End of May

It's the end of Madeline's first May! She's getting to be quite big and strong. And she seems gradually to be taking to the schedule we're trying gradually to impose. Case in point: our first try at a 7 AM wakeup and 9 AM nap went off without a hitch. Well, I should say it was Summer's first attempt at the 9 AM nap: between 7 and 9 I was deposited at work.

When people ask about Madeline's rolling, I usually respond that she's plenty capable -- she does it at random, unexpected times, front-to-back and back-to-front -- but not consistent -- she'll go days or even weeks without doing it at all. Apparently today she was all about the rolling. Summer caught the action:

Despite earlier rolling success, Madeline seemed shocked!

So she had to roll again.

The noon nap didn't go so well as the 9 AM nap, so Madeline didn't go down again until mid-afternoon. When she woke up from that nap, Summer took her for a walk. Madeline approved.

And, after their walk, Summer and Madeline picked me up from work. We proceeded to the (Thee) Red Fez,* one of our very most favorite places to eat.

It was good to be back, and Madeline behaved nicely. She was energetic but not noisy. And the Red Fez is rather an artsy, noisy kind of place so even if she had exercised her lungs as well as her legs it probably wouldn't have been the end of the world.

Back at home bedtime was a mixed bag -- it didn't take Madeline long to fall asleep, but she did wake up and have trouble getting herself back to sleep. Summer restored her slumber but ended up joining her in the process. And so here I am. Tomorrow's another daddy-baby day!

* Wow, in case you don't follow the link, I have to excerpt this paragraph from the linked review:

Thee Red Fez, or “The Fez,” as we like to call it, is spoken of with a passion that can only be understood by those in the know. The Fez doesn’t have a website, and they don’t answer the phone when you call. In fact, when you try and call them it’s almost scary to hear the recorded voice on the other end. I can’t explain it….but trust me, don’t call. They are open Tuesday through Saturday and are located on an obscure side street (Peck, to be exact), with little more than a black placard with a fez painted on the marquee. It may be a little hard to find, but it’s completely worth the search.

That description makes the Red Fez sound almost parodically hipster, but it actually understates matters a bit: there's not "little more than a black placard with a fez painted on the marquee" -- there's literally just the red-fez-on-black-background. (Ok, well Projo says there's a menu in the window, so I guess there's a little more after all.) Even though I worked in the same building as this place, back in 2006 I dragged Summer around half the city looking for it only, finally, to spot the fez after we'd come full-circle.

Oh, man, and read this one, too:

The walls in the upstairs room are decorated with animal heads– which normally skeeves me out a bit, especially while eating, and because of some incidents in my past, but these animal heads get to wear little red fezzes, which I find charming in an anthropomorphic kind of way. It takes away the gruesomeness and the hunterly bragging of showing off “the kill” and allows me instead to believe that these animals feel good about their accessories and are watching down on me with all good wishes.