Sadie + Maeve

Questions for Maeve

Hello Lovey/Sweets/Precious/Babaloo Jones/Stinker/Little/The Manvool... or as others outside the family call you, Maeve (I'll give you one guess which nick names your father came up with and no, I have no idea how he came up with them and frankly neither does he).

Tonight, as I was running the bath, you were happily cuddling your blankie just outside the bathroom door. One second I looked you were there, the next you were laughing while crawling backwards towards the stairs. I lunged toward you but it was too late, you went tumbling down to the landing. Luckily you went down only four stairs and luckily they are carpeted. You knew you were not supposed to do that; you had a mischievous look in your eye and your giggle said, "Look at Me Mummy, stop me if you dare!!" You only cried for five minutes but I hoped it taught you a lesson: don't yet try the stairs on your own. I was wrong - after the bath you gave me the same look and same giggle but I was close enough to stop you from reaching the stairs. That made me wish I could talk with you, explain reason and ask: "Why did you do that AGAIN??"

Since The Fall I've been thinking of other things I'd like to know, like why won't you just walk on your own? You can do it, you just won't. We know you can do it because you did it way back in the middle of September, almost two months ago. Every once and a while you will release your iron grip on our finger and take a few steps but fear gets the better of you and your bum plonks on the floor. Practice makes perfect but you may be taking practicing to a whole new level.

Your words are coming along nicely, you have some very useful ones down pat: Mama, Dada, mine, more, no, go, dog, cat/kitty, pee-pee, poopie, eye, bup (a.k.a. up), nana (a.k.a. banana) and bath - to name a few. What we'd like to know is why you make this odd back-of-the-nose sound for cheese, toast and shoosh (a.k.a soother)? Those words don't even sound alike and they are also fairly easy baby words yet you use your noise interchangeably between the words. What is up with that?

Also, you say "ahhhh" when you want some water, just like Sadie did at your age. Now, did you come up with that on your own or did you pick up on that the two times I said it to you back when you were seven months old? We think it's funny since Sadie said it too but it's also a little odd... coincidence?

You may not believe me but grapes and other assorted chokey foods taste the same whether they are cut up or left whole. It's true, honest. Do you think they taste different? I figure you want to be like your sister but you only have eight teeth, and those eight teeth are not very good at chewing so it would be great if rather than screaming and then squishing each grape, you just eat it cut up, peacefully and safely.

One big question is remember the other day when we put you on the potty before the bath and you actually peed ON THE POTTY and then said pee-pee with a smile? Why can't you do that more often? Yes yes, you are way too young and it was a total fluke but it was a nice fluke.

When will you like books more? Yes, your sister is slightly obsessed with books (she did take two books to bed tonight to snuggle) but we are lucky to get through one without you forcing it closed. Reading makes you smarter so if you could just let me read more to you I'd feel a lot better about your brain.

Your Daddy and I would also like to know how you could be any cuter? Do you realize how sweet you are when you give us one of your closed-mouth smiles or when you snuggle into your blankie while lying on the floor? Or do you know how much we love it when you scream with excitement when Sadie does a funny dance? Do you know how funny we find your extra-fast, head-down crawl? We have so many questions, we can't wait until you can actually answer them.

Smallest Family Member

Sadie:                   Maeve is so small. Look at her kicking her little legs in the bath.

Matt:                    Yup, she's very little.

Sadie:                   Daddy, Maeve's the smallest person in our family, right?

Matt:                    That's right... well, except for Tiny Steve. Right Tiny Steve?

Matt as Tiny Steve:    Soitainly, oh boy, I sure am! (spoken like a child chimney sweeper in 1931)

Sadie:                    Tiny Steve, where are you!!??

Matt as Tiny Steve:    I'm right over here!

Sadie:                    Oh, there you are, you were too small to see!!!

And that is how Tiny Steve was born: totally spontaneously while Matt was giving the girls a bath.

Tiny Steve appears regularly, out of the blue. Sometimes Sadie announces he is sitting beside her in the car, or that he's eating his dinner at the end of the table. When that happens, Matt has to come up with some things for Tiny Steve to say, but Sadie is thrilled with a simple "Oh boy!! and a "Soitainly" thrown in. The other day she built Tiny Steve a Lego house and was very upset when Maeve nearly destroyed it - luckily it lasted long enough for her to show Matt when he got home.

Sadie's imagination seems to be boundless these days. She can sit in her playroom, surrounded by her dolls, Tiny Steve and her old mermaid toothbrush and have a conversation with everyone. She will switch instantly between reality and imagination at the drop of a hat, without giving it a thought. We might  suggest one of her dolls is hot and she responds with: "oh, that's because she was just doing her exercises." Matt is in charge of putting Sadie to bed and lately half the time she wants a book and a Daddy patented Robber Story. The story is different every time, but basically Sadie thinks of something that is stolen from the house and Matt has to come up with how Constable Robert McFadden, our neighbourhood imaginary policeman, finds it.

It will be fun to see where her imagination takes her as she gets older. The only record of it we have, so far, is the song she made up with Matt. OK, Matt was obviously the main creator and it's about a year old, but Sadie did come up with the idea all by herself:

Deep Dark Woods (master2mp3)

Comparison

I don't know if parents of both boys and girls compare their kids, but as a mother of two girls I do it all the time. It started with their weight and length, then moved on to the time they sat up and when they sprouted their first tooth. So far, Maeve is growing in Sadie's shadow: both sat up at 6 months, grew teeth at 9 months and said their first words at 9 months. Maeve wears Sadie's clothes and apart from hair colour, she looks like her big sister.

If only everything was the same.

When Sadie started to crawl, she went from A to B and most things along the way were left alone. If she passed a cupboard, she either closed it or ignored it; it was parenting heaven. The stage was so easy I can honestly barely remember it. Maeve is another story. She started to crawl on Friday (ok, Sadie crawled at 9 months, Maeve at 10 months but she just turned 10 months) and she hasn't looked back. Maeve is compelled to open every drawer and all cords are a chew toy. She makes a bee line to all things dangerous and cries when I whisk her away from harm. I am scared to open cupboards around her because she will learn exactly how they open. Every speck of fluff and dirt goes into her mouth no matter how unappealing. We are dreading those terribly annoying baby-proofing kits - the ones that prevent anyone from opening cupboards, drawers and toilets. I don't think Sadie will appreciate the added security (actually, she may enjoy a reason not to put things in the garbage, she'll claim she can't get past the baby-proofed cupboard). While I tried to prepare dinner I stood on Maeve's dress to keep her in one place; it worked for all of 7 minutes.

We may have to use the play pen for something other than a travelling crib. 

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She'll be quiet in her stroller, watching. Suddenly she will perk up and yell "DOG!!" At first I won't see it, but there it will be, off in the distance. It's as though she's always on the look out for either a cat or a dog; she loves both. Sometimes she'll spy a large, ugly Ontario squirrel and yell "CAT!!" and I say, "Close enough."

Almost the Eight Month Mark

Lately, each morning I ask Maeve: Why did you wake up last night, do you know are you going backwards? Do you like it better when your parents are sleep deprived? She looks at me with this little smile and I'm sure I can hear her whisper "yes, Mama, I miss you at night so I just call out and there you are, it's so easy. Oh, and thanks for that snack last night, it was just what I wanted." A few weeks ago Maeve had a bit of a virus, ran a high temperature, got pampered with night feedings and hasn't looked back since. We used to have it made, she slept all night for ages and ages, it was bliss but it didn't last. What are the chances she suddenly realizes she doesn't need a 3am snack? Next to none? I'm guessing we have some sleep training ahead of us, I just hope Sadie sleeps through it.

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Maeve is almost 8 months old and she is finally rolling easily, babbling constantly and... that's about it.  Each month brings me closer to the end of my mat leave - and that means searching for daycare and looking for a new job. No, I'm not stressed about this at all because I'm going to start buying lotto tickets so everything will be taken care of. We'll have to figure out which city will be our home base but rest assured we'll own homes across Canada so we won't have to miss friends any longer, it will be that simple. Avoidance and Fantasy: it will reduce your stress every time. Try it, you'll love it.

The Endless List

Has it been almost two months since my last blog? What the? Things have happened - Maeve's first Christmas, she sat up for the first time (January 14) and she is now eating solids (first spoonful, January 30). Maeve smiles at anyone who catches her eye and is growing like a weed. Sadie is in ballet again and loves it, she is starting to read small words and loves to colour and write out words.

Now that I've talked about the girls, I can do some complaining.

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems as though there is always something to do with the house. Take today for example; Matt came home and went to put up the black-out blind in Maeve's room but abandoned that task when he discovered I ordered the wrong size, there were two inch gaps on either end. So, now I have to order another blind. Then, when we were putting the dishes in the dishwasher Sadie tripped and landed on the open dishwasher door and now it practically touches the floor when it's open. We hope it's fixable considering it's only a year old. Those two things can be added to our long list of tasks: ripping out the hunter green carpet on the stairs and replacing it with something nice, getting a new rug that actually fits the living room space, getting a new coffee table... hmmmm, tearing down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and adding a nice island, painting the marks in all the walls that were left after we had the house insulated. I can keep going - I didn't even mention the bathroom.

We love the house, we do. And, I shouldn't complain about the house because we are lucky to even own a house - but I must complain, for no good reason at all. Perhaps the key to getting things done is having one go-getter in the marriage - one of us needs to get up and say, "I'm going to Home Depot today and I'm going to like it." Sadly, neither of us are like that. On the weekends we get up and say, "Let's go skating!" or "Let's go to Gatineau!" or something else that does not involve something productive. 

Between doing the laundry, keeping the place tidy, feeding the family - our productive energy is zapped. I know we'll get the house things done one thing at a time, slowly but surely. Maybe when the girls are teenagers and don't want to spend any time with us, we can spend time at Home Depot - guilt free.

No More Newborn

Recently, it dawned on me: life with a newborn is being replaced with life with a little baby. Three things made me realize this 1) we went to a house party; 2) I joined the gym and 3) we have slept through the night on more than one occasion (can't decide which is my favourite, but I know it's not #2). The house party was hosted by a friend who I met through various Sadie Activities; we left buzzing on the wine served by a REAL BARTENDER after dancing the night away to the best iPod play list ever. Might I say, awesome night. When Sadie was four months old, there was no way I would have hired the 13 year old who lives across the street to babysit, no way in hell, but a few weeks ago I did it without hesitation. Our babysitter is sweet and besides, we had the girls asleep in bed so all she did was watch TV for four hours - easy money.

Number 2: joining the gym. I have been thinking about returning to the world of physical activity for months upon months, OK, maybe years upon years and I have finally done it. I joined our local gym and I feel pretty darn good about it. On gym days, I rush to the gym when Matt gets home and I'm gone for a short hour work-out but it's a good work-out. I run, lift, lunge and crunch as quickly as possible and I'm back for dinner then the bedtime routine. I have paid for the whole year so I will be forced to continue with this whole exercise thing - I will keep you posted on whether that was money well spent.

Number 3: sleeping through the night. Maeve has given us this gift a few times and I'm not kidding myself, it's not yet her routine but we're hoping it will be in the near-ish future. We are very happy about that. On a normal night, she goes down for the night at 9pm (after feeding for almost an hour... sigh, if only she was a quick drinker) and usually wakes at 4am for a 30 minute feed and then wakes up for the day at 7am-ish. So, when she decides to stir at 6:30am rather than 4am, it's pure bliss. If anyone knows of a way to get her to decide to do this more often, I'm all ears.

Not that I want Maeve to grow up quickly, I don't. She is precious and we love all her stages - we'd just like them a whole lot more if we could party more, run up the stairs without getting winded and wake after a well rested night.

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I feel like I should report on what Maeve can do milestone wise, just so it's documented somewhere. Well, this should be easy - she can't do much at 4.5 months old. She can hold her head up, grab and put things in her mouth and she has rolled front to back a couple of times. I have to take Matt's word for the rolling thing, I haven't yet seen it. I think it was front to back anyway. Oh, and she might be teething but I haven't allowed myself to fully admit this yet so I don't know if I should document it or not. Like most nursing mothers, I'm afraid of teeth and teeth at four months is much, much too early (I'm grateful that showing signs of teeth means nothing, it could be months before teeth appear; phew!). Hands down, she laughs for Sadie the most - Sadie can send her into hysterics by simply flopping around on our bed, it's bizarre. Other than that, she just basically hangs out. She might hang out a little too often, considering she has a bit of a flat part of her head. Our doctor assures me she will be fine and her brain is unaffected but perhaps I should pay a little more attention to her and make sure she gets a little more tummy time; that's the least I could do for perhaps the best baby ever. No, not the best - totally and completely equal to her older sister, I mean.

Broken Record

Sadie's version of fun is getting dressed up or changing outfits multiple times a day - Halloween is her excuse to do it without permission. On Friday she went to school as a witch, came home and was both a princess and a ballerina but then decided to change into a dress and tights. She chose her new, white dress to wear while colouring with her markers - not a good combo.

"Sadie, I don't want you to get marker on your new dress, please go up and change. Sadie, please go up and change into something else if you want to colour with markers. Sadie, if you don't change your dress I am going to take the markers away. SADIE HOUSE, UPSTAIRS RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE MAKING ME VERY ANGRY!!!!! " (exclamation marks mean I shouted really loud) 

Now, I don't usually yell at Sadie, actually, I never yell at Sadie but I lost it. For the past few months Matt and I have been feeling like broken records; Sadie often completely ignores us when she is two feet away or she will say "what?" repeatedly because she can't be bothered to actually listen to what we are saying. Maybe she thinks she can get away with things while I'm holding Maeve, I don't know, but I do know it is very frustrating and tiring.

After I shouted, the look on Sadie's face was first disbelief and then fear. Then she screamed and while she ran upstairs to change she accidentally got marker on her dress since she didn't realize she was still gripping her marker.

I really hate it when irony bites you in the ass.