Just Put One Foot in Front of the Other

Batten down the hatches, lock up your remote controls and medicate the cats - Mabel is officially walking. She has been flirting with it for a month or so - she'd stand up, look around and then decide, you know what, I think I'd rather sit. Then she'd stand up and if you asked her to walk to you she would comply, as long as you were only two or three steps away. But about two weeks ago at day care she just took off, and now she is walking all the time, everyhwere. It's really quite something.

By the Numbers

Mabel had her 15-month checkup yesterday and I am pleased to report she turned in very impressive numbers. Height - 32 inches. Weight - 25 pounds. Head circumference - I neglected to write this one down, but suffice it to say her melon is appropriately sized. (Although she was NOT pleased when the nurse wrapped the tape measure around her head.) We switched practices so this was our first visit with Dr. Feldman, and he is clearly a professional - he heaped praise on Mabel (to the delight of her swooning parents), let Mabel hold his shiny tool that had a light on the end (to the delight of an almost unbelieving Nugget - Wha?? You're going to let me hold this shiny object? Do you know that I am a very tiny girl who drops things a lot? OK, GiveitGiveitGiveit) and after the exam pronounced her 'perfect'. Plus, he has six kids, so we're pretty sure he knows what he's talking about.

On a separate note, this morning when I gave Mabel one last snuggle I caught the subtle scent of peanut butter on the back of her neck. I'm not entirely sure how it got there, but I have a pretty good idea.

Stop the Carousel, I Want to Get Off

The weather was gorgeous this weekend so we wnt to Glen Echo Park. We have been there before but this time we wanted Mabel to have her first carousel ride - the carousel at Glen Echo is absolutely gorgeous; it's from the early 1900s and has been completely restored. Plus they have live music and dancing in what used to be a bumper car pavillion, and all sorts of yurts (that's right, yurts) where artists teach clases and sell their wares. It's a very funky, cool place. Dylan remembers coming here for art classes when he was in high school.

So, at first Mabel seemed to be into the carousel - we put her on the horse and she immeditately grabbed the shiny pole in front of her to hold on. But as the music started and the horse began moving up and down and the carousel began spinning, she was ... not so into it anymore. She was very brave and tried to hold herself together, but after a minute or two I could feel her little body begin to shake and then she was bawling. But of course you can't get OFF the darn thing until it stops moving, which took a few minutes. But all was not lost - after the horror of the carousel wore off, we got something to eat and Mabel had her first taste of rice pudding. She is officially a fan.

Mmmmmmm ..... corn pudding

I have been wanting to make corn pudding all summer and I finally found a good recipe and some time to make it. I used a Barefoot Contessa recipe so it had an entire stick of butter and a lot more delicious ingredients - and wow, let me tell you, it was some good corn pudding. Unbelieveably, outrageously good corn pudding. I gave Mabel a bite because she was eyeballing me while I was chowing down, and she went nutso for it. Just a little tip from me to you, cleaning up a baby after she's eaten A LOT of corn pudding is rather challenging. Here is Mabel in a corn pudding haze, with a nice sheen of butter coating her little face.

Please Don't Make Me Wear This Ridiculous Hat

Dylan's birthday was last week and I wanted to get a picture of Mabel wearing the same party hat she wore for his birthday last year. Turns out she's not so into the hat anymore - but it's still kinda fun to see how much she's changed.

Car Talk

Mabel has a little plastic walker that also converts into a car. (Hmmmm ... so I guess the car is a convertible?) Anyway, she is very enamored with the car these days. It has a little trunk in the back that opens, and we like to store things in there. Blocks, small toys, pieces of paper; anything a Nugget might need on her long drive across the living room. She hasn't yet mastered forward motion, though, so she scoots herself backward until she gets stuck in a corner or up against the wall, and then waits for us to get her back on course. And if we don't respond fast enough, she simply rolls off and moves on to another activity, like reading that day's newspaper or tormenting the cats. She's got things to do, you understand.

A Nugget and Her Drawer

Mabel loves to be in the kitchen if that's where we are, and as we all know kitchens can be a bit dangerous for kids. Especially if, for example, you keep knives in drawers that are within a certain someone's reach AND you haven't put drawer locks on yet. So we came up with the super clever idea of giving Mabel her own drawer that she can access easily, open and close to her heart's content and is full of Nugget-friendly stuff: wooden spoons, rubber spatulas (very handy for teething - who knew?), boxes of tea bags, etc. You get the picture. Here she is enjoying her drawer, and here she is sizing it up for future use as an alternate nap location. A girl's gotta have options.