First Blood
It’s happened; my daughter’s perfect body has been marred. She’s been injured, and I did not prevent it. Worse, even – I was standing there when it happened and could not stop it.
My daughter cut her lip.
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It’s happened; my daughter’s perfect body has been marred. She’s been injured, and I did not prevent it. Worse, even – I was standing there when it happened and could not stop it.
My daughter cut her lip.
My daughter’s becoming quite the nature lover. She’s always enjoyed heading outside – no temperature too cold for her – and we’ve been taking daily morning walks since she was maybe four weeks old. As the weather’s warmed up we’ve frequently added a second walk for the day, and eat lunch out in our back garden a few times a week. She can’t get enough of the outdoors, and is turning her considerable attention to the flora and fauna of the area.
Madeleine can identify several words by sound, even if she can’t say them. “Tree” is one of the first she learned: she loves to lie on the couch and look up at the tree outside our big picture window. She’ll point at it over and over, asking what it is. Now if I say, “tree”, she’ll point out the window to her favorite sycamore. Unless, that is, we’re reading a book, in which case she’ll point to whatever tree is on the page.
During breakfast or lunch she’ll gaze longingly out the window and occasionally point imperiously out the window – “Gah!”. When she gets strapped into her stroller she kicks and screams until it begins to move out, at which point she settles serenely and anticipatorily in for the ride.
We cruise up and down the streets checking out all the neighbors’ front flower gardens. We chat about what’s in season – azaleas – and what’s soon to come into season – roses. We make note of which streets have the best (stroller) eye-level views, what lanes have buds about to open. When the cherry blossoms were in full swing we’d stop under a huge tree and gaze in respectful silence, and the dogwood a block away from us still has a few simple but lovely blooms on it. And whenever possible, of course, we stop so Maddie can smell the flowers.
Madeleine’s been sleeping much better at night recently. I’ve been promising the mother of all sleep blogs and it’s coming; now that I’ve gotten some distance (and sleep) from the past couple of months I can find patterns and sort it all out and get it written.
Soon.
But first, I’ve got a new spin on the sleep problem that just cropped up two nights ago, and I’m stumped. So been-there-done-that moms, I’d appreciate it if you’d speak up if you’ve got any ideas.
Maddie and I have ventured into new territory – the neighborhood playground.
We’ve had several days over the past week or so with incredibly heavy rain, and one morning after a particularly heavy overnight storm I decided it was the perfect time to take a crack at the swing set.
I should point out that Madeleine’s mere weeks away from her first birthday, and we’ve never gone to the playground. We daily walk past the park and see mommies and daddies clustered around the swings and slides, chatting away, with babies younger than Maddie. But showing up at the playground the first time is sort of like jumping into a double-dutch jumprope game; you kind of sway with it for a bit, looking for an opening and hoping your feet don’t get tangled up.
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