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

We aren't quite ready for Letterman's "Stupid Human Tricks" segment, but we are well on our way. Macy has expanded her bag of tricks by another handful of talents.

I don't want to say that my wife is holding out on me, but last week Macy demonstrated mastery of a new trick that I didn't even know that Annie was working with her on. After the baby refused some solid food, Annie broke out a juice box and I found myself amazed as I watched Macy take it from her mother and began to drink from straw. At first she struggled a bit, drooling out almost as much juice as she swalllowed, but after a few moments she was drinking away without any mess.

I am totally amazed at the things Macy seems to learn and how quickly it seems to happen. Some of her "tricks" seem to be just fun toddler tasks, but some of them seem a little unusual. Maybe its just me....

THE FUN ONES:

- When Macy has had enough sleep, be it a full night or just a nap, she tends to stand up, cry a bit and then "drop" her woobie (stuffed animal blanket) onto the floor. The dropping is immediately followed by an "uh-oh...dada", informing me that something has happened that's not good. If we don't rush in, a few moments later you'll hear the clinking of the dropped binky followed by another "uh-oh." If you time it just right, sometimes you can catch her "uh-oh"-ing a split second BEFORE she drops it.

- She has now learned both the horizontal head shake means no and the vertical head bob means yes. You can now ask her questions and she'll respond. I was truly amazed the first time I saw Annie ask her if she wanted to go outside and the baby proceeded to shake her head yes and then walk to the door. There are clear signs of her gaining audio recognition. I not quite ready to declare her a genius because when I tested her "yes" head shake and asked her if it would be ok for the giant purple gorilla to crush the house, she nodded her head affirmatively.

THE ONES THAT MADE ME LOOK UP THE CHILD LABOR LAWS TO ENSURE THEY DON'T APPLY TO PARENTS:

The following "tricks" are hysterical to watch, but the first time I saw them, they seriously made me think twice about the times I heard Annie talk about having kids as "building a workforce."

- If you leave the diswasher door open, Macy will now walk over to the silverware tray and begin taking the utensils out and then put them back in. If you hand her your spoon, she will march it over to the diswasher and usually put it in the silverware section. The strangest part of watching her move the utensils around is that fact that when she's done, they are usually back where they belong, instead of on the floor. She actually seems to clean up after herself.

- I think I told you already that when you dress Macy you can tell her to go get socks and shoes and she does. She'll head over to the appropriate drawer, open it, find a pair of rolled up socks and then select a pair of shoes for the day. You never know which shoe she'll select, but she will ALWAYS return with a matching pair.

-If you leave the Swiffer out of the closet, she'll grab it and begin to "sweep" the floor.

-When Annie heads to the laundry room, the baby follows along. When the washer is finished, Annie grabs a wet item and hands it to Macy who promptly places it in the open drier and then gets ready for the next article of clothing.

- If Macy goes number one, you no longer have to grab the diaper and drop it in the Diaper Genie. She'll actually do it for you now. After she's dressed, you stand her up and hand her the rolled up and secured diaper and she'll walk it over to the can. If you step on the foot pedal to open the lid (I'm guessing in another month you won't even have to do that part) she'll drop it in and then clap hands celebrating her achievement.

So there you have it, you are now caught up with all of Macy's "tricks", at least for the moment. I wouldn't be surprised to get up from my computer desk to find the baby vacuuming the living room.

Macy's 5th tooth has finally made an appearance...after being on the cusp for what seemed to be months, she's finally moving past only have 4 teeth. Even more unexpected is her 6th tooth which broke skin just two days later. It's imperative that some more teeth come in, because she needs something to hide her continuing biting issue.

We have gone a few months without any real bites, but I was recently informed that my daughter might have a crush on one of her classmates. You've all heard the classic story of a boy who pulls the pigtails on a girl he likes, well it seems that Macy may have her own version....biting him.

Annie picked her up the other day and while she was there the staff discovered bite marks on little Anthony. The staff hadn't seen the offense being comitted, but the teeth marks on his body, which were two bottom teeth imprints close together and two top imprints with a space between them was pretty telling. It didn't take the CSI Miami team to identify the owner of the bite marks, especially since her other teeth bearing classmates have 8 or more pearly whites.

I'm not sure which part disturbs me more...that my daughter bites other children or that she seems to do it because she has yet another boy crush.

Right before I posted this, we decided to check to see if we have any pictures that might give you an idea of her unique teeth pattern. Not only did I find a good one, but we we may have found one that gives us some insight into her biting habit.

Studies show that when you have two children close in age, things go better when you prepare the toddler for the new arrival. Not being the types of parents to ignore well established plans, unless we don't agree with them, Annie and I are working on ideas to make the transition easier for Macy.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it yet, but Macy's daycare class has a handful of infants so she's getting to spend lots of time around little little ones. At home we are continuing the preparations and we recently bought Macy a litle baby girl doll. The thought is that if she gets used to having her own little baby, she won't complain too much when mommy has one too.

I happened to catch Macy playing with the doll and thought it would be fun to record her actions. Even as I filmed the video I could tell it was going to be really cute and I knew it was going to be YouTube quality. What I didn't know was that it would have quite an unexpected ending. I'm not going to ruin it by telling you what happens, but make sure you have your volume turned up because its more of an audible moment than a video moment. After you've watched the movie, I'll tell you more about what happened. Ok, go ahead and watch the movie. I'll wait...

Welcome back...I can only assume that you heard a "bang" at the end of the clip, just before the camera shook violently. If you watch closely, you can see Macy start to raise her baby up over her head. What you can't see is that after raising the baby up, she then swung it down striking the hard plastic baby head against my cheekbone, which explains why I couldn't keep the camera steady. Since that moment we've adjusted our plan a little to introduce the concept of GENTLE treatment of the baby.

Please excuse me while I go and gently apply some ice to my face....