Day 249: Nature vs. nurture?

Well, Maddie celebrated her 8-month birthday a few days ago and to mark the occasion she mastered the task of pulling up to standing in her crib! I guess I should qualify that by saying that she will do it if I sit her right in front of the rails and then jump around in front of her bopping my head back and forth and making jazz hands while saying, "Yeaaaah Maddie! Yeaaaah Maddie!" over and over and over again. She thinks it's great. She also thinks I'm crazy, but what can I say - the feeling is entirely mutual!

Having Maddie has prompted me to spend endless hours mulling over the old nature vs. nurture debate. And I have to say that I've got to side with nature on this one. I am a very laid back person. Or at least I was before I had a baby - now I have a tendency to fly into rages indiscriminately, but for the most part I'm still relatively calm. Fernando is the same. Our Mads, on the other hand, is a bit of a lunatic. Literally since day one, when she spent 13 hours straight crying at the hospital, she's been so intense, so particular, so determined and demanding. And I do realize that all babies are demanding, but she really takes the term to a whole new level. Don't get me wrong, she is completely sweet and loveable in her own crazy way. But it would almost be possible to think there was a mix-up at the hospital, that somewhere in this city there is a baby sitting on some other family's couch watching Seinfeld and eating potato chips. But no, I can see Fernando in her adorable eyes and myself in her bad hair days. And so I have to conclude that her little personality was well formed before she ever entered this world. She is herself, entirely and completely.

I am realizing that most of the pictures I've posted recently are of Maddie in the aftermath of a food explosion in her highchair. She does spend a lot more time there these days. She still doesn't like being in it, but will endure the torture if food is around. A lot of people told me a lot of different things about when babies get easier. Some based it on age - at 6 weeks (ha!), 3 months, 6 months. Others based it on milestones - when she can sit up, eat baby food, hold her own bottle. Well for Mads and me the biggest one is her ability to eat real food. The kid eats all day long. I stuff her with biscuits, crackers, Cheerios, puffs, juice basically whatever I can find. I pondered giving her a cup of coffee the other day but in the end thought better of it. Turns out there is no better distraction on a bad day than food. Hmm, I guess she is her mother's daughter after all!