My Experiences as a Father... January 5 to February 4, 2002 (33rd month)

[Home Page] - - [The Father's Diary index] - - [Maeve and Hilde's Photo Album index] - - [Our Web Links]

Monday, February 4, 2002
There were two calls this morning while Jill was feeding Hilde.  Maeve picked up both.  Maeve still doesn't do very well conversing.  She listens to phone calls well, but often doesn't respond to the other person when they talk to her.

Maeve told Jill that the doctor had called.  I said maybe Maeve has Jill's gift for knowing who is calling, even before the phone is picked up.  When Jill called the doctor's office, it turned out it was indeed them both times.
 

Saturday, February 2, 2002
We picked up Jill's minivan today.  I don't think she's a stereotypical "minivan mom", but the extra space will be nice. There are also integral child seats.  Hilde will need to be in a separate car seat for a while, but Maeve also fits in hers.  It will be nice to have five-point harnesses for them, and still not need to deal with separate seats.

One of the things that the minivan has is a remote starting system.  We can't use it when the minivan is in the garage, but it might come in handy at other times.  Maeve was standing at the window and pushing the buttons on her cell phone.  When Jill asked what she was doing, Maeve said she was starting the minivan.
 

Friday, February 1, 2002
Hilde drank from a sippy cup today.  Maeve's cup got too close, and Hilde grabbed it and started drinking.
 

Thursday, January 31, 2002
Today Hilde crawled for the first time.  As for sliding around, she moves a lot faster going backwards than forwards.
 

Monday, January 28, 2002
Every so often Maeve whines like a baby.  Usually we tell her that she needs to use her big girl words.  Today Jill asked, "Why are you crying, little girl?  Have you lost your mom?" Maeve stopped whining, thought for a second, and then said that she had lost her mom.  Jill asked what she looked like, and Maeve said that her mom looked like a clown.  Jill asked if Maeve's mom had big floppy feet, and a big red nose.  Maeve said she did.  I don't think that turned out like Jill had planned, but at least Maeve stopped whining.
 

Saturday, January 26, 2002
Maeve had imaginary friends over today.  They all had names, and Maeve would keep calling them by name.  One of the things they all did was to go shopping, along with Maeve's shopping cart.  The bathroom was an elevator in the store.  Maeve would push an imaginary button and wait for the elevator to show up.  She had to wait for the bell to ding.  When she was getting out, they had to wait for the doors to open, and Jill had to push the button to keep the door open.

Later Maeve was pretending that one of her dolls was crying.  First she sighed very heavily like Jill does when Hilde wakes up.  At this point, Jill usually tries to quickly finish whatever she was doing, and yells things like, "Hold on, Hilde, I'm coming.  Just a minute.   I know."  Of course Jill isn't coming; she's just stalling.  Maeve did the same thing, and was yelling the same things to her baby.
 

Tuesday, January 22, 2002
Hilde grabs everything in her reach and tries to put it in her mouth.  Several times she has gotten Maeve's hair, and she has a grip like Maeve's walnut-crushing grip.  She is also like Maeve and the Alzheimer's patient that I once transported.

Maeve doesn't like Hilde pulling her hair.  At first, Maeve just stood there and said, "Go easy.  Be careful."  When Jill explained that Hilde didn't know what hair was, Maeve explained it.  She said, "Hilde, this is hair.  It's just like you have on your head.  It's not for your mouth."
 

Saturday, January 19, 2002
We went to Home Depot today, and they had a clearance sale.  Jill found a sample of some red-white-and-blue wallpaper border, but couldn't find any rolls of it.  Jill was cursing "those Johnny-come-lately's" that buying up all of the red-white-and-blue things they can find.  "I've had a red-white-and-blue living room for nine years.  I had all of this before September 11."
 

Friday, January 18, 2002
Maeve visited Nanny Carol again yesterday.  That Jess wasn't there this time, but Maeve still ended up sick today.  There is something wrong with that house.
 

Thursday, January 17, 2002
Hilde has been smiling as soon as I get home for a while.  Tonight I got home and found Maeve and Hilde in Hilde's crib.  Maeve was jumping up and down and repeating, "Hilde is big".  Every time, as soon as Maeve said, "big" Hilde would laugh.
 

Wednesday, January 16, 2002
Hilde is rolling around now.  She has been rolling over for a while, but now she tries to roll in a particular direction.  For example, if she sees Maeve's Goldfish crackers on the floor, she will try to roll over to them.
 

Tuesday, January 15, 2002
Hilde is getting cereal now.  She always tries to grab the spoon, and she loves to chew on it for a long time before letting it go.
 

Monday, January 14, 2002
Jill got some Longaberger baskets at a party that she hosted before we moved.  She is going to have another party in two weeks.  Today Maeve was going around the house collecting baskets, saying she needed them for a Longaberger party that she was having.
 

Sunday, January 13, 2002
Maeve gets a snack at night, right before she brushes her teeth.  She usually eats until she says she is full.  Nevertheless, she often claims to be hungry right as we are trying to put her to bed.  In the past, it has turned out that she is just stalling.  If we give her more snack, she doesn't eat much before she is full again.

Today at 5 AM she woke up and said she was hungry.  We got a snack, and she ate two whole bananas.  She usually only eats half of one.  I guess she really was hungry this time.
 

Friday, January 11, 2002
We were driving around and Hilde started making noise.  Maeve said, "Hilde is talking."  Thinking that Maeve had some secret infant connection with Hilde, we asked Maeve what Hilde was saying.  We were expecting a response like, "Hilde is saying she is hungry" or "Hilde is saying we should go home".  Maeve's actual response was, "Hilde is saying, 'Goo goo goo'".
 

Monday, January 7, 2002
Jill was telling me about a parenting magazine article that said children are inherently good, and only misbehave because their needs aren't being met.  The trick, it said, is to figure out how to meet their needs, and then they will behave.  The real problem with this is that kids (and adults) have to learn to behave even when their needs aren't being met.  Maeve can't take a toy from Hilde just because she wants it, no matter how great Maeve's need for that toy is.  I can't steal just because I "need" more money.

We had also been discussing teens who are on drugs.  In response to this theory about kids behaving if their needs are being met, I said, "I guess your needs aren't being met, and that's WHY YOU'RE SELLING CRACK COCAINE!"  Like last week, and before Christmas, Maeve repeated what she heard.  Today she patted me and said, "You sell crack".  Then she went over to Jill, patted her, said, "You sell crack" and ran back to me to do it again.  I asked Jill if she was listening to Maeve.  When I told Jill what Maeve was saying, Jill didn't believe that Maeve would be saying that about us.  Maeve did this for a few minutes until she was bored of it.
 


Contact Daniel at daniel@splatcat.com or Jill at jill@splatcat.com
Copyright © 1999 - 2024 by Daniel and Jill Perrin