Category: Maddux

After never having been to the doctor for anything more serious than grabbing her ear or falling over from a sitting position (neither of which came to anything), Maddi ended up spending two days of the last seven in the ER.

After her MMR shot, which was administered a month late because of scheduling (or rather lack thereof) issues, our wee one seemed “off” but otherwise fine. A week and a half later, I took her to one of our local portrait studios to have her 1-year-old picture taken (again, scheduling issues!). Normally, Maddi loves to have her picture taken and is delighted to bestow smiles and coquettish looks upon perfect strangers. We have ample photographic evidence that this baby is not camera shy.

So it should have clued me in to the fact that something was wrong when we could not get a single, solitary shot of Maddi doing anything other than crying and trying to crawl back to Mommy. But I just chalked it up to her needing a nap. I’d noticed she was hot, but chalked that up to her right top molar, which was roughly plowing through her angry red gum tissue.

But over the next 24 hours, it became apparent that it wasn’t an issue of teething at all. The standard dose of Tylenol failed to soothe our suddenly fussy little girl, and not only was she avoiding chewy food, but just about all food and drink save applesauce.

Her temperature gradually got higher and higher, until it hit 104 on Monday. Chris and I raced to the emergency room, where Maddi was quickly given a bed and some blood tests to rule out infection. Ultimately, she turned out to be OK. Her fever came down after a larger dose of Tylenol than we’d been giving her (the dosage instructions on the box are needlessly conservative) and her bloodwork and urinalysis came back fine. The conclusion was that she had either a virus or a bad reaction to the MMR shot. Either way, we were to bring the fever down with Tylenol and lukewarm baths.

Her fever broke after the ER visit and all seemed fine, but then on Thursday, we were in the ER again. Maddi had continued to eat perhaps 300 grams of applesauce a day and push her sippy cup away no matter what drink was offered. The result was three pee diapers in a 24-hour period. I could have waited for it to get more serious before taking her in, I suppose, but then again we’re talking about a person who took a baby in because said baby fell backward from sitting and hit her head hard on the floor.

Again we went to emergency and again, Maddi was swiftly admitted. Unlike her previous visit, she had nothing to offer for the urine collection bag, so blood tests were required. She had gobs of the dermal analgesic EMLA applied to the insides of her elbows for blood draws and the tops of her hands for IV insertion, if needed. Stick-on patches of clear plastic were appied over the EMLA, which kept the wee one occupied during the long hours as she tried every which way to remove them.

Finally, the results of the blood test came back — she was slightly dehydrated, but not enough to require intravenous fluids. The ER doc gave me a pair of syringes with which to force water down Maddi’s reluctant throat, and we were discharged. Having eaten nothing all day and operating on three hours’ sleep (and similar amounts for the last several nights), I drove home and plopped Maddi in her high chair for some applesauce, only to notice that the adhesive patches over the EMLA on her hands were still on.

And then, as I removed them, I realized with horror that during the 20-minute car ride, she had chewed entirely through one of the patches and apparently slurped up every last bit of the analgesic. I called the hospital, got the name of the analgesic, and was connected to emergency where their ever-so-bright operator told me that because EMLA is topical and absorbs from the skin into the bloodstream, it should be as harmless inside as out. Which would be true … if the GI tract were covered in skin and not the gastric mucosa, which is far more efficient at absorbing medications than is the dermis. Just to be sure, I checked online, where nearly every source I read said that EMLA, and I quote, “can be toxic if ingested.” Gee, thanks, ER lady. Guesses based on faulty science are the perfect way to deal with babies swallowing controlled medications.

So I called poison control, as any thinking person might do if their baby had swallowed a fair amount of lidocaine, and what do you know? Even based on her small dose, which the operator thought was probably not enough to harm her (but only after asking me how much was applied and how long it had been on her skin), Maddi had to be watched from 4:30 until 6 p.m. to make sure she didn’t exhibit any symptoms like twitching or turning blue around the mouth. I was also told, ironically, not to give her anything to eat or drink that evening except for water, because her stomach was likely numb.

And that’s how I got 10 years taken off my lifespan in the course of a few days.

Other than that, Maddi’s doing fine. She’s almost back to normal now, except for needing an extra nap and a watchful eye on her fluids. She’s walking a little more every day, although she still exhibits no desire to give up crawling until she can run. And she’s got even more words under her belt.

Recent words include “get,” “bread” (a very frequently used word now!), “car,” “bear” (said in an ever-so-cute growling voice!), and “bubbles.” She also finally says “baseball” independently when she sees a game on the TV in Chris’ office. If she doesn’t know the name of what she wants, she points and says “dat.” All told, she speaks 50 words now — not counting the ones I seem to invariably forget. About two weeks ago, she put together her first absolutely undisputable three-word sentence: “Bye-bye, Nana car.” Up until now, I’ve thought I’ve heard things such as “I’m gonna read” and “Go see Daddy” but questioned my sanity; however, this sentence was so clear there was no mistaking my ears.

In a followup to last post, Maddi is still on soy milk. Since she doesn’t like it as much as cow’s milk and thus doesn’t drink much of it, it’s not clear whether she was vomiting because of an allergy or because of overindulgence, but what is clear is that she hasn’t been barfing up soy milk. We’ll retry milk in a few months, but in the meanwhile, the only dairy she’s getting is cheese and yogurt, which have never bothered her.

And here is Maddi earlier this week, enjoying her first trip to the lakeshore with Mommy and big sister Kaija.

For months, we’ve been saying Maddi is “just about” to walk. And for months, we’ve been eating our words as she continued to walk — and later, run — holding onto furniture or fingers or tall toys, but never independently. Just when we were beginning to suspect our little daughter might be the first bride to crawl down the aisle at her wedding, Maddi finally decided yesterday that she’d be OK with walking.

She’s been thinking about it for ages. Over the past few weeks, she’s hesitated longer and longer when we’ve held our arms out and said “Come to Mommy” or “Go get Daddy” before dropping to her knees and crawling that ever-so-long foot and a half to her parents’ embrace. She’s even taken a step or two on her own when she’s not thinking about it too hard. But it wasn’t until yesterday that she finally made that big step forward.

Really, if we’re going to be technical, it was five big steps forward. And the only reason it wasn’t more was because the thunderous round of applause made our wee one a bit nervous and she reverted to her transportation method of choice.

Maddi chose to make her walking debut at Nana’s house after Sunday brunch, and she had quite the big audience. Not only did both parents witness her first steps, but so did Nana, Auntie Kathy and cousin Becca (and sundry animal friends).

She was in the area just between the dining room table and kitchen entry, and in all the excitement, I forget who pointed out, “Look, she’s walking!” but there she was, taking step after tottering step toward the kitchen table where the grown-ups were playing euchre. She looked quite nervous and surprised, but kept walking until all the attention became a little too intimidating.

However, now that she’s done it once, Maddi has no problem doing it when the fancy strikes her. The daycare operator at the gym informed me today that our little Boo toddled halfway across the playroom with no warning whatsoever. (I had failed to inform her of the new skill because knowing Maddi as I do, I figured it would be another five months before she busted out the walking stuff again.) And later today, she stood up in the middle of the living room, walked over to her ball popper and nonchalantly inserted a ball as if she’d been doing it for weeks.

Chris delayed a much-needed nap to enjoy the toddling cuteness, and he was not disappointed. Although she’s a tricky one and often drops down to crawl for things that are too far away, she took quite a few baby steps — between Mommy and Daddy, toward toys, you name it.

If she keeps up at this rate, I give her no more than two weeks before she’s running wild through the house.

On the verbal front, Maddi continues to add new words to her vocabulary on quite a regular basis. Recent words include “babana” (banana), “good” (often used when asking for bananas), “play,” and “cup.” And tonight, she said “potty” very clearly for the first time. Usually it’s just “pah.” She’s also started working on “bread,” her new favorite finger food. Not counting “bread,” that brings her to 43 words at just a week past 13 months.

In some sad news, while she did great with yogurt and cheese, we’re not so sure about whole milk. She did fine for awhile, but she’s been throwing up for about a week, so today we took her off milk and started soy to see if she does any better. So far, she’s still barfing, so maybe (just maybe!) it has more to do with the fact that our wee one is a complete glutton and fills her belly to bursting before getting down to play. But we’ll keep her on soy for 10 days and see.

And here, for your viewing pleasure, is a video of Maddi taking some of her first steps.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, but I think a new word out of Maddi is worth a lot more than pictures. I hope everyone else thinks that way too, because we forgot to take pictures this week. It’s hard to hold a camera when you’re chasing down an ever-faster baby.

This past week, Maddi debuted several new words, much to Chris’ and my delight. Although she uses them judiciously and the people in her playgroup have never heard her say anything but “Mama,” it’s becoming hard to count the words in our daughter’s vocabulary.

Last week, she added “Becca,” “Poppa,” and “Kaija,” and other additions since her birthday were “purple” and “ball popper.” This week, after hundreds of word-less bedtimes, she repeated “Night-night” back to Chris and me as we tucked her in. And today, when I opened the cabinet where we keep Maddi’s food (including her beloved applesauce packs), she got very frustrated when I didn’t fetch any consumables for her and pleaded, “Appow-pah?”

She’s been saying “baby” for awhile, but only at our prompting; however, this week Maddi began saying it independently so we’re counting it as a word. That makes 38 so far. We may have 39 soon, as she’s been trying really hard to say “potty” lately.

Having a baby who can express so many things verbally makes life a lot easier — and a lot more amusing. Yesterday, we had the option of bringing Maddi to her weekly playgroup or picking up Nana at the airport. As Maddi enjoyed her breakfast, I asked her if she wanted to go to playgroup and see the babies. She nodded her head up and down excitedly. Then I asked her if she wanted to see Nana. Again, she nodded excitedly. So I asked her, as I often do when we’re choosing a bedtime story, an outfit or a toy, “Do you want to see the babies? Or do you want to see Nana?”

“Nan!!” Maddi squeaked emphatically, flapping her little arms. So that was that.

In addition to actual words, Maddi now makes a new non-word sound. Her fascination with cars and trucks has led her to begin saying “vrrummm” when she rides on her little car or sees a big truck passing us on the street. It really is the cutest thing ever.

In other news, Maddi may be about to wean herself. She is down to nursing only at night (for 5 minutes, at that). But tonight, she kept making the “more” sign even though she clearly had no interest in milk. So I asked her, “Would you like some cow’s milk in your sippy cup?” and got an unequivocal “yes” in the form of furious nodding and smiling. Thus, our little girl grows ever bigger.

In the three weeks since she turned one, Maddi has grown — right in front of our eyes — from a baby into a little girl. She plays games, performs and has strung together yet more short sentences. She’s found new ways to get into mischief and knows the names of more of her relatives. She knows what is and isn’t allowed (whether she chooses to ignore the rules or not). Sometimes I can’t help but look at this toddler and wonder “What did she do with my baby girl?”

Maddi’s been quite a big girl in many ways for awhile, but never quite enough to distract you from the fact that she was just a wee, roly-poly baby thing. She’s always had a big vocabulary, but more often than not, she’s remained content to whine, cry or point rather than verbalize her desires. Iinstead she chose mostly to speak when she thought no one could hear, when she was excited, or when she was desperate to convey a point. She was steady on her feet, but only stood erect with the assurance of something solid to hold onto. She enjoyed games, songs and books, but was mostly content to watch rather than participate.

Since about her first birthday, Maddi has begun humming along with songs, clapping her hands during pat-a-cake, flinging her legs apart when the “doors on the bus go open and shut,” and insisting on lifting the flaps herself when we read “Where is Baby’s Belly Button?” She’s also moved from playing peek-a-boo with blankets, dust ruffles and tea towels to using her hands in big, dramatic gestures during her favorite game. And last week when I sang “Roly Poly” to her in the car, she moved her hands “up, up, up” and “down, down, down” even though she hadn’t heard the song in a month and hadn’t done the arm motions by herself ever. It almost brings tears to my eyes when I realize what a big girl we have on our hands.

Two of her favorite birthday presents were a little car babies can either ride or push, and a Hasbro Busy Ball Popper. Her walking skills have increased tremendously since she spends hours a day pushing that little car all over the upstairs, and we suspect she will work up the courage to walk unassisted just about any day now. The ball popper, on the other hand, has turned her into an even bigger girl — one with a favorite (and appropriately girlie) color. For some reason, although there are five different-colored balls in the ball popper, our wee angel has taken a particular liking to the purple ball. She rescues it from the popper as soon as she can get her little mitts on it, and then proceeds to gaze at it, slobber on it, and crawl all around the house, adjusting her gait to account for the fact that she has that beloved ball in one hand. And if Daddy doesn’t come running when she calls from the top of the stairs, she drops her prized toy down from between the banister rails as a sort of ultimate sacrifice. When Chris isn’t home to retrieve it, she looks at me with big blue eyes, plaintively asking, “Mama, ball?”

Her purple ball is so beloved that she routinely whispers a happy greeting of “puh-pull ball” as she grabs it each time I plop her down to play. She has also begun saying “ball pa-puh” while she stands transfixed in front of the ball popper. She is quite the little scientist, trying to stuff into the popper everything from her Little People baby (it fit) to her Roll-Arounds (they didn’t quite) to her big, plastic toy cars (they don’t even come close). And it’s not just the ball popper. A few weeks ago, she was standing at the central vacuum outlet (which Chris had to tape over after repeat offenses) trying to pry the circular outlet open, purple ball in one hand, and asked me, “Ball?”

I wasn’t sure that she knew what she was saying when she said “purple ball,” but recently when Maddi grabs her beloved nasal aspirator — which (coincidentally or not?) happens to be a bright shade of grape — she has whispered “puh-pull” to herself. Still not much concept of yellow, green, red or blue, but she’s got purple down!

In addition to her love of the purple ball, balls in general, the color purple, and things into which balls can be dropped, Maddi also loves people. And after a long spell of only knowing the names of three people (Mama, Dada and Nana), she finally knows the names of six people. This past week, she started saying “Poppa” very quietly and “Becca” in a regular voice (but pronounced “Bebba”). And the week before, she began working on “Kaija,” which so far most resembles “Tie.” Not one to forget her oldest friends, in addition to making enticing kissy noises very proficiently, she also now says “Hee, kikky” (“here, kitty”). And in true big-girl form, she has become so gentle recently that Deva now snuggles her head up under Maddi’s chubby little hand for more of that good petting!

While Maddi doesn’t walk on her own — not even a bit — she does run when you let her hold your fingers and when she’s pushing her little car around. She can crouch from standing and then stand up again, toy in hand, without holding onto a thing. She just refuses to walk, that’s all. However, she will stand in the middle of the room and drink milk from her sippy cup, tipping the last drops from her mouth with head craned, so we know she doesn’t have a problem with balance. Our little baby, who as you may recall did quite the elaborate and lengthy dance routines in utero, will even “dance” in place now when asked. She can also play “Ring Around the Rosie” if you slow the pace up just a tad.

She’s also expressing interest in the potty. Since she’s scaled back to 0-1 naps daily, I’ve given up on trying to pee during her naptimes, so I just tell her Mommy’s going peepee in the potty. She races into the bathroom at full speed, giggling maniacally, and stands with her hands on the edge of her bath seat, which sits on the floor in front of the toilet. She is very interested in the whole process and helps me applaud myself afterward, although so far she’s shown no interest in ever using the potty herself and merely looks at me as if I’m crazy when I tell her she will use the potty when she’s 2. But soon … soon!

And finally, in the weeks since Maddi turned one, we have introduced all kinds of yummy things — fruit sorbet, tomato sauce, and whole milk — all with no consequences. The only thing that has broken the baby out is, yet again, rice. Both on her birthday (from the cake) and this past Tuesday (from stealing a cracker in playgroup) poor little Maddi has gotten a rash from this seemingly innocuous grain, which continues to be her one and only food sensitivity.

Coming soon: Pics of our 1-year-old girl enjoying her toddlerhood!

Can it really have been a year ago that I pushed little Maddi, puffy, purple and cone headed, into this world? Sometimes it seems like such a short time since our wee one joined us, and sometimes (such as when she decides she’s had it with napping) it seems forever.

Yes, exactly a year ago I was pushing and screaming and grousing about Maddi’s “stupid melon head” — which of course has rounded out into a very nice shape by now.

In the past year, she’s gained some 14 pounds and nearly 10 inches in height, begun eating a few dozen different foods, has gone from crawling to climbing to cruising to standing, and says 30 words and repeats many others with prompting. This month, she learned to stack blocks, “bounce” the ball, play peek-a-boo with her hands if a towel’s not available, and call the cat by making kissing sounds with her lips. She’s learned the meaning of the word “gentle” and initiates applause if she thinks she’s done something praiseworthy. And she’s working on a bicuspid, to boot!

Tonight, Maddi woke up crying at 11:30, and as I snuggled the little one back to sleep, I realized that exactly a year previous, I was enjoying my long-awaited epidural and, unbeknownst to me, a mere 30 minutes away from the pushing stage. Ninety-five percent of me was anxious to see at long last the baby I’d carried for so long. The other five percent was trepidatious, sensing that inside me kicked a restless little maniac who would doubtless cause many sleepless nights for decades to come. And sure enough, as predicted by her in-utero behavior, Maddi is a restless little maniac who thwarts baby-proofing efforts and nap schedules, and whose destructive powers sometimes tempt me to call FEMA and ask for some relief workers.

However, she’s our maniac, and what a sweet, intelligent and friendly little maniac she is. This week, she began autonomously saying “cheese” (it was only a matter of time!) and “backpack” (in reference to the beloved purple carrier in which she gleefully rides while I do housework) for a nice, round 30 words by age 1. “Backpack,” being a rather difficult word for a baby, was initially pronounced “dackpack” but is now uttered in a more recognizable form. She also says “baseball” and “Kaija” on command (although the former sounds like “ba-ball” and the latter like “tie”). She doesn’t associate those words with anything yet, so we’re not counting them as they are just parroting. It is nice that she’s making an effort, though! One thing she does say is “Bye-bye, baff.” Maddi has bid her bath adieu every night for the past week or so as I carry her from the bathroom. She also says, “Bye-bye, Dada,” “Bye-bye, cat” and “Bye-bye, high-tcha” when prompted. Ever the sport, she tries to repeat, “Bye-bye, baby,” when we leave a mirror, but it comes out sounding like “Bah-bah, bah-bah.” Quite the tongue-twister.

Maddi is working on still more short sentences. Not only has she said things that sound like “Go see Daddy” when clamoring to open her bedroom door and go downstairs, but today she grabbed her favorite book from me as I was reading aloud to her and said what sounded an awful lot like “I gonna wee.”

Maddi still has yet to take her first official steps, but it’s just a matter of time. She walks very proficiently while barely holding onto furniture or a finger. Like Dumbo with his feather, Maddi just needs to know she has something to hold onto to “help” her walk. But very soon, I suspect she’ll figure out she could walk all along.

This month, Maddi began eating turkey stuffing and tomatoes and tomorrow will be reintroduced — again — to rice. I’m sure we introduced some other food but I can’t for the life of me remember what they were. She eats so many things now!

Truly entering her toddler years, Maddi now gets down on the floor after bedtime and nap time and help retrieve her pacifier from wherever she chucked it while in her crib. This began as crazy Mommy talking to herself, asking where Maddi’s suckie could possibly be. Maddi looked at me and then darted under the glider, retrieving her pacifier in two seconds. Now, whether it’s near the bed, under the bed or across the room, Maddi enjoys showing me where her suckie went. She also drops dirty clothes in the hamper upon request, although she often feels instant remorse. Lately, she’s also begun to realize that it’s good manners to play with only ONE towel or washcloth while Mommy is folding laundry, rather than running amok through the just-folded sleepers. I plan to enjoy these helpful years while I can!

On days like today, when she helps with laundry and finding her pacifier and says “Bye-bye” to just about everything in the house, it’s mind boggling to think that just a year ago, I was handed a tiny, kittenish newborn with a puffy purple face and nothing on her agenda but eating, pooping, sleeping and having colic fits. Tomorrow, we’ll have nearly a dozen babies running around the house, eating allergen-free cake, frolicking in the play yard and opening loot bags filled with stuffed puppies and Mum-Mum crackers — a scenario I could never have imagined orchestrating a year ago when my only thoughts revolved around how cute this new baby was and when I could get a shower and pee. (OK, my thoughts still revolve around all three of those things, but I’m now cleared to go to the gym and do the latter two!)

Anyway, happy birthday, Maddi! It’s been the most wonderful year ever.

Coming soon: Pictures of the birthday girl during what will be either the best or most awful birthday party ever, depending on how her friends from playgroup hold up!

This week was a big one for Maddi, with a few firsts and the continuation of what I was beginning to worry were lost skills.

Her first milestone occurred at playgroup on Tuesday, when — out of the blue — she stood for a good 30 seconds just playing with a toy. You may recall that in late March, Maddi stood on her own, but unfortunately, she didn’t make a habit of it and indeed, when prodded to stand or walk, would instantaneously lose all muscle tone in her lower body and behave very much like a sack of lead. I was beginning to think that, out of spite for those of us who wish her to perform like a trained monkey, Maddi would live out the rest of her life being conveyed about on my hip. But apparently, after watching several of her friends standing and walking, our wee one finally decided that bipedal mobility was no longer beneath her.

She stands for longer and longer stretches of time, often seemingly unaware of it as she fiddles with toys (and sometimes keenly aware of it as she drops those toys over the play yard onto the unsuspecting cat). Twice she has tried to walk, albeit unsuccessfully. More often, she opts for the old crawl-and-climb, since Maddi is a baby who knows enough to stick with what works well.

As a crawler and climber, Maddi is fearless. Take your eyes off her for two seconds (literally! Two seconds!) and she is clambering onto the hearth — or, as she did at the same playgroup session — up a few stairs, even though she hasn’t been allowed to practice on them at home. She has even been observed inserting a few toes into the diamond-shaped holes in her play yard and attempting to use the tenuous foothold to boost herself over the fence to sweet, glorious freedom. Because a 63-square-foot playyard is not playyard enough for this little girl.

Despite her, er, lively nature, the wee one nearly managed to escape her first year as a rough-and-tumble adventuress with nary a scrape (although plenty a bruise). Alas, a mere week and a half before her first birthday, our intrepid explorer has sustained her first fall.

Groggy from having just woken up and showered, I foolishly put her on the bed for just a second while I pulled a fresh bra from the drawer. Now, according to the literature, babies of this age are cautious after having experienced heights and will not go careening headfirst onto the floor. Unfortunately, Maddi a) is impetuous to say the VERY least and b) has always been watched too closely to have ever experienced a fall that wasn’t directly related to sitting or standing.

No sooner did I open the drawer than I heard an ominous rustling of sheets against hands and knees, quickly followed by a loud “thud.” I whirled around to behold my daughter doing a headstand on the floor and managed to catch a surprised Maddi before her body flopped onto the floor.

While my wee girl was screaming her little heart out (and while I was feeling like the worst mom this side of Britney Spears), I happened to notice another “first” — Maddi’s first chewing tooth. On her lower left jaw, there is what looked like half a bicuspid poking out from some very inflamed gum tissue. Sure enough, it was a tooth — and her upper right canine is thisclose to breaking through, too.

So now I know the reason for Maddi’s bad temper of late. Not that the Tylenol we’re giving her is helping much, but at least there’s a reason that she screams for 30 only seconds when she falls headfirst off a bed but lately fusses endlessly at naptime and bedtime.

As Maddi enters her very last week of babyhood, she’ll be easy to spot. She’s the baby who’s standing on two feet, sporting a big old premolar and a scraped-up countenance.

And here they are — the latest pictures of our 51-week-old girl!

No, she’s not allowed to do this!

Chris and I enjoy most of Maddi’s developmental milestones. Yes, there are a few, such as sticking hands in poopy diapers and opening the central vacuum outlets, that we could do without. But by and large, we are delighted to see our little girl becoming older and more independent.

However, one of her newest phases definitely falls into the “we could do without” category. It used to be that Maddi would register disappointment with a wide-eyed look of wistful bewilderment and perhaps an outstretched arm as we passed by the forbidden object of desire. Lately, that disappointment has been registered far more often with an arched back and an insistent, high-pitched whining sound that is quickly followed by what is known as the “Shriek of Doom.”

After practicing all manner of screaming and shrieking noises over the past several months, Maddi has finally settled on a bloodcurdling, face-reddening, rage-filled shriek next to which all other incredibly loud and irksome noises pale. It is two parts insane Mynah bird and one part angry mountain lion, with a little extra intonation reminiscent of an exorcism thrown in for good measure.

Parents not coming to retrieve one from a nap quickly enough? Diaper change rather than playtime after aforementioned nap? Forbidden from sampling Mom’s soft drink? Barred from climbing up the tub walls and gnawing on the faucet? Time to employ the Shriek of Doom. Even when it gets absolutely no parental response, this horrendous noise is apparently so enjoyable to the shrieker that it takes a good minute of thrashing on the floor and screaming before one even realizes that nobody’s paying any attention to the earsplitting cacophony.

In other news, I’m thinking of renting Maddi out as a babyproofing-efficacy tester. You see, every time we go to playgroup, she finds something to get into even at the most heavily babyproofed homes. Whether it’s finding tiny knicknacks on the third shelf or pulling heating vents from the floor or attempting to gobble up cat food, Maddi seems to get into all the tempting things that the other babies inexplicably leave alone (at least until she teaches them her tricks). Even at our house, where every outlet is plugged, furniture is tethered and wires are hidden behind things, she still manages to hunt down the odd electrical cord, open the central-vac outlets and splash in the water cooler.

Some of her mischief is beyond the scope of even the most imaginative prediction. Yesterday, while I was on the computer, Maddi, two feet away from me in her huge play yard, began laughing uproariously. I turned around to behold our dear daughter tickling the cat’s footpads as the helpless cat squirmed, stuck to the other side of the play yard. Poor Deva, tempted by a toy with which Maddi had taunted her (a break from her usual pursuit of dropping blocks over the play yard onto sleeping felines), had sunk a claw into the plush plaything and gotten her foot stuck — leaving her vulnerable for the affections of Maddi, whose latest hobby is tickling the feet of both humans and, apparently, animals. Let me just say that it was not exactly the idyllic scene we envisioned when Chris purchased that play yard.

On the language front, Maddi learned two new words this week and debuted them both in a 20-minute span. Last night, she said “bath” for the first (confirmable) time when I stripped her down and asked her if she was ready for her bath. Then, while in the bath, she said “duck” a few times in reference to her bath duckie and clapped when I asked her if she said “duck.” Of course it sounded more like “dud,” but she’ll perfect it eventually, just as she did with “cat.” Her new bath-related words bring us to a total of 28 words with a few weeks to go yet before her first birthday.

Coming soon: Pictures of our little air-raid siren at 50 weeks!

Maddi lost one of her dearest friends this past weekend, although she doesn’t know it. Our beloved cat Selkie, who used to lie on the stairway landing with all her fat spread around her like a furry manatee, had rapidly become skin and bones and didn’t have the energy to roam the house as she used to. We were heartbroken to find out Saturday that she had irreversible liver failure — either from cancer or from not eating — and needed to be put down.

As we got in the car to go to the vet and say goodbye to our kitty, who hadn’t responded after two days of IV nutrition, Maddi clapped her hands in excitement, making the situation even sadder than we thought possible. How do you tell a baby that she is about to bid farewell to the best cat a baby could hope to have?

While her sister Deva either scurried from the room or put out a threatening claw when Maddi came near, Selkie was an eternal optimist. Each and every day, Maddi was given a new chance to learn to be gentle. For months, Selkie presented her fur to our rough-and-tumble little one, and for months she was rewarded with blows and fur-tugging. But Selkie soldiered on, purring as she endured what must have been torment at the hands of her little human sister. It’s as if our cat was waiting patiently for the inevitable day when Maddi would not smack her or yank her long hair, but would pet her sweetly. And in the last few weeks, Maddi finally did come around, just as Selkie knew she would. Maddi finally began stroking the cats’ fur gently and controlling her urge to shriek and flap her arms up and down. And then, as if her work was done, Selkie left us.

Maddi’s too young for the memories of her fur sister to linger — we’re not even sure she realizes there’s only one cat now. But Selkie left an indelible mark with her patience and sweet nature, and if it weren’t for her, I’m sure our little one would still be rough with animals.

In other news, Maddi learned three more words this week, for a total of 26. The first word was “yellow,” pronounced “yeddo” (she can also differentiate between objects that are red, yellow and blue, but hasn’t tried to say “red” or “blue” as far as I can tell). She also says “Cheerio,” which sounds more like “Cheew.” The third word is “boob,” uttered just yesterday, and we’re kind of hoping that she’ll go back down to having just 25 words again. Now that she talks so much, it’s time to either wean or start spelling more things out.

Coming soon: Pictures of our newly-gentle, 49-week-old animal lover on Bunny Day.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the final month of Maddi’s first year. Not only does that mean I have but a mere four weeks to plan a party, it also means that we have precious few days to enjoy with our baby before she becomes a toddler. (Hey, she may already be throwing tantrums, constantly saying “no,” and deliberately tormenting the cats to see their reactions, but technically she hasn’t begun toddling yet!)

This month, Maddi cut two more teeth, began eating four new foods, more than doubled her vocabulary, began routinely allowing us to help her “walk,” began climbing onto the sofa, and stood on her own for the very first time. She also celebrated a few less-delightful milestones, such as learning how to unzip zippers, remove pants and sleepers, dig around in her poopy diapers, and drop toys over the wall of her play yard onto sleeping cats. Once this month, I picked her up from the gym’s day care after 90 minutes and her caregiver pointed to a chaotic battlefield of dumped-out toy boxes and displaced furniture in the previously tidy room and told me wearily, “This was all Maddi.” And indeed, the only other child in the room was all of nine weeks old and completely incapable of laying waste to the daycare. A mere few months ago, Maddi just sat there, too, looking wide-eyed at a world full of things she couldn’t reach. Now that she can reach them, it’s everyone else who’s wide-eyed and helpless!

Now that she’s working on walking, I’m hoping it will temporarily slow her down. Currently, Maddi usually crawls about as quickly as an adult’s brisk walk, which — in case you’re not familiar with crawling speeds — is top speed for your more laid-back tot. At her top speed, employed when she is attempting to access wires, electronic equipment, the central vacuum outlet or a tempting hunk of cat hair, Maddi is nearly invisible, her extreme alacrity creating a vortex around her like that surrounding the Tasmanian Devil. In theory, Chris and I should be able to enjoy at least a week of slow toddling before Maddi figures out how to race around at lightning speed on two feet.

For now, however, she’s content to stand for a few seconds at a time. She can get down from a standing position with no support, which makes it all the easier for her to bend down from the edge of her play yard and grab new toys to drop on the cats. As with her couch-climbing skills (also new this month), the cats are predictably unenthusiastic about the fun and games.

This past week, I got to see what a normal baby is like — something I vaguely remembered from my long-distant babysitting days, but I had begun to doubt my recollections and suspect the mothers had tranquilized their children before handing them over to me. For the past 10 months, I’ve wondered what life is like for mothers of wee ones who take long naps and play with their toys. Last week, Maddi had the misfortune of getting her lateral incisors while she had some sort of yucky, snotty flu. Consequently, she took three naps a day (falling asleep within minutes of being put in the crib!) and actually sat down and played with her toys rather than trying to climb up this wall and that gate or stick limbs into the central vacuum outlet or pull things down on herself. I must tell you it was quite bizarre having all that time on my hands, and it would have been quite relaxing had I not been so worried about this shadow of my former baby. Happily, she spent this morning trying to use her ball as a stepping stone to escape the confines of her play yard and then spent much of the afternoon gnawing the paint off her crib rails and somehow wiggling free of half her overalls (yes, overalls!) rather than napping, so I’m glad to say Maddi is feeling like her old, energetic self once again. I can’t help hoping, though, that the next baby will just naturally be a little less energetic.

As much as keeping up with Maddi can wear a person out, one bonus of our active baby is that her energy spills over into the mental sphere. This month, she learned 12 new words — the latest three of which emerged just in the past few days. After months of enjoying a pull-string hippopotamus that speeds around her bathtub and being toweled off afterward with a hooded hippo towel, Maddi has begun saying “hippo” at bath time. At first it sounded as if she was saying “chuppah,” but now she’s got it down to a pretty recognizable pronunciation. I guess it was easier than “bath,” which remains on the suspected but unconfirmed list. We’ve also been working on stacking her little blocks, and our wee one now has been known to come up with such utterances as “blop” and “blob” while playing with her Peek-a-Blocks, and “shtad, shtad” while stacking them. While she hasn’t got the “ck” sound down just yet, I’m very proud to say that Maddi enunciates her Ls quite clearly. At 11 months, our loquacious little lady has a vocabulary of 23 definite words and a number of things we think she might be saying but aren’t sure about (such as “hungry, Dada,” which was used a few days ago in the proper context and fairly clearly, but only once). She also has kept up with her “sentences,” saying things such as “Hi, kittycat,” “Mama, mil(k),” and once, something that sounded an awful lot like “Down-down, see Dada,” said while standing at her bedroom door and banging on it after she heard Daddy downstairs.

In addition to her new words, Maddi finally has begun using the ASL sign for food rather than indiscriminately signing “milk” when she’s hungry. She still signs “milk” most of the time, but when asked if she wants food (accompanied by the appropriate sign) she will usually correct herself.

This month she got four new foods to enjoy — butternut squash, yogurt, blueberries and raspberries. She also was reintroduced uneventfully to green beans, which had previously been the prime suspect in a bad diaper rash. We discontinued most of these foods for the past 10 days when she got another diaper rash, but eventually it became apparent that it was a teething-related rash, probably from the copious drool since she had more redness under her chin. Sure enough, after the teeth poked through, the redness abated even as she dined happily on yogurt and raspberry cereal.

Alas, with her week of teething, our plans to eliminate the early-afternoon nap were foiled. But it is a new week, and with the wee one destroying her crib right now when she should be napping, it is time for a new attempt at scaling back nap times. If she’s tired enough before I put her down, the thinking is that there will be no energy left for her to remove pants or paint.

It’s only happened once and Maddi was even more surprised than I was, but I’m proud to announce that as of March 25, we have an independent stander. One minute, Maddi was pulling herself up on my knees as we sat on the floor, the next she had removed her hands and was standing all by herself, smiling at me. She stood for a good five seconds until my wild applause rattled her concentration and, with a wide-eyed mixture of delight and confusion on her face, our baby toppled over.

Since then she hasn’t done any unsupported standing that lasted more than a second, but she has tried taking steps from one item of furniture to another. Unfortunately, her endeavors have earned her nothing so far but a bruise on the forehead.

She still refuses for the most part to walk with an adult holding her hands, but she does, however, “dance” with me, which is just as good. Even better, really, when you consider the cuteness factor.

In other news, Maddi’s favorite thing to do lately is hide underneath her crib. Because there’s a dust ruffle, it’s like a little fort under there, and for the last several weeks, she’s spent a lot of time crawling underneath the bed and playing with the old Bumbo we keep there. The past week, she’s also been dragging her toys into the “fort” and has annexed the area behind the glider, which I suppose is the equivalent of an outpost. Occasionally, while we are playing on her floor, she will smile at me playfully and then race under the crib to be “captured.” Being a baby, of course, she still labors under the misapprehension that if she can’t see you, you can’t see her. So if you peek under the crib, chances are good that if Maddi sees you coming, she’ll crane her neck so that her face is as high and difficult to see as possible!

This week also marked the very last week of Maddi’s afternoon nap. After weeks of curtain-yanking, sheet-unzipping, pants-removing fun during what was supposed to be her naptime, we have thrown in the towel. Although she is crabby as can be when “naptime” rolls around, I’m now combining the afternoon and early-evening naps into a single 4 p.m. nap. We are still ironing out the kinks — yesterday, Maddi got NO naps — but soon we hope to have naptimes that involve actual sleep rather than the devastation of her sleeping quarters.

This week marks the first in months during which Maddi has learned not a single new word. However, she does have a new game. When asked, she can point to my nose, eyes, mouth and belly button, and she can show you her hands and feet. For whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to our wee one yet that she might also have eyes, nose, mouth and belly button — perhaps because she can’t see them. Her understanding of anatomy has made it much easier to dress her, because she understands commands such as “put your arms up” and “put your legs down.”

Diaper changes, however, remain a challenge as our wee one has decided that the ultimate good time would consist of removing a poopy diaper and flinging it merrily from her change table. So far, she has managed to move a dirty diaper a few inches, but I fear it is only a matter of time before our persistent princess prevails. Just last night, she managed to plunge a pacifier into her freshly diaper-creamed nethers. And we will not speak of the kicking, scratching and hitting that occur when her attempts to escape the tyranny of the diaper are foiled.

However, as I see it, Maddi’s new ability to stand can only help in her efforts to walk, and when that happens, we’ll be that much closer to the ultimate goal, which is potty training. Sweet, sweet potty training!

Coming soon: Pictures of our 47-week-old stander and non-napper, doing one or the other.