Sidewalk Navigation

We've started taking Hadley for walks outside. I hadn't realised that walking on the sidewalk is so different from walking in the kitchen. We'd just been putting it off because there was snow everywhere.
The first couple of times were to the park and back - 2 blocks away. Hadley was pretty upset and being put on the ground rather than carried, and she refused to move for the longest time. I was worried that she would not be able to swing those legs with all the layers she has on, but no, she can motor when she wants to. Thing is, all she wants to do is stop and smell the flowers, if you will. Which is pretty great. Instead of taking 5 minutes to get to the park, we take 45 minutes because Hadley wants to examine every small detail on the sidewalk and in people's yards and try to run across the street.
Surprisingly, she doesn't fall much. And when she does, it's just right back up again. I read recently that children at this age have way more endorphins at their disposal to dull the pain from bonking into everything.
The other night we went to Baby Disco (a local restaurant hosts this once a month for toddlers and parents) and Hadley and I decided to walk home - about 6 blocks. It was super foggy and you couldn't even see more than 20 feet away. Hadley was doing pretty well and actually leading the way until out of the gloom lurked a back-hoe, parked at the side of the road. She just froze and pointed, yelling "Ba! Ba! Ba!" I tried to reassure her that the big yellow monster was sleeping and if we just sneak by quietly, it wouldn't wake up. That took some convicing and even after we were long past it, she kept looking over her shoulder to make sure it wasn't stalking us.
That back-hoe may be the source of her first baby nightmares.

Food #1

She's been eating solids since the summer - about 5 or 6 months. Initially, of course, it was all mush and small bits of soft food. But once Hadley hit the stage where she could chew and digest larger and crunchier chunks, she also hit the stage of being picky.

Meals now look kinda like this:
1. Hadley shows us the sign for "more" in sign language (we've begun to realise that "more" signifies way more than food to her - sometimes it just means "I'm bored")
2. We'll place her in the high chair and offer something like a banana. After a bite, she'll push it away, toss it on the floor, make a face, etc.
3. Then we offer something else like a cracker, to the same effect.
4. She starts squirming and wants out of the high chair, only to make the "more" sign 10 minutes later.

I'm told this is pretty normal.
Luckily, we've stumbled upon a couple things that she'll almost never say no to:
- noodles with sesame oil and/or Bragg's
- spaghetti and cheese in carrot & tomato sauce

Just the other day we found out she likes bean sprouts, too.
If you have any baby food favourites, let me know

how babies dance

Hadley's like the hockey players in Strange Brew. When she hears certain music, she loses control and her body automatically rocks out.

Neurotic Dad confesses all

Last night Alicia and I were talking about our respective idiosyncrasies and one of mine that emerged, no surprise lately, is my obsession with cleaning. Cleaning the kitchen, in particular. I could easily wipe those counters 10 times a day. Why? I don't know, other than I am seeking some kind of sublime ultra-clean feeling that will never come.
This is a rather new obsession of mine, dated to when I knew we were going to have a baby. Suddenly I was overcome with the notion that I'd never have enough time and that things would never be the same again. And they haven't, of course, and nor do I ever "have enough time" But, as Alicia points out, who cares? Our time ought to be spent loving our daughter, not polishing the faucet.

I've lived with 3 single moms in my time, all as roommates. In all cases, I could never shake this nagging sense that they were mismanaging their time, which was why they seemed so tired and unproductive all the time. In short, I was judgmental. (I am exposing a huge weakness of mine, here, folks. Please be forgiving). Now I know, from the other side - the parent side - how uttering wrong and insensitive I was being.
In my initial post, I spoke to the wonderful feeling of having just an hour or two after Hadley goes to sleep, so that I can do whatever I like. Dadtime. Well, life in general is pretty much now divided between Hadley time and Dadtime. So when you're offered those few precious minutes or hours or whatever, the LAST thing you want to do is clean the damn kitchen, even if there is a week's worth of grime coating everything.

So I how do I balance my obsession with my need to relax? We have hired cleaners! And, as I did with my friend Dylan the other day, I beg people to come and clean the kitchen for me.

To each their own

Back from a short hiatus: we spent a week and a bit with my folks in Ontario. This was the first time my daughter has been to the town where I was born. Before going, I'd been getting pangs of something akin to guilt and nostalgia. It became more and more important to me that she experience Ottawa the way I did.
Of course, it never works out that way. I mean, not only is she too young to go tobogganing, for example, but there's no way she'll feel the same way about Ottawa the way I do. In fact, she won't feel the same way about anything, and for that I ought to be grateful. Is this news for other dads? Sometimes I need a wake-up call to remind me that it's not up to me or us to indoctrinate our kid with what we know, believe , etc. Indeed, the opposite is true. I must learn from her, and offer as much freedom as possible so that she may grow up with a mind of her own.
Anyway, the weather sucked. I'm not used to blizzards and freezing temperatures anymore.