Fifteen Months of Toddler Frances

For Frances's Fifteen Month Birthday, I tried to find a playground that wasn't under two feet of snow. I failed, but didn't give up until we visited two playgrounds and walked many blocks. Then the reality of living in Massachusetts in February couldn't be denied any longer and we retired to the library, like sensible folk. Frances loves rearranging the librarians' books for them.





Then Frances and I took ourselves home and Frances thawed out in a bath.

Fifteen Months Fun Facts

• Firsts: For the first time, Frances scooped up food with a spoon and got it into her mouth. It was soft-serve ice cream from Old Country Buffet (I blame Mark), but still an accomplishment. She often knows where her head is and sometimes can locate her nose. Frances has been walking for about two months now, but she's just started picking up things I care about - the phone, the car keys - and relocating them. This can be problematic, such as when she relocates the phone to the dishwasher:
  

Thank you, Frances.

Best of all: Frances now gives kisses, when she's in the mood, and has generally gotten more snugly. It's so incredible, I'm almost ready to forgive her all the nighttime feedings - almost.

• Father's nicknames: Butternut Squash, Francine, Huckle Buck, Snuggle Booger. I have no clue.


• Frequent comment: "What big blue eyes she has!" It's an oldie, but a goody, and she's gotten it a lot this month. I wonder if having a hat pulled down over her forehead somehow accentuates the size of her eyes.


• Favorite things: Belly buttons - This is not a problem. Zippers - This is mostly comical; I find myself frequently saying "Didn't I just put that coat on you?" Talking on her "phones" - This is completely comical since anything can serve as a phone, including the tube from the toilet paper...
  

...or that dog chew toy from Auntie Jocelyn.

• More favorites: Closing doors and drawers - I expect this is going to result in tears someday soon, but so far, so good. Books - This is excellent, except when she brings them to me in the shower. Toilet plunger - This is just unfortunate, but she really likes carrying it around. Veggie Booty - This is a problem; see below.


• Stats: She's getting old enough to be wary of doctor's appointments, but we made it through her well baby check-up. She's 31.5 inches tall (75-90%) and weighs 20 pounds 12.4 ounces (10-25%). She gained less than two ounces over the past three months and her pediatrician is somewhat concerned. The pediatrician suspects that this is just Frances's genetic predisposition showing itself, but for the the next six weeks, Frances is on a high-fat, high-calorie diet. Veggie Booty is out; peanut butter is in. Frances is not keen.


• One word to describe Frances this month: Sick, unfortunately. She's had a cold since before Christmas and yesterday came down with croup, which sounds quaint and old-fashioned to me, but it's all the rage at the Hayward-Upton's. We had a long night last night, but we will survive. I'm getting very good at taking Frances's temperature while distracting her with "The Wheels on the Bus" and Frances can wipe her own nose with Kleenex. Not bad for a 15 month old.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Dear Cousin Nora, Cousin Clare and Cousin James,

From the looks of your blog, we know you must be missing Wisconsin. Here's a little reminder of life with snow:

That's a bench on the left and a bicycle on the right, in case you're wondering.

Don't you worry about your Cambridge cousin, though. After exploring the halls of our apartment building numerous times, Auntie Mongo decided it was time to brave the elements.

Your little Cousin Frances did remarkably well on the ice.



She even enjoyed herself a little bit.

Then we went home and learned about hot chocolate.

Hope y'all are surviving down there.

Love,

Auntie Mongo and Cousin Frances

Another reason we love Cambridge...

...Free, family-friendly Sunday afternoon music festivals to get us through the winter! I was very enthusiastic. So, Mark and I bundled up Frances, loaded her into the stroller and headed out. We only had to pick the stroller up once to carry it over a snow bank! When we got to the concert, Frances was a little hesitant. That's her in my arms on the left.


After a while, she branched out and wanted her daddy to hold her.



Then she moved on to a chair, still well away from the melee.

She eventually agreed to participate in the music festival by sucking on a maraca.

Towards the end of the concert, she found a ramp to run up and down and was a pretty happy kiddo, right before she retired back to Daddy's arms.

Ah, well, a good time was had by all.

Little Pink Sock

My mom may be my only reader who knows about Little Pink Sock, so here's a little background information that may be necessary to appreciate these pictures of Frances.

There's a comics strip called Mutts. Mooch, one of its characters, is a cat who has a little pink sock for a lovey, like so:


I love that Mooch loves his Little Pink Sock.

The other day, Frances went out of her way to get a little pink sock for herself. She went head-first into the (clean!) laundry basket.

"Success!"

"Now, how do I get out?"

She got out all by herself, and without bonking herself in the head. Kudos, Frances.

In the name of all things holy!

Holy Toledo!

Holy Mackerel!

Holy Cow!

Holy Moley! We're ready for it to stop snowing now.

But snow it does. The pictures are from Round Three. Round Four is coming down now. Tomorrow: no snow predicted, but negative temperatures expected. And still we love this place.

Snow Day Survivors

Beware apartments described as "garden level" in the Boston area. When it snows and the "garden" is actually a parking lot that needs to be plowed, this is the view:


Frances was not impressed, so she decided to "help" her daddy with his nap.

I missed the picture of Frances taking handfuls of her dad's hair and yanking his head back and forth. I decided we needed to get out of the apartment and I've got this new Ergo carrier I've been eager to use, so we braved snow, ice and wind to go for a walk.

Not my best idea ever. Surprise! Frances does not enjoy having snow blown in her face. So after tramping around with some other desperate souls for a bit, a retreat was in order, thank goodness.

Frances tried on the latest addition to her ever-growing tutu collection (more photos to come, don't worry) and then we called it a day.

Fourteen Months of Toddler Frances!

This month, we used our monthly celebration of Frances's birth as an excuse to go to the Boston Museum of Science. It was a really fun way to spend an afternoon. Frances enjoyed sucking on magnets.

And this snake was interesting, but ultimately not as interesting as the name label on the snake's aquarium.

Some month soon, I will have to stop these monthly summaries but Frances still changes enough month to month to impress us, so here we go.

Fourteen Months Fun Facts

• Firsts: Walking is definitely Frances's primary mode of locomotion these days. She only resorts to crawling on rare occasions. She's imitating us in new ways. The other day she was sitting on the floor near me and flopping her torso down on top of her legs. It took me a minute but I realized she was imitating the way I was stretching after a run. Such a smart bubby!
• Favorite Foods: Veggie Booty still saves the day, but she also discovered her love for meatloaf while we were with her grandparents. Once she gets going on it, fistfuls at a time disappear.
• Frequent Comment: We've heard several descriptions of Frances that all go together: "centered," "dignified," and "self-contained." I like these descriptions. I also like her grandmother Mimi's description: "So sweet!" I find myself frequently saying "What just happened?" Usually Frances has just fallen over in the middle of walking across the room. She'll be walking along just fine and then - plop!- she collapses, so we still have a ways to go on stable walking.
• Favorite Activities: She loves being with people besides her parents. Frances adored playing with her big cousins over Christmas and she adores our friend Michele. Mark thinks it's because Michele is "bubbly" - drat, and I'm so close to mastering bubbly! Maybe by the time she's Fifteen Months.