maddie diary     july 1998

fourteen months old on 29 july

this month

     - walks like a person
      - answers with a nod or a shake
      - some stranger anxiety
      - goes to bed at 8/9
      - wakes up at 7
      - understands possession
      - respects the pets

size


activities

      - trip to RI for 4th of July

interests

     - taking things in and out
              of cabinets
      - picking things up and examining
              them
      - finding out how things work

A New Era (7/8)
There  are a whole bunch of standard milestones in the first year that she seems to have mastered.  Things like reaching, rolling over, crawling, etc. It's no longer a miracle every day.  It's just miraculous evolution.

Off the bat, the things that are most noteworthy are that she has more hair, actually curling up in the back and making her look a lot more like a little girl, and that she's communicating a lot better.  Up until a couple of weeks ago, she expressed likes and dislikes by making a face or whining.  Now, she'll answer questions with a nod or shake of the head.  She can respond to fairly complex requests, like going and getting an object. You get the sense that she understands more than she's been letting on.

She moves a lot more like a normal kid.  She isn't just barreling along when she's walking-she can stop, turn around (without walking in a circle), sit down in a (small) chair.  She can squat and rise up without holding onto anything.  

Her Day (7/30)
Morning
She wakes up generally around 7.  She wakes us up by crying, although it's not so much crying as yelling-when we come to get her, there aren't any tears, and she's pretty happy.  We get her a bottle, and she may have a spoonful of my cereal every now and then.  She later gets oatmeal and maybe a bit of banana (she generally just gets a half-bite of banana and slimes the rest up for me).  She plays with her toys, hangs on us, takes items out of the cupboard, gets into the pet food.

On work days, I take her to Louise's parents' house.  Otherwise, we feed her and get her dressed.  She's a lot easier to dress than she used to be.  Instead of wriggling like she used to, she's pretty compliant.

Interests
She generally walks around picking things up and examining them.  Many (sometimes it seems most) of those things are things she shouldn't be picking up: dog food and breakable electronics are her favorites, although any garbage receptacle provides endless entertainment. "No" has little meaning to her.

She's a picky eater in what I imagine to be an average kid way.  She's generally eating melanges of some sort for dinner, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to her likes and dislikes.  She'll shake off one spoonful of, say, rice and vegetables, and then, distracted, take the next and the next until it's done.

Mood
Her demeanor has changed a bit.  She seems to cry a bit more for reasons other than hunger.  While she used to not mind anybody holding her, now she will only let us or Louise's family hold her, and she doesn't like unknowns right next to her.  It used to be that she had no concept of ownership-that she was just happy to hold something for a while, and if it were taken away, well, the world is full of wonders, and I'll just move on to the next.  Now, if she doesn't offer the item, she'll cry pretty forcefully if you take it away (if you can indeed take it).  And that spreads to Mommy-if Louise has to do something else, having Daddy sometimes seems like a hollow victory.  Louise is required to hold Maddie for the last half hour before bed (if she's home), or there's hell to pay.  It used to be that she was equally comfortable relaxing in either parent's arms.  I don't love this new arrangement, but she's a kid, and I imagine this won't be the last phase she'll pass through. 

Brainpower

She's able to follow some pretty complex directions.  She can be asked to go into another room and bring back a certain object (specific book, ball, etc.).  The other day (not that this has to do with directions), we were in the living room and Maddie went into the den.  After about two minutes, she emerged holding two CDs.  I was amazed that she'd learned how to take them out of their jewel boxes.  When I went to return them, I discovered that she had somehow gotten them out of the player.  That involves turning the receiver on, opening the drawer, removing one, rotating the carousel, and removing another.  There has to be a catch, but there the CDs were in her hand.  And I absolutely turned off the stereo the previous time I used it.

She's fortunately reached a point with the pets where it's not simply one-way terror.  She respects their space more, has learned how to be nice, and in turn the pets avoid her far less.

Nighttime
After her dinner, she may get a bath if she hasn't already had one (she sometimes goes to the pool in these summer months).  She's going to bed anytime between 8 and 9, so the pre-bed time consists of prowling around the living room while we watch TV, maybe picking up a book for us to read, and drinking a bottle of milk to hopefully calm her down.