Nadia Version 0.8

Dear Nadia,
Today you are 8 months old though if age were measured in awake hours and things learned, you are more like 118 months. Can you tell I'm writing this through a "woke up at 4 AM" haze? Thank you daylight savings. What are we saving, exactly? Certainly not sanity.

(Here you are in your Christmas dress though it may not even fit by Thanksgiving, that's why you wore it to your non-Halloween (Halloween) dress-up tea party at daycare today. I should get an award, or belt, or whatever it is they win in the WWF, for wrestling you into it. Tights, on a kicking, rolling, and crawling away baby? You were mad! Hey, but at least they're not the scratchy tights I used to have to wear - back in the days when I had to walk to school, uphill both ways, in 40 feet of snow..... with no shoes.)

While we're on the topic, let's talk about sleep. First of all I'd like to thank you for doing what I asked last month, that is, staying asleep once I put you down. This has been wonderful the past few weeks, so good in fact that sometimes after nursing you wake up and push me away, as if to say, "ok mother, I'm done with you. Goodbye." One night last week you even crawled around on your tummy for a bit and babbled before falling asleep. By yourself. Without me. This is especially good for my blood pressure as I no longer feel my blood boiling when the neighbours decide to throw bowling balls into the bathtub or run up and down the stairs in wooden clogs.

But now I have a new request. Of course, there's always something, isn't there? Please sleep until at least 6 AM. I know I know, there was that week when you learned how to pull yourself up to standing and just HAD to practice it in the middle of the night. But then we worked on getting you down and now either you go back to sleep after a bit of practice or the novelty has worn off so it's not what is waking you. You were just getting back to almost making it until 6 until the stupid time change happened this weekend. The night before last we got lulled into a false sense of security when you slept from 18:25 (an hour before your bedtime) until 5:45 the next morning and thought you miraculously hadn't been affected but then this morning upon hearing your quiet wake-up babbling I spied the clock reading 4:22 and thought, really? Is this really going to be my day? Indeed it has been my day. You napped well after daycare (for about an hour), of course falling asleep in the car, but only slept for 30 minutes this afternoon. That seems to be the trend these days. Even less napping. Sigh.

Now onto the things learned. This month your brain exploded. No, seriously, it did. It's like crawling opened a door into the busiest part of your brain. It has been beyond delightful to watch you learn/try something new every few days. Let's see, where do I begin. Crawling. This you learned before the last update and within a few days you were pushing up on your legs and climbing over me when we played on the futon mat. After a day or so of this I was like "this reminds me of something.... what is it?" And then the lightbulb went off in my much inferior brain (to yours, that is) and I realized "she can climb stairs!" Unfortunately we have the world's worst stairs for a baby to climb so I could only let you try the top one, with me hovering closely behind. Sure enough, you climbed it. And then came sitting from crawling, imitating: kiss sounds then meowing then tongue clicking, pulling up to standing and now you're starting to try to stand on your own. You are quite good at balancing while only holding on to something with one hand and turning out but I'd venture to say you've got a ways to go before you'll be standing. Especially if you start teething soon. It seems that babies who are teething can't do much else and if I think about it, it makes sense. I mean, when I'm feeling like crap do I feel like doing something new or anything? No, not so much.

Also in the new department is talking. You are no longer dabbling in babbling (I could so be a ghostwriter for Dr. Seuss), you are full-time, yo. Your favourites are mamamama, babababmamama and mmmmmum but you have also spent a few days doing ssss, th, zzzzz, vavava, rarara, wawawa, yayaya, yiyi, daduh and so forth. It all seems to be quite random though.

You are still a good eater though have decided that certain foods must now be rejected. These foods include peas, carrots (though you'll eat both of these in mixes), bananas and potatoes. Potatoes you will not eat in a mix. I think these are your most hated food. The first time you tried them you had a look on your face that read, "why? why are you doing this to me?"

There were a few days when you were nursing more than usual and I was all like, "huh, I wonder what's wrong? Why is she not interested in food this week?" And then I was like, "oh yeah, we have been trying to feed her food she doesn't like." Remember that lightbulb? A little slow on the uptake sometimes. We started avocado as a potential finger food but quickly realized that even we have trouble picking up those small and slimy pieces, so we found some sweet potato star puffs that at first you would pick up and drop in your lap but after a quick tutorial of how to put them in your mouth, you are very good at eating on your own. Also in the fine motor skills department, you are trying to wave and even succeed from time to time. The act of opening and closing your hand still fascinates you. But you haven't decided if you're going to wave with your hand or your whole arm. You'll get there.

Now on to behaviour. You are a very, very, cautious and easily startled little girl. I suppose this is a good balance to your busyness. You are very hesitant to embrace new situations, people, and even toys but if I ease you into them you are very quick to adapt. Like today for instance. Today was your first tea party at daycare. Parents were instructed to dress their babies up (if they wanted to) either in a costume or nice clothes. Since your winter bear suit kind of makes you mad, I decided to spare the workers and put you in your dress. As soon as we arrived, I put you at the table. You immediately looked to your left and were stunned to find a 9 month old boy in a dinosaur suit. You would not stop staring. There was a dinosaur. at. your. tea. party. As soon as I got up to leave you started screaming, as if to say, "oh hell no." So I came back, explained that he was just one of your friends in a costume, gave you a sippy cup, and you got over it. Though I'm sure you still kept your eye on him. Just to be sure.

Anyway little moop (oh yeah, you have about a billion nicknames, hopefully, for your sake, none of which will stick - Roo, moop, baby flower, rooboo, rooboo matrix - don't ask me where that came from, nadiaboo, nadiaroo, munchkin - pronounced with a french accent, of course, read: moonshcain, buenos nadias - not a nickname so much as a greeting, naddington - well, you get the picture - I would be horrified if anyone heard just how ridiculous I get throughout the day), it has been an amazing month. First fingerpainting art (quite beautiful, rather impressionist I must say), first cruising. Incredible.

Love,

M.

4 am is the perfect time to practice this....

These are my mornings.....early mornings.

Reviews

Flight of the Conchords - J went to the Ukraine this summer and came back with two things. 1. A stomach bug. 2. An obsession with this new zany comedy about two New Zealanders living in New York. I have a special place in my heart for Kiwis as they are often likened to Canadians, what with being Australians' poor cousins. Anyway, it's quite funny, especially if you've ever met my friend Sims. Jemaine's antics and dancing remind me so much of him. They are also quite talented musicians and often hilariously bust into ridiculous rhyme and song. And no, it's not a musical, so don't be turned off by the prospect of music. B recommends!

88 Minutes - Terrible. Just terrible. And did I mention terrible? Oh, and it licked. Don't let Al Pacino's name fool you. I know, you're just like me, thinking, "how could Scarface be in any bad movie?" Well, don't be fooled. Please! It's 88 minutes that you will never get back. The worst part about the movie is that is seems like the original uncut movie was probably 188 minutes. Yikes. There are so many threads that are never followed up, so many hints at interesting denouement that never come to fruition. In the end, you are left with the most predictable outcome. You know, the one that first comes to mind 10 minutes into the movie, the one you quickly dismiss as being "too easy," the one you think would make for a very bad movie? Yeah, that one. Oh, and the acting. Wow. Where did they find these people? Some notables are in it, sure, like Amy Brenneman and Leelee Sobieski, but they didn't muster up enough to outweigh the horrendous output of other no-name central characters. There was a reddish-haired lady that was especially rank. B does not recommend!

Definitely, Maybe (mostly, probably) - I love Ryan Reynolds.

Caught!

Holding hands with older men is very serious business. Please, no flash photography.

Random Bullets

Here is miss N with her new 15th century page-boy haircut. Her bangs were getting close to her eyes so I snipped them. Okay, so they may look like they were cut with a boulder but you try cutting the hair of a squirmy 7 month old.

N has been a busy little bear, learning all sorts of new tricks like climbing stairs (our open-slat wooden stairs are obviously not appropriate for her to practice on but I put her on the top stair just to see if she could... she can) and pushing herself up to standing. Oh, and babbling "mamabalawawayama" and other assorted tales all day long. SOoooooo cute. But I will elaborate further in her update at the end of the month.

Also, Naddington loves finger painting. She made us quite a lovely impressionist picture yesterday at daycare.

In other baby news, I saw a baby the other day, driving a car. Seriously. A woman had her baby propped up on the steering wheel, a baby who couldn't have been more than a year old, as she was driving down the road. Without hazard lights. At a normal speed. Only in Italy.

J and I watched "Smart People," on Friday. Good movie. Kind of annoyingly brown (everything - decor, costume, lighting is brown) and pretentious, as are most movies about writers, kind of the point I guess, but it was good. Thomas Hayden Church was hi-larious.

My 7 mile perimeter run has been cut a bit short by construction leading me much closer to the runway. Have seen many take-offs and landings, very cool. Today I saw "missed approach" training. Or, at least I think it was training, either that or that pilot really sucked. Yikes.

Naddington Cranky Pants

It has been kind of a tough week here at Naddington headquarters. All of the old failsafes are, well, failing us. Ie. things that used to keep N happy are no longer. One minute she is smiley, the next wincing and whining. Teething? I don't know, maybe. I'm tired of guessing. She also does this new face where she smiles, squints her eyes, laughs and then grunts, as if to say, "here's your smile dumdum, now leave me alone." In the picture above you see her doing the only thing that distracts her from whatever is bothering her for longer than 30 seconds, a lose string on our hand-me-down 80s couch. She will stand there (by herself, yay!... of course with me beside her in case she falls, I meant I'm not holding or propping her up) and pick at it for quite some time. Maybe she's a cat. She has also become obsessed with tags and, when she's tired, grabbing her hair and pulling it out. Awesome. Can anyone say fine motor skills? The hair thing is a bit worrisome, parts of her head are starting to look thinned but evenly so which makes me think it may be falling out on its own. It is her newborn hair still, after all, just a bit longer.

At daycare the other day they tried to get her to do handprint stamps. This is why I like our daycare. I would never think to do art projects with a 7 month old. Anyway, she wouldn't have it and got really mad at miss M. I think it's cause the other kids were fingerpainting and miss M was constricting her hands. It was reported that she was trying to smear her hands, perhaps in imitation.

One highlight of the week is that she has been sleeping until about 6. Up until we moved her out of our room, she was going to bed at 7 or 8, waking up at 3:30-4:00 (sometimes with an earlier wakeup as well around 11 pm) and sleeping until 6. In August, she started making it all the way until 4:30/5:00 and then by Sept. until 5/5:30. 6 is still way too early but not ungodly early like anything previous to that hour. This is my nightowlness talking of course, I know there are people that like getting up that early. She is still going to bed some time between 7 and 8:30 but usually waking up some time before 11 pm, sometimes for as much as an hour. Obviously I prefer if it is before I'm about to go to bed but I've noticed it has a lot to do with when our lovely neighbours, the "Retrons," are clomping up the stairs or slamming doors. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but our walls are paper thin, and they are apprently made of lead pipe. We complained once, the time they were banging a hammer on the wall at 9 PM, but it didn't do any good. Apparently they think it was an isolated incident that we had a sleeping baby that night. Hmpf. They fill me with rage on a nightly basis and have probably already shaved years off my life. The past few nights they seem to have been gone though, so it has been glorious. Oh, but another reason I hate them. One of the annoying dogs (I thought it too was stray) that barks all night, poops in our yard, and dares growl at me in my own driveway, is indeed theirs. They let him roam freely with the strays, something that is typical of Italian dog owners I've noticed.

But on she crawls, and pushes up onto her feet now, making a sort of bridge. It turns out she's just interested in feeling the borders of her play area. As soon as her hand touches the icy, hard tile, she turns around and heads to the other side, just to check if it too is cold and scary. Cautious, just like her mama.

But anyway, I have no idea what is up with her. I wish I did so she would be making new sounds and giggling the whole day, instead of for brief moments only. Maybe it's her lingering congestion. I can only hope it's not a new cold.