Life with Margo

Margo is sleeping in the Ergo as Jake writes this post. Will she stay asleep long enough for Jake to finish? Jake would bet on ‘no.’

Last Monday, July 21, 2008, Margo discovered her hands. Her hands are now her favorite “toys” to play with and eat. She likes to hold her hands in a bit of a clasp and then suck on them, sometimes sticking as many as four fingers into her mouth at once. Jake and Maia like to watch.

Update: Jake was right about the earlier question.

Margo Continues Her Modeling Career

Margo Models a Beautiful Sweater Hand-Knit for Her by Julie Burkley

As shown above, her friends and family have given her lots of beautiful things to wear including quite a few hand-knit items from her grandmother Nancy, Julie Burkley, Gail Kleiner, her cousins Marge and Jeff Leppo, Jake’s co-worker Debbie, Maia’s co-worker Maia (not a typo), and Jen McKay.

Around the House

Margo's Nursery

Jake and Maia have continued to decorate Margo’s nursery (because the optimistically believe that she will someday sleep there on a regular basis!). The biggest changes are a mobile above her crib and a new rug that comes from FLOR. 

Jake and Maia are now giving Margo bottles on almost a daily basis as practice for when Margo has a baby-sitter. At first, Margo was clear that drinking from a bottle was one of the worst experiences of her short life, but she has adapted nicely. 

Margo continues to develop new ways to express herself. There is plenty of smiling, but also a new pouting face where she sticks out her lower lip. Who knew that humans instinctively pout by sticking out their lower lip? The decibel level of her crying has also increased.

At Margo’s baby shower, her friends and family decorated onesies for her. Below are pictures of the onesies decorated by her aunt, Nora, and her grandmother, Elaine. Keep an eye out for her in other fashionable designs by Alix, Jennifer/Kim/Lauren, Tom, Sasha, Dan, Ginger and others.

Margo Modeling a Onesie by Elaine

Margo Models a Onesie by Nora

Margo Sleeping on Her Uncle Dan

Margo Sleeping in Her Swing (A Hand-Me-Down from Jennifer Mennucci)

Margo Asleep on the Scale

Margo loves to sleep – well, everywhere except in her own bed. Above, she is shown sleeping on her Uncle Dan’s lap, in her swing, and even on a scale while being weighed. (The scale is at this really cute store in Montclair called The Tulip Grove.) As the picture shows, she weighed in at 11 lbs, 7.5 ozs. at about 11 weeks old. Margo typically goes to sleep around 8 or 8:30, and Maia usually reads The Sleep Book by Dr. Seuss to her as she falls asleep, but her sleep only lasts a few hours, after which Margo usually spends the rest of the night sleeping on top of Maia. Jake and Maia are looking forward to a time when Margo sleeps better on her own, but it’s also hard to put Margo down when she’s sleeping in either Jake or Maia’s arms.

   

Richard, Ken, Malani, Elaine, Margo, Jake, Maia and Eric in Long Lake

Maia, Margo and Jake set out for New York and Long Lake on July 8. They spent 1 day in New York and a little more than three days in Long Lake (plus a day of travel each direction to/from Long Lake), and they returned to Oakland on July 15th. Margo is the fourth generation of Avidon to visit the house in Long Lake, which is pretty exciting. She made it there at a little less than 11 weeks old.

The trip had quite a few memorable moments; one that sticks out quite prominently for Maia and Jake is that Margo decided that she doesn’t like riding in cars. This was particularly unfortunate, because the trip included a 279-mile car ride from New York to Long Lake (and then back the other direction). Other memorable moments included seeing Tim Oberweger for lunch in New York (Jake attended high school and college with Tim); seeing Ken and Hadley who live in Saranac Lake (Maia knows Ken from when she worked at The Ithaca Journal) and attending the Woodsmen Days festival in Tupper Lake with them; spending time with Margo’s grandparents, Richard and Elaine, and Margo’s uncle, Eric; introducing Margo to Ken (different Ken) and Malani (Eric knows Ken from elementary school at Ethical Culture); visiting Hoss’s Country Corner; and the most memorable moments of all, which were time spent doing nothing except enjoying the mountains, the lake, and Margo.

Jake, Margo and Tim

Margo on the Dock

Margo Getting Ready for Her First Swim in the Lake

Margo After Her First Swim in the Lake

Hadley, Nelle, Ken, Jake, Margo and Maia at Woodsmen Days on Tupper Lake

Jake and Margo Reading an old New York Times Magazine

Margo and Her Grandparents, Richard and Elaine

Margo and Her Uncle Eric

Theo and Margo

Margo and Maia spent one recent afternoon with Sasha and her twins, Amelia and Theo, who are 3 1/2 years old.

Patrick and Margo Checking Each Other Out

On Saturday, June 28, Rosie, Peter and Patrick visited Jake, Maia and Margo. Patrick, who is 2 1/2, was really excited to meet Margo, and he even drew her a picture and gave her several kisses.

Margo rolled over for the first time on Monday, June 23, 2008. While her grandfather Jimmy insists that this video shows Margo falling over, Maia (who has witnesses the occurrence in person 5 times) insists that Margo is, in fact, rolling over. Either way, she’s adorable.

On June 6, Maia, Jake and Margo headed for the Midwest to celebrate Maia’s 10th college reunion at Macalester and to introduce Margo to lots of old friends. At just 6 weeks old, Margo was going to take her first plane trip, visit her 2nd state, and adapt to the challenges of jet lag.

Things started great: the flight to Minneapolis was a big success. Margo slept most of the trip, and the other parents on the plane helped put Jake and Maia at ease that this was not a crazy thing to be doing with an infant. The landing in Minneapolis was really bumpy thanks to some strong winds, but the bumps of the plane just rocked Margo to sleep.

Our first stop on arrival was Matt and Shayla’s house, where we were going to spend the weekend. Perhaps not surprisingly, KG – one of Matt and Shayla’s dogs – greeted Margo by licking her face and stealing her pacifier. This made everyone a little uneasy after what had been a good – but tense – flight. Thankfully, KG and Emmylou – Matt and Shayla’s other dog – spent the rest of the weekend trying to lick Margo’s toes instead of her face.

Friday Night

Margo, Maia, Rachel, Maren, Jake, Chris and Beth is behind the camera

On Friday night, we started with walleye dinners at the Tavern on Grand with Rachel, Seth and Maren. Then we stopped by Macalester for the first reunion event, and then we made our way over to Chris and Beth’s to hang out with them and their kids for a little while.

Saturday Afternoon

Matt, Jake and Margo at Lake Harriet

On Saturday afternoon, Matt, Shayla, Margo, Maia and Jake walked around the Linden Hills neighborhood in Minneapolis and walked along the shore of Lake Harriet, which is one of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes. Margo spent most of the time in the Ergo carrier, though the Midwest humidity made things a little uncomfortable for her at times. 

Saturday Night

Babies at Macalester Reunion

Peter, Maia, Margo and Greg

Saturday night was the main reunion event, a dinner on campus at Macalester. Margo was one of several babies, but probably the youngest. Jake carried her for most of the evening in the Ergo, while Maia caught up with old friends.

Sunday

Jake, Margo and Maia at the Guthrie

On Sunday afternoon, Jake, Maia and Margo had lunch with Peter and Amy. Later, Jake, Maia and Margo took a trip to the Minneapolis waterfront to see the new Guthrie Theater and go for a walk. One of the really cool things about the Guthrie is the Endless Brige, which sticks out of the building and affords a beautiful view of the Mississippi, which now sadly includes a view of the I-35W bridge construction site.

Meredith Holding Margo and Mary K Holding Nelson

In the evening, Matt’s family came over for dinner, which gave Margo the chance to meet Meredith, her husband Jamie, their one-year old daughter Nelson, and Matt’s parents Gary and Mary K.

Monday

Changing Margo in the Back of the Rental Car

Maia, Jake and Margo returned to Oakland. But, not without one more stop in St. Paul, which included a diaper change in the Dunn Bros. parking lot. Margo was great on the flight home despite the flight’s being almost two hours late, which was due – in part – to a brief shutdown on the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport while the Vice President’s plane took off. No kidding. Margo also decided to poop about 10 minutes before the plane landed, which meant she was kind of grumpy for the end of the trip. She’s got impeccable timing!