She is more often than not jabbering to herself in a vaguely Slavic-sounding tongue and increases her actively understood vocabulary every day\u2014both in terms of what she can begin to emulate and what she clearly understands that people around her are saying.<\/p>\n If you pose a question to her these days, she will either nod affirmatively<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> or say \u201cNo\u2026\u201d in this rising sing-song voice, whether she actually means no or not. For example, on a recent weekend Theresa asked Maddie, \u201cDo you like having both parents around?\u201d She replied, \u201cNo\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n She also has enhanced her ability to ask for things. In addition to doing sign language for \u201cmore,\u201d she adds an urgent \u201cnah nah\u201d sound that she just came up with on her own. We have no idea what it means to her or where she got it from, but she will say it repeatedly and with increasing feeling if her request for more food, another book, or the continuation of a pleasing activity is not met with enough haste. She has also started randomly screaming for things, but we\u2019re trying to nip that in the bud as much as we can. I can\u2019t overstate the catch-22 frustration of parenting a small person who has specific wants but lacks the ability to fully articulate them. Sometimes she thinks screaming is her only recourse. Sometimes I think it\u2019s mine, too.<\/p>\n At Mass this past weekend, we made the mistake of sitting in the third pew from the front. Maddie\u2014blissfully unaware of any social norms to modify her behavior in church\u2014was actually pretty well-behaved, but engaged in some of her regular social behavior that is less appropriate during Mass. When songs would end, she would yell \u201cAaaaaah,\u201d her standard indication that she wants the music to continue, usually employed during the short space of silence between songs on an album. The priest pulled out his guitar to open the homily and performed a couple verses from a Christmas song. When he was done, Maddie did her \u201cnah nah\u201d sound for more, as she wanted him to keep going with the song. We had to distract her with a Cheerio in order for her to stop. At other points and for no particular reason, she would just yell \u201cBye byeeeee!\u201d and wave at someone in another pew.<\/p>\n The highlight for me was during the Eucharistic prayer, however, when Maddie took the opportunity of everyone\u2019s silent praying to whip out her favorite chorus\u2014\u201cBarbara Ann\u201d by the Beach Boys. While she doesn\u2019t know many of the lyrics, she can perfectly hit the \u201cBa Ba Ba\u201d notes and does it over and over again until I join in.<\/span>5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Maddie is constantly surprising me with the way she interacts with the world and it\u2019s downright delightful to watch. Hopefully the rest of the parish appreciates it as much as I do\u2026<\/p>\n On the movement front, Maddie is still not walking yet, but she has very recently started standing up without holding on to anything\u2014a serious point of pride for her. When she does it, she starts hilariously flailing her arms around to maintain her balance while excitedly laughing as we clap and encourage her. She then falls on to her bottom and gets up again to repeat the experiment.<\/p>\n One time, she was doing this while Theresa was in another room, so her excited laughs were punctuated by calls for \u201cMaaaa!\u201d so that Theresa wouldn\u2019t miss the opportunity to clap for Maddie\u2019s spectacular show of daring physical feats.<\/p>\n She has recently become more attached to baby dolls, and is showing them real affection by offering unbidden hugs and kisses. This bodes well for baby #2. Maddie has also mastered the art of kissing other people on the cheek, and if you ask her to kiss one person, she won\u2019t stop until she\u2019s kissed everyone in the room. This has become a new ritual whenever we leave a location and are saying goodbye to people. Rather than simply waving, she now makes the kissing sound and wants to go around doling them out.<\/p>\n We also accidentally<\/span>6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> taught her to say \u201cbutt\u201d when we are changing her. Now sometimes when we say we\u2019re going to change her diaper, she yells \u201cButt!\u201d and smiles. Once we actually start changing her, she can\u2019t seem to stop saying it. I\u2019m sure my Father of the Year Award is in the mail.<\/p>\n It\u2019s amazing how much she picks up on, and I am overcome by how intelligent she seems to be. That pride falls away a bit when she then calls for Theresa by yelling \u201cDaaaa.\u201d I always say, \u201cDaddy\u2019s right here. Do you want Mom?\u201d and then she makes the switch to \u201cMaaaa!\u201d The Harvard admission scouts are really going to be put off by this, Maddie.<\/p>\n Speaking of \u201cMaaaa,\u201d we are now in the 18th week of pregnancy with baby #2 and Theresa is starting to finally leave morning sickness in the rearview mirror. I type this while knocking on a giant piece of wood, as we seem to always pronounce the death of morning sickness and then it rears its nauseated head once again. Suffice to say, this pregnancy has been easier than the first in that regard, even if it still hasn\u2019t been awesome.<\/p>\n The baby is beginning to show on Theresa\u2019s belly, and we swear we both felt the baby move for the first time the other night when Theresa was lying down in bed. Maybe we have another fetus who likes nighttime dance parties as much as Maddie did. We will soon have our ultrasound to reveal the gender<\/span>7<\/sup><\/a><\/span>, and we look forward to the pregnancy feeling all the more real with that knowledge.<\/p>\n![\"Maddie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dadhasablog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_20171114_134849-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
Without my noticing it, Maddie has become a full-fledged little girl.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> She spends her days exploring her environment by engaging all her senses. She crawls around and over and through. She tries to climb\u2014on to a chair or couch, up and down a set of stairs. She engages those around her\u2014saying hello to strangers<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>, giving five, giving fist bumps, and waving wildly.<\/p>\n![\"Learning](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dadhasablog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/VID_20171114_202832-ANIMATION.gif?resize=640%2C360\")
<\/p>\n![\"Maddie](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dadhasablog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_20171127_093115-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
She also loves to play Patty Cake, and makes a \u201cBaa baa!\u201d sound while clapping her hands to indicate that she wants to see the routine. She will also grab her baby dolls\u2019 hands or feet and make the Patty Cake sound while clapping them together, just like we do to her. The mimicry of doing things to her baby that we do to her continues in hilarious ways. I told her to put her baby to sleep, so she put the baby on the ground, gently pushed on it and then leaned in close to the baby\u2019s face and made a shushing sound.<\/p>\nPregnancy Update<\/h2>\n
![\"Waiting](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dadhasablog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/IMG_20171122_165921-225x300.jpg?resize=225%2C300\")
<\/p>\n