Day 239: Holiday fun

Fernando was out of town this weekend, which afforded me a whole lot of extra quality time with Maddie. I thought it would be a good opportunity to take some Christmas pictures, so I suited her up in a little holiday dress, set up a makeshift photo studio and plopped her in the middle of it. I'm sorry to say that this picture is one of our best results! She spent half the time crying and the other half trying to figure out how to get out of her dress. Although, I can't say that I blame her - the dress really wasn't her. She's not so much a lace and ribbons kind of girl. No, I think she'll be little girl running through the neighbourhood in ripped jeans, a dirty shirt, gum in her hair, with one shoe missing and a perpetually snotty nose. It's amazing how you can see their little personalities already.

I've only recently begun to grasp the idea that she will one day be a little kid, a teenager, a grown-up. We tend to live day by day, Mads and I, which doesn't allow much room for gazing wistfully into the future. But lately I've had glimpses. It's such a bizarre thought, that she'll have little friends, she'll get in trouble at school, she'll have her first kiss, her first car, her first job. One day she'll likely be bringing boys home and screaming that she hates us; hopefully not both on the same day, that would be a tough one. Ah, so many things to look forward to!

Poor Maddie is one frustrated little girl these days. Her brain is developed enough to know that she wants to move but her body isn't yet able to do it. So she spends a lot of her time straining, grunting, and eventually crying. Fernando and I, of course, take completely opposite approaches to this. He moves all of her toys just beyond her reach, encouraging her to get her little butt moving. I agree with this tactic, right until she starts screeching, at which point my priority becomes saving my own sanity, and I quickly push everything within her grasp, rendering the whole exercise pretty much pointless. Ah well, she'll get there eventually, I have no doubt. What she lacks in ability she makes up for in persistence, which both gives me hope and scares me to death!