High energy

Madeline was very high-energy today. Thankfully, for most of the day her energy was channeled into more productive outlets than it was yesterday. When her face was not otherwise engaged, Madeline made good-natured expressions, cast her eyes about the apartment (and even seemed interested in goings-on outside the windows), and explored her ever-expanding vocabulary of baby coos and gurgles.

She also produced her most extreme blowout yet, a brief unpleasantness that left her exhausted and required wardrobe changes for both of us. Post-blowout she napped ...

... but not for long. Soon we were singing along to our favorite of Montreal songs. She attended one of their concerts while still in utero.

Neither napping nor singing nor any other games with me, though, could keep her engaged for more than a few minutes. Over and over, hunger drove her to her mother; if my hand-off wasn't quick enough, she'd begin dive-bombing her way Summer-ward. She's getting strong.

When perched on Summer, she sometimes pushes herself up from a feeding to look her mother in the eye for a moment. Or she looks at or even lunges after other things that interest her. Here, her eyes lit up at the camera, and a second after the picture was taken she kicked her way toward it.

She is unquestionably interested in the camera. In fact, as she figures out her fingers, Madeline sometimes entwines them with the camera's wrist cord. Or Summer's hair. Or my hoodie's pull-string. And she's very keen on clutching at shirt collars or any other accommodating fold or graspable surface. So really, she's getting interested in just about everything around her. I look forward with excitement and a bit of trepidation at the no-doubt-very-near day when better-functioning limbs allow her to indulge all these interests, and she begins to explore her world in earnest.

AAAAs and zzzzs

We had a list of things we wanted to accomplish today, but baby had her own idea of how the day would go. It started slowly -- we stayed in bed until late morning, after several hours of Petey and baby trading shouting spells. Baby's behavior was a sign of things to come.

Once we were up, she went down for a bit. She even remained splayed out on the bed long enough for Summer to take a shower.

But before Summer could get dressed, baby stirred and then began to shout. Most of the day went that way. She would feed, calm, fall into an apparent sleep, and then shout seconds later before her eyes even opened.

Of course, most of the day means not all of it. Baby paused for games and smiles from time to time. Her smiles are hard to capture because she tends to be very active when she's happiest, but Summer aptly snapped the following shot.

We also managed a walk to the mailbox, though the home stretch was interrupted by baby's frequent complaints.

For a while, Summer spirited baby to a back room to tend to her feeding and fussing needs, while I tried to do some overdue cleaning around the apartment. We both wound up exhausted. Not baby, though. She was still squirming and shouting away.

Finally, the sun went down and our lights followed. We wrapped baby in a swaddler, and she seemed to follow the sun and the lights.

But, of course, the calm was only temporary. It took another feeding to convince her that she was ready for sleep.

Given all the feeding and fussing, not to mention the extra heft we feel when we lug her around, it seems likely that baby is having another growth spurt. Then again, it could be that the cause of baby's many AAAAs was tonight's super full moon. Whatever the reason for her rowdiness, now we're happily entering zzzz mode for the night.

Beavertail

Today was beautiful again, and very warm, so we undertook our most significant sojourn yet. The main destination was Beavertail State Park on Jamestown/Conanicut Island, but we had to make a stop on the way. Tomorrow is St. Joseph's Day, which is a big deal in Rhode Island and seems to be celebrated primarily by the mass consumption of delicious pastries called zeppole. So we visited Calvitto's Pizza and Bakery in South County for some pizza and a zeppola to split. Mmm. Rhode Island definitely gets some things very right.

Soon we were heading over the Jamestown-Verrazano* Bridge toward Beavertail. When we disembarked, the warmth was rather overridden by the wind. I tucked Madeline into her wrap, and she still displayed her not-uncommon skepticism about our plan.

But she became comfortable pretty quickly.

We clambered down onto the rocks, meandering away from the lighthouse and toward an area where I'd read it's possible to find trilobite fossils. Alas, we never found any.

As always, we attempted a family portrait.

We also explored tide pools. There were odd little shrimp or crayfish-type creatures swimming about.

When we were ready to climb back off the rocks and onto the hilltop path, we instead stumbled across a sort of mini-ravine with a waterfall.

Madeline was awake for most and calm for all of our adventuring. But when we returned to the car, her mood started to change. She didn't erupt, though ...

... yet. She saved her expressions of displeasure for five minutes down the road. I pulled over at Mackerel Cove Beach, where Summer executed both a diaper change and a feeding. The locale was more glamorous than, e.g., the Thayer Street area in Providence, if not entirely welcoming.

When we were finally home after sitting in rush hour traffic, Madeline's energy level remained high.

She's eaten again. Now it's 8, so we're overdue for a feeding ourselves. Time to order in, I think.

Clover day

M. Clover spent her morning resting up for what would no doubt be a day of great celebration; after all, clovers and green are strongly affiliated with St. Paddy's Day.

Once she was up (and decked out in her green and clovery finery), she had enough energy that tummy time would have been superfluous. Just sitting on mom was enough to prompt her to lift her head and look around.

The most beautiful weather of M. Clover's life so far meant we had to get outside! (We still owed ourselves ice cream, too.) As soon as I was back from an errand, I tucked her into the wrap and we were on our way. She was not totally convinced that a walk was a good idea.

In fact, perhaps due to the bright sun, M. Clover needed more convincing than just the comforting cadence of her father's walk. A finger did the trick. She sucked intermittently all the way down to Wayland Square.

We got tasty ice cream at Mad Ernie's -- a shop that was new to us because it only opened after we left our old apartment -- and ate it outside in the sun. Only after I'd finished my (green) mint-Oreo cone did M. Clover release my finger from her gummy grip. Instead, she slept.

Before heading home, we diverted to Bottles for Guinness in honor of the day. The store clerks commented on how cozy M. Clover looked in the wrap. She expressed agreement by remaining asleep.

We walked back via the playground we mentioned before, now densely populated with parents (again, almost entirely of the female variety) and children, then along the also densely populated Boulevard. A couple blocks from home, M. Clover expressed her readiness for an end to the excursion. She calmed a bit when I released her legs from the wrap. We knew what that meant: gas.

As soon as we were in, we settled on the futon for my favorite game to play with M. Clover. I lift her legs and compress them against her belly, and she accommodates by emphatically releasing the offending gas. Sometimes other movements are required to encourage the gusty exodus. But she always looks a bit relieved afterward.

I tried to combine games by making faces, too, but that was not as successful.

Summer had better luck playing the face game later, after our dinner of bangers 'n' mash. M. Clover didn't get to participate in the culinary elements of the clover day celebration, but hopefully the fun and games and fresh outdoor air, not to mention a good, long snack on my finger, were enough to distinguish the day for her. She has certainly been a good sleeper so far tonight!