signs of growth

Very strange. Today i had a real conversation with the little bear cub. She seemed sleepy, eyelids were heavy and stuff and she was generally cranky, but she wouldn't settle and screamed when we put her down to sleep. Then as i was rocking her and she was fussing and whining i saw her little hand open and closing desperately. this is the same sign we have been making to her every time we feed her. And here she was, at seven and half months, able to express what the heck she wanted. I loosely translated it as "enough with the rocking back and forth, could we get some milk in my belly before i lose my *&%$ all over you?". I took her downstairs and she downed a whole bottle of milk. Maybe it was coincidence but my money's on Schuyler upping the communication ante. It sounds so dumb to write it down - all she did was open and close her hand - but it magical... the closest thing to it i can think of would be if my dogs suddenly started telling me their biscuit preferences.

Things she can do

• Sit up


• Reach for objects that have fallen


• Eat mushy rice cereal, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes (doesn't dig peaches, bananas)


• Babble


• Laugh and smile


• Turn to voices


• clap hands


• etc.

Things she cannot (yet) do

• Crawl


• Pull to standing position


• Algebra

Feeding Time At The Petting Zoo

Despite her emaciated form, Schuyler is a very good eater... in fact, it is sometimes downright dangerous to put extremities near her mouth at feeding time. However, as this video shows, after the first bowl, Schuyler's mind sort of wanders to pretty much anything else in the room making feeding her more like a carnival game of trying to hit a moving target... but Gramps perseveres with success.

rockin' around the christmas tree

let it now, let it snow, let it.. ok, you can stop snowing now...

So here we are in downtown Montpelier. It's snowing like crazy; the temperature is stuck in the teens and we're taking refuge where we can (which seems to involve stores which serve Texas-sized cookies and hot beverages). It's cold, cold, cold but truly beautiful. [Below: Schuyler Young wears an ivory bear cap by Zutano and a grey blue bunting from London care of Uncle Richard and Aunt Lydia]

enter montpelier

We have now left the fine hospitality of Grandma Tobe for the fine hospitality of Grampa Flip and Nan here in Montpelier, the capital of Vermont which shares the following characteristics with Bermuda's capital city of Hamilton:

• they are about the same size (Hamilton is a little bigger)
  
• neither has a McDonalds
  
• they are both captive reinsurance hubs (Hamilton is a little bigger)
  
• most people are nice and friendly (although Hamilton's people are a little bigger)

outside of that... they share little in common. i'm still amazed by the States. i'm amazed by the overwhelming variety of great food in the supermarket (i feel like a Russian emigré walking into the supermarket with wide eyes like i've just witnessed an alien mothership landing and i find myself saying the word "America" with an Eastern Bloc accent as in "America - what a country!"). i'm amazing by the number of junk phone calls you get. i'm amazed by winter with the gorgeous icing of snow caked on everything (and less amazed by the chores such as shoveling that go along with this wonderland). i'm amazed at the constant, gentle and loving interest Schuyler's grandparents show in her little movements and promise myself never to take it for granted. i'm amazed that i have a daughter who is as much a part of this New World as she is of mine. it's a good time to be amazed.

well, at least the beard isn't fake

I think everyone involved felt a little bit awkward and embarassed about this picture. I felt badly for Santa (whom i later bumped into in the bathroom - he took a stall) because he looked pretty weary with this parade of children sitting on his knee; i felt badly for Schuyler who had no idea why was abandoning her on this stranger's lap and then dashing to a thirty foot "clear" zone and unleashing flash bulbs on her. And i felt a little silly buying into the baby-on-santa's-knee cliché but in the end it was all worth it and someday Schuyler will ready this and know she missed her opportunity to ask Santa for that funky new buggy she's been dreaming of. Plus her Dad had Santa's Beard stuck in his head for the rest of the day which was a pleasure unto itself and i think in America they revoke your citizenship if you don't have a picture of yourself on this dude's lap - it is simply required.

soft focus mama

ok, i'm cold now... can we go inside

Her dad ordered a white Christmas but i think he hit the submit button too many times.

self-sufficiency (almost)

Schuyler took one more (tiny) step toward self-sufficiency today when she fed herself. Well, we gave her a rice biscuit which she gummed until it fell apart in little globules which she was able to suck up... still, it's nice to know that if something happened to us and there were a pile of rice biscuits nearby, Schuyler would have a shot at survival... so long as they were within rolling distance of this still-not-crawlin' critter.

fly me to the moo

When we fly with Schuyler i try to keep in mind my pre-Schuyler feelings about babies on airplanes - I was not a fan. They tended to be cute little sirens of anxiety, wailing at the slightest incident. I try to tell people sitting beside us that they can yell at us if they like because "I would want to if a baby sat next to me and screamed her head off". People tend to treat this honesty in much the same way you would treat the honesty of Jeffrey Dahmer when he talks about the contents of his fridge. In any case, Schuyler was ok but squirmy and a bit frustrated until i took her to the vacated Emergency Exit Row where she could play on her tummy a little bit. At one point as she gazed out the window and banged around, i caught myself reading the simple instructions for opening that door and realised that maybe we should play somewhere else.