Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yeah, okay, so Mac's birthday was last Saturday and I'm just now posting about it. It was a kinda crazy week with Eliza having some serious trouble sleeping and waking up every morning by 5:30 at the latest. We think her top teeth are coming in, but they have yet to actually show themselves. Fun times.

Anyhoo...last weekend was a genuinely fun time. To celebrate his birthday, Mac requested that Eliza come down to the last kickball game of the regular season, which was at 10AM, her usual napping time. We went down early at 9 and she was a good sport and fell asleep in her stroller for a bit. She had a great time at the game and was popular with both teams. Mac's team won - hooray! Here she is helping Daddy coach at 3rd base.
It was too chilly to wear the uniform skort, so she opted for her Williams sweatshirt instead. A happy girl with her birthday guy.
However, the game couldn't always hold her attention, especially when there was important sandal eating to be done.
We also had a surprise meeting with Julene, sister-in-law Mary, and young master James, who were all out jogging for a good cause.
After the game, we went to Stanley's for brunch with the team where Eliza flirted shamelessly with the boys and had cantaloupe for the first time. She LOVED IT and was able to eat it on her own courtesy of her mesh bag (best invention ever), but we didn't realize how messy it truly was until later. The pictures show it quite nicely, though.
She has continued to celebrate Mac's birthday all week in her own fashion. Her new favorite syllable to babble is "da da da da." All day long. Which isn't remotely upsetting to those of us whose syllable might be, oh I don't know, "mama?"

Just kidding. It's adorable to hear.

We're off to Michigan again for the 4th of July. Have a wonderful holiday, everyone!

Amen, Sister!

Found a new fun site, courtesy of the Tribune: the Chicago Moms Blog. No, I haven't been invited to join, but that's probably due to the fact that this blog is basically private, available to only those I tell about it. The latest entry, though, is why mommies should blog about their babies. Read it and enjoy, then come back to us and enjoy some more. We're glad you're here!

Why Mommies Should Blog About Their Children

When cottage cheese becomes finger food

Along with macaroni & cheese (pureed) and mixed veggies (also pureed).

In spite of the mess, or perhaps because of it, this was the most fun meal we've had in weeks. Click on the picture to view full size and really see the mayhem.

Attack of the Dawnzer

Attack of the what? The dawnzer. It gives lee light.

Anyone? Anyone?

Ramona the Pest reference. In kindergarten:

Next Miss Binney taught the class the words of a puzzling song about "the dawnzer lee light," which Ramona did not understand because she did not know what a dawnzer was. "Oh, say, can you see by the dawnzer lee light," sang Miss Binney, and Ramona decided that a dawnzer was another word for a lamp.

Yesterday the pull up queen decided to pull up on the floor lamp. Actually she's been trying to do this for a few days now and I've been on hand to discourage her as I could sense imminent disaster. Yesterday, however, was the day that I looked away for a nano-second and then heard the horrible crash, bam, thwack, followed by much crying.

She has recovered and learned nothing. The offending floor lamp is now gone, but there still remains one in her bedroom. It's like a magnet for her. It too will soon be gone.

This and that

Our apologies for being MIA last week. We returned from Mac's reunion on Monday night and then spent most of the week putting Eliza back together again. We all had a great time over the weekend, especially Miss E, who thrived on all the people and babies that were willing to pay attention to her. However, sleeping in dorm rooms that were overly bright (seriously, the curtains may as well have not been there for how much light they shut out) with so much going on made it hard for any of us to get enough sleep. So she was more than done by the time we got home and needed several days to get back to normal. Plus we all caught colds, probably on the plane, which only added to the fun. But I am happy to report that by Friday she was her old self again.

We were lucky to be on the same hall as Mac's friend, Susan (the other red-haired Susan), and her husband and son, Larson, who is about a year older than Eliza. She was thrilled to have him to run after and play with for a few days.



Back at home, she is pulling up on everything in sight now and can even balance on her own for about half a second before falling down again. She clearly has grand visions of walking sooner rather than later. Mac did some more baby proofing this weekend, attaching tethers to bookcases and the like. She has become a fan of all books on the bottom shelf, pulling them off and removing the dust jackets so she then alternately chew on the book or the dust jacket. True to form, though, she is already more interested in the books on the next shelf up, as well as the few items we placed above that for safekeeping...apparently not so safe.


Father's Day was pretty low key, in keeping with our aversion to Hallmark holidays, but Eliza did get her daddy a globe that he can write on like a whiteboard and a little flip book of herself (great site: flipclips.com). We all had pancakes for breakfast. She didn't like hers so much, but is exhibiting more interest in grown-up food each day. Cheese and yogurt are her new faves.

It's been very hot and humid here, so not very many outdoor adventures to report. However, she is adding more and more people to the approved NOTMOM list, so hopefully the worst of the separation anxiety is behind us. This phase of it, at least. I'm sure it will rear its ugly head again. I'm just happy to be able to go to the gym or leave her with a sitter and not have it be a total disaster.

Wind Storm 2007

Chicago weather is CRAZY today. Really hot (90+) and REALLY windy. And now there are big thunderstorms on the way in, the kind they are calling supercells. Eliza and I went to the diner around the corner for lunch today and I just carried her b/c I didn't want to deal with the stroller in the wind. A good call, I think, as we almost got blown over just the two of us. Eliza thought it was great. She laughed the whole way there. We had a nice lunch and she made friends with the waitress, the manager, and our fellow diners, one of whom is expecting a baby on October 7, two days before Miss E's first birthday! She was pleased to think what she had to look forward to. Eliza is good baby PR that way.

Later we went for a real walk with the stroller to the post office to mail a package. It was insane. A few times we almost went backwards from the strong wind and other times she was almost blown away from me by strong winds from behind. In one of my not so great decisions, I wore a skirt today...yeah, you can imagine how that went. Hee! So there I was trying to drive the stroller with one hand while holding my skirt down with the other. Well done. The post office was not air conditioned, so that was pretty miserable (when is the post office NOT miserable, really?), but Miss E was a good sport. She is definitely her parents' child, though, as she was sweating and her face was bright red by the time we left. Bummer for her.

We are off to the beautiful Berkshires tomorrow for Mac's 10 year reunion. We're also visiting Karen and the gang, so hopefully more fun photo ops. Have a great weekend!

Hide and Seek

After the somewhat depressing and certainly unnecessary diatribe that the earlier post devolved into, here is a more uplifting update on Miss E. One of her new favorite things to do is play hide and seek. In her version, I go around the other side of the chair where she can't see me. Then I pop my head around the corner in intervals, scootching back farther as she gets closer. Eventually she comes around the corner all the way and "finds" me. She absolutely loves this and whenever she is about to get into something I'd rather she didn't, all I have to do is start hiding behind something and I have her full attention.

Two Interesting Articles from the New York Times

The New York has two really great articles on kid issues. I'm including links and just a couple of quotes that I found particularly salient - to read the rest, click on the links (and sign up for your NY Times access if you don't already have it). I don't want to be accused of any copyright infringement! :-)

Doll Web Sites Drive Girls to Stay Home and Play

Presleigh Montemayor often gets home after a long day and spends some time with her family. Then she logs onto the Internet, leaving the real world and joining a virtual one. But the digital utopia of Second Life is not for her. Presleigh, who is 9 years old, prefers a Web site called Cartoon Doll Emporium.

The site lets her chat with her friends and dress up virtual dolls, by placing blouses, hair styles and accessories on them. It beats playing with regular Barbies, said Presleigh, who lives near Dallas...

I can't decide which is more depressing - the fact that these sites exist and girls are playing with virtual friends or the fact that someone named their daughter Presleigh.

And she's nine - how long a day can she have?

Either way, I am terrified of the kind of marketing forces that will be at play for Eliza. Between television and Internet, it's like no one wants kids to go outside and just play ever again! As a kid, I loved, loved, LOVED playing Barbies. And I am quite confident we did things with them that would never be allowed on websites. I don't like that children's play can be proscribed this way. Where is the outlet for imagination and creativity and so forth? I see it even with the babies we are meeting now - many of them have lots and lots of activities they participate in. Granted, most of this is for the moms who are going a bit stir crazy being in the house, but it's hard not to feel the pressure and the guilt that I am not doing enough for Eliza. At which point I must remind myself to repeat the mantra, "Everyday life is stimulating for babies." Of course she loves when we go to playgroups or out for walks, but she equally loves chewing on her blocks and chasing the cats and staring at her own hand. She likes to just play.

And with that segue, here is article #2:

When Should a Kid Start Kindergarten?

First she read Leo Lionni’s classic children’s book “An Extraordinary Egg,” and directed a conversation about it. Next she guided the students through: writing a letter; singing a song; solving an addition problem; two more songs; and a math game involving counting by ones, fives and tens using coins. Finally, Andersen read them another Lionni book...

Wow, that's a lot of stuff in kindergarten! I pretty much remember finger paint and maybe some juice. Oh, and nap. Good times.

The half day devoted to fair play and nice manners officially began its demise in 1983, when the National Commission on Excellence in Education published “A Nation at Risk,” warning that the country faced a “rising tide of mediocrity” unless we increased school achievement and expectations...As a result, many parents, legislatures and teachers find the current curriculum too challenging for many older 4- and young 5-year-olds, which makes sense, because it’s largely the same curriculum taught to first graders less than a generation ago. Andersen’s kindergartners are supposed to be able to not just read but also write two sentences by the time they graduate from her classroom. It’s no wonder that nationwide, teachers now report that 48 percent of incoming kindergartners have difficulty handling the demands of school.

No wonder indeed! The article goes on to describe the economic differences in kindergartners - the older ones tend to be more affluent and thus do better while the poor ones, who need the "free" daycare of public school, are younger and start falling behind, setting the stage for a lifetime of underachievement. It was sad.

There was also this frightening stat:
In 49 out of 50 states, the average annual cost of day care for a 4-year-old in an urban area is more than the average annual public college tuition.

Ugh.

Children are a commodity and parents are looking for their ROI. Not that they haven't always, I guess. Only now instead of putting them to work at age 5, we start putting immense academic pressure on them from birth, telling them they must achieve and achieve and achieve, so that we can be a nation of web-surfing, television addicts who don't know how to play.

Now I'm depressed. Cat's in the Cradle, anyone?

Stand in the place where you live

The fun never ends around here. Miss E has figured out how to pull up in her crib - another developmental milestone! It's very cute, as you can see from the pic, and she couldn't be more proud of herself, but it has its definite drawbacks. Mainly that every time she wakes up even a little, she thinks she needs to stand up and then can't get down. Makes naptimes a real challenge! She is currently scoping out the windowsills as her next conquest. Certainly they are the most stable surface she can grab onto - the glider and its ottoman still confuse her. Walking may still be a ways off, but the "cruising" (moving around holding onto furniture) is probably just around the corner. Apparently I was an early walker (9 months)...could she resemble her mother in more than just hair color?