Sunny Saturday

Mild and fair in your nation's capital. Seems a shame to be inside blogging. But Greta can't sleep alone, I'm told. We had a laid-back morning with breakfast at our favorite bagel shop, a stroll through the farmer's market (where the sidewalk was carpeted with pink flowers), and a trip to the commissary (where I pulled a chocolate coin out of Greta's ear!).

Peanut art

Carey may not post to this blog very often --- who has the time? -- but she must read it along with the rest of you. I was clearing out the camera's memory today and found this photo, obviously inspired by my previous post about Greta's love for packing peanuts. Now, would I have ever thought to use them for a tactile art project? Of course not. And therein lies the fundamental difference between Mommies and Daddies. I did the hunting (or the gathering, if you must), and she takes the raw material to make something nice for the family and our home.

Photos from Syracuse

Hopefully Carey will find time to share a few stories, but I did the dirty work -- uploading 98 photos from her extended visit to Syracuse last weekend. I wasn't there, obviously, but I captioned a few based on what she told me when we first watched them together.

Here's the slideshow link.

So much for a peanut allergy

What accounts for childhood fascinations?

After a few very windy recent days, our "backyard" (read: the parking lot behind our townhouse garage) was littered with debris. Most of it is picked up by now, but packing peanuts are the cockroaches of trash -- you can try to exterminate them, but they swirl forever around garbage cans, stick like ants to grass, and create colonies under shrubbery.

And thank God, too, because they fascinate Greta Merrill like nothing else. Elmo himself doesn't hold the allure of these crinkly, s-shaped bits of Styrofoam. I now allot at least 10 minutes in our morning routine for a peanut hunt. "My peanuts!" she declares, as she chases them all over the place. When she catches one, she crushes it in her tiny hands and watches the confetti blow away.

In La-La land

In case loyal readers were wondering, I'm not blogging about Greta because I'm in L.A. this week attending the Knight New Media seminar "Covering Politics in Cyberspace." The name is more exciting than the conference, trust me. But I do have a cool hotel room on the 27th floor, overlooking the Hollywood hills. And the elevator at the hotel was used in the 1993 film "In the Line of Fire" during a scene with Clint Eastwood. Nobody at the conference can remember the scene. That's been my conversation starter with most of the attendees. Meanwhile, Carey's in Syracuse visiting her family and without the USB cord for the camera. So no pictures until Sunday, I'm afraid. Until then, here's the view out my window. Not enough zoom to show the HOLLYWOOD sign, but it's on the hill in the distance, closer to the left than the right.

Precious moments

Almost two years into this parenting thing, and I'll be honest, many precious moments pass in a blur. You don't have time to reflect, to appreciate certain milestones -- from the simple (Greta now says "Yes" instead of "Yup") to the advanced (her comprehension of sharing on the playground).

But a few nights ago, at about 10:30 p.m. after a fitful start to her slumber, Greta and I had a moment. She went down about 8 p.m. but had already required two visits to settle her back down in the big girl bed. Mommy went upstairs both times, told her it was bedtime, and rocked her for one song in her chair. She'd sleep for 30 minutes or so, then wail and have the comfort cycle repeated. When she cried out at 10:30, I went upstairs. Our beautiful almost-2-year-old is standing at the baby gate, a blanket in one arm and another over her head, barely able to catch her breath through the tears and sniffling. I pick her up, wipe her nose and dry her eyes, position a blanket on my shoulder and say, "It's OK, I love you, Greta." Greta doesn't lift her head, but she speaks clearly into my shoulder, "I love you too, Daddy."

Rainy day people

A wet and wild weekend in your nation's capital. Saturday was mostly shopping. Greta scored at least six outfits as Mommy maxed out her AmEx. We also visited Thomas the Train at Barnes & Noble, where we thumbed through "100,001 Baby Names." At one point Carey said, aloud, "Bennett, I like that name. Two N's, two T's, goes well with the two R's and two L's in Merrill. Bennett, sounds nice." Five seconds later the Dad to her left says, "Bennett, play nice and share." How odd is that? Anyway, 100,001 names later and I still like Otto and Sterling.

Sunday we chilled out with the Bengs girls, dreaming about drier weather. Daddy caught a movie ("Shooter" starring Marky Mark Wahlberg, long past his Funky Bunch days). I left the house as Greta was going down for her nap and I returned to this.

Also had a nice dinner with Aunt Kathy at Generous George's, probably the most kid-friendly local joint around.

Now it's 8 p.m. and we say our silent prayer for the first restful night in the big girl bed.

Good vibrations

Remember my low-back problems? This reveals how tidy we are at the Merrill house, but the massager that got frequent use that week is still on our bedside table. Been there for more than two months, but Greta just noticed it a few nights ago. Now this ritual has become part of her pre-bedtime routine.

Farewell, crib

Just a brief post to mark a milestone: Greta has slept in her crib for the last time. Since we got back from N.H., we've been in this limbo -- starting nights in the toddler bed and then sometimes moving to the crib after she's fallen out of the toddler bed for the third time at 3 a.m. But last night we put her down in the crib at 7:30 and heard a loud "thunk" at about 8. The monkey climbed right out! We're not sure how she landed, because when we both arrived breathless after running up the stairs, Greta looked at us and said, "Diaper change!" We looked her over and there doesn't seem to be any permanent damage. Carey was pretty shaken about it all, but as I told her, we're surely not the first parents to wait too long before dismantling a crib.

First friends

Obviously Greta enjoys reaching milestones in the company of Aaron & Amy. Who can forget Easter 2006, when she toddled her first unsupported steps? And Oct. 2006, when she bit into a whole apple fresh off the tree for the first time?

Well, add to it Easter 2007, when she spent much of the weekend sitting on the toilet with her diaper on, then pretending to wipe herself, then flushing, then washing her hands. She may have peed a few of those times, we're not sure. But we are sure that we arrived home this afternoon and while we were unpacking, Greta went into the bathroom and sat on her potty training seat. I asked if she wanted her diaper removed and she said, "otay." So we sat there for awhile silently, with Greta dabbing herself down there periodically with toilet paper. After a minute or so, I asked her if she was "all done," assuming this was nothing but another dry practice run. I hadn't heard any liquid splash into the bowl, after all. So she stands up, naked, on our very white bath mat. Makes a couple more cursory wipes from front to back, and then starts to take a step out the door. At that point a 4" turd drops from her bottom and lands on the very white bath mat. She's straddling it with her size 4 feet and the first thing I do is say, "don't move!" She obeys and I pick up the turd and drop it in the toilet. By now Carey has heard me exclaim something to the effect of, "oh my god, she pooped!" and has come running in to see for herself. My wife, not as concerned as I am about the skid marks on the bath mat, gives Greta a high-five and says, "all right!" The turd is flushed, the hands are washed, the bath mat is washed, and all's well. Multiply that experience by all the bowel movements for the rest of her life and you can maybe understand our joy.

Story out of the way, a nice Easter portrait of the girl who can now poop on a plastic toilet.

He has risen

Happy Easter, everyone! At 2 years old, Greta already associates the resurrection with chocolate. Good for her, I say. Her Mommy is at church as I type this, but as you can see from the devilish grin, Greta wasn't having any of that. So her atheist Dad stayed home with her. At the moment, she's trying to convince herself it's worth taking a nap in the pack and play. She's started to fuss, which usually means in 5 minutes or so she'll be in the land of nod.

Here are a couple more photos from our morning celebration. A very yummy breakfast from our foodie friends (scrambled egss, blueberry pancakes, vegetarian sausage patties, fresh fruit and yogurt) and then an hour of watching Greta discover the joys inside her basket. Her very forward-thinking Mommy mailed ahead a slew of goodies that she assembled last night.

Saturday in Portsmouth

We got here around 1130 after an uneventful flight. Greta was an angel for the first hour; reading books, staring out the window, playing peek-a-boo with the little girl in the seat in front of her. For the final 10 minutes she turned into a squirming worm, standing, sitting, flopping from my lap to Mommy's. Anywho, went to a downtown brew pub for lunch, where Greta eschwed her fish and chips for the tartar sauce. Used the french fries as dipping spoons and licked off the sauce. Had some bread, too. She skipped her nap, favoring instead a visit to the playground and a downtown stroll, where Mommy bought her some sort of bubble machine. Mommy just finished putting together Greta's Easter basket and we're about to sit down for dinner. Greta's sleeping on a travel bed donated by Bill & Christina Rodgers, fellow Middlebury alums. So far, so good, but she was REALLY tired, so ask me again in a few hours. She can easily roll out of the bed, but it's pretty big, so it might be her first full night in something resembling a "big girl bed." Enough talk -- some photos from day one.

Old friends

We had a nice visit tonight from Cathy & Matthew McSwain, old friends from our first Air Force assignment in Cheyenne. Cathy was a JAG with Carey and is now a reservist and mom to a 5 and 7-year-old. Matthew flies helicopters for the Air Force. Greta enjoyed playing with the "big kids" and they indulged her. Of course we couldn't get any of them to look at the camera at the same time, much less smile, but these two photos aren't bad.

We're off to visit Aaron & Amy in Portsmouth, N.H., tomorrow and will post some photos from there. I can't get enough of Aaron's MacBook.

The girl's got no hips

I'm a man, so what do I know, but it seems to me that having no hips is something Greta will someday take pride in. But now, nigh on 2 years old, it's really just an annoyance for her parents. Every pair of 18-24 months pants slips right off her waist. We've taken to pinching them with safety pins, but we often forget, as in this picture. Last weekend Greta was having a grand time at the playground, running around and chasing all the other kids, when her pants suddenly fell down to her ankles, stopping her in her tracks. She just looked up at me, like, "Hey, fix this problem, would ya?

Finally, video?

OK, thanks to a woman who is blogging about her pregnancy in a blog titled "Baby Manship," I think I've solved the video riddle. She shared her experience on a Blogger Help message board. Turns out when you upload videos to YouTube, you have to select whether the videos are "Private" or "Public." I selected "Private" initially, thinking that the setting would remove the video from YouTube search. Well, turns out it doesn't work like that. Uploaded videos MUST be public for others to see them, unless you e-mail folks the link directly, via YouTube. Note: Either click the play button in the middle TWICE or use the play button in the lower left corner.

So, without further ado, Greta's YouTube debut. More promising videos to follow, I promise.

Fun with Sadie & Immy

Just a couple quick pix from our dinner last night with the Bengs. Greta and Sadie (the older daughter) are becoming fast friends. All the girls had a great time in the backyard and in the bath after dinner. We'll sure miss them when the Air Force moves them to Colorado Springs in a couple months!

Cherry blossoms

We drove the long way home after my soccer game this morning (a 5-0 victory, by the way, with yours truly scoring on a penalty kick!) so we could see Washington's annual rite of U.S./Japanese relations -- the Cherry Blossom Festival. There was no way we were getting out of the car and joining the hordes though, so this was Greta's view.


Mommy did get one decent shot when we were stopped at a traffic light. Gotta love that 10x zoom.

Easter egg hunt

Much more fun than last year! A mobile kid makes all the difference. Here's Greta's debut as a member of whatever comes after the YouTube generation. I'll learn how to make some movies in the next few weeks and we'll have a little more fun with this video on the Web thing.

UPDATE: Need to figure out how to embed the video. Not sure why it doesn't work for some folks. In the meantime, here's a direct link. Mom & Ryan, I'm afraid it won't live up to the hype. It's just a :28 clip of Greta picking up a couple plastic eggs!

Blog silence

My humble apologies for not posting more this week. I criticize the cousins all the time for not providing daily updates and now I'm the one who deserves the criticism!

Greta had a good week except for a little scuffle on the playground. One of her daycare playmates accidentally pushed her at the top of a slide and she fell and hit her lip. Swelled a little but the daycare "incident report" indicates our tough little girl didn't even cry!

Big weekend planned with an Easter Egg Hunt Saturday at a friend's house and a breakfast with Aunt Kathy's mystery man on Sunday. Oh, plus the season's first soccer game on Sunday. We'll post pix from all.

More weekend photos

A few of my favorites, followed by a link to the full 57-photo slideshow.

Link to slideshow.

Weekend face

Lots more photos and more to say when I have time, but for now, here are five photos that show Greta's dominant face of the weekend. I've been living with this kid for almost two years, and I've never seen so much open-mouthed joy. Thanks, cousins, for such a wonderful weekend. I wish we ALL lived around the corner from each other.

And the doctor said...

The sausage put Greta over the edge this morning. Too fast a return to her normal diet. Having kept down goldfish crackers and american cheese yesterday evening, we were over confident and overzealous in giving her what she asked for this morning. But the good doctor completely understood her desire for "real food" after days of saltines and applesauce. Her little stomach just wasn't ready for it. Had it been only the bagel and juice, she probably would have been fine. Mommy and Daddy should have thought twice (and will next time). And he says she is not any more contagious than any other kid is at any time. So...I think we see how she does the rest of the day and tomorrow morning, and if she is in as good of health as he said she is, and in as good a mood as she displayed at the doctor's office, and if Rob's blogging hasn't scared the relatives, we'll drive a few hours south for a few hours of fun!

Alas, all's not well...

Greta threw up before lunch. We'll see if we can get her to a doctor today. That means she's vomited at least once per day since Monday. On the off chance that the cousins and grandparents are monitoring this, I think N.C. is probably a bad idea. And that makes me very sad. :-(

Random photo & health update

It looks like the bug has passed. Greta woke up happy this morning and much less clingy. We dropped her off at daycare around 930 and if she keeps all her food down and acts like her usual energetic self, we'll head south tomorrow morning en route to North Carolina. In the meantime, here's a photo snapped last weekend at the mall. Sanjaya Malakar, eat your heart out.

Health update

Greta's really lethargic today... dozing every couple hours. She kept down a small meal of saltines and peaches, so we remain hopeful that she'll be healthy to travel to North Carolina on Saturday. Hasn't had a fever since Wed. late morning. Carey may post some pictures later.

Sick day

I got home around 1 p.m. yesterday and Greta and I actually had a pretty nice afternoon while Mommy slept. We spent some time at the community playground then went on a 2-hour walk to the bank, down to the water, and home the long way along the Potomac riverfront. She had a handful of Ritz crackers and some water during the journey. It wasn't until we got back home and woke up Mommy that she puked most of it up. But I think she enjoyed getting out of the house. It was low tide, so we were able to walk down the rocks and stand on the semi-muddy riverbed to feed the seagulls.

After Greta emptied the contents of her stomach, she wanted to snuggle with Mommy and watch Elmo. Our household rule is no limit on TV time when you're sick, and Greta is already well aware of the rule. At one point Mommy mentioned her tummy hurt and Greta applied a sympathetic pat.

Today, the girls are home together. Both feeling better, but not good enough to work or go to school. Cousins, we should be 100% healthy for the weekend visit.

Sick kid

Greta puked up her cereal and breakfast bar this morning about 60 minutes after daycare dropoff, so Mommy came home with her. Then Mommy started throwing up. And now I'm home looking after them both. As I type, Greta is about 1 hour into her nap. We're hoping she keeps down the applesauce and Cheerios she ate before hitting the crib. Carey is on her way to the doctor, not for the stomach bug, but for her 21 (23?) week baby checkup. Which leaves me to blog the afternoon away. Carey has some good photos from a "TP" (that's toilet paper to those of you who never pulled that Halloween prank) incident, and I hope to get a good vomit shot from one or both of the girls later today. Until then, in pedialite we trust.

Diggin'

I swear I didn't teach her this, and of course, Carey's never done a crude thing in her life. So we blame the unwashed masses at daycare.

Grandma!

Greta was very excited for Grandma Pandillo's visit yesterday. We told her when she went down for her nap that Grandma might be here when she woke up. First thing she did upon waking was go to the guest room and ask, "Grandma?" No, honey, they're still on the road. Let's go to the bookstore and maybe they'll be here when we get back. 90 minutes later, back from Barnes & Noble, she bounds up the stairs and into the guest room. Grandma? No, probably around dinner time. I-95 is a bitch on Saturdays. Well, they made it in time for dinner and stuck around for a nice breakfast this morning with Aunt Kathy. As you can see from the photos, snapped in about 1 minute at the diner, she really likes her Grandma P.!

Fun-Doh

Poor Play-Doh. I'm sure they patented the name, but not the recipe. Greta has something called Fun-Doh. Same colors, same consistency, same vaguely salty smell. She made shapes with it yesterday using our cookie cutters.

Greta Loo-Who II

Anybody remember this photo from Dec.? Carey returned to the hairstyle today. It lasted for about an hour. Midway through the drive to daycare, Greta pulled it out, said "Here you go," and handed it to me in the front seat.

Jump Bunch

Every Tuesday from 11:30 - 12:00 I join Greta at the CDC for Jump Bunch at the gym. She and five other kids, ages 18-months to 3 years, enjoy a half hour of organized gym time. Greta hasn't mastered the "jump" part of Jump Bunch yet, but she tries very hard: she bends her knees and pushes up, but doesn't get her feet off the ground. It is very amusing to watch.

The teacher, Melissa, introduces new exercises each week, making exercise a fun experience. There are lots of high fives and applause, as everyone gives their best effort. Until today, I was impressed by how well Greta followed directions and tried to mimic the adults...unfortunately this morning she realized the disobedient boys who wanted to run around the gym carrying their red dots instead of standing on them were actually having a better time, and she decided to follow them whenever they bolted for the opposite end of the gym. She has the most devilish little grin...which unfortunately I couldn't capture on camera since I was trying to get three little kids back onto their dots!

Class ends with each child getting a purple handstamp, which smells like grapes. Greta makes sure Mommy gets a stamp, too. Then it's back to her classroom for naptime. Click here for pictures from the class we had today!

Satisfying Sunday

Greta had a great day yesterday. She enjoyed eating a banana-cinnamon bun-bacon breakfast, reading a new book from AK, washing dishes with Daddy, playing at the tot-lot pre-nap, and running around buddy Jay's playground post-nap. (I planned to post more pictures, but Blogger isn't cooperating...sorry!)

All the fresh air helped her crash hard at 7:30, but unfortunately it also gave her a slightly runny nose, which resulted in a lot of coughing during the night. I didn't have the heart to wake her up to take her to daycare, so I called in late to work today (a benefit I'm sure to miss six months from now!). She slept until almost 7:30, and I dropped her off at 8:00. She kept asking for Daddy this morning, but I think she understands he took the train to see Aunt Sara, Max and Esme. I told her she'd get to see him Wednesday morning, and she said "o-tay, Mommy!" Then tonight when I picked her up, she said "Daddy train, daddy coming." I told her "Not yet, but soon." I'm sure we'll go through the same routine tomorrow, so hurry home, Daddy!

Bad girl & her big girl bed

We outsmarted ourselves this weekend. Baby No. 2 is due in 16 weeks, so we thought it would be a good time for Greta to move from crib to toddler bed. Toys R Us had a sale, so we picked one up last weekend. Saturday we put it together. Greta was EXCITED! She climbed all over it while Mommy tried to work the allen wrench, she spoke longingly of her 3 1/2 year old friend's bed (Sadie bed!), she even played fort with Daddy under the partially dismantled crib.

Fast forward to nap time. 11:45, post lunch, baby girl is tired. She wants her blanket and she wants to rest. Upstairs we go. Coax her into the big girl bed, pull the blanket over her, put up the baby gate in her doorway. She lies still for about 3 minutes, then gets out of bed and starts exploring. Doesn't cry, doesn't call for us by name, just checks out every nook and cranny of her room. For 2 hours. Forgets she's tired. Her room looks like the FBI went through it.
First time she hadn't napped since birth.

The crib is back together in its rightful corner of the room. We'll try again in a month or so.

Pop quiz

Greta's stuffed animals and dolls are:

A) Praying
B) Sleeping
C) Dead

I'll post the answer Sunday morning.

Fresh paint

To those who read this blog just for the latest goofy Greta story, indulge me. We just had most of our rooms painted and the grandparents keep asking about the colors. So in the tradition of Flat Stanley, here's a glimpse of Greta with each new wall color.

Counter-clockwise -- that's the erstwhile dining room, now Greta's romper room. That darker green continues all the way down the stairs to the garage exit. The blue is only in our master bath. The light green starts below the kitchen counter in Greta's romper room (the wall facing the dark green wall, above), then continues throughout the dining and living room and all the way upstairs to the hallway. It doesn't seep into any of the bedrooms.

Sleeping with Mommy

In the first 21 months of Greta's life, she slept in our bed maybe three times. It's a figure we're particularly proud of, because we know plenty of parents who let their kids crawl into bed as soon as they express any displeasure in the crib. Of course, it has made for plenty of long nights where one of us (admittedly, usually Carey) is rocking Greta back to sleep or even falling asleep with her on the futon in her nursery.

Well, not anymore. Greta now prefers the "big bed" in our guest bedroom/office. She begins the night in her crib and sleeps quite soundly until some random time between 2-5 a.m. Then she calls for Mommy and they move together to the "big bed." We're telling ourselves that it's an interim stage between the crib and a "big girl bed" all her own. In fact, we bought a toddler bed last weekend and plan on assembling it this coming weekend. Between now and then, though, this is how I find my wife and daughter when Carey's alarm goes off at 6:15.

"Diaper do, diaper day"

That's what it sounds like to me anyway. Perhaps Carey can spell it more phonetically. It's a little saying she started using months ago. Jabberwocky, really... something akin to the French 'c est la vie,' but more sing-songy and child appropriate.

Well, wouldn't you know it, Greta was listening. This weekend at the most random moments -- sitting in her car seat and staring out the window, munching on a handful of Cheerios, chasing Jinx around the house -- she would simply belt out, "DIAPER-DO, DIAPER-DAY!" Then she'd change the cadence and the order -- "DIAPER-day, diaper-DO!" She wasn't looking for validation or anything. Just repeating what Mommy has said a hundred times.

This is why Daddy hasn't used a curse word in 22 months.

The photo is unrelated to the story. Greta chilling out watching Elmo learn about farm animals this morning.

Saturday frolic

Trying something new that my co-worker Will uses in his son's blog. Pretty cool, right? Click Get Your Own and you can be as cool as us.

Published!

For those of you who don't subscribe to Parenting magazine (motto: What Matters to Moms), we're overdue in sharing this: Greta was published in the March 2007 issue! It came out a few weeks ago, but I just got around to scanning it. Carey submitted the "Mom's Tip" in January, I think, and an editor followed up with her via e-mail and requested a photo of Greta! Our friend Dina in L.A. was the first to notice it. So kudos to her and read her daughter's blog, Ella's World (which badly needs an update, Dina, dear).

Greta's favorite landmark

No question, it's Iwo Jima, that glorious bronze tribute to the five Marines and Navy hospital corpsman who planted the U.S. flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle for the Japanese island in World War II. We drive by it daily, to and from daycare. Months ago Carey taught her to say "Jima!" and now she also says "flag" and "windy." It's a nice little marker during the drive and it lets us know she's awake in the backseat.

So yesterday Carey is leaving daycare with Greta in tow and they walk by a desk that has a display of tourist brochures. The same desk they've walked by for months. But this time Greta stops and says "Jima!" The other parents making their way to the exit turn and stare. Did that little girl just say "Iwo Jima?" Yes she did!

And of course, Greta had to show Daddy the brochure this morning. We perused it during our morning nosh of Fruit Loops. Forgive the dark cell phone images. There wasn't any daylight coming through the windows yet.