After The Tenth..... When The Fun Really Begins

For a few days it just seemed coincidental, but then it started to occur at more appropriate moments. I think we have officially heard our first real "Dada" out of Macy. The first time I heard her say it, just a week or two ago, it was while she was playing with her toys and I was barely in the room, so other than considering it cute, I didn't think much about it.

But then it happened last Monday when we dropped Macy off for her first day of day care. Oh yeah...I guess I haven't told you about that. I have a few things to share regarding her recent day care experiences, but I just don't have the energy tonight, so I'll save them for another time. Back to my current story. So Macy was sitting down at the "breakfast" table in class, just starting to be fed by one of the teachers, when I walked over to give her a kiss goodbye, before heading off to work. As I turned away from the table, I heard it loud and clear and so did the teacher. I whipped my head back and the teacher looked at me and said, "she just called for you as you walked away." Confirmation from a non-biased observer. Macy really did call me Dada and it wasn't just her making random sounds. SWEET!

As I drove to work, I thought about that little moment and realized that it made me much happier and much sadder all at the same time. Such is the life of a parent.

I am currently in the middle of my longest stretch of unsupervised Macy time. I'm pleased to report that things have gone pretty smooth and there are no permanent marks or injuries to mention.

The afternoon was mostly uneventful, but I am even more impressed with my wife today than I already was. I can't imagine how she gets anything accomplished during the day, and yet I know she does. My day was spent preparing to feed Macy, actually feeding Macy and then cleaning up after Macy ate, repeated over and over.

This evening will by my first official overnight alone with the baby and I'm really hoping she sleeps through. Annie is in Connecticut helping to celebrate Tori's big birthday. (I won't say the exact number, as I know enough not to ask a woman her age and to NEVER post it on the internet). Happy Birthday Tori!!!!

I actually just got home from a birthday celebration as well. My great-aunt Dottie is celebrating her 90th birthday and a good portion of the family got together at Carrabba's to party with her. Crud..didn't I just say that you NEVER post a woman's age on the internet? And then in the very next paragraph I go and do just that. I'm hoping there is an "89 and over" exception to that rule.

Dinner was lovely and my great-aunt is just that...doing great and looking nothing like her age. That was especially true as I watched her practically RUN across the restaurant when she saw Macy arrive. 

I do have a small bone to pick with the restaurant though..something I never gave a second thought about until recently. Changing tables in the Men's room..why aren't they standard? Especially in family oriented establishments? I tried to be a good father and change my daughter's diaper, but discovered that the men's room didn't have a changing table. I wound up having to ask aunt Bobbi to check the ladies' room and thenshe did me a huge favor and changed Macy in there for me. Now I just have to find some free time to draft a polite but stern email to some big shot about how narrow-minded and biased their senior management must be, to think that a father would never need to change a diaper. Then again, maybe I should apply the "never send an angry email without waiting 24 hours" rule to this situation and work on it in the morning.

Anyway, the evening was a lot of fun and I got to see a number of people I was hoping would be there and a few I never even expected. Some of the surprises were Aunt Marla who happened to be down from New York and cousins Phyllis, Kenny and Andrea. As expected, Dottie's grandson Greg was in attendance with his "new" wife Allison, whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting before this evening. I didn't really take a lot of pictures, as I was a bit pre-occupied with being the good dad and taking care of my child, but I did get a good one or two. (If any of tonight's attendees want to email me a few of their pictures, I would be more than happy to add them to this post.)

By the way...if you think Macy looks cute in the photos...I picked out the outfit all by myself.

Oh...and there is one non-party picture, which demonstrates how awesome my wife is. That's our freezer, with Macy's homemade food, frozen, organized and labeled. Talk about making things easy on me....NICE!!!!

As I previously mentioned, Macy has developed the skill of mobility. She's still working on mastering this new talent, but it's coming along quite nicely. That first day after she realized that should could actually move herself, she could only go about 3-4 crawls without falling down. She's now developed the ability to stay moving for longer and longer distances.

At this point, her ability to crawl seems in direct correlation to the object that she desires to be near. I wouldn't post a video in which she's not that motivated to crawl, so in the video below you will see that we put one of her favorite objects on the other side of the rug.  If you can't tell, we put a toy cellphone on the floor.

From her reaction, it is clear that somewhere deep in the female DNA there is a strand that fuses a special bond between a girl and her telephone.