Day 317: ABCs and 123s?

Mads celebrated her first Valentines Day yesterday. She marked the occasion by writing sonnets and reciting her favourite love poems. Well, okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. In truth we read Where is Baby's Belly Button? four times and she spent the rest of the day shouting "DAT!" at the top of her lungs. That's her new favourite word, if you can call it that. But I'm sure she could have done the other stuff if she wanted. For Fernando and I, it was our first Valentines Day with baby. We traded in our usual night on the town for a home-cooked dinner and some TV on the couch. It was nice.

She may not yet be reading Shakespeare, but Maddie does seem to making leaps in her learning abilities lately. She can turn the pages in her book, she can put her little blocks into their container, and she can almost stack things. So, now that it is clear that we have a genius daughter - I am still looking for a "Proud Parent of a Gifted 10-Month Old" bumper sticker for the car - I have begun to worry that I am not providing her enough stimulation. Am I supposed to be teaching her things? Things other than not to chew on candles and dog bones, I mean? Should I be imparting great wisdom, filling her little mind with new discoveries? At what point do we start on the big life lessons? It occured to me the other day that she has never heard the alphabet. What kind of monster am I?

But then yesterday, while I was winding her jack-in-the-box for the hundredth time as she looked on with wide eyes, it occured to me that for her, everything is a new discovery. Looking in the mirror, playing peek-a-boo, feeling raindrops hit her face, ripping out the pages of last week's US magazine - all of these things are teaching her something. She's learning about herself, about the world aroud her, about Britney Spears' sad spiral into alcohol and stupidity. I guess what I'm realizing is that at this age everything is a lesson of some sort.

In other news, we finished her nursery this weekend! Yes, she is almost 11 months old . You know those sweet commercials where the pregnant lady is rocking peacefully in the baby's room, rubbing her belly, glowing. And then dad-to-be walks by with his toolkit and they share a silent but profound moment? Yeah, well that's not us. We moved Maddie into her room when she was about a month old, but didn't quite get around to painting it or anything until now. But I love it! It's pink and pretty and girly. And she of course still prefers to hang out in the hall closet.

(For those keeping track, the back-to-work countdown is at 22 days.)