My Experiences as a Father... June 5 to July 4, 2000 (14th month)

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Tuesday, July 4, 2000
If we take off Maeve's shoes, she will sit down and take off her socks.  I tell her that if she wants to always go around without her socks that she will have to move to the mountains of North Carolina.
 

Saturday, July 1, 2000
The "oral stage" is something that I was prepared for, and Maeve has done a wonderful job of putting most everything into her mouth as soon as she picks it up.  Something I was not prepared for, though, is her "nasal stage".  She picks things up, puts them up to her nose and sniffs very hard.  She is really trying to smell things.  She picked up a rock, and instead of putting it in her mouth, she smelled it three times.  Jill keeps asking Maeve if she has stinky feet.  In response, Maeve will sit down, pull a foot to her nose and smell.  Maeve's feet do not smell, so I don't know where this whole thing with Jill and Maeve's feet came from, but I suspect this might be the source of this "nasal stage".
 

Thursday, June 29, 2000
Jill usually goes to the bathroom when she picks Maeve up at Nanny Carol's house.  Today Maeve went into the bathroom, put up the seat, pulled out some toilet paper and was waiting to flush the toilet. Apparently Maeve knows how to use the toilet.  It would be nice if she would potty train early, but I don't want to be too optimistic.  We could at least get her a potty seat of her own.  She already knows what steps to follow.  She might just think it's normal and start using it.
 

Sunday, June 25, 2000
Maeve was walking around outside church today.  She started walking down a sidewalk with a little incline, and she fell.  First she fell on one knee, then she caught herself with her hands, but her momentum kept her tumbling until her head hit the ground.  She just rolled over, crossed her hands behind her head and looked up at the sky.

The only thing that seems to bother her about falling down is getting debris on her hands.  She will hold out her hands to me so that I can wipe them off.  I'm working on getting her to brush her hands together to take care of this herself.
 

Thursday, June 22, 2000
Tonight I called to say that I would be working a little late and asked Jill to make dinner.  Jill told Maeve what we were having, and Maeve pointed at the freezer.  When Jill got it out of the freezer, Maeve hugged it.  Jill opened it and Maeve poured it into a bowl.  When the microwaved beeped after cooking, Maeve pointed at the microwave and whined until Jill got the bowl out.  Maeve also knows that hot foods needs to be blown on before eating it.  She looks so serious when she is blowing on food to cool it off.
 

Sunday, June 18, 2000
Maeve tends to get her arms pretty well covered in goo when she eats.  Years ago I saw a contraption at another fire department that was a loop with holes that pointed inside the loop.  This thing attached to a fire hydrant, and would spray water inside the loop when the water was turned on.  It was used to wash fire hoses.  You just fed the hose through and it came out the other end clean.  That was a lot faster than scrubbing hoses by hand.  I think a "hose washer" for Maeve's arms would speed up the clean-up process after dinner.

Maeve picked up one of Jill's earrings and put it up to her ear.  I put it down by her belly button and said, "No, they go here."  She still has an outie.  Jill was looking at pictures of me as a child and noticed that I had an outie, which has now become an innie.  We should get Maeve a belly button piercing now before she loses her outie.

For Father's Day one of the things I got was a parenting video from the Red Green Show.  One segment that really got my attention was how to create an entire set of bedroom furniture for a daughter from used tires.  How perfect!  Now I just have to start collecting used tires.
 

Friday, June 16, 2000
Maeve was doing more helping today.  She put foot powder in Jill's shoes.  She took some checks that were waiting to be sorted and put them in the trash.  I didn't really want them in the trash, but we don't want to discourage her.  We always say, "Thank you" and "You are such a good little helper".  She often claps after we praise her.
 

Thursday, June 15, 2000
Maeve helped me take the clothes out of the dryer.  She was looking inside, and I put more wet clothes in it.  I told her to close the door and she did.  She knows English.  She can't pretend to not know what we are saying anymore.
 

Wednesday, June 14, 2000
Maeve was going around say, "Bob bob bob".  Jill started trying to get her to say "mom".  I said that she was saying "mom", but she had a cold, so it sounded like "bob".  Jill didn't believe me.
 

Monday, June 12, 2000
Maeve went to the doctor today for her first ear infection.
 

Saturday, June 10, 2000
I took Maeve to the Harley Davidson Open House today.  Maeve and I sat for a while and pointed at the motorcycles going by.

A year and  a half ago Jill got me some Harley Davidson motorcycle gloves for Christmas.  I ended up returning them, and have had a store credit ever since.  I had only been able to use $5 of it, because I just don't need Harley Davidson stuff.  Since the store credit wasn't going away very quickly, I decided to get Maeve some clothes.  We got her a beach outfit (complete with a shirt, swim pants and a hat), some other outfits, and a motorcycle magnet for the refrigerator (she likes playing with refrigerator magnets).  My favorite thing was a cup and bowl set of "The day the three little pigs became hogs".  The pigs all had motorcycles and leather, and they were chasing the wolf.
 

Thursday, June 8, 2000
Maeve was being a good helper today.  She decided that she had eaten enough and held out a piece of food to Jill.  Jill thanked Maeve and ate the food.  Maeve got another piece of food and did the same thing again.  Jill tried to get Maeve to eat a piece of food from her at the same time that she ate a piece of food from Maeve.  Maeve would just wait until Jill ate the food, and then she turned her head to get away from the food that Jill was holding for her.  Now we just need another baby so Maeve can take over feeding it.

We were moving clean, folded clothes from a laundry basket into a tote to put into the attic.  Once Maeve figured out what we were doing, she started helping move the clothes from the basket into the tote.
 


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