The Training Wheels Come Off - the Cavalry Departs

Grandpa Bob received Shelby Foote's three-volume history of the Civil War for Christmas this year. During the Civil War, cavalry were used to search for the enemy and, significantly, to shield the main body of the army from enemy reconnaissance efforts. In this way, the opposing army would not know exactly where the main body of the army was located or how it was deployed. Robert E. Lee, for example, lost the battle of Gettysburg in part because he did not properly use his cavalry to ascertain the Union Army's location and strength - while Union cavalry were able to stall his forces long enough to prevent them from capturing Seminary Ridge on the first day of the battle.

This morning, we lost our cavalry.

Grandma Kay and Grandpa Bob headed back to Massachusetts this morning. They will be greatly missed by both of us. We can't say enough about how helpful it was to have them here to offer the voice of experience, have nice hot meals ready for us, and generally reassure us that we haven't lost our minds (yet).

Before the cavalry rode off into the sunset, we had the second night in a row of colicky behavior by our little girl. She slept pretty well the first few nights that she was home but Friday and Saturday she was crying inconsolably for what seemed like forever. We tried just about every trick in the book to get her settled down to no avail. We welcome any advice and input from more experienced parents!!!

About the only thing that worked was to have her fall asleep on daddy's tummy on the leather recliner in the living room (Grandpa Bob's tummy once again proved its worth - daddy needs to step up to the plate if he's going to be able to compete). Unfortunately, this approach worked too well so daddy has spent the last two nights "sleeping" in the recliner with Madeleine. Mommy and daddy are feverishly reading up on alternative approaches today!

During the daytime, she sleeps like a champ - but only in her carseat. When she's fully bundled up in the carseat, she reminds me of pictures I've seen of the last empress of China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Chinese_Empress_Dowager.JPG) in this photo? If only she had her footmen in imperial regalia to parade her around.