Aspirations

We had such aspirations! This morning we laid out a loose plan -- the only type of plan that makes any sense these days -- of neighborhood walk, Mystic Aquarium, and the possibility of a stop in Warwick on the way home to get a nap-encouraging swing. We ended up, though, accomplishing little other than a low-key happy-baby day, which is plenty.

Madeline started crying before she was awake this morning; once she was up, though, she was happy, hungry, and stretchy.

And after she'd eaten, she was serene.

Though we scuttled most of our plan, we did end up going for our walk while the sun was shining -- up Cole to its terminus at Elmgrove, then over to Blackstone for lunch from Three Sisters. We took our sandwiches to a park bench across the street. Wrapped Madeline mainly remained napping. By our return trip via Hope the sky had clouded over, the temperature had cooled (from hot to comfortable), and a breeze was blowing. Still Madeline slept.

But once we'd been home for a few minutes, her hunger took over. And she ate so enthusiastically that we missed the window for timely driving to Mystic. We weren't too keen on going anywhere else, so we stayed home, played with baby, and got a little work in while she slept again.

As for playing, we read some books (How Do Dinosaurs Love Their Cats?, The Color Kittens, and The Rainbow Fish), we marveled at the Food Chain Friends, and Madeline even enjoyed sitting up and then toppling over.

Also Madeline really clicked with her vibrating bouncy chair for the first time today. She examined the setup for a while before repeatedly and delightedly bashing the red-turtle-rattle with her left hand. She's just accomplished such a bash in this picture, hence the extremely blurred left hand.

So low-key happy-baby days at home are probably fine with her, and therefore fine with us: she can figure out what happens when she bashes or otherwise interacts with interesting things, and we can begin taking ever-so-slight steps back and allowing her to explore her still very limited world.