24th March 2009

Melina is Four Months Old Today (well an hour ago) 1 reply

Okay, so it’s already the 25th and I should have written this a few hours ago but Melina turned 4 months old today (yesterday).

Melina at Four Months
Melina at Four Months - Almost - Taken About 2 Weeks Ago

So this post will be very short - as it’s very late - and Mommy is very, very tired.

But M is doing wonderful.  She’s giggling - that’s perhaps the most exciting part of our day now.  On our frequent walks now, we have stick out the tongue competitions and we giggle together - well she in response to my incessant giggles to get her to chuckle and giggle.  I must look very funny leaning over her stroller, sticking out my tongue, and faking a good giggle.  But then when she lights up a smile, and begins to chuckle and then giggle - my laughter is no longer faked - it’s in genuine delight at how Melina is responding to my goofiness.

The last couple of days she has taken to my lap where she can push back and we have “wee” (as opposed to “pee”) moments - she acts like she’s falling back from my lap to the bed (not very far of course) - and of course she’s in my hands all the way back - but she likes it. 

Well - I told you it was a quick one - lots to do - press release just went out about our new application tonight at 12:01 a.m. EST.  Much to do…..

 More when I have time….

One Response to “Melina is Four Months Old Today (well an hour ago)”

  1. susan shepherd says:
    March 25th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

    Look at those cheeks just begging to be pinched. And you worried about her not getting enough milk when I was ou there (like all new Mom’s do…) She’s a cutie for sure. I remember this age well. I remember Kellyn’s first laugh around that age when sheI was sitting on my couch with her in my arms. I remember it as if it was only yesterday. It lit up my world. My kid’s laughter still does.
    And as far as doing silly things to make your kids laugh we’re all guilty of that one. Which reminds me of an old Dave Barry essay:

    He’s a little teapot, shortly going to the hokey pokey
    by Dave Barry
    ______________

    One of these days, a police officer is going to pull me over for driving erratically. He will suspect that I am driving while intoxicated, but he will be wrong. In fact, I will be driving while being a little teapot.

    I am often a little teapot while driving. This is because when my 20-month-old daughter is in the car, she demands to hear her favorite CD,
    “Traditional Children’s Songs from Hell.” At least that’s what I call it. It’s one of those CDs with those old songs that we are required by federal
    law to expose our children to, because they connect us with a time when we were a simpler, happier, much stupider nation.

    Consider “Old MacDonald.” It starts out fine: “Old MacDonald had a farm.”
    But then it goes to “E-I-E-I-O,” as though the lyricist had a bunch of extra vowels he needed to get rid of before moving on with the plot. Couldn’t he
    have come up with words for the second line? How hard is it to think of a
    line that rhymes with “farm?” For example: “Thresher tore off his left arm.”
    Or: “Slept with six goats to keep warm.”

    But “Old MacDonald” is Handel’s “Messiah” compared with “She’ll Be Comin’
    Round the Mountain,” a song apparently written by somebody with a life-threatening case of Attention Deficit Disorder, as we see by the highly
    informative first verse:

    “She’ll be comin’ ’round the mountain when she comes!
    “She’ll be comin’ ’round the mountain when she comes!
    “She’ll be comin’ ’round the mountain!
    “She’ll be comin’ ’round the mountain!
    “She’ll be comin’ ’round mountain when she comes!”

    Discussion Questions:

    Will she be comin’ ’round the mountain?

    When?

    I am forced to listen to these brain-shriveling songs constantly when I drive. I’m so used to hearing them that sometimes I’ll be halfway to the
    airport, singing “The wheels on the bus go round and round! Round and round! Round and round!” when suddenly it dawns on me: Sophie is not in the car. I
    can play my own music, with intelligent lyrics!

    (Example: “I said na, na na na na, na na na na, na na na, na na na, na na na
    na!”)

    The biggest problem with children’s songs is that many of them call for actions on the part of the listeners. My daughter, who is very strict, expects everybody to perform these actions. So if we’re listening to “I’m a
    Little Teapot,” and she notices that I’m using my arms for some frivolous activity such as steering, she will repeat “Daddy do it! Daddy do it!” until
    I let go of the wheel and form my teapot handle and my teapot spout. I have discovered that I can, in fact, steer with my forehead, but visibility is a
    problem.

    I am also forced to drive while doing the Hokey-Pokey and making the Itsy Bitsy Spider go up the water spout. But the worst song, from a driving
    standpoint, is “Where is Thumbkin?” This is the one where you sing about, and display one at a time, the various fingers on your hand: Thumbkin, Ring
    Man, Pointer, etc. As you can imagine, this can create misunderstandings in traffic when your fellow motorists see you holding up Tall Man. I live in
    Miami, a heavily armed area, and I’m concerned that one of these days, some stressed-out driver is going to see me displaying Tall Man, and he’s going
    to respond with: Trigger Man.

    Yes, a small child can get you into trouble, and not just in a car. There is a house in our neighborhood that has a large plaster goose on the front
    porch. For reasons known only to her, my daughter loves this goose. Whenever we walk past it, she toddles up onto the porch and gives it a kiss, while I
    watch nervously from the sidewalk. Lately my daughter has started insisting, with increasing vehemence, that I also kiss the goose. So one recent Sunday
    morning - I am not making this up - I found myself, heart pounding, tiptoeing onto a porch belonging to complete strangers, bending over, and
    kissing their goose. This kind of thing can lead to trouble.

    Police Officer: Hold it right there, mister! Put your hands up and step away from that goose.

    Me: You don’t understand! I was just …

    Police Officer: Wait a minute. … You’re the same guy I saw holding up Tall Man on the expressway!

    But getting arrested is a small price to pay for the joys of parenthood. I know you parents out there agree. You’re happy, right? Sure you are! If
    you’re happy, and you know it, clap your hands!

    I’d clap with you, but it hurts with these handcuffs.

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