The art of being a baby. April 25, 2007

Sweet Madeline passed the 7-month mark last week to little fanfare but a lot of attention. Each day brings she brings more happiness to our petit family!

Her sleeping schedule remains a daily toss-up, but her eating schedule is very normal and consistent. Every morning she eats her first “solid meal” of the day, always a vegetable. So far she has consumed carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, zucchini, plain yoghurt, infant cereal, and pumpkin, usually mixed with breast milk in order to make the mixture more easily digestible. Her favorites are clearly infant cereal, sweet potato, and pumpkin. Some days she absolutely hates zucchini. But generally she is a much better eater than a sleeper. Mealtimes are always a joyous occasion.

In terms of development, Maddie can now effortlessly get into a sitting position from any other position quickly. This is a bit startling at times. In fact, during the past few nights, when she has woken up the first time (anywhere from 10:30pm to 4:00am), she has been sitting in the corner of her crib looking forlorn and forgotten. Last night (this morning actually), I awoke to little baby chirps and clucks (not crying)… when I went into her room, she was contentedly sitting up playing with her blanket and wide awake. Cute but not so funny at 4:00am.

She is not a fluid crawler yet, but is getting better and better at getting herself wherever she wants to go. This depends entirely on how badly she wants to get someplace. She now “crawls” by moving her arms and legs “properly”, but scooting along on her stomach. Again, we are frequently startled by how quickly she can move across the room! She seems much more interested in standing than crawling. Maddie spends much of her time trying to climb up everything in sight (dad is her favorite climbing wall)… and relishes holding herself up with her legs straight. I sometimes wonder if she will walk and really crawl at the same time.

I keep dreading the first real encounter with Hobbes (the cat), but so far he has shown amazing restraint and a gentle demeanor with her. She is absolutely enamored by him. Whenever he enters a room, she is instantly mesmerized by him. But she needs to practice petting him gently; this evening she almost ripped clumps of fur from his rump and he didn’t think it was so funny (she does this to mom and dad too).

This past weekend we bought a big beach/yard umbrella and a ground cover for Maddie. We’ll set it up out back on the grass so she can start spending regular time outdoors playing during the day with Laye. Maddie is really happiest when she is outside.

Growing up fast. April 19, 2007

Can you believe this is the same baby that used to look so small on her changing table only a few months ago? At the risk of sounding like an old person, I will say that she is growing up fast. Sometimes when I look at a picture of Maddie I can’t believe how much she resembles a little girl already. For some reason, she looks older in pictures to me than she does in person.

A week of trying to get back in routines has seen Madeline’s sleep schedule become undone. Her sleeping is erratic at the moment and it is sometimes very painful at night. We are hoping that she is finally starting to teethe (tonight she was pulling at her ears and was fussy, which I think is a sign of teething…)

Her sleeping typically goes something like this:

Day 1: Virtually no naps at all during the day. Fussy at night when attempting to put her down for bed in her crib (overtired at that point). Finally asleep, then wakes up every couple of hours wanting to play around. Wants to sleep in the next morning when we have to get up and go to work. Day 2: Excessive napping after tumultuous night. 2-3 hour nap in the morning, then 1-1.5 hour nap in the afternoon, then fussy when going to bed because she doesn’t want to miss anything important. Wakes up several times during the night wanting to play. Not very funny. Day 3: Average naps during the day (1.5 hours in the morning, 1 hour in afternoon), easily put down to sleep after bath at night. Sleeps on her own until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, then wakes only once, goes back to sleep easily and ends up getting a solid 10 hours of sleep. Day 4: Feeling good about ourselves, that we finally have it ‘down’. Then another disasterous napping day and sleeping night….

You get the picture. At least she seems to sleep only as much as she seems to think she needs, and is in a good mood almost all of the time while awake. Every book we read (or used to, anyway) says something different, as usual, so we just do what feels ‘right’.

She continues to take well to eating ’solid foods’. At this point she has had: fortified baby cereal, bananas, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, potatoes, and carrots. She seems to prefer the unexciting and relatively bland simple baby cereal (no sugar or flavorants). Now we are starting to feed her these foods twice a day in an effort to begin weaning her from so much breast milk.

Having a baby is not easy.

She has finally gotten old enough to really appreciate what is now her favorite toy, the Jolly Jumper, given to us by some Canadian friends. This contraption hooks to a doorway and has springs, a chain, and a harness for her to bounce around all she wants. We tried this a few months ago and she didn’t really seem to enjoy it too much, but now she is a fanatic. We have to pry her out of the harness because she doesn’t want to stop… it makes her feel like a big girl and she can finally dance like she has always wanted to.

The grandparents (part 1). April 16, 2007

As if a super-trip to Morocco were not enough, Madeline was recently treated to a visit with her grandparents (set 1 of 2; second set to be visited this summer). Literally hours after she arrived in Dakar from Casablanca, little Maddie was bouncing on the Gemmer gramps’ knees.

What a great visit we all had! First we checked the gramps into a nearby hotel (our little apartment is just a bit too cramped with Camp Maddie set up all over the place) , then simply relaxed and had a wonderful yassa poulet dinner. The next day we went to the nearby Club Med which was reminiscent of trashy Caribbean all-inclusives; but a nice beach for the baby. Then we went on a 3-day adventure down to the Sine Saloum region of Senegal (about 100 miles south of Dakar).

This is a great area and definitely worth the drive (takes about 4 hours, for various reasons that can easily be imagined in Senegal). Dakar is situated right on the edge of the rainy, green part of West Africa to the south, and the barren Sahara desert to the north. So a drive of only 100 miles in either direction is quite dramatic. Sine Saloum receives much more rain than Dakar, and the area is a river delta with water everywhere. We stayed at a wonderful place called the Lodge des collines de Niassam that has little single-room houses built into huge baobab trees, as well as rooms on stilts over the water (the three of us stayed in one of these). Quite a unique destination! Definitely the nicest place we’ve stayed in here in Senegal. The meals were fantastic as well, and we took lots of long walks amongst the baobab trees. Predictably, Maddie loved the whole experience. She is really happy when she is outdoors, and at this lodge, even when you are indoors, you feel almost like you are still outside, camping in luxury. There was a full moon while we were there which of course added to the mystique of the surroundings out in the African bush.

After we got back to Dakar the parents had a few more days in Senegal, during which we played 18 holes of golf at the Meridien hotel, and spent an interesting day on Goree Island.

All in all, I think the gramps’ enjoyed the trip, but they really just wanted to be with Maddie and she just wanted to be with them. It was hard to say goodbye, but easier knowing that it won’t be long until Maddie sees them again (this summer is creeping up fast!)

Infant world tour. April 11, 2007

Madeline continued her world infant tour recently with a 8-day trip to Morocco. She simply loved it! The family left Senegal on Saturday morning and returned the following Sunday night. We travelled with two American friends of ours who still really like Maddie (so the trip must have been a success for everybody!)

It became clear early on in the trip what kind of traveller Maddie would be. We didn’t know what to expect; whether this would be too much for a 6-month old… to sum it up, she’s a very easy baby to travel with! In the car, she had more patience than most of the adults (especially on the long driving days, of which we had very few), and seemed to nap no worse in her car seat day than in her crib at home (which actually is not saying a whole lot). As far as routines and sleeping at night, she had no problems and slept as well as she ever does at home (again, not saying a lot). We took the pack ‘n play (portable crib) so each evening, as she does at home, she fell asleep on her own, then ended up in our bed later in the night.

We continued to feed her ’solid food’ at the same time each day. Unfortunately we had to start that just before we left for this trip – no avoiding it. The biggest hassle was bathing her regularly without the infant tub (what a brilliant invention that is). This was especially fun when we occasionally stayed in places with no hot water! Talk about a quick baby bath.

After flying to Casablanca, we drove northeast to Meknes, a smaller city just west of Fes. We stayed there for two nights and it was COLD! Luckily Madeline had enough warm clothes (see her bundled up). We spent an afternoon at the famous Roman ruins of Volubilis in the countryside where she soaked up some history on a ancient pedestal.

From Meknes we drove east to Taza, off the beaten tourist path, where the weather got even colder… then to Azrou and Ifrane, where we got caught in the snow (Maddie’s first!). From there, back to Fes for the last three days in the medina.

Moroccans go completely crazy about babies (even gendarmes and immigration officials), and Maddie’s sparkling blue eyes are a real attraction. Everywhere we went, people on the street grabbed her and smiled at her and kissed her… sometimes they asked to kiss her but more often than not, they would just walk up and do it. It really warms your heart to see an entire culture so utterly entranced by a cute baby. A what a different experience to travel through a foreign country with a baby – so many helpful, friendly people. Everyone wants a piece of Madeline.

Highlights of the trip? Buying carpets and drinking tea with Adbul in Azrou, lounging by the big fireplace at the Hotel Panorama while the tempest raged outside, playing with barbary apes in the snowy forests of the Middle Atlas, getting lost with Maddie in the ancient medinas of Meknes and Fes, eating tajines and playing euchre each night with our wonderful travelling companions,

meeting lots of new Moroccan friends eager to play with and kiss Maddie all over, trying various ways to stay warm for days on end, and eating a big mac and fries (Maddie’s first “mac-free-donald’s”… should be enough until she’s at least 18). And simply experiencing Maddie’s reactions to all the exotics smells, sounds, and sights of Morocco was well worth the effort of being there.

Lowlights? Only one, and that was the plane trip back to Senegal where Maddie had a complete meltdown (too many days of excitement, I guess). She was that baby we all dread being near on an airplane.

She loved being in her backpack (we bought a used baby backpack especially for this trip) or the Baby Bjorn (facing out, of course!)…. always so much to look at and people/places to follow around!

Overall travelling with an infant is much easier than I had imagined it would be.