Six Months!

Dear Madelaine,

Tomorrow you will be six months old, and like probably every mother of every six-month-old out there, I look at you and wonder, Where has the time gone? I literally can't remember what life was like without you. I know that there was such a time- a time when it was just your daddy and me, living our child-free, care-free lives. But care-free means we didn't have you to care for and care about. And believe me, we had no idea what we were missing.



And even as I puzzle over where the time has gone, it seems so long ago that we brought you home from the hospital, scrawny and sleepy and ready to startle and flail at the slightest disruption. You were SO very tiny then, even smaller than most newborns, and it was such a relief when you really started nursing after a few days. For the first few months you seemed to grow at a nice steady pace, and then somehow, in the last couple of months, you've shot up like a little dandelion! Pretty soon you're going to be in size 9-12 month clothing, and as your baby wardrobe whizzes past, I'm making a mental note: next time I see a cute dress, buy it in size 3T: you'll get to wear it longer.


In every phase that you've gone through, I've wanted to sit here and write about your little quirks and habits, the nuanced details of your everyday life that only parents really get to see. Now at six months, I'm realizing that those very early days are already beginning to fade from my memory, and I question my decision to not keep an official baby book for you. Yet time spent blogging or writing in a baby book means less time playing and dancing and rejoicing with you, rejoicing in you. There's something to be said for abandoning the never-ending attempts to chronicle, analyze, and re-create life by writing about it. Sometimes you just have to stop writing about life, and Live it.


I remember in the first weeks of your life, that after nursing you would arch your back, your eyes closed and your face damp with the sweet sticky milk, and s-t-r-e-t-c-h your tiny arms and hands as far as possible. I kept trying to capture that pose in a picture, but I don't think we ever succeeded. You used to chew on your hand when you were hungry, and then I would have to persuade you that you couldn't chew on your hand and nurse at the same time. Any sudden noises would prompt you to throw your arms over your head- Daddy said it's a reflex that newborns have to protect their fragile heads from getting bumped. Don't worry, little one- we've got you tight.

From the very beginning, you loved to snuggle and be held, so I carried you in a sling all the time to keep you close by. You wouldn't sleep for very long anywhere other than my sling or our arms, until you were about four months, when I discovered that if I put you on your tummy to sleep (a BIG no-no in this decade), you could actually sleep for half an hour alone! Just in time, too- my back was really starting to hurt, and you didn't seem as comfortable in the sling anymore. At first I worried about SIDS, and would check on you every few minutes just to watch you breathe. Parenting is not a risk-free endeavor, I realized. Love never is. I'm much less concerned about SIDS now; but I still love to watch you sleep.

The first few weeks I was using my breastpump every day to make bottles for you at night, and I would put you in your swing while pumping. To keep you content I started singing hymns to you, and I really enjoyed the uncritical appreciation you showed for my voice- although I would suggest taking singing advice from your father. Hopefully this love of music will continue as you get older, and then we can talk about what kinds of music you like someday. Now you like to watch the visualizations on the computer while you listen to Classical with Daddy and Afro-Celtic jigs with Mama, and I like to watch your face while you watch and listen.

Speaking of your swing, for awhile it was one of your favorite activities, and you started this cute little habit of sticking your right foot out to tap the post with every swing. That, and kicking your "jingle bear" mobile, were two of the first things you did to start to interact more with your world.



Now the swing is too tame for you; it's all about the ExerSaucer, with its myriad toy possibilities. (Sadly, you can't reach most of them to put them in your mouth, so I have to give you your ring rattle to keep you appeased.) You can roll from your tummy to your back (once, and then not attempt any further movement) and sit up for several minutes at a time, which makes playing with your toys a whole lot easier. You have a great attention span for storybooks already, and I love to sit with you in the rocking chair in the afternoons and drink coffee and read to you. When we went to visit your grandparents at Christmas and in January, they enjoyed all your new skills and especially your wonderful little giggle.



In the last few weeks, we've noticed that you say something that sounds like "bless you" when you sneeze and that you (very courteously) hold onto both your feet when we change your diaper. When Daddy blows air onto your face, you stick out your tongue and gasp. You've switched from a pacifier to thumb-sucking in the past couple of months, and started this funny little habit of trying to stick your finger in your mouth while you nurse.


Ever since you've been born, Madelaine, I've noticed your tendency to almost hyperventilate with excitement when you play. It's as if the wonderful possibilities of life just can't unfold fast enough for you. Every day I love waking up with you and seeing your bright morning smile, the way you can't wait for a whole new day to begin. You are just about the only thing that can make even your Daddy smile in the mornings. And at naptime and nighttime when you grow sleepy and frustrated with your toys, I love scooping you up in my arms and saying "Let's snuggle and nurse to sleep in the Big Bed." I love seeing you learn and change every day, getting to know the great little person you are growing into. I can't wait to see what the next few months bring, as the world within your reach keeps expanding and you keep growing to keep up.

I could go on and on, darling, but I have to bring this to a close (before you turn 1!). Your babyhood is going by so fast, little love. Every day I think, "I want to hold this moment, this one right here, in my heart forever." When I was pregnant with you, I knew in my head how much I would love you, but I never could have dreamed what that love would feel like. I had no idea that there could be a love so big, so all-consuming and overpowering, that all the poopy diapers and fussy evenings in the world wouldn't even matter. There are days like today when I grow weary, when I don't know how to entertain you or deal with the everyday challenges of being a full-time mom. But even on days like today, I stop for a minute and look at your smile, look at the miracle God has given me, and I know I wouldn't trade this life, this calling to be your mommy, for anything in the world.

I love you, sweetheart. You will always be my little Chicken. ;-)

Love, Mama

I've found a solution!!

Yeah, remember the minivan/SUV/car dilemma below? My dad reminded me of these babies:

Doesn't it look happy? Like it's smiling at us in a friendly kind of way? And check out the interior!

It's like a little 1950's Dinnette! Complete with black and white linoleum and everything! I want to live in the bus with my husband and all of our babies, driving around the country and homeschooling and growing our own beans in little pots in the backseat!! We could knit potholders and sell them for $1 apiece door to door to support ourselves!!* And maybe pass out Tracts, too!

Here's the amazing dashboard:

My favorite part is the Stick of Death Gear Shifter, ready to impale the (unseatbelted??) driver at the first fender bender, as the rest of the vehicle crumples like an aluminum can and those shiny metal dashboard pieces do their worst. And, no, the backseats DON'T have enough seatbelts for all 3 of the child seats we were originally looking for- but I figure we can either have seatbelts installed (as the seller on ebay motors suggested) or just use good old DUCT TAPE.

Next up for consideration, we have this beauty, with custom fractal paint job and everything!

[This one kind of makes me want to drive around Hawaii or Paris or Oklahoma or something, designing and selling Quilts.]

[Did I mention that when we lived in Mississippi when I was little, my parents had a VW bus that was blue with a rainbow painted on the side in all shades of... blue? They bought it used from a local pastor.]

Some models of the so-called "Vanagon" had special features- like this 1987 model with a pop-up top (is there a bed up there...? I think so , but it's hard to tell from the picture...)These guys have some cool camping features like little kitchenettes and beds! So awesome. I want to live in one. And by the way, is it just me, or does it look like the 70's models have "faces" reminiscent of a mellow, bell-bottomed, thick-mustached, banjo-strumming motorcycle mechanic, while the 80's models (like this one) look like a digital-watch-wearing, skinny-tied Asian engineering student...?

Then, there was the pick-up truck:
Good for traveling around town with your pony. Or pet goat. Or platypus.

Have a whole lot of kids, and like to catch the breeze when you drive? Try this "23 Window Samba Deluxe"!


Allright, I could go on and on, but I should go interact with my child...

Love, Neb

*I suppose this is sort of an Evangelical, far-less-lucrative version of "grow pot in pots in the backseat and sell it door to door," although when I first wrote it I wasn't thinking of that...

I apologize for the blurriness...

... but someone finally got a picture of my child laughing!! (This was taken on a cell phone, in the Math Dept. at Lehigh.)

Also, the following conversation took place on our way to school yesterday:

[Background: In PA, kids under age 8/ eighty pounds have to be in a booster seat. We don't like the concepts of SUV's and minivans. SUV's are too trendy, and minivans are too cliched, and they're both way too expensive. (Well, those are my reasons- not sure about Nate's reasons.)]

Neb: "So... what kinds of cars can you get nowadays that actually hold 3 child seats?"
Nate: "None. Well, maybe only some luxury models. They don't make them anymore because people don't buy them."
Neb: "So if we have 3 children under the age of 8 at some point, which is likely to happen if we have more than 2 children... what are we going to drive?"
Nate: "We'll just leave one at home."
Neb: "Ha ha!"
[dramatic pause]
Nate: "You think I'm kidding?"

Cool!

My husband pointed out that I am cited on Wikipedia.

Keyboard takeover!

Hi! This is Madelaine. Mommy just kind of staggered into the kitchen mumbling something about "coffee" and "too early" and "aren't babies supposed to need more sleep...?" She says lots of words like that when we get up every morning, especially that "coffee" word. I think "coffee" is that stuff that smells kind of like my milk, only stronger. She explained to me that she has to drink coffee to make the good milk for me! So it's very important. She drinks a lot.

Do you know what's really funny? Grown-ups are funny. They say the weirdest things. When I was very little, everyone kept saying all the time, "She has so much hair!" But the thing was, most of them had a lot more hair than me! Their hair was a lot longer and everything! I wanted to say, "No, YOU have so much hair!" except I didn't know how to make all those words. The other thing they kept saying was, "She's SO tiny!!" And I wanted to say, "I don't think I'm so tiny; I think you're just huge!" But now that I'm a little bit bigger, they all say, "She's getting so BIG!" But I'm not THAT much bigger than I used to be, and they're all still huge... so what's up with that?

I think Mommy's coming back now... and I don't want her to know I figured out how to type because then she'll find my Facebook page! So bye for now! Oh, here's a picture of me in my ducky dress:

Have a good day!! I'm going to go find something to put in my mouth.

Love,
xoxoxo
Madelaine

We are home from Maryland! And we are out of milk!

And as always when we return from out of town, I am Confused and a bit Discombobulated, thinking possibly and optimistically that More Coffee would improve the situation, but as the title suggests, we are Out of Milk, forcing me to add chocolate cookies-n-cream ice cream (its Title is Cookies-n-Dreamz, by Edy's- or is it Cookies-n-Dreams? Nate is going to check for me, because he's actually feeling energetic- it's Cookies-n-Dreamz) to my coffee, hoping that not too many cookie crumbs will end up in my cup, because there's nothing worse than cookie crumbs in the bottom of your coffee cup.

Yes there is; I take it back. Anchovies in the bottom of your coffee cup would be worse. As would habanero peppers.

The assasination of MLK, Jr. was much, much worse than crumbs.

For lunch, I am having: spinach-and-baby lettuce salad with tomatoes, tuna, mozarella, and caesar garlic dressing. Also, water. No milk. Are you as excited as I am?? Maybe an orange, too. Because yes, I am Just That Healthy.

On today's agenda: a trip to Aldi's and Redner's. And some more coffee.

And for your gratification: a couple of pictures of my child giggling hysterically while playing with Uncle Chris Long:

And here she is, pretty in pink:

Off to... get some more coffee. And attempt to accomplish something.

Love, Neb!

Happy New Year, devoted fans and colleagues!

Did you know that there are folks in this world who check the Nebiverse EVERY SINGLE DAY for updates?? That means there are patient readers out there who have been clicking EVERY DAY for the past 3 1/2 weeks or so, hoping, wondering... nay, PRAYING: did she WRITE?? has she written anything for us today??

Every day, I have let those poor people down, my friends.

What's the problem? There are numerous problems. 1) I'm lazy. 2) It's easier to read other people's blogs and kill time on Facebook than it is to actually write something here. 3) I have Standards. Sometimes. Kind of. Like, a lot of times I think "I'm not going to write because I don't have anything really GOOD to write about." [As my sister-in-law pointed out, "the child has pooped many times since that last entry!" But you know, it's only funny once.] I hate getting on here and writing drivel (like the post you're reading at the moment.) 4) Did you know sometimes it takes me like 3 hours to write a post? Yeah. I have a five-month-old, people, a five-month-old who needs to be Constantly Entertained while awake.

SPEAKING OF WHICH:

Ah ha ha ha ha!!






My baby!! Is adorable, no? With the chubby kissable cheeks! Above are only a handful of the millions(?) of Adorable Pictures we have taken in the last couple of months. [Another reason I don't blog: it's too hard to pick out pictures of the child! There are so many!] [Nate would tell you that a lot of the pictures Aren't That Great. But they are pictures of The Beautiful Child! How can they be bad?]

Also? I'm reading books and working on this quilt for my sister:



Now that I have Appeased you with a shallow photographic sketch of my life, I'm off to eat chocolate ice cream and watch It's A Wonderful Life with Adrienne.

Love,
Neb