How Old Before We Can Teach Her Breaking & Entering?

On mornings that I take Fiona into day care Andrea usually locks the door behind me, since she's already standing at the door waving good-bye to her daughter. I knew that sooner or later this would mean that I left for the day without checking to make sure I had my keys... and, sure enough, on Wednesday that's what happened.

To appreciate the brilliant timing of my brain cramp, I managed to forget my keys on a day when I was picking Fiona up from day care because Andrea was going to be in class, on a day when Aunt Kathy (who has a spare set of keys) was in Argentina, and on a day when our landlords (who live downstairs and also have a spare set) were either working late or out of town. So I rolled the stroller up to the door, excitedly told Fiona we were going inside, and then realized I had no way of getting in.

My big mistake was in hoping that the landlords would be home soon. I took Fiona out to the park, since we know she loves the playground, and we played there for about 30 minutes. At 6:30, I headed back home, but the landlords were nowhere to be seen. At that point, I finally called Andrea and told her I was going to need her to ditch class to let us in, since there was a limit to how well I could look after a baby who had no access to toys, or a childproofed environment, and was rapidly approaching bedtime. Life was easier three years ago when I last locked myself out; in those days I could just go to a bar and watch some ballgames until Andrea was due home.

Fiona and I killed a little time at Fatty's, our favorite local restaurant, and Fiona flirted with the bartender with her usual charm, although she did have a minor tantrum when I kept her from grabbing a plant off the window sill. Nobody was the worse for wear on Thursday, but I think I'll be triple checking that I have my keys for a few weeks. Of course, I won't forget them again until Aunt Kathy, Andrea and the landlords all go on simultaneous overseas trips.

Latest Data

From Friday's checkup:

Weight: 24 lbs, 2 oz.
Height: 30½"

I'm definitely feeling the weight more these days.

Playground

Sunday was absolutely gorgeous -- sunny and 70° -- so we headed out to the park for the afternoon. We've taken Fiona to the playground before on days where the temperature hit 40 and we wanted to give her a little time on the swings (click here to check out Fiona on a swingset in San Diego), but this was the first time we've gone since she learned to walk, and, this being New York, the first time we'd been able to go in nice weather.

The place was packed and there were lines for most of the favorites (including the swings). Fiona got to check out one of the jungle gyms (mainly standing while holding on to some bars while Mommy sat on the platform with her) and a slide (which involved Mommy or Daddy helping lower her down the slide) and, of course, the swings. She was particularly interested in a toy whale that has a little slide on it. Mommy and Daddy were particularly interested to discover that there are actually other parents with children the same age who live near the park. Where were these people when she was three months old, and were they wondering the same thing about us?

The outing ended once Fiona started becoming too curious about a bike and a sweater resting on a stroller that didn't belong to her. She's definitely seen things before that she wasn't supposed to play with ("leave Mommy's coffee mug alone"), but this was probably the first time she saw toys that were off limits, and she didn't like the experience one bit. I guess I'll need to pull out some economics textbooks to explain how the concept of private property has developed over the past several hundred years. By 15 months a child ought to be ready for Adam Smith and Karl Marx, right?

A Real Live Human

As Andrea says, she's getting to be more like a kid and less like a baby (though there's still plenty of baby in there).

On Saturday night we were in Connecticut late and drove back home with Fiona sleeping in the car seat. On previous trips, she's awakened when we move her from the car seat to the house, and we've had to go through the bedtime ritual at odd hours. But this time she opened her eyes briefly to see where she was, then rolled over and went right back to sleep. Blessed peace.

Yesterday she walked from her toy box over to where I was sitting. Then she turned around and started walking away. I got up to follow her, and she turned (while walking) and started walking down the hallway. She got about halfway down before she fell (at which point she decided she was done walking and went back to cruising).

It was the first time I've seen her walk somewhere without an immediate destination (i.e. ten feet or less, and seeable at all times).

Catching Up

No new milestones lately, just lots of continuing development:

• Fiona's walking gets stronger. She can now walk about halfway across our living room (and it's a big living room by NY standards, running about 20 feet long). She still needs a destination -- if she hears something on the other side of the sofa, she crawls rather than walks to check it out -- but she also doesn't need to have Mommy or Daddy waiting for her at the other end of a walk. She walks between her stand-up toys without prompting.
• Aunt Kathy is out of the country right now, but Fiona can recognize her photo, and even says something that sounds a tiny bit like "Kathy".
• I believe she's added the words "milk" and "book" to her vocabulary. She can identify her ears, nose, teeth, tongue and feet (though sometimes she turns shy).
• She's definitely added the word "Pooh" (as in Winnie-the) to her vocabulary. She has, and I'm being literal here, 4 Pooh dolls plus a Pooh hat and a box that's covered in pictures of Pooh, so this isn't terribly surprising. She's responded to Pooh for a while now; yesterday while Andrea wheeled her home in the stroller Fiona held her hat and kept announcing it was "Pooh!" to anybody who would listen. Yep: our daughter has discovered the joys of the American consumer marketing commercial complex. We're very proud.