1m2aSandbox

As Madeleine hurtles headlong towards adulthood – she’ll be six ½ months on Christmas day! – I have to admire her don’t-look-back attitude about maturing and growing up, even as I deplore the fact of it.  Probably because I spend so many minutes of the day with her, she seems to be the of same size, possessing the same bag of trips developmentally, for several days, maybe even a week, until one morning I walk into her room and she’s noticeably heavier as I pick her up out of her crib.  Or she plows along through life and laundry until suddenly the overalls she was wearing last week don’t quite snap around her crotch.  I watch her cooing and rolling around on her playmat for weeks – hello, Giraffe!  Hiya, Lion! – until one day I look and she’s pulled herself up to sitting in order to get more of Giraffe in her mouth.  When do these things happen?  Anybody have any suggestions to keep them from happening?

Only a few more days before Christmas and the big event that accompanies it – the Family Dinner.  I feel duty-bound to remind you all to be on your guard; every family’s got a crazy Uncle Al in their closet who hops the kids up on sugar, teaches them the theory behind building a parachute for jumping off the roof from mommy’s nightgown, then breezes out as you spot your angelic-looking son sidling up to your lingerie drawer.

How do I know this?  I’ve got my own Uncle Al.

Only his name’s Uncle Doug.

Fear not, gentlemen, the deadline for coming up with a brilliant Christmas present has not yet passed you by.  There’s still time to run out and grab a gift that will dazzle your wife and bring her to incoherent cries of joy.

The miracle product?  A home laminating machine.

This is the point in the blog where you forlornly hope I reveal I’m kidding.  Alas, it is not so.

I’m momentarily putting my holiday ruminations on hold because that’s where Madeleine’s digestive tract is. 

On hold.

And as you can imagine, it’s occupying much of my thoughts.

Christmas has quit quietly creeping up on us and has begun its all-out full-scale charge towards us.  Seven days and counting.  I’m reasonably confident I finished my shopping yesterday; now all that’s left is the wrapping and the mailing.  Our family room is a sea of shopping bags and gift wrap and ribbons, and we’ve got boxes stacked ready in the hall to pack for out-of-town mailings.  Having shopped so much online this year, my outgoing boxes are rather more dependent on other deliveries than I’d like, but what can you do?  My other big regret this year is the holiday baking; I’ve always made labor-intensively –decorated sugar cookies and stacks of gingerbread and fudge and other goodies to mail to family and friends.  This year the baking’s getting done one pan at a time, in between naps and bowls of strained sweet potatoes.  So I’m guessing the food will be heading out a bit later than usual.  I suppose I could stay up one night doing it all, but it’s the process as much as the product that I enjoy, so I refuse to force myself to some time schedule.

Still trying to decide what to get for new parents this year?  Look in your own child’s toychest for inspiration.

For Madeleine’s shower, my girlfriend Abby (and her husband Paul – I sometimes speak as if she acts in a void but he’s a helpful other half) gave us a few of her son Isaiah’s favorite toys.  Not the same ones, of course – as Abby was wrapping them up for us, Isaiah expressed concern that they were the originals and Abby had to dig out his beloveds to reassure him – but shiny new ones for Maddie to break in herself.  Not all the toys were newborn-appropriate, but it gave us something new to look forward to using at a later date.  And as baby girl grows into a stage where she’ll appreciate one of her packed-away toys, I get to 1) remember Paul and Abby’s thoughtfulness all over again, and 2) not have to spend money on new toys.

I bring this up now because recently Madeleine went through one such spurt, and is truly enthralled with one of their gifts.

When the weather turned gorgeous and mild today for no discernable reason, Madeleine and I wisely asked no questions and ran out of the house to enjoy ourselves.  We went to our local greenmarket; our supply of frozen baby food’s pretty low and it’s time to replenish.  Having been on solid foods for about three weeks now, Madeleine’s developing quite the diverse diet; she’s getting the eating thing down, throwing both arms out stiff to her sides like an airplane and opening her mouth wide baby bird-style.  

I can’t stand how cute she can make something like eating.