nature baby

This past Sunday was the annual Stewart family reunion held at a state park pavilion. The site has been the location of this particular reunion for many, many years (30? 40?) and has a covered pavilion, lots of shady trees, a playground, a horseshoe pit, and a big open field for playing softball. It's a great family spot and it was a beautiful day. Unfortunately the site does not offer any good places for a non-walking but very mobile and active baby to crawl around and do her thing. We came prepared with blankets, which she crawled off of within a minute, and Ally's stroller, which we equipped for the first time with a snack tray. Our little monkey became pretty impatient with our attempts to keep her from the intrigue of the mulch on the ground (yummy!) and the q-tip sized ants, so here's a picture of what we did together for much of the time.

PSA

We interrupt this regularly scheduled work day to announce that we have a contract on our house! The expected settlement date is July 25. It looks like we will be able to rent a large condo from our real estate agent beginning on that date until we settle on the new house. So we're pretty excited.

baby fest '07

This past weekend our friends Mark and Emily visited with their smiley little boy Efram, who just turned one. Together we grumbled about the early mornings, feeding challenges, and general time crunch, and we celebrated the joy of first steps, first words, splashing and swinging. Though Efram and Ally did not play together per se, they were definitely aware of each other and at different moments seemed to "pet" each other with varied levels of enthusiasm. As long as the petting does not return in the teenage years, we think we'll all be fine.

crunchy munchy

Before Ally was born, we didn't think we would listen to kid's music. "Our baby will grow up listening to cool stuff like 80s new wave!" we laughed, and I think I could picture my daughter with an Interpol onesie or something similarly ironic. A few months after Ally was born however we purchased our first kid's music CD. And then Laurie Berkner entered the house, which seemed kind of justifiable because she has a sort of hippie slant. You know, like R.E.M. or 10,000 Maniacs.

Then one day about a month ago I dropped Ally off at daycare and a Wiggles CD was playing. "Ally loves this CD!" I was told. And, without hesitation, our offspring began to bounce, laugh, and squeal at the Hot Potato song. Oh my. Our daycare provider lent the CD to us, we took it home and stored a copy on our computer, and it has been playing nonstop since. Ally loooovves this CD and we have learned a lesson about how you can't control your children's preferences.

Since there are things we're supposed to be doing, like a graduate research project and a statistics class, all kinds of work is being done around the house instead. These activities merged with Ally's Wiggles preference on Sunday when we decided to bake Crunchy Munchy Honey Cakes, which are the subject of a Wiggles song and, as such, the recipe has been permanently burned into our memory. They're pretty good.

sizzlin cool

After a week of hot weather, we decided that it would be great fun to put a kiddie pool on our deck for Ally (and us) to splash around in. So today we went to toys r' us and purchased the sizzlin cool kiddie pool. While Ally napped (and I did a statistics project) Rob inflated the pool and set it up on our deck, then filled it with water from the garden hose. We then realized that the water was freezing cold, so for the next 45 minutes or so we emptied water from the pool and refilled with hot water from the kitchen sink. Eventually the water felt quite pleasant, Ally woke, and we all sat in the pool together and played with Ally's water toys. Ally liked crawling around the pool and splashing.

the joy of digital

Ally has discovered the camera, which means that it is getting difficult to take pictures of her. We have gathered however an extraordinary collection of photos of the top of her head as she crawls towards the camera.

compromise

Before Ally was born, I thought that the hardest part about sending her to daycare would be the worry that her experience there would be somehow less valuable and enriching than the experience she would have home with me. Since she began going to family daycare in the fall, however, I have come to realize that she is not the one missing out-- she is having a blast at daycare! When I drop her off she immediately crawls over to her favorite toys and begins to bounce happily. And though she is still a bit young to participate in some of the activities, I'm impressed by the neat things she will see there, like "growing" caterpillars in the spring, attending library reading time, and making crafts. Once Memorial Day passed, for the rest of the summer Friday is "water day" (weather permitting)-- the children don their swim suits and play outside at water tables, in the sprinkler, and with other water toys. On Friday while at work I received these pictures of Ally by e-mail telling the story of her first water day.

So I have come to realize that the challenge of daycare has more to do with us missing these fun experiences with Ally, which makes the weekends and evenings precious to us now.