Maggie reached a new milestone today: defiance. All day today she was cantankerous and proud of it. For the last two weeks, this little girl has LOVED her rice cereal, but today it took me three different attempts to get her to eat it. Thanks to a week of antibiotics for her poor little UTI, she's learned to spit out medicine (and now rice cereal) and turn her head away to avoid my approaching syringe or spoon. All the while, she is looking right into my eyes with a wry little smile.
Her other new trick is to make an L-shape with her body and her legs while on the changing table or in her crib. (This position is not so new. See picture from mid-February.) She then slams her legs down over and over again and can't help but smile and coo at her own latest amusement. This is not so funny when I'm trying to administer meds to her diaper area (also thanks to the antibiotics her flora is imbalanced). She seems to favor her left hand, although I know this can change over the next several months/years. So while I am trying to calm her crazy legs, she figured out that she can take her left hand to touch her feet and then naturally decided to "help" me spread the diaper cream. Eesh! And all this bouncy leg movement seems to get things moving for her. I went through 3 diapers in 5 minutes and countless wipes as I *attempted* to clean her hands of the diaper cream before she decided to put them anywhere else on her body.
Buddy and Sadie have really begun to enjoy the baby. They know better than to play with her toys, but are really interested in Maggie. On Saturday Maggie was giving Sadie some pets on her face (and eyes, ears and nose) in a very gentle and sweet manner. I couldn't believe she was so deliberate. And then...she grabbed Sadie's neck. We're lucky Sadie's been around kids forever and were thankful that she just sat there patiently while we gave Mags the old "no." And Buddy who is normally wild is really mellow around the baby and even put his nose and front paws on the bed the other day before jumping up to see where Maggie was sitting. After he jumped up on the bed, I gave him a few snaps to get on the other side of me. Wonder of wonders, he jumped off the bed and walked around to the other side, jumped up and settled down. For those of you that haven't witnessed the "storm before the calm," this is excellent behavior for BudBud. One day, we'll get that on camera. I should also note that my family, specifically my sisters and my mom are very nervous about the dogs getting close to the baby. I hope that by writing about this now, I ward off any ill-fated dog-baby stories.
Finally, Maggie and I were on the 5 o'clock and the 6 o'clock news tonight on NBC. We were interviewed about the unsolicited newspaper subscriptions that our neighborhood receives from a local Spanish publisher. It's a total waste of paper, printing supplies and marketing $$$. Even if they're recycled, it's superfluous from the get go. While we are home, she is very vocal and emotive. When we are out to eat, grocery shopping or trolling the mall, she is very quiet and enjoys looking around. At this point, I'll count my blessings.
