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.