July 5 to August 4, 2000 (15th month)
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My Experiences as a Father...
July 5 to August 4, 2000 (15th month) |
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Tuesday, August 1, 2000
Crawling up stairs is not good enough for Maeve any more. She
wants to hold our hands, and walk up like we do. She needs to hold
onto us to keep her balance, but she usually walks right up, only putting
one foot on each step.
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
We have a box of painting tools in the bathroom because we are repainting
it. Maeve likes to look through the box to see what she can play
with. Jill tells Maeve that it is not a toy chest.
Monday, July 24, 2000
The refrigerator was open and Maeve reached in, opened the egg carton
and pulled out a cookie. Jill said it was a cookie that Maeve had
gotten in the morning, and she wondered what Maeve had done with it.
Maeve is like a squirrel, hiding things and going back for them later.
Sunday, July 23, 2000
Today was even more uneventful than yesterday. Last night I lay
down for a minute while I waited to hear if Maeve would go to sleep or
if I had to do more rocking. The next thing I remember it was midnight.
Maeve woke up again at 4 AM, but only needed her pacifier, which she had
thrown on the floor. At 8 AM I got her out of bed, followed the instructions
for a morning bottle, changed her, and got her a hearty breakfast.
I dressed Maeve in a pink shirt and fluorescent green shorts. I can't
match clothes, but it doesn't look hideous to me. It might have matched.
I don't know. I dropped Maeve off at Nanny Carol's before Maeve's
morning nap and came home to read the paper and get my diary caught up.
After picking her up, we stopped in an empty parking lot for Maeve to run around. She spent most of the time with lots of pine cones, picking them up, throwing them around, and carrying them from place to place.
Once we got home, I got my two older motorcycles out of the garage to wash them before I try to sell them. I filled the bucket with water and some soap. I ended up taking off Maeve's pricey shoes so they wouldn't get soaked. I also had to get her to follow some rules:
Jill told me on Friday that the house had better be clean when she returned. I told her she should be happy if we don't have beer bottles and empty Chinese food containers all over, and if she doesn't find half-empty pizza boxes under the furniture two weeks from now. It's a lot cleaner than that, so she should be grateful.
Maeve was ready for bed early, but I kept her up until her bedtime so
she won't wake up at 5 AM. Jill called to see how things had gone.
I told her to read about it in my diary.
Saturday, July 22, 2000
For fathers who ever wished they had instructions for their daughters,
I figured out how to get them - send your wife on a two day, church-sponsored
camping/whitewater rafting trip. Jill left good notes on what
Maeve should eat and when she should nap. I didn't realize until
this afternoon, but Jill didn't leave clothes for tomorrow. It seems
that every time I dress Maeve, the clothes don't match. I suspect that
is what will happen tomorrow.
We had a good day, and pretty much stuck to the instructions that Jill gave me. After Maeve woke up from her noon-time nap, we ran some errands. One stop was at a "tropical" pet store. We looked at the frogs, lizards, snakes and fish. Maeve also saw some white mice, just like in her "Goodnight Moon" book. Just like with the book, she pointed at the white mice in the store.
Another stop was at the auto parts store. Maeve picked out a thermostat and two packs of AAA batteries, none of which I needed. I got a 40 lb bag of absorbent. When I put it in the car, I left my wallet on the roof of the car. About 15 minutes later I realized it, and was fortunate enough to find it out on the highway. I was worried it would have fallen off in the parking lot and someone would have taken it for their own. Everyone on the highway was moving too fast to stop, though several people had time to run over the cards and the wallet. Maeve waited patiently while I collected all of my cards, receipts, checkbook and what was left of the wallet. She waved at me whenever she saw me walking by.
Also at the auto parts store I won an argument with Jill. Maeve has an outfit that has blue shorts, and a shirt with blue and white checks. I said people would think Maeve was a boy because of the blue. "Not a chance," said Jill. "There is a butterfly on it. Boys don't wear tunic shirts." While I was trying to handle the 40 pound bag of absorbent, a large oil catch pan and Maeve, I was offered an even trade - my merchandise for my SON. "HE'S so well behaved," said the clerk. I WIN!
After changing Maeve's diaper, I left her shorts off so she would be cooler, and I put her in for her afternoon nap. When I got her, I found that she had taken off her diaper, and had wet her blanket, her shirt and her socks. My mismatching of Maeve's clothes started with me finding a replacement shirt. I decided to use the same shorts, since they had not been in the crib with her. We put her blanket in the washing machine and went to the Saturday church service.
Afterwards, we went to the mall for dinner and to get another wallet. We went to the pet store, but all of the dogs were sleeping. After getting a wallet and Maeve's dinner, I realized we had left her sippy cup somewhere. I have to do a better job of keeping track of things when I have Maeve. We retraced our steps, but couldn't find the cup. We had left another sippy cup at a restaurant when we were in Texas for April's wedding, so I bought a few replacements. As long as I don't forget Maeve someplace, I think I can get away with losing a cup or two.
When we got home, Maeve was ready to go to bed by the time her blanket
was dry. I followed the instructions for milk and bedtime book, and
that was that. Hopefully tomorrow will go as smoothly.
Thursday, July 20, 2000
We always clean Maeve's ears with a Q-Tip after her bath. We
just clean the opening of Maeve's
"ear hole",
just like the doctor instructed. Maeve usually does a lot of resisting.
Tonight she took a Q-Tip of her own and cleaned out her own ears.
It had to be done more thoroughly than she did, but she did not resist
at all when we did it.
Wednesday, July 19, 2000
Maeve took a credit card offer from the mail, opened it, and put it
in the trash. I guess the terms were not good enough for her.
Monday, July 17, 2000
We had a very uneventful trip home. Maeve slept for most of he
flight from Houston to LaGuardia, and even lots of the flight to Manchester.
When we got to New Hampshire it was about 3 PM, and the pilot said the
temperature was 66 degrees. That is about a 40 degree difference
from Austin.
We had bought an umbrella stroller in Texas, and paid the 8.25% interest
on it. Maeve pushed it all around LaGuardia for the two hours between
our flights.
Sunday, July 16, 2000
Maeve woke up at 6:30 AM. Jill watched her until 7:00.
Then I took Maeve for a drive while mom napped. Maeve napped in the
back of the car. The rental car people told us to bring the car back
with as little gas as possible. Maeve and I drove north on I-35 about
35 miles to see what we could see, then went back to Austin to buy Jill
some coffee.
The three of us toured Austin for a while. We saw the LBJ library and museum at the Univ of Texas. We went to what turned out to be the bar strip in Austin. That is where we saw the big ambulance with the big patient. Maeve threw her pacifier out twice. Once I noticed it was on the other side of the street just after we had cross and the light changed. The next time she decided to leave it in the middle of the street. By the time I got to it someone had already driven over it. It cleaned up well.
We finished our tour of Austin by seeing George W.'s house and the State Capital building. We just drove around the outside and looked at the statues outside. Apparently they offer tours that run every half hour on the weekends.
Since we still had too much gas to use, we drove 45 miles west of Austin to see the "hill country of Texas". On the way back, we stopped and got Maeve a little cowgirl outfit and some boots. The boots are a little big. Even though the heel is not very tall, Maeve is still working on learning how to walk in them.
Our hotel room was on the 4th floor overlooking the pool. Maeve liked to stand on the air conditioner and look at the pool. She would bang on the glass, and even had some people waving up at her. After we got back from getting Maeve's boots, we went to the pool. We had Maeve's Harley Davidson swim outfit. We found that it was too big, so we just put it on over her diaper. The diaper was pretty swollen by the time that we got out. This experience really proved that Todd Stein's advice was right about diapers not holding their rated weight capacity.
We went out to a real Mexican restaurant tonight. Maeve made a
bit of a mess eating. To clean her up, I put my napkin on the table
and we stood Maeve in the middle of it while we brushed her off.
Maeve already had an audience, and I explained that rice was not a finger
food.
Saturday, July 15, 2000
Texas has a lot of big stuff. There are big roads. I-35
going through Austin has 3 lanes going each direction, and the frontage
road (one way on each side of the Interstate) has 2 or 3 lanes going each
direction, so that's about 6 lanes each direction. We parked under
a tree in an attempt to keep the car cooler in the shade, and we discovered
big bird deposits the next morning. The Fiesta Market is a big grocery
store. While walking around Austin we heard the siren from a big
ambulance. They pulled up across the street from us and tended
to a big patient. We also saw
a very big Baptist church.
Even though Jill had reserved a crib, the hotel said one was not available. We had Maeve sleep between us in the king size bed. About 1:30 AM Maeve was pouncing on me. She thought it was play time, since she woke up and dad was there. We had gotten a balloon from the rental car company, and it lost enough helium overnight to get within Maeve's reach. At 6 AM Maeve woke me up by bopping me on the head with it.
I finally saw April at breakfast. I gave her grief about the 30% tax on the rental car. I pointed out that New Hampshire has no tax, and that it might have been more considerate to her guests to have the wedding there. April called later, and I had to point out that New Hampshire is also a lot cooler than Texas. Jill said April was probably wondering, "Why didn't Jill just come by herself?"
April wanted to talk to Jill, and told Jill that she had a favor to ask. Jill cut her off and said she didn't have time to make April a wedding cake. It turns out that April was only asking Jill and I to read scripture passages at her wedding.
The predicted high today was 106 degrees. It broke a record that I think they said was set in the 1870s. April's wedding was in the evening, but it still gave Jill and I a chance to talk about our mid-day wedding in Richmond with a high of 102 degrees and humidity in the 90% range.
One thing that Austin has going for itself, though, is low humidity. You have to have water to have humidity, and the Austin area does not have much water. Even though it was over 100 degrees, it was not unpleasant because of the low humidity. I would prefer having high temperatures and no humidity to the weather in Virginia and Maryland, but I still prefer colder winters and Massachusetts summers where 3 days in a row with highs over 90 have everyone complaining about the "heat wave". I just think those Massachusetts people need to move to Virginia so they can learn what oppressive heat AND humidity is. If they still are not convinced, they can try Charleston, South Carolina. Just before we left, Nanny Carol was talking about how hot she was in the 86 degree weather. I wanted to bring her to Texas with us. I can deal with the heat, but I prefer not to.
I went to the front desk to explain how much Maeve likes to play at 1:30 AM if she is in the same bed as mom and dad, and they found a crib for us. After dropping off the crib, the hotel guy said he knew the hotel had some linens just for cribs. He said he would try to get them from housekeeping, but that he is not bilingual, so he might have some trouble. I think he picked the wrong town to work in if he is not bilingual.
During the rehearsal the flower girl wanted to spread her petals, just to practice. While the rest of the practice was going on, Maeve picked up most of the petals. She would pick up one in each hand, put them down in a pew, and go back for more. She's not a very quick worker yet, but she had collected most of the petals by the time the rehearsal was over. She is such a little helper.
The rehearsal luncheon was out of town a ways. It was in the boonies. If Texas had enough water for real trees, it would have been way out in the woods. It was at a place called "The Salt Lick". I don't know how far it was from Austin, because the directions were a little off. I think most of the people were almost an hour late. We drove about 15 miles past the town where the exit ended up being. I took my directions in to gas station to ask for clarification. I showed the directions I had to the guy and he said, "You're in San Marcos, man." I just wanted to say, "I know I'm in San Marcos. I saw all of the signs when I was getting off the highway. It's clear to everyone that I have driven well past the correct exit. Just tell me how to get where I should be."
I call April's new man "Shifty Jim". He might be a good guy, but I've had some experiences with him that make me suspicious of him. When I helped pack up April for her move back to Texas, Shifty told me I could have April's leopard print umbrella, as long as I would use it. I'm not afraid to use a leopard print umbrella so I took it home, but April seemed unhappy by Shifty giving it away. Jill ending up saying I had to return it to April. Then we have this incident with directions that got everyone very lost. It could be argued that Shifty was paying by the head, and purposely got people lost to reduce his bill. He claimed they were "internet directions", but also said that we could blame him. The "Internet Directions" story might be true, but the next encounter left nothing to question. At the luncheon, the centerpiece on each table was a cowboy boot with a flower arrangement in it. I mentioned to Shifty that it's customary to have some little contest or something to see who gets to take home the centerpieces at a rehearsal luncheon (or the wedding dinner, or something. I know I've heard of such a tradition during some wedding related event), but that the boots looked like they had to stay. Shifty said I could take a boot home if I wanted. After everything else, I was not sure if I should trust him. Fortunately Jill came along and affirmed that we could not take a boot home. I hope Shifty is a better deal for April than he has been for me.
The church nursery during the wedding had pagers for parents, so if there were issues with children, the parents could be paged to come and get their kids. That's better than trying to get a usher to identify and contact parents.
I gave April the same wedding day advice that Jill's sister Jeanne gave
us. When we got married, Jeanne's three sons were around 10 to 15
years old. Jeanne said, "They know what you will be doing tonight."
I said the same thing to April, and asked her to think of the youth at
Grace.
Friday, July 14, 2000
We left for April's wedding in Austin, Texas today. Maeve's first
airplane flight was about 20 years earlier in her life than mine was.
Our plan was to carry Maeve in our laps on the plane, instead of getting
her a seat of her own. We even got her a special airline harness
that straps her into our seatbelts. I made sure that Maeve fit in
those of those "Am I Too Big?" cages
that carry-on luggage has to fit in. Fortunately, she did.
She fit in an overhead bin (I checked), but she preferred to sit in our
laps.
I was not sitting by the window, and Maeve was blocking my view, but I was identifying everything as Long Island as early as New Haven, CT. Maeve really enjoyed looking out the window. If Jill would close the window cover, Maeve just pushed it back up.
At LaGuardia, we stopped to switch planes. Maeve was being sociable and exploring everything. She waved at everyone on the pay phones. She was stopping to look at everything, and Jill had to say, "Come on, Maeve. Even the old people in the wheelchair as passing us."
We paid $15.44 for lunch at Wendy's in the airport. I did not know that my experience with higher than normal costs was just starting.
While we were waiting in line to get on the plane at LaGuardia, we saw a "Screamer" two year old with her New York grandparents waiting in line. Jill said she hoped they wouldn't be sitting near us. With 31 rows on the plane, the odds were in our favor. Unfortunately, they sat right in front of us. Since there were four of them and there were only three seats per row, one of the loud adults got to sit next to me, and she felt a need to talk to the other woman in the seat in front of us for most of the trip. I was lucky enough to have slept through most of it, but Jill said I missed an incident that involved the escape of the contents of a dirty diaper, the Screamer, and the grandmother.
On the plane, I saw people in suits and short dresses and heels. I was thinking that you don't want to be in a plane crash in a get-up like that. Sliding down an escape chute, walking around on a mountainside, or swimming out of a lake in clothes like that would just be a bother. Jill and I started having a discussion about the best way to crash. I was saying that water would be nice if you could just splash in, but of course that does not happen. Jill said that with the surface tension, it's like hitting concrete. I said mountains would just cause the plane to get torn up. Jill said that young pine trees are the best, especially if the wings shear off early. She said the pilots should crash before we go past Kentucky - after that, they are on their own. It wasn't intentional, but in hindsight I hope the New York woman sitting next to me was unnerved by our discussion.
When we arrived in Houston (we stopped to let off most of the passengers before flying on to Austin), the flight crew said they hadn't even noticed Maeve. I guess they were too busy noticing the Screamer. Even my ears were bothering me a little from the pressure difference when we flew into Houston, but Maeve just wanted to look out the window.
It was a bit of a shock to fly in at about 5 PM and have the pilot say it was over 95 degrees. We didn't have that kind of weather when we flew out of New Hampshire.
When we went to get our rental car in Austin, we found that George W.
has a 30% tax on rental cars. That's right - 30%. Apparently
someone decided I should be funding stadiums and the like. Regular
sales tax is 8.25%. But it's not so bad - there are weekends during
the year that the government designates as "tax-free" weekends. Then
you don't have to pay the sales tax. Too bad for me that we did not
come to Texas during one of those weekends. I can't wait to see what
happens to our taxes if George W. wins the Presidency.
Wednesday, July 12, 2000
Maeve pushed her cart into the kitchen and put all of the boxes in
the middle of the floor, just like we do with the empty grocery bags after
we have emptied them.
Monday, July 10, 2000
Jill and I were arguing over who should clean the kitchen. Usually
the person who made dinner does not have to clean up, but they do have
to watch Maeve. I think I offered to watch Maeve instead of cleaning,
but Jill wanted me to clean the kitchen. We asked Maeve who should
clean the kitchen. She walked between Jill and I and went into the
kitchen, as if to say, "It's not worth fighting over; I'll do it myself."
Sunday, July 9, 2000
We brought Maeve's beach ball into the tub tonight. By pushing
it under water and letting it pop up, I was able to make a wave pool for
Maeve.
Contact Daniel at daniel@splatcat.com
or Jill at jill@splatcat.com
Copyright © 1999 - 2024 by Daniel and Jill Perrin