Just sitting around.

Maisie has a cute little chair, called a Bumbo.


It's made of a weird foam material that is really light. The chair weighs next to nothing, but is still somehow firm enough to keep Maisie upright.

The Bumbo is great. Even though she can't sit up on her own yet, it's supportive enough that she can sit in it and play with her toys, which is her New Thing. She really enjoys toys she can grab, shake, manipulate, and eventually get into her mouth.

As you can see, the Bumbo is also super cute!

Maisie is not the only member of our family who enjoys hanging out in the Bumbo.

First walk

Today it was unexpectedly warm: 45 degrees! So when I got home from work, we bundled Maisie up and went for a walk around the neighborhood.



I know it's hard to tell, but really, there is a baby in that stroller!

Because she was born in November, this was the first time she's really spent any time outside aside from hurrying to or from the car. She found the whole experience pretty boring, and promptly fell asleep. Oh well... hopefully she'll grow to enjoy walks around the neighborhood!

3 generations of Carls

I know not everyone who reads this blog gets the Carleton Voice, which is our alumni magazine, so I thought I would share this picture that I sent in, so that all of you can see it...



It's called "3 generations of Carls." That's me ('96), my mom ('67), and Maisie ('29!).

Happy Valentine's day!

We had hoped to get a cute picture of Maisie smiling and laughing, wishing everyone a happy Valentine's day.

But as it turns out, she is totally over Valentine's day. She just wants to sit in her Bumbo and play with her ladybug.



I can just hear her, thirteen years from now, but with the same look on her face... "Jeez mom and dad, wouldya get that camera out of my face already??"

Baby fashion

Before we had Maisie, I knew that babies wore all kinds of ridiculous things. It seems like baby girls, especially, have silly clothes (though maybe that's just what we were looking at...) - they are subjected to garters on their heads, and tons of frills, ribbons, bows, and gathers. We've mostly shied away from the super-girly baby clothes, but still end up with some silliness. For instance, Maisie has a pair of carpenter-style jeans with a hammer loop. A hammer loop! It's not girly, but talk about useless!

But as for my favorite silly baby fashion, I give you:

the track suit.



It's cozy and warm, but really. She looks like she's going to go running or something - in this picture I think she looks like she's doing crunches - when the truth is she can't even roll over consistently.

Keep posting!

Maisie is so mad that we haven't posted to her blog in almost a week!


Don't cry, sweetie! We won't let it happen again!

(Our laptop was down, but now it's better...)

3 months old

Today is Maisie's three-month birthday! We celebrated by braving the cold weather (today's high is negative six!) and going to the Bad Waitress for lunch. Maisie slept through most of it, and Aaron and I talked about everything that happened three months ago at her birth.

Three months old! What a big girl. Maisie loves to look at her mobile and being read to. She also likes bath time and dancing with her daddy. She has started to play with toys - she will grab a cloth rattle or a teething ring and shove it in her mouth. We are amazed at how much she has learned in just three months. (And she's taught us a lot, too!)

Do I look like a boy to you?

Today Aaron, Maisie and I went to the YWCA, where I was asked if Maisie was a boy.


Um, no.

Granted, she wasn't dressed in a super-girly riot of pink, like she is here. She was wearing jeans and a gray hoodie. But even so, I don't think she looks like a boy. After all, I was wearing jeans and a gray hoodie, too!

(I'm not really sure why it bugs me so much that she was taken for a boy, but it really does.)