Cranking up the Crankies With the Heat

One nice thing about summer and the heat and beach and all the other fun things to do is it really tires out a kid. Brigid was practically falling asleep at dinner last night she was so pooped. It was another day of 90-degree temps and Jack took the girls to the beach again in the morning and again, for some reason, Brigid had a less-than-restful nap, waking too early from it even though she went down for it without protest. She was fussy through parts of the day. Thinking we were doing a smart thing, we decided to go out to dinner because it was so hot. We went to a Chinese buffet place that has re-opened since it had burned down last year, but it was hot and humid inside, not refreshingly cool. We weren't all that impressed with the place, but Brigid ate a huge dinner, all the while looking like she might drop. I gave her a bath after we got home, but the bath was cut short because she refused to stay seated in the tub. She thought it was fun to get up when I told her she had to sit down. So I said enough is enough and scooped her out of the water long before she would normally get out. She loves her bathtime and I let her play for a while after washing her up. She seemed a little annoyed but didn't protest too much. When I was dressing her for bed, she was so tired she got floppy and whacked her head on the changing table railing. She didn't protest much when it was time to settle down before bedtime and she was out by 8 p.m.

Jack installed a small air conditioning unit in her room and that has helped keep it comfortable in there, but she woke up way too early this morning -- with me getting her and bringing her in about 5 a.m. She was restless in bed with us, nursing on and off but very fitfully, until Jack got up with her about 7:30. I expect a fussy and exhausted child when I get home from work today.

The other two have eye exams this afternoon, so my workday will be shorter than usual. We've had a break in the 90-degree temps today, so it will be a little more comfortable. I don't mind the heat, but I mind what it does to the rest of the family so if there's a relief from the heat, it means there will also be a relief from the crankiness, too. I hope.

Looking for Balls at the Mall

Well, Brigid's saga of bumps and bruises continues as she took a fall on the uneven sidewalk yesterday, scraping both knees. Daddy blames the hot weather because she then wears shorts which in turn leave her tender little knees exposed. But the rash on the back of her neck seems to be responding to the hydrocortisone cream. I'm hoping it was just some kind of contact dermatitis that caused an initial itchiness, which leads to scratching, which leads to more itchiness and redness. It doesn't help that she's sweaty there and her hair falls right at the collar line.

The last couple of days Baby B has seemed more clingy than usual, wanting to be picked up and held. She's been kind of weepy, too. It may be a transitional stage she's going through. I'll have to get out my books again, but I seem to recall this age -- the 15-month range -- as being transitional. One thing she's trying her hardest to transition to is speech. She's muttering and babbling all the time, practicing sounds, moving her tongue to see how it feels and where it goes with certain sounds. The "B" sound is popular right now, so we're getting a lot of bah bah bah boo boo boo bah boo. "Ball" is very popular, both in word and item. She loves balls -- loves to play with them, to see them, to watch them. The Oak Street School (Patricia's school) playground is in our backyard and at dinner, when we're sitting out on our deck, we can see the goings-on there. Often there are some kids playing basketball and Brigid goes wild. "Ball ball ball ball," she'll say over and over. If she sees something in print or on TV that even remotely looks round, she'll respond "Ball!"

Last night Patricia had a sleep-over at her friend, Nicole's, house, so after dinner Margaret and Brigid and I went to the mall, first to Border's, then just to walk around. Brigid loves running around the mall. She has a few favorite places to visit, like a male dog marking his territory. She knows the Adirondack store with the big stuffed bear in the front. She has to visit the bear and give him a hug. She also knows Victoria's Secret. Now, little Baby B has no need for the IPEX bra and panties, but they have a pink stuffed doggie in the doorway that she hugs. The mall has a couple kiosks of gumball machines and she has to visit each machine and open the metal flap for inspection. She then likes to visit this perpetual motion machine that drops balls in gears and moves them about, but it unfortunately has seen its heyday and that day is long gone. We then let her run around some more. After exhausting her at the mall, we went for ice cream at Harrigan's, a soft-serve place where she ran around some more in the grass by the picnic tables. A bath at home and she was out for the count.

Patricia, meanwhile, did very, very well on her report card and for her entire fourth-grade year at her new school. The report card showed straight 4's and straight "O's", the highest grades she could get. Her teacher wrote a wonderful, glowing note about his experience with our sweet, sensitive and funny girl. She got to meet her new teacher, Ms. King, and has most of the same kids in her class that she had this year. She is most grateful because there were a few kids, boys and girls, she was hoping would not be in with her and they won't be. At Oak Street, fifth graders are the top bananas, the last bastion of innocence before the insumountable wall of middle school approaches. It will be interesting because Margaret never had that kind of transition.

This summer, both Margaret and Patricia will participate in a three-week theater workshop taught by Patricia's fourth-grade teacher, Mr. Fortin, and his wife, Mrs. Fortin (like Elmo's World, Mr. Noodle and his brother, Mr. Noodle). They're excited about that. They'll work on Seussical the Musical and put on a production at the end of their session.

Margaret's babysitting has been going well. She's going to be a rich young lady by the end of the summer. The theater program won't interfere with her job because it's in the mornings and we have her sit a few hours in the afternoon. I will give her her first paycheck this week. I'll be interested in seeing what she does with it.

Hiya and Helwo!

Margaret did an exemplary job babysitting yesterday and had a long day of it, having to watch Baby Brigid in the morning and afternoon. At some point in the day, Brigid took another tumble, striking her nose on the foot of an antique sewing machine cabinet I have in the livingroom. Her nose looks like it has a little sunburn on it. But she was her usual self not long after. We had Grandma and Granddad Downs over for dinner last night and Brigid ran around and enjoyed being the center of attention. She has started waving and saying "Hiya!" over and over again. She also has "helwo" down pat when she holds the phone or anything else that looks like a phone up to her ear. She goes back and forth between Hiya! and Helwo! depending on the situation.

She ate dinner fairly well, enjoying Daddy's bread and zucchini lasagna, and then she enjoyed smooshing Grandma's banana walnut cake and whipped cream onto her face and into her hair. Needless to say, she had a bath right after. She loves her bath, and all I have to say is, "Do you want to go upstairs and take a bath?" and she's running for the hallway door. We keep it gated, so she'll stand there like the horses in the morning waiting to be let into the barn. She wants to climb the stairs, and she does a good job of it, but I have to be right behind her. But she's a funny kid. She knows where she's not supposed to be. If the gate wasn't up or latched, she'd stand there, waiting, kind of looking over her shoulder at you, as if to say, "What do I do now? Do I go?" Sometimes, she'll devilishly stand somewhere on the threshold of a forbidden zone and laugh an almost evil laugh .... "Hahahahahaha, here I am, about to go where I'm not allowed. Hahahaha." But she really rarely ventures in without your knowledge. Then you go and retrieve her and close the door or hook the gate and she's usually fine with it.

So last night, she certainly was ready for and happy to have a bath. But when she got to the top of the stairs, instead of heading right to go to the bathroom, she turned left and made a bee-line for Margaret's room where she pulled her threshold laugh and looked at me, then looked in the room, and back at me. I took a step toward her and she went in to pick up one of Margaret's stuffed animals (in this case, a Build-a-Bear Workshop dog). She then hugged several other stuffed animals and American Girl and My Twinn dolls before I was able to steer her out the door and down the hall to the bathroom. She has gotten to the point where she's now helping when you undress her. I'll say, "Lift your arms" when I'm removing her tops and she does so dutifully. She'll lay down if I need to remove her pants or diaper and then she's happy to be placed in the tub. I bought a pitcher specially made to pour water only on the baby's head and not down her face, and that's an improvement. We're still using the special soap for her rash on the back of her neck. I don't know if I see any improvement yet.

This morning was the last day (moment) of school for both Margaret and Patricia. Margaret got her report card at 8 a.m. and I picked her up about 8:15 a.m. She was beaming, having had a remarkable first year in public school. Can't do much better than straight-A-pluses. Ok, she got an A-minus in gym. Curse that gym teacher! She did great academically and socially she's blossomed into quite a butterfly. Today she's going to her friend, Natalie's, house for a birthday sleepover. She stayed the night the other night at her friend, Maggie's, house. I'm so happy because at St. Peter's, although she had friends, they weren't local kids -- many came from surrounding districts so they didn't get together very often thoughout the school year and then never during the summer.

Patricia's day ended at 10 a.m. with a 10:30 a.m. orthodontist appointment where she had some tightening and springs added to help open spaces where teeth still need to come up. She had new colors: red, white and blue. She picked up her report card, which I have yet to see, and then went to meet her new 5th-grade teacher, Ms. King, and said most of the same kids seem to be in her class. That's a good thing, because so many of them have become good friends.

So now the summer has started officially. Brigid isn't going to know what hit her, having her big sisters there with her all summer. Wish I was off as well.

Jeepers Creepers, Where'd Ya Get Them Peepers?

It was hot yesterday, but Baby B held up very well in the weather. We bought an air conditioner for her room in anticipation of a hot summer (now watch: it will be cold and miserable). Her room is so small, a tiny unit will be enough to keep her comfortable. And here's something funny: The kid doesn't like to be covered up. When I bring her in with us in the morning, she kicks and kicks until she's completely uncovered. It isn't by accident. It's deliberate, which means she pulls all the covers off us as well. Maybe she has an ultra-sensitivity to things like that. But we do know she's been having some kind of sensitivity issue on the back of her neck. For the last few weeks, she's been scratching the back of her neck like crazy, creating (or responding to) a red rash. At first, back then a few weeks ago, we though she had some black fly bites. But they didn't go away and she continued to scratch the area. Her hair falls just at that level, as does the collars and necklines of her clothes. Then we thought it might be detergent-related, so we switched to Dreft baby soap, which we used to use months ago. But her clothes have been washed with the regular laundry soap for months and she's never had a reaction. That didn't seem to make a difference. She had her 15-month check-up last week, and Dr. Chaskey said it could be a few things, not the least of which is the dreaded, all-encompassing "Contact Dermatitis" -- translated means "We don't know what the hell it is, but something came in contact with her derma (skin)." He gave us a hydrocortisone cream to try; he also recommended using some kind of anti-itch cream. She doesn't seem as bothered, but she's still reaching back there to scratch, and sometimes it goes up into her hair on her scalp. (cooties? Lice? Her microchip implant by the mother ship??) We've also switched to some anti-allergic type soap for washing and shampooing her to see if that helps. But with the heat and the sweatiness of it all, I'm afraid she's getting really itchy again.


One thing the sweatiness is bringing out is the curls, just like Margaret used to have as a baby (still does as a big girl but she has much more hair now). I hope Brigid ends up with curls like Margaret had. They were adorable and always managed to elicit comments from strangers. She already gets comments on her blue eyes, which, as far as I can see, are a different shade of blue than any of ours. Whenever we go someplace, someone mentions her blue eyes. (I think I've used this photo before, but it really shows off them peepers)

Today marks the first day that Margaret is the official babysitter since she didn't have school. We'll see how that works out, but so far so good, according to Jack, who reported she is doing a very good job under some difficult circumstances (a visiting friend of Patricia's). I think Margaret would be great no matter what, but the prospect of this being a "real" job -- and we're treating it as such -- makes her take it all the more serious. I'll be leaving work in a few minutes to get a report. I hope she isn't wiped out in the corner someplace, hair askew, food all over her clothes, furniture turned over, baby playing with something unhealthy in the middle of the mess. (think "Jack Jack Attack" from "The Incredibles.")

Going for A Record Number of Shinners

Well, Baby Brigid has given herself yet another bruise on her face. We were at McSweeney's on Sunday (a hot dog place) and she was looking down for a goldfish cracker she dropped and Whack! she hit her temple on the side of the table, the very sharp side of the table. She screamed and then whimpered for a good while until I let her get down and walk around the restaurant while we waited for our food. They had the radio playing so she was content to stand by the speakers and dance, the welt on the side of her head looking angry and very blue. I don't remember either Patricia or Margaret having as many bumps and bruises as Brigid has given herself.

Saturday night Patricia was spending at a friend's house for a sleepover birthday party, so Jack and I took Margaret and Brigid to the beach for an hour before they closed at 7 p.m. It was Brigid's first time at the beach and she was so cute. She loved wading into the water and sitting down, splashing all around her. She also tried to put her face in the water to drink, so we had to be quick to pull her up. She didn't eat too much sand in the process, either. Jack took her out further, where the water was up to his waist and pulled her along, which she seemed to enjoy. But when her feet touched bottom, she enjoyed just walking along and then plopping herself down to sit in it.

She also enjoyed the ice cream we got at Stewart's afterward. She knows what ice cream is, too. When I ask "Do you want ice cream?" She smiles and says, "Mmmmmm."

On Friday and Saturday we did a little garage sale shopping, picking up a few odds and ends. I bought a Holly Hobbie dish (remember her?) at a sale on Friday that's selling on Ebay for $8-$10. I'll list it and see how it does. Patricia, in her usual style, walked away with a handfull of free items. She goes up to the people and asks the price of things and they often tell her she can have them. I've got to learn that technique.

Today is Margaret's last day of exams and after she finishes she's going over to her friend, Maggie's, house for a sleepover. I think the era of friends coming over, friends sleeping over and hanging out has come. I'm glad she's made some new, good friends this year. With a huge school of kids to connect with, it's been a world of difference from St. Peter's. Not necessarily better, just different. She'd have been heading to junior high next fall anyway, so it's just as well we made our decision to send the kids to public school this year. Both girls have really enjoyed their year and have done exceptionally well. I can't wait to see Margaret's final results, because I am sure she's done well. I was helping her study Sunday night for her Monday science test, and the information she had learned at the beginning of the year was there in her head. Information I would never be able to pull up from the recesses of my brain. She's a natural, and we're so proud. Today's exam is in math, and she was studying the prep test last night saying how easy it was because all they'll do is substitute different numbers in the problems. She has grown into such a confident, independent girl and is (usually) a joy to be around. We can only hope the trend continues as she move more quickly into adolescence.


This picture was taken the other day when it was so warm, we just let BB run around in her underware for a while. She likes underware, diaper and naked time. She runs around, usually after her bath, and laughs because it's so liberating. The naked time usually ends when she looks up at you with this quizzical look on her face, pee pee running down her leg onto the floor. It's the chance you take with naked time.

Patricia is spending the day at the roller rink (a.m.) and the beach in the afternoon. It's going to be in the 90s today, so they decided a trip to the beach would be a great way to spend the last full day of school. Tomorrow and Thursday are half days for Patricia. Friday she goes in until 10 a.m. Margaret goes in at 8 and is released soon after, being there long enough to pick up her report card. I can't understand the logic in it, but after that, they're done for the summer.

We've made tentative plans to hire Margaret to do some babysitting for us this summer, working a few hours for a few days a week. We'll see how it goes, but she's stated she really wants to babysit and we figured why have her work for someone else? We'll pay her to sit for us. I told her she has the chance to make some real money this summer if she takes it seriously and acts responsibly. I have no doubt she will when she gets that first paycheck. She said, "Maybe I'll have to put some of it in the bank." I told her that was a good idea. Even Brigid has a bank account. Now if we can only get her a job we'll be set.

B O N U S P H O T O

I asked Brigid to help me with the rice one night recently and she plunged her hand into the measuring cup of rice. So I took an old pizza box we had and poured some out for her to play in.

Considering How Big it Was At Birth, Her Head is On the Small Side

(Editor's note: I posted two more pictures on the June 6 blog from the recital)
Baby B had her 15-month checkup today and got two shots (owies). Daddy got to take her, so I was spared the pain of watching her pain. I'll have to keep an eye on her crankiness and injection sites in case she needs a dose of tylenol or advil. She is 30 and a half inches tall, which still leaves her in the 50th percentile for height; and she's 22 and a half pounds, putting her in the 25th percentile for weight. For those keeping score, her head circumfrence is 45 cm, which is also the 25th percentile.

Hard to imagine that she's 15 months old. She yammers on all the time, sometimes with actual words thrown in. We know for sure she says Hello (helwo) and ball; she says something for dog but then follows up with a woof woof so we know she knows what dogs say. She tries to say "Love you" when I start. You can see her trying to move her tongue to say that "L" sound. Of course she says Mah mah and Dah Dah. But as far as Mah Mah, it still usually means boob, because she says it when she's patting my chest or trying frantically to get my shirt open. She says something for "I want" that sounds like nee nee nee! (usually frantic and said when she's pointing at something.) Negg is for egg. But the babbling goes on and on. Jack has taken her to the YMCA babysitting so he can work out, and they asked him if she talks because apparently, not being a trained monkey, she wasn't saying much around these strangers. But she'll babble non-stop around us, or when she's not aware of her surroundings. When she wanders the mall, she babbles happily.

One thing this kid does is wave. She waves all the time and at everyone. She waves in the mall, in the street, in Wal-Mart, at the TV. She gets a real kick out of people who actually wave back, and with a beaming, beautiful child such as BB, who can resist waving back?

Last night was Patricia's fourth-grade performance that all three fourth-grades created. It was a series of songs and narrations about living in a global world and getting along with one another. Patricia and two other girls had a solo with the chorus backing them up, and I have to say Patricia blew them all away with her singing voice. She is so confident and sings so well. I was so proud. But BB made it difficult to watch the entire performance from my seat so I spent most of the hour program running around the gym after her so she wouldn't bother everyone else. She would stop what she was doing, however, when the audience applauded and join in with an enthusiastic round of applause herself. She loves to clap, she loves to perform and be part of the action.

Ranking right up there next to her love of waving is her love of dancing. I've written before how she'll dance around to her CDs or tapes, but she's taken it a quick-step further and dances around anytime she hears music. She can be sitting in her car seat and she'll start to sway to music on the radio. She does this side-to-side move that's adorable. She'll wave her arms up and down while bending up and down at the knees, all in time to the music. She marches really quickly in place or turns in circles. She just LOVES music and dancing. Can hula babies be that far off? I even think she has started trying to sing when she hears some of her songs on the player. Of course, Margaret and Patricia will spend hours with her in the living room, singing and dancing with her. Daddy has his morning music time with her, too.

Speaking of Margaret, today is Day Two of final exams. She's never had final exams before and she's been very conscientious about studying and being prepared. Yesterday's exam was an essay for English which they started as a rough draft before school ended. The entire exam was re-writing the rough draft. Today is social studies, and she stayed after school Tuesday for a review class. But just like everything else, Margaret and about five other students showed up for it and all six of them are A or A-plus students. The kids who can benefit from extra help or review never show up for these things.

She has an exam on Monday and one on Tuesday; she doesn't have to return to the building after that until Friday morning when she picks up her report card. Patricia has full days on Monday and Tuesday next week and then half-days the rest of the week. Tuesday, however, is a field-trip day where they're going roller skating in the morning and to the beach in the afternoon. I don't know why they have school in June. Most of it is spent on field trips.

Long, Full Days Turn Her Into A Vampire

Brigid had a full and very tiring day yesterday, so full and so tiring that she refused to take a nap. Jack had to go to the hospital in Burlington for a test for his back, so I took the day off and the three of us went over while Margaret and Patricia were in school. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and if circumstances were different would have been the perfect day to spend in Burlington, sitting on the terrace of the Vermont Pub and Brewery. But alas, it was not to be. Instead, we parked at the new parking garage of the hospital and made our way through the huge newly constructed wing to the neurology unit where Jack would have the test that consisted of being stuck with electrified needles along his leg. Because the test would take an hour and a half, Brigid and I left and spent the morning running around the mall where she proceeded to tell me in her way that she wanted a drink at Auntie Anne's pretzel place. She says something that sounds like nee nee nee when she wants something or needs a drink. She points wildly and when you guess correctly, she suddenly stops pointing wildly and calms down. We had our drinks and I took the opportunity to go into the Children's Place and browse the sale racks. Found a few pair of summer PJs for Brigid and then gave her a couple rides on the tiny coin-operated carousel. In my day, it cost a quarter. This thing cost a buck. But she really enjoyed it and protested loudly when I took her off after her second ride. I was going broke.

We left the mall in time to get back to the hospital to pick up Jack. Good news: there doesn't seem to be the nerve damage they originally suspected; bad news, there's no real difinitive answer. So he'll go back to the neurologist in Plattsburgh for further options. We let Brigid run through the hospital lobby on our way to the parking garage -- this new hospital wing is huge. Looks like an airport. So she had fun waving to all the people passing by. She also found it interesting to squat down and feel the floor, which looked like pebbles but was smooth tile. She likes to feel rough textures and compare them to smooth textures. This puzzled her a little bit and I think she enjoyed that. She also liked pushing the elevator buttons, and seemed to understand when I asked her if she'd like to push the button.

It was beyond her lunch time, so we went to Denny's and she ate a considerable amount of egg, or negg, as she says. That "N" sound seems to creep into a lot of her words. We stopped on the way to the ferry for some ice cream, which she calls "mmmmmm" her word for most foods. But she didn't sleep. I thought for sure she'd fall asleep in the car, but no go. We got home in time for the girls to come home from school, and because Jack was going to exercise during his dinner hour, I took the girls to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and then headed over to Sam's. It was an aborted effort because at that point, at 5 p.m., Brigid decided it was time to melt down in a "I'm over tired and about to explode" episode. I was holding her and she rested her head on my arm. Then suddenly I felt a tremendous pain in my arm -- she was biting me! I pulled her away from me and she was crying but it was a weird, outer-body-experience kind of cry. She broke the skin through the sleeve! She fell asleep in the car right then. We went to Border's so Margaret could pick up the next book in the series she's reading and I pushed the sleeping BB in the stroller. When she woke up, she was happy to run around the children's section, pulling books and stuff animals off shelves. I spend most of the time at Border's following her, putting books and stuffed animals back on their shelves.

I worried her late nap and fussiness wouldn't bode well for getting her to sleep at night, but we got home, I gave her a bath and she was in her new PJs and ready for bed at the usual time. She slept through until 6 a.m. and was happy to come into bed with us for some boob time and a few more hours of sleep. She was in a happy mood when I left for work this morning, and Jack was going to take her to babysitting at the YMCA this morning while he worked out. I'm anxious to hear how that went. It will be her first time in that kind of setting.

Aside from a bite mark on my upper left arm that looks something like a vampire's pierce, none of us are worse for wear after yesterday's long, long day.

She Gets the Joke

Well, it's dance recital season, and all three girls (and myself) were getting into the act Monday and yesterday at rehearsal for this weekend's show. While the girls were on stage doing their numbers, Brigid was dancing in the aisle, waving her arms, swaying her hips and bopping up and down. She loves, just loves dancing. She'll be up there before we know it.


Meanwhile, Margaret and Patricia have been truly enjoying both tap and jazz this year. It's great exercise, and they seem to have a knack for it. Patricia has always been good at tap. And although Margaret dropped out after her hula baby year, she wanted to get back into it a few years ago, so I'm very happy about that. And this year is their first in jazz, and they just shine. It's such a good experience not just athletically, because both teachers -- Susan and Nancy -- work the kids hard, but also because it's good socially. It builds confidence and the girls have made some good friends through their dance classes. When they went to St. Peter's, they may not have known the kids in public school, but they knew a lot of kids through dance class. Now that they go to public school, they already had a lot of friends there because of dance class.
And I get a lot out of my jazz class -- both exercise and an hour to laugh and play with adult women. This will be our seventh recital. What's really fun is doing the mother/daughter dance that opens the show. It's a tap number, and although I don't take tap I was able to learn this one and it's a lot of fun being up there with the girls. Nancy (the tap teacher) has asked us to dance all four nights of the recital.

Brigid has been "saying" a lot more words, or at least words that sound like words, lately. I've been saying to her "I (pause) love you!" and now she says something approximating "love you" after I say the "I" part. It sounds so cute, and she gets a kick out of saying it because I give her all this praise. We're working on the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Patty Cake." She repeats things you say to her -- in her own language. And she'll hold a phone to her ear and say, "H'woe" for Hello. That's very cute.

We're also working on body parts. She can point out her eyes, nose, hair, ears and mouth. She knows her hands and feet, fingers and toes. It's so much fun to see her eyes shinning as you play "where's your..." and have her point to hers, then yours. She also takes great glee in trying to pick my nose for me ... turnabout is only fair play. I'm always picking her nose.

Brigid is also a ham. I mean a bone-in, spiral-cut, 100-percent porcine ham. She'll do things just because she KNOWS you're going to say, "Awwww, how cute. What a cute baby." She'll tilt her head sideways; she'll lay down on a pillow and "go nigh-nigh;" she'll come up and hug your leg and put her head on you thigh so you go, "oh, sweet baby." Then she'll look up at you and smile this pixie smile. She KNOWS she's being cute. She "gets" the joke. It's so much fun having a baby who plays along. She'll stand in the doorway of a room she knows she's not supposed to go into if the door was inadvertently left open and she'll laugh this fake impish laugh, as if to say, "Anyone? I'm here, I'm going in. Anyone? Here I go. Anyone?" And you'll come upon her and she doubles up, laughing, like, "hahahaha. You caught me!" It cracks me up.

Our baby is growing up, way, way too fast. I got her a front-facing car seat the other day. It makes a huge difference for her to be able to see where she's going instead of where she's been. But it takes some getting used to as far as her comfort in falling asleep in it. We went to Albany on Monday when I had a doctor's appointment. Just she and I. She was trying to fall asleep and would keep startling herself away when her head would bob because she's so used to the reclined position of the rear-facing car seat. But otherwise, it was nice to be able to see her face, to engage her in conversation on the drive down. She was good as gold, and napped for a while down; she napped the entire ride back, which was nice because I didn't have to entertain her when I was concentrating on my driving. I got one of those mirrors to clip on the rear-view mirror so I can see her without turning around. I think it's easier getting her into the seat as well, so there's less frustration on both our parts. Yes, she's growing up.