Birthday Buddy

Today we celebrated Jay's birthday six days early. It was the perfect day for a very nice BBQ. Unfortunately, the picture below is the only decent shot we took of them together. Click here to see the other pictures from the party (we think Greta is quite photogenic in front of the pink azelea bush). Greta had her first taste of cake (which she loved!), but she didn't try any frosting, so that will be a first at her birthday party on Friday.

Fixed by Mommy

Dressed by Daddy

"Pop!"

Tonight Greta grabbed Dr. Seuss' HOP on POP from her box of books to read before bedtime. I opened it to her favorite page and read: "HOP POP We like to hop. We like to hop on top of Pop. STOP You must not hop on Pop."

Greta looked at me, grinned, and said "Pop!"

"Pop?" I asked her, wondering if I heard correctly.

"Pop. Pop," she replied. "Pop."

Her Pop would be so proud. Brilliant, baby. Absolutely brilliant.

Tug-a-tug-a-tug-a!

That's the sound effect that accompanies the game in this photo. Mommy or Daddy grabs one end of anything [chain of links, string, blanket, or in this case, a highly dangerous vacuum cleaner power cord (yes, it's plugged in; it's on, even)], and Greta grabs the other. The grown-up provides a little resistance, Greta shakes her end, and in a low voice the parent says: "Tug-a-tug-a-tug-a!" Works every time.

I'm off to NYC today and tomorrow, so I leave the blog in Carey's capable hands. I miss her already. Greta, I mean. Oh, and Care too.

Point & shoot

Greta has discovered pointing. Say "cat" and she looks down on the ground for Jinx, then points. Say "fan" and she turns her eyes to the ceiling, and points.

I didn't take this picture, Carey did, but it's a good one.

Also shows the facial expression my father the artist has focused on as one of Greta's quirks -- top lip over the bottom, half consternation, half nonchalance.

Wake up music

Greta's latest trick is very considerate. Rather than open her mouth and empty her lungs when she awakes, she has taken to pulling on Ellie the Elephant's tail, which begins an endless loop of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." Luckily for me, Carey seems to always hear it first. :-)

On the phone with Gr & Gr Merrill

A little almost live blogging... here's what Greta looked like while she talked to Grandma and Grandpa Merrill about 15 minutes ago during what's become a customary Sunday phone call. She told them all about her weekend... including a fondue party, garage sales in the rain, lunch at the mall food court and a play date with boyfriend Jay. And she did it all without ever losing oral contact with her post-dinner biter biscuit. Genius.

Greta the Multi-Tasker

After dinner tonight (diced chicken, carrots, mozzarella cheese, and a baby banana) and dessert (a jar of pears and wild blueberries), Greta still seemed to have the munchies. So I gave her one of the organic vanilla biter biscuits I bought at Amy Reid's favorite grocery store in New Hampshire. Greta can gnaw forever on these hard little sticks! Or at least until she drops one on the ground (which is what happened tonight, much to her chagrin.) Anyway, I was very impressed by her ability to gum the biscuit while smacking her giraffe out of the way so that she could play the piano. What a talented little multi-tasker she is!!

Live free or die

Click here for 58 photos documenting Greta's trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Southern Maine. We all had a fabulous time. Our friends, Aaron & Amy Reid, are living the Norman Rockwell life. It's a beautiful town, they have a beautiful house... seriously, they're beautiful people.

Steppin' out

It is here noted: Greta Corleen Merrill took her first unassisted steps in the state of New Hampshire on April 15, 2006. The location was a public theater in the round on Portsmouth's Strawbery Banke (yup, that's how they spell it), a row of houses and museums that date back to the 17th century. Her first step was just that, a step, but she's now up to one, two, three, sometimes four, and her record is five. We've practiced every night on the rubber mat on our balcony since getting home on Tuesday afternoon.

I'll link later to a slideshow from the weekend, but for now, I thought everyone should know that news. Girlfriend is bypassing crawling and going straight to being a biped.

With carrots, off to N.H.

Greta switched the tables on Carey tonight, feeding her instead of vice versa. You'd never guess the photo came after a much less than enjoyable bath. In fact, girlfriend hasn't bathed happily in five days. What up with that?

Anyway, as they say on Broadway, this blog is dark until April 19, when we'll post pix from Greta's first visit to the Granite State.

Comments etiquette

For our faithful readers who don't have blogger.com logins and are commenting as "anonymous," please do us the kindness of signing your comments. It's freaking out the grandparents. Thanks.

Greta the gardner

Something odd is happening on our balcony this spring. As she usually does, Carey purchased some plants and flowers when the weather started to improve. According to credit card receipts, the plants were bought on April 2 at Home Depot. Today is April 13. That's 11 days, for those not good at math. And that's at least four days more than any plant has ever survived on a Merrill balcony.

So my conclusion: the spark of life that is our daughter has nourished the sparks of life on our balcony. She spends at least 30 minutes rolling around on a rubber mat out there, either in the morning or evening. Sometimes she babbles, obviously acting as some sort of plant whisperer, and sometimes she even tends to the buds, as in this photo. In any case, it's amazing evidence of the circle of life, don't you think?

A Model for Gerber?

Greta recently started having dessert after dinner. Not every night, but on those evenings when she literally cleans her plate and is still hunting around the corners of the tray for more. Could she have a few more pieces of string cheese or carrots instead? Sure. But don't we always save room for dessert?! Here she is enjoying the second half of Gerber's Dutch Apple. What a poster child!

Daycare Surprise

Since Greta's first day at Mama Dhillon's, I have wanted her to have hair. At the end of the day, all the other little girls have bows and barrettes, ponytails and braids, courtesy of Mama D's skillful hands. The other parents marvel at how adorable their daughters are, because the girls won't sit still when they try to put "pretties" in their hair at home.

Now, I know that the following 'do didn't really take a lot of skill, but it is the first time Greta has had a barrette in her hair! And it is a true clip--not a sticky bow. Girlfriend finally has enough of a wisp to actually fasten a bow. Isn't she beautiful?!

The Voice

On Fridays, the daycare bag is practically bursting. Everything comes home to be washed: crib sheet, blanket, play blanket, and activity quilt. Usually they are all stuffed into a super-sized ziploc. But I forgot to pack the ziploc on Friday, so everything was stuffed into a Safeway grocery bag, with the top handles tied into a knot. I simply dropped the entire bag into Greta's laundry basket for Saturday's wash.

Then I heard it: "What if Greta grabs the bag? She could pull the bag into the crib and suffocate or choke. Take the laundry out and throw the bag away." I answered 'The Voice' with perfect logic: "She has never reached through the slats before to grab laundry, and the bag is heavy with blankets. She won't touch it and I'll do laundry on Saturday. You are being a paranoid Mommy."

I know what all of you are thinking: that Friday night something scary happened. But it didn't. She slept like an angel and all was right with the world.

The scary thing happened on Saturday at noon, when I heard Greta wake up from her nap, crying. Not her usual wake up routine. She is usually all smiles, babbling and kicking her feet against the crib slats. But she was really wailing. I ran in to her room, and the fear I discounted Friday had been realized: Greta had pulled the plastic handles of the bag through the slats and gnawed off the plastic piece that is always loose on the bag. You know the little piece I mean, where the bags are fastened to the holder in the store? And she had either choked on it and puked or swallowed it and threw it back up. She was a mess, the crib was a mess, and I was a mess. What a terrible Mommy I am. I will never dismiss The Voice again.

Rob's response? "Of course she grabbed it. You know how much she loves crinkly bags!" If only he had unpacked the daycare bag on Friday night.

Anyway, she is fine, fully recovered and napping as I type. Not sure why I felt compelled to confess, but I feel better having done so. Thanks for listening.

Totally cute!

Who can resist Greta's yummy toes? Not even the princess herself. They are simply delicious!

LIVESTRONG, indeed

Greta is enamored of the yellow wristband that I wear, nearly two years after they emerged on the pop culture scene. You probably all know the story, but they're meant to show support for the fight against cancer. Lance Armstrong and the marketing geniuses at Nike came up with the idea in 2004. Thanks to widespread visibility from Hollywood types, soon everyone was wearing the yellow rubber.

Greta, of course, doesn't know that back story. She just knows that they feel good when gummed. Still no teeth or signs of them, though.

She's at daycare today, probably spitting up her bottles. She did it twice this morning, at 4 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. Both episodes seemed pretty harmless. She just finished her bottle, turned her head, and spit up half of it.

Sick @ home with Jinx

Carey actually took this photo yesterday, but it conveys how we spent our Thursday morning as well. I'm amazed that Jinx tolerates her, frankly. She spends most of her time grabbing his tail or burying her face in his fur. When he gets annoyed, he simply moves about five feet away and waits for her to low crawl over to him again. Cat and mouse? No, cat and baby.

Greta's been fine this morning in my humble medical opinion. Coughed a little upon waking but kept down all 6 oz. at 5 a.m. and 4 more at 7:30. Ate a dozen small chunks of pears as well. I think we erred on keeping her home today, but had she spit up most of a bottle at daycare, we'd be dealing with the same thing Carey dealt with yesterday.

So here I sit, blogging, while The Adorable One sleeps. She's been down since 9:30. A good, long nap. Mommy's coming home around Noon and then I head to work for six hours. Thank God we have understanding employers (for now.)

Home sick (again)

I don't have a photo to post, as I'm at work while I type, but Greta came home sick again today around Noon. After taking her last two bottles, she coughs so hard that she spits up most of it. It's happened before and it's happened on and off since Sunday, when she spit up on Grandpa during his visit. Being prone to dramatic bouts of worrying, my most recent concern is asthma. But her breathing isn't labored except when she's working up to a cough. We'll ask our pediatrician about it during her next check-up. As usual, the Internet is full of doomsayers on the topic.

Anyway, Mommy is home with her. If she checks in later today, she can provide stats on how many times Greta was sent home from daycare in March. This is already #2 in April! :-(

Tuesday Trials

We missed Daddy today. He went to NYC yesterday for work, so it was just the two of us. Not too terrible a Monday night...a couple of coughing jags (one that produce some stringy peach from dinner--yuck!) but Greta slept through from 7:30 pm until 5:50 a.m. Since she woke up crying, I figured she wasn't really ready to get up (she wakes up for the day a very happy baby!). So I gave her 6 oz and she fell asleep immediately. I felt terrible waking her an hour later to take her to day care. Felt even worse when she spit up in the car on the way down, drenching her outfit (it was wear your favorite color day; she was in yellow) and the car seat. Serves me right for not getting a burp out of her! But her bag had two extra outfits in it, so I figured "no worries." And all was well until Mama Dhillon called my office just after 2 p.m. to say that Greta was not well and had thrown up. I asked if it was a wet burp or related to coughing, but she said 'No...it was vomit." So I got to leave work early to pick her up. She was in a great mood, so when we got home I decided to go for a walk to the grocery store. Ended up buying her a rabbit balloon because she was being such a good girl, and I thought it would make her feel better...in our house you get whatever you want when you are sick. Since she wasn't acting ill and didn't have a fever, I fed her bananas and oatmeal for dinner, with her favorite sweet potato puffs. She kept that down and had a fantastic bath playing with her foamy letters. She didn't seem ill, so I fixed her a bottle and she downed 6 oz and went to sleep like an angel. Hopefully she'll keep it down. She wouldn't burp for me, so we'll see. And of course, we'll let you know how the night goes!

Tuckered Out

Playing with Grandma and Grandpa can be so exhausting!

I didn't wake up until 8:15 Monday morning. I can't wait to see them again! Love you, Grandma & Grandpa Merrill!!!

Weekend with Grandma & Grandpa Merrill

Is there anything we didn't do? We walked 4 miles down and back to Old Town on Saturday, we played like crazy on the patio with my new Home Depot town mats, we misaligned Grandpa's vertebrae walking him all around the house, we ate at my favorite bagel shop and an Italian restaurant, and we explored Teddy Roosevelt Island, something my Daddy hadn't done in the 8 years he's lived in D.C. I was a very good eater all weekend, as you can tell from the photo. I was not such a good sleeper. Saturday night, in particular, I woke up Daddy twice to tell him something, but as soon as he picked me up, I forgot what I was going to say and instead pressed my cheek into his chest hair. That always relaxes me. Anyway, here's the link to our slideshow of the weekend. When Daddy's feeling more ambitious, he says he'll add captions and put it in some semblance of an order.

Grandparents!

Grandma & Grandpa Merrill arrived yesterday around dinner time. I saw them for about an hour before taking a bath and going to bed. Here's the first photo Mommy took of me with them. It's not very good, but I'm sure there will be hundreds more.