Maximilian Marley McKnight
Maximilian Marley McKnight
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Maximilian Marley McKnight
 
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Margaret's Journal Ulan's Journal    

 

Margaret's Journal

Your grandparents got here on January 30th and you have been teething like mad ever since. It makes you sad - I wish we could help, but I guess everyone's got to grow their own teeth. So we cuddle you and give you cold things to chew and homeopathic stuff.  The real medicine stuff, the baby oragel did not seem to work, but the homeopathic stuff does. Go figure. Maybe there's something to that after all.  Yesterday I was looking at Camille across the street who is almost two and one of my thoughts was, wow, she's got a whole mouthful of teeth. Your dad said he did the same thing.  Funny how our perspective changes now that we have you.

You are playing with the shape of your mouth and the sounds that come out.  It is very cute.  You've been working on an "O" sound, curving your lips in a circle.  Today you blew at me.  I think you were trying to make raspberries, which you love, and a blow was good progress.  You are getting very loud, so we are starting to have to be a bit careful with restaurant selection.  At the beginning of the year you started working on a very high pitched squeal, you practiced and practiced and now have pretty much got that right, much to your delight.

You just went on your first business trip.  We drove to Carmel for a real estate conference.  You hated the car as usual, but did very well in the hotel room.  It had a high ceiling that echoed and you made all sorts of noises to play with the echo.  You stayed with your dad during the day and I came out and fed you periodically.   You fell asleep on his lap at the pool and despite your hood, you got your first light sunburn across your nose - oops.  We got you a hat with a bigger brim for next time.   You met a few of my work friends and you smiled your little head off.  You like meeting people, I think.

You are singing with your daddy now.  You definitely love to sing, it calms you instantly, magically.  Now we are going to walk to the bagel shop for breakfast.  Its a gorgeous sunny morning, not cold at all, you barely need your blanket.   I love you guys so much.  I'm just sitting here listening to your sounds drifting in from the other room and I'm so glad you're in my life, both of you.

You are much more into sounds and looking and learning than physical things, except for reaching.  You are reaching for everything and it all goes right to the mouth.   Your sitting is pretty wobbly, even with help and you do not yet seem interested in standing.  You don't like your tummy, but can do the airplane all right.  You pretty much roll onto your back now if we leave you on your tummy, unless you are reaching for something.   You've really learned a lot about how to use your hands over the last few weeks.  I think the teething has actually helped with that because it motivates you to get things to chew on. 

Margaret McKnight
02/22/03


Here we are sitting in the woods in a cabin with a roaring fire and a roaring river (many thanks to the Bambergers... I try to envision you and Eli playing here someday as bigger kids, maybe skiing together, maybe running around inside laughing). You are an unhappy little bear right now, though. You are just getting your fifth tooth and it has not been a easy process. It is finally about to burst through, top right...if only it would hurry. They seem to go too slow.

But you are in an interesting new place, so you have been somewhat distracted. You investigated every cupboard below knee level and played on the pots and pan orchestra for a quite a while. You are a musical little bean.

You crawled over the river rocks, into the river, tried to put your face in and got startled when your nose hit the surface of the water, it was too cute. You love the water even though here it is freezing.

Margaret McKnight
08/21/03



Your fifth tooth just poked through the skin today, and the sixth is not far behind. You are getting the next pair on the top, starting on the right.

You are so interested in the world. You look at things, turn them in your hands, taste them, think about them, talk to them. Your favorites are string like things, mostly electric and computer cords, but you like to investigate pretty much everything. You are content to sit and do that while some of your contemporaries are running around, literally. You are starting to walk sideways while holding onto things, but I think you are not going to be walking for real for a while. You crawl very fast and can easily stand with a bit of help. Your dad had you standing unaided for a good ten seconds. You did it for him and then he tried for two whole days to get you to do it again so I could see. You can squat back down from standing pretty well, so you don't fall. Today you stood in front of me and rested your head against my legs so you could have both hands free to play. You are starting to climb up and down - you did that on the chair today. You know to stop at the top of the steps, but you haven't quite figured out that you have to go backwards.

After a couple of weeks of sleeping badly and one week of sleeping horribly (while we were on vacation, mostly), you have resumed you good sleep habits, though naps are getting short shrift lately (you only slept a half hour today!!). In the wake of that, you have made some big progress on cognitive functioning. You pushed the mop back and forth after you saw me doing it. You can wave hello and good-bye and you usually say bye when cued. You are starting to put lids on things and put one thing into another. You really like to look at me and get my attention. Its not good enough for me to just be there anymore, you need to know I'm watching you. You crawl away and look back to make sure I'm watching. Sometimes you also look to see if its ok to keep going and either go or stop on my cue.

You think its a wonderful game to get hold of my glasses and you know you are not supposed to. Today in the bathtub they were on my head and we were doing something and you snatched them and you were so pleased that you got them, you put one over on me! It was just too cute. Your dad said you are the same way about grabbing the cord to his computer.

We were at a restaurant and you plunged your bottle into a partly filled glass of water and made a huge splash. You got the sillies and laughed your head off and did it over and over. We started doing something else and about ten minutes later you got the glass and bottle together and started doing it again. Needless to say, you had a full change of clothes before we went home!

Today you were very tired and crawling in the front yard while I did some gardening. The water got turned off inside and the sprinkler outside went up higher and when in swung around it got you and you crawled away as fast as you could, but fell in the grass. I didn't get to you fast enough to save you and you cried and cried. I was sad that I didn't go faster. Sometimes when you are tired you just sort of stumble while crawling and fall on your face. Today I was really glad that happened on the grass. You still have a bit of a bruise on your cheek from when you did it while crawling on the cement in the back yard.

Whenever we put you into a seat belt, in the car seat or stroller, you crumple your face and howl like its the end of the world. Once you are in you are fine, but you really let us know you don't want to be in. You now have to be buckled into your high chair because last Saturday you started trying to climb out.

You have a rash on your shoulders. Its been building for about six weeks and now it itches you. Not sure what that is. We're putting dry skin cream and soaking you in oatmeal baths. I'm going to double rinse everything and eliminate the oxyclean I started to use to get the food stains out. I think I'm also going to explore dropping soy from your diet. That's healthy, easy protein so I hope I'm wrong about that. You got a bit sick and took no solid foods for three days and the rash got better, so I have a thought that it might be food related even though only 10% of rashes are according to the doctor.

You love to eat frozen raspberries. You just had nearly your first strawberry today. You like grits. You love tofu. Grapes are good, and so is broccoli. You love popcorn, though I'm not sure that's safe for you. You love apricot nectar (watered down) and peaches and nectarines, which are in season. Watermelon is OK. Peas are great, though we have to cut them all open. You only like to eat by yourself, but if I'm lucky I can put a few bites in here and there. So we have to find you finger food that doesn't need to be chewed.

You've already been in bed for three hours - I'd better join you or I'll be very sorry in the morning!!

I love you so much. You are truly a delight and getting to be more fun every day. You are starting to show a sense of humor and you love to laugh. And can't forget the music - you wiggle to the music, you sing with it and you bang to the beat. What a cutie!!!!

Margaret McKnight
08/30/03


Well, my little angel, it is official. You are talking before you are walking, and no one is surprised.

Your first real ordinary word was tooth. While I hold you, you put your finger on your teeth, then my teeth, back and forth saying 'ooth'. You've been doing this for a couple of weeks. Your choice of first word is no doubt reflecting the challenges your teeth have put you through! (Incidentally, you have six, the middle four and the ones to the top right and bottom left of those, the rest have decided to wait a bit. Oh, and I fear your top right has a tiny chip in it. I think this happened very early and I suspect it was from eating rocks at the playground, but we'll never know. Your teeth are very big, which I have been told is a sign of good nutrition.)

Your second word was up. You added this to your sign language of two parallel index fingers pointing up at us when you want to be picked up. We have been trying to teach you to wave bye bye, and you are just as likely to say it as wave. You call Patches 'at as' or something to that effect, but you definitely have a word for her. Ruty swears you called her by name, and you do have the mom and dad down. Even as far back as our last visit to Phila, you were doing momomomom when I left the room.

This morning I was reading you your favorite book, 'Who Said Moo', and when I made the rooster sound you said Ca dee dee. Then I said 'on this fine morning, someone said...' and paused. You said Mooooo!!

I've take you to a doctor who is a homeopathic specialist to help get your itchyness taken care of. (She is very optimistic that we will be successful). She watched you for an hour and said your gross motor skills are fine, you can get everywhere you want to. You will walk when you decide to.

You are getting interested in toys with wheels. You can climb on and off of chairs as long as you can get a toehold up. You think carefully and experiment a bit before you go down from new places, though you are not afraid. You don't just plunge blindly ahead. On your birthday Ruty showed me (made me stand back while she spotted and I fretted) that you can go down the steps. You go sort of sideways, foot hand, foot hand. You are now skipping a step with your first foot on the descent. Gulp. You can get off the bed with no problem. I think you learned that the hard way, you were playing and fell off. After that, you learned about the edge. You get a good hold on the bedding then swing your legs down and around. Its too cute.

I am learning that much about my personality that I thought was learned must be innate, because you have it too. This includes the thoughtful pre-planning of descents. You are so focused and have a huge attention span. We cannot take something that you are interested in away from you and distract you from it. You may seem distracted, but you will circle back to it when you think we have forgotten, sometimes multiple times and in very oblique ways. You are thrilled when you get one over on us and get it!

Your drum and kazoo were your favorite birthday presents. You are seriously into banging pots and pans, and even pounding on the front of the stove which makes a wonderful noise. You love sounds that sort of startle you, but don't really scare you. You can go into peals of laughter. Your laughter is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard. We are truly blessed to hear it often.

Margaret McKnight
09/21/03