Suckers

Last week, Andrea and I watched 50 First Dates, the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore takeoff on Groundhog Day (Drew Barrymore's character has no short term memory and so can't remember past one day anything that happened to her after a car accident, which makes it difficult for Sandler to woo her). The movie was pretty enjoyable--at least, the 50% of the movie that wasn't aimed at teenage boys was enjoyable, the part that didn't feature Rob Schneider--and basically forgettable.

In the final scene of the movie, there's a quick moment where, having finally figured out a way to be together, we flash forward a few years and Barrymore and Sandler are married. She wakes up in the morning and heads out to meet her husband (again), and he introduces her to her daughter.

It's a nothing moment, but of course it reduces Andrea and me to tears. I used to laugh at my parents for being suckers for this maudlin stuff, but nowadays anything that involves a child hits me like you wouldn't believe. I can't even deal with certain Simpsons episodes involving Homer and Lisa any more.

So, does this complete loss of emotional resistance ever go away? Do I get to be my cynical self ever again? Or will I just nod at Fiona in a few years when she's laughing at me for tearing up, defending myself meekly with that age old "one day you'll understand"? Time shall tell...

One Year Old

We've had a hectic week involving a rapid evacuation of our home due to wood stain fumes emanating from the downstairs apartment making our place uninhabitable. Fortunately, Grandma & Grandpa in Connecticut stepped in to host us for a couple of days.

Fiona had her first birthday last week, and we celebrated with a party on Saturday. We'll get pictures on the website soon, but in the mean time you can see some photos here from the big event.

Doting (grand)parent anecdote to describe how smart Fiona is. Grandma & Granpda gave Fiona a pushcart walker (i.e. not one of those saucer things that kids in prior generations used to careen down the stairs in). Fiona took to it immediately, though not without some frustration. As Grandpa put it:

I did get a kick out of it on Saturday when the second time she approached the gate you have across the hall to the kitchen,she started screaming even before she reached the gate. One time had taught her what would
happen!

Fiona hasn't learned how to turn the walker yet, but she's at least gotten over the fact that she can't push it in a straight line forever.

Now if we could figure out how to keep the audio of the insipid refugee-from-Barney from playing every time the walker gets pushed forward, we'd be happy. Particularly aggravating is the fact that by pushing a button you can get a jazzy trumpet riff, but as soon as the wheels start spinning the saccharine "walk along, walk along!" mantra kicks in. The funny thing is, Fiona seems to feel the same way; she frequently kneels over to push the jazz button while she's trying to push the walker. This, at least, bodes well.

San Diego Uh-Oh

She didn't walk, but Fiona still had quite a bit of excitement during her week in San Diego. Some highlights, in no particular order:

• She discovered stairs: On her second day at Nonni & Pop's, Fiona found the staircase to the second floor. The first climb was a little clumsy, but after that we had trouble keeping her away. Which meant a lot of time for Mom & Dad to kneel behind her as she pulled herself up step by step.


• Toys, toys, and did we mention toys? As the only grandchild on both sides, Fiona was sure to come home with quite a haul from her first Christmas. Some big hits included the rocking horse (which she mastered on her first try, mere weeks after being unable to sit upright on a wagon over Thanksgiving), a plastic train (she doesn't wheel it around so much as pick it up and drop, although she has figured out how to stick some of the toy dolls that come with the set in the smokestack on the front) and any number of gadgets that play short melodies that Mommy & Daddy will soon come to curse.


• Uh-oh! Whenever Fiona dropped something, one of her many attendants was sure to deliver a sing-song "uh-oh" as he/she bent down to pick the object back up. Fiona also got a fold-the-flap book called What Do Babies Say? that included a baby saying "uh-oh" as he unfurled a roll of toilet paper. Fiona soon picked up the cadence, and one morning as we listened on the baby monitor as she played in her crib, we could hear her making the sound as she (presumably) dropped her stuffed animal Sprinkles.


• Birthday, take one: The big day isn't until January 7th, but Nonni & Pop couldn't resist a dry run. Check the website soon for photos of Fiona stuffing her face with cake (we had to take some away in order to keep her from a sugar high that would have lasted into the next week).


• The Zoo: Fiona made her first visit to the World Famous San Diego Zoo and had a blast. Big animals were easier to see than small ones, obviously, and Fiona was equally fascinated by the humanoid animals on our side of the fence as by the more exotic creatures, but she was full of smiles and yelps as we checked out the goats, bears and elephants. She was so interested in the animals, in fact, that we had to cut the visit short once it became obvious that a very tired baby was fighting off sleep so she could get a glimpse of the rhinos.

Baby Takes Flight

No more red-eyes, ever.

Our New York-San Diego flights were the exact reverse of expectations. I dreaded the flight out--with Fiona discovering the joys of movement, 6 hours in an airplane cabin that she would want to explore on hands and knees but couldn't seemed like a recipe for disaster. But it was an early morning flight, so we had to wake her up at 5am (about 2 hours before her usual wake-up time), and as a result Fiona was so exhausted she wound up giving us a couple of hours of sleep. Distracting the baby for 3 hours instead of 6 proved to be entirely doable.

The flight back, on the other hand, seemed like it would be a breeze. A 10pm takeoff would be right in the middle of the night for Fiona. Who knows--maybe she'd sleep through boarding, takeoff, even the cab ride home.

Instead, we were confronted with the downside to having a relentlessly curious baby. Fiona had a nap from 7pm to 8pm before we left for the airport, and instead of treating that as a night's sleep interrupted, she acted as if a single hour's nap were all she needed to recharge for several more hours of play.

At the airport, Fiona did some eye rubbing, but mainly enjoyed looking at all the other passengers, specifically a young boy (five or six years old) who Andrea tagged as Fiona's first crush.

Once in the air, Fiona fought sleep enough that Daddy decided to try walking the aisle with her to soothe her down. Big mistake: Fiona was so fascinated by all the sleeping passengers that she refused to lay her head down.

We did (or Andrea did) finally get her down for a few hours, and, of course, Fiona needed some extra naptime the next day. But from now on, we're not going to make the mistake of assuming that red-eye=guaranteed sleep for the lil' 'un.