Missed it by a day

This is what happens when you think you've read the flyer that was dropped into your mailbox when in fact you've only skimmed it: you miss the local winter carnival by one day. After stuffing Morgen into her pink snowsuit and jaja hat, trudging up the street and braving the rivers of water that were streaming into the intersections, we arrived at the junction square on Sunday only to find this ice sculpture, and a very small slushy ice rink. Still we enjoyed it. The sun was out, we were out, all in all it was a nice afternoon walk. 

We finished our little outing with a trip to the local video store, where I used some Christmas coupons to buy a stack of girly movies. Despite Gavin's complaints and ignoring his suggestions, I selected six films. As something of a crappy movie connoisseur, I have to tell you that I nevertheless passed on the opportunity to buy "Kate & Leopold" for less than seven dollars. My taste must be evolving. Someone out there must be proud of me for that. Anyone? Well, I'm proud of me, any way.

Eight Months

Morgen is eight months old now. Well, actually she is eight months old and three days. This is her belated month-a-birthday post. I'm happy to say that her food strike appears to be over, and she is regaining some of the lost poundage with the assistance of a large silicon spoon that she teethes on in between bites. It's pretty cute. She still demands iron-fortified oatmeal and rice cereal at every meal though, so let's hope she keeps her fruit and veggie intake up or, well never mind.

With this latest birthday comes a few mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm having some nostalgia for the first few weeks of Morgen's life, when we were lost in a hazy, sort of mystified and sleep deprived fog and could carry her around all day and let her sleep on our stomachs as we lay on the couch.  She was so little then, and she seems so big now. On the other hand, I'm looking forward to the next stages of Morgen's life. She'll start feeding herself soon, maybe even with her favourite orange spoon. She'll start talking. She'll start chasing after the cat, and becoming the aggressor in the battle for daddy's lap. I'll return to school and get as much done as I can before Gavin finds a job. But lest I leave out the beauty that is the present: right now Morgen is giving big kisses and smiles, learning to give us high 5's, and stubbornly refusing to play on her tummy by exercising her right to roll over at every opportunity. She's thinking about adding some consonants to her vowels and squeaks. She's growing out of most of her 6 to 9 month outfits and spends most of her playtime demanding to be helped up onto her feet so she can tip forward in that adorable baby walk that for some reason reminds me of a zombie's stagger. Our lives are becoming a bit more balanced these days. Ever so slowly, we're starting to fall into our new family routine. What took you so long, you ask? I don't know. I can only repeat what a friend wrote to me recently - sometimes you never know how you will handle something until you actually live through it. There is still some headway to be made to make sure that Gavin and I find the time for each other that we need. But the babysitters are coming forward, and we're looking forward to showing them the diapers and heading out for a few hours of adult time. I'm loving Morgen at eight months. Yes, I loved her during months one through seven as well, but I'm feeling more myself these days. It's a bit of a relief. 

The New Normal

Morgen is quite literally looking at things from a new angle these days - a 15 degree angle to be precise. As some of you know, Morgen has been putting her parents through their nighttime paces lately, waking up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours and demanding to be soothed back to sleep. Well, after several weeks of this, we finally had a visit with a pediatrician - a woman whose brusque manner and combative responses had me a little on edge ... and don't even ask Jessica about the experience unless you want a full-blown tirade - and it was determined that propping up one side of Morgen's bed might help. That way, if her waking was being caused by acid reflux or some other digestive issue, gravity would help keep things in their place. The doctor suggested that we place a brick under the bed. Well, being humanities graduate students rather than bricklayers or construction contractors, we didn't really have any bricks just lying around, nor were we entirely certain where one procures said bricks (Home Depot?) or whether it was even possible to buy 2 bricks rather than, say, 200. So instead, we used what we had to hand. And I am thrilled to announce that I have finally found a worthwhile use for all those (mostly unread) back issues of the American Historical Review! As for Morgen, time will tell whether this new sleeping arrangement, combined with a fairly rigorous (and exhausting) sleep-training program, will help promote better sleep patterns for both her and her parents. But even if it doesn't work and her parents are forced to remain sleep-deprived zombies, it's hard to get too upset ... I mean, look at that face!

What she may be thinking

"What? Build with them? No, I will crush them. Masticate them with my toothless jaws. And then I'll chew on the bag they came in, that will teach them."

Or maybe she's really thinking. "Huh? Forget it. Man these taste good."

Or maybe she's just trying to do anything to get the camera out of her face?

Breakthrough

Morgen ate a whole tablespoon of carrots today and even some broccoli and potatoes before we had to put that away and bring out the oatmeal rice cereal, and then she ate most of that before giving us the signal. You know the one. And if you don't, here it is. Still, dinner was much better than usual, and I'm calling it a breakthrough.

  

Earlier in the day, before this breakthrough, I took these pictures of Morgen in her new brown and pink ensemble. Thank goodness for cloth diapers - they make all the fun clothes that we thought she'd have to grow into fit her right now! Can you believe that our landlord said she looked like a boy today? No, me neither. But he did - right after he said she didn't look like me or Gavin. I'm trying not to take it personally.