Early Spring

What’d you think of the winter, Maddie?

Maybe you’d show a little more enthusiasm if we gave you an imaginary microphone?

Excellent. Now just lie back and think how wonderful things will be now that spring is finally beginning to make itself felt!

(Yes, there are more interesting pictures of her below, but the fact is that she spends about 23 hours a day lying down in one place or another. The other hour she’s being burped.)

I handed Molli Malou two paper towel tubes a couple of weeks ago and told her she could make them into binoculars. I held them in front of my eyes as if they already were and tried to pitch the joy the experience gave me.

“I don’t want binoculars, daddy. I want a shooter.”

“A gun?”

“Yes, a gun, and it should really work, it has to shoot real kugler.” (Kugler are bullets — or really any little balls or pellets.)

We spent an hour on the project.

Yes, it worked, but I have no pictures of it working. I’m just proud of myself for having succeeded. And I’m proud of Molli Malou for finally wanting a toy that had nothing to do with cuddling or make-up or babies or cooking or the color pink.

She’s getting more and more into physical comedy. One day recently she wandered out of the living room and came back like this.

Maddie is getting better and better and lifting her head. She’s also a genius at sleeping through the night, but we’re in a quandary because she doesn’t quite eat enough during the day — she’s usually 20-100 ml under what she should be eating, and sometimes as much as 200. So we have to break up her brilliant sleeping sometimes just to be sure she’s getting as much food as possible.

She’s a very happy baby, very smiley and babbly these days, and there’s not a whole lot else to report about her.

Her sister, meanwhile, has become hell on a big bike. I think the bike she’s been riding lately is intended for six year olds. She loves it and has lost all interest in her little bike.

And she’s ready for spring!

We’re all ready for spring, actually. We had a teasing taste of it yesterday, when it was warm enough to be outside in a tee-shirt, but the temp has dropped again. This week we roll into the Easter holiday — Thursday, Friday, and the following Monday are national holidays here — and we’re hoping the weather will finally turn the corner permanently so we can attack the yard work while Maddie naps outdoors and Molli Malou races around the neighborhood on her big bike.

There’s really nothing major to report and I can’t think of any fun anecdotes from the past couple of weeks, but at least I’m caught back up again.