dedicated (sic) crew of baby blog readers........

Comfort measures in the crib

Margaret currently sleeps with four things in her crib, all of which can be seen in the picture above: a circle of nuk-nuks (pacifiers), GiGi the Giraffe (care of her second cousin Ann), Tommy the Toad, and a small Cubs blanket (care of her Great Aunt Mary.) She has always loved the nuk-nuks, perhaps too much. The ladies at the dog park liken her reaction to a nuk-nuk to that of a smoker getting a much needed puff - a big exhale and slumping of the shoulders once the nuk-nuk is inserted as if to say, "Ah yeah, that's the stuff."

I'm curious about when casual attachment to a familiar item turns into clear affection. For example, Margaret's cousin Andrew was a big fan of lovies (cloth diapers.) When did that really develop? At this point, Margaret seems most fond of GiGi since she'll sometimes be hugging it when we check on her. But she doesn't seem to want GiGi at other times, although early on, she was able to identify and grab GiGi when asked about it. So we'll see if GiGi, or any of the other items, becomes a "must have" accessory. I bet that it will, but when, and how, does that happen?

Maddie, on the other hand, clearly has her preferred toys. Tennis balls, tennis balls and more tennis balls. With some prompting, she'll take the frisbee or a stick or some other toy, but it's quite clear that she LOVES tennis balls above everything else. She's a bit stiff today after playing with random people at the park for the last few days (Korean kids from the nearby Catholic Church on Sunday, some other guy who wants a dog yesterday), but she's always ready to play play play when there's a ball around.

Margaret's first "Occurrence Report" at daycare

Margaret had her first "event" that required a report at daycare on Thursday. According to the report, it occurred at 4:10 and was witnessed by Ms. LaDonya and Ms. Jakki. Exciting exerpts of the report are as follows:

"Describe in detail, i.e., what the child was doing when injured; specific center location:
In the infant room, Margaret was pulling up on the rocking chair when she let go and bumped her head on the chair."

"Describe injury in detail, i.e. what part of the child was injured; nature and degree of injury; child's condition:
There is a small bump on her forehead."

"Type of first aid administered: Ice pack"

"Description of corrective action taken to prevent a similar occurrence:
Next time we will watch Margaret more carefully when pulling up on the furniture."

I had to sign the form to verify that I'd received it. I was actually surprised that they even bothered with a report - you could barely notice the bump and Margaret didn't seem to be fazed at all. In fact, they said that, unlike almost all of the other kids, she seemed to like the icepack. Until she finally works out the kinks in her walking, we probably should anticipate more minor dings and exciting event reports.

Other developments of interest:

• If you look closely at the picture of Mama and Margaret (you may need to click on it to enlarge it), you'll notice two top teeth. She's had the bottom two for a couple months now, and we've been waiting with bated breath for the next two. Now that they're here, it's a bit anticlimatic. Still, it does mean that charming toothless grins will soon be a thing of the past.

• Margaret has learned to vigorously shake her head "No!" In fact, she seems to (generally) understand the appropriate context in which to use the gesture. She's done eating gets a shake of the head as does rejection of the nuk-nuk (pacifier) when she's feeling fussy. Come to think of it, so do lots of other things. We just have to hope that this isn't evidence of a strong contrarian streak.

• We took Margaret to another restaurant for dinner with some friends, albeit a fancier one here in DC (our regular babysitter, a sophomore at G'town U. was out of the country for spring break.) Apparently, she actually helped us get a table since, while I was parking the car, everyone else got a table that had been reserved for someone else. Who can resist a cute baby (and the danger of a meltdown in the event that seating issues aren't resolved quickly)? And once again, she was a complete champ - loved the bread that they served and ate Cheerios and applesauce while bobbing and looking around at everyone and everything. However, while the waiter and backwaiters had fun making eyes at her, everyone else seemed either apathetic or even aghast that their dinner might be disturbed by a baby. Such a contrast between provincial, friendly Pittsburgh and cosmopolitan DC!

• Today, Mama and Margaret went to a "playgroup" at the Volta Park community center that Abby organized on the "Georgetown Moms" webgroup in which she participates. I have no idea what a "playgroup" entails since Maddie and I went to the grocery store and then played frisbee while waiting for the playgroup to finish, but anything involving "Georgetown Moms" sounds ominous. Still, when I stuck my head in to tell Abby that the dog and I were going to go play frisbee, everyone seemed quite happy.
  

One small step for a kid, one giant leap for our family

Margaret literally made a big step today at daycare. She's been pulling herself up for probably 3 months or so and has been standing on her own for about a month and a half. But she hasn't really taken that first big step on her own other than a quick lurch from one handhold to another. She's not a terribly cautious baby, so it's a bit surprising that it's taken so long to walk. Everytime I think she's about to do it, she stands there, wobbles a bit, and then plops down to crawl wherever she's headed.

But today, she took two steps on her own at daycare. Ms. Jakki told me that they expected her to do her standard plop down move when she instead wobbled forward with a couple of steps. We'll see how long it takes for a repeat performance and whether she'll do her new trick for Mama and Papa, but she's getting there.

And as befits our stellar offspring, she's naturally walking earlier than all of her compatriots in daycare.

"She's the best baby ever!"

We went to Pittsburgh this weekend so that Abby could attend a friend's baby shower. Margaret and I tagged along since we didn't have anything better to do. It turns out that Margaret made quite an impression on Joe and Mike, our P'burgh friends at whose place we stayed. "She's the best baby ever!" they kept saying. A positive impression? Yep. A misleading impression? Perhaps, but we've also decided that, for no discernable reason, we have a pretty happy, sociable and well-behaved kid. On our way home, Abby and I kept talking about how Margaret had been a "perfect little trooper." But the best baby ever? Well, I wouldn't go quite THAT far, since Mike and Joe clearly experienced a long period of calm between many little (and bigger) storms. But I am pretty happy with our little experiment so far.

To begin with, the drive to P'burgh on Saturday was as good as a long drive could be. Margaret slept for 3 hours of the 4 hour drive and spent her time awake giggling at me rather than fussing. When we left DC, it was a beautiful sunny day, but as befits a visit to P'burgh, the sky got cloudy and it started spitting snow on us shortly after we crossed into Pennsylvania. In fact, it was cold with gray skies and flurries for the rest of the weekend, and it didn't clear up until we got near the Pennsylvania-Maryland border on the way home. But you know what? It wouldn't be P'burgh without gloomy weather and snow.

A visit to P'burgh also wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Strip district and a stop at our favorite P'burgh store, the Pennsylvania Macaroni Company. One of my Italian colleagues used to say that you can get things at Penn Mac that you can't get anywhere else outside of Italy, like Italian sea salt with bizarre English descriptions of the contents (someone was using a strange Italian-English dictionary when making the packaging.) While Abby and Joe went to the baby shower, Mike and I took Margaret down to the Strip to buy olive oil and other stuff at Penn Mac. The Strip is crowded on Saturday, full of the type of people that make P'burgh a place to love - friendly without a hint of pretension - and hate - overweight, big hair, and so on. I carried Margaret around in the Baby Bjorn, and Mike kept remarking about how many people grinned at her as we made our way through the Strip. Although it was tempting to eat at the old P'burgh standby, Primanti Brothers, I wasn't sure that my heart could take all that grease, so instead we ate lunch at a diner called Pamela's. It's a really greasy spoon (which says something about Primanti Brothers that I chose Pamela's), and in the future, we really need one of those portable placemats so that we can stick finger foods on the table for Margaret. A paper napkin doesn't work since ripping it up is a fun pasttime that defeats the purpose of putting the food on the napkin. So I ended up putting Cheerios right on the marginally clean table, and Margaret had a grand time looking around and eating the occasional Cheerio while shredding napkin after napkin. As we were leaving, I apologized to the waitress for the mess we'd left behind. "No problem," she said. "That's nothing compared to the mess that the policemen make when they eat here."

Margaret fell asleep on the way back to Joe and Mike's place, and I was able to manuever her into the house without waking her. After she woke up, we spent the next hour or so watching TV while waiting for mom and Joe to get back. Perhaps it was the size of their TV or maybe the fact that it was an HDTV, but Margaret cuddled up with me on the couch. She's really not a cuddly baby unless she has a fever like she had at Xmas in Chicago, but she was perfectly happy to sit with me while watching the boob tube and occasionally giggling as she tried to stick her fingers in my nose and mouth. This was around the time that Mike started saying that he'd never seen such a happy, well-behaved baby. My chest swelled with such parental pride! But it couldn't last, could it? Not a chance since a meltdown was inevitable.

But it actually got even better. Once Joe and Abby got home, we headed out to dinner at a place called C.C.'s in Sharpsburg which is just north (or west or northwest - I could never keep my sense of direction in P'burgh) of the city. C.C.'s is a quintessential P'burgh restaurant - just a step above a hole in the wall place with decent, but unpretentious Italian food served by the friendliest Yinzers you've ever met to the friendliest Yinzers you'd ever want to meet. It was getting pretty close to Margaret's bedtime, and we had to wait a while for a table, so there was some trepidation about whether our luck would hold out. But after sucking down a record 10 ounce bottle while waiting in the bar for our table, she was happy as a clam, although she was also getting a bit sleepy. Once we got to our table, we stuck her in her stroller and fed her some Cheerios. Even though it took a long time to get our food, she was sooo happy to spend time making googly eyes at the people at all of the nearby tables. One guy, who was reciprocating lots of googly eyes, said, "Your baby is a good judge of character. Most kids are afraid of me." After 30 minutes of grinning at random strangers all around us, she promptly fell asleep in her stroller which led to even more grins and ahh-would-you-look-at-that glances in our direction. "She's really not like this," I told some people at neighboring tables as we left the restaurant. After all, she's a busy girl! Never wants to sit still!

But I think that Margaret is getting very social and has learned that she can get fun reactions from people when she smiles, waves and bounces around. Not only did she show off at C.C.'s, but she continued her performance at the deli that we went to for brunch on Sunday by which point Mike and Joe were absolutely gushing over Margaret as she shredded more napkins and chortled at the people in the booth next to us. Our run of good luck even lasted until we went to the Safeway back in DC upon getting home. As we pushed Margaret around in the seat on the shopping cart (for the first time!), she was giggling and having a ball. "Heh, heh, heh," she said with a clear sense of pleasure about her situation. Then again, maybe it was just extreme fatigue. But it still led a random woman in the produce department to lean in from behind her to say "Heh, heh, heh" in response.

Another baby video

It's a beautiful, sunny, spring-like day here in DC. While the cold, snowy weather has been fun, it's good to see some signs of spring like the daffodils coming up on the hillside below the Rose Park that runs down to Rock Creek. In the summer, that hillside is a jungle while it's barren during the winter. But for one month out of the year, lots of daffodils pop up for the enjoyment mainly of drivers on the parkway.

Unfortunately, we haven't planted any daffodils or tulips of our own, unlike those in the yard of our old house in Pittsburgh. And we certainly don't have a backyard in the summer like we had in Pittsburgh, because even though our backyard there was small and shady, our current back patio is even smaller and shadier.
Maybe once we move to our new place in a month, we'll find that its sunnier. The house itself certainly will be since it has windows on three sides instead of two like we have now, but the back patio is even smaller so we'll see.

But you're not here to read musings about backyard gardens and spring flowers. You're here for a baby fix! After the excitement of having a new fridge delivered (I told the deliverymen that they were "superstars" for being able to get the old one up and the new one down our front stairs), we walked around with Maddie and our friend Rodah from Pittsburgh before stopping at the park to play on the swings. Margaret was actually more interested in watching the big kids running around the park than swinging or playing with me. Afterwards, we headed home where Margaret played with her favorite Xmas present (care of Aunt Eleanor) and her favority puppy dog. Here's the resulting video