Look at me!

Maisie has pretty much got the hang of sitting up now.
Look at this: hands free, even!

It's a total cliche, I know... but wow, she is growing and changing so fast. Last night we looked back at some of her photos from the winter, and couldn't believe what a wee little thing she was, and how much she's grown in such a short time.

Still no teeth though... sigh. Teething is no fun for any of us.

Chicks and Ducks and Geese better Scurry

Hello blog. Oh, the weather outside is frightful. It's humid, and rainy, and I haven't been able to take my scooter out for a spin more than once this whole week. I don't know if I've ever shown you any pictures of my scooter. It runs on this revolutionary new type of biodiesel.

Here's me buckled into my biodiesel scooter (I'm checking my mirrors):

However, I saved a little anecdota-boat for ya from some sunnier days about a week ago. I was out in my scooter, driving around the neighborhood, when I happened upon a bunch of neighborhood kids playing in a lake. I was like, hey guys, how's the water?

And one little flat headed kid said, "Quack."
The big kid said, "Honk."

Yeah. These are your future leaders, America. Good luck with that.

Congratulations Eoin & Heidi!

This weekend, our friends Eoin and Heidi got married. Congratulations, you two!

Aaron and I went to the wedding and the first part of the reception by ourselves, while Maisie hung out with her Gramma J and cousin Dylan. We missed her, but figured she wouldn't have enjoyed the wedding all that much. Plus, that meant that we both got to enjoy the wedding without baby-wrangling.

We did bring her to part of the reception, though!

She didn't eat dinner, but did enjoy our place card. She also got to meet lots of new friends, which is always a good time.

Congratulations, Eoin and Heidi! We are so happy for you!

Sweet potatoes!

We haven't had any good messy-face food pictures for a while, so...

Sweet potatoes! Maisie loves them, as you can see.

She really hasn't disliked any of the solids we've offered her. It makes mealtime a lot of fun. Sweet potatoes, pears, peas, applesauce, avocado, bananas... she'll eat it all, and then the spoon too!

Happy hour

My friends and I like to get together after work at each others' houses for happy hour. This usually involves a little wine, a lot of cheese and crackers (yum!), and a fair amount of baby-wrangling. Among us we have two teenaged step-kids, two active toddlers, Maisie, and one baby on the way, as well as several dogs.

Fortunately even our friends who don't have children are willing to help with the kids! Here is Maisie with our friend Sarah, hanging out at our friend Bethany's house last Friday.

It was a beautiful day, and we loved spending time at Bethany's gorgeous house.

Why we can't ever go anywhere.

We are often invited places in the evening, but we can never go unless we find child care. Even if the place and people are baby-friendly, it's just not going to happen, because Maisie is all about being early to bed (and sadly for us, early to rise).

I have been asked why we gave Maisie such an early bedtime. Ha ha ha! If it were up to us, she'd stay up a little later, and sleep past 6:00 a.m. Instead, this is what happens by 6:30 p.m. every evening.

She gets her bedtime bottle, and bam! Out like a light.

Even if we wanted to keep her up, I don't know how we'd do it. This baby is bound and determined to get her sleep.

(The nice thing is, though, that when we do find a babysitter, it's pretty easy work!)

Happy mother's day!

To all the mamas, grandmas, aunties, godmothers, and mamas-to-be,

Happy Mother's Day!

Love, Maisie

On the mend.

Maisie's feeling better, thanks to amoxicillin and a lot of sleep.

She stayed home with Aaron today, but texted me to let me know as much.


Oh, and if you call Aaron on his cell and he can't hear you too well... it's probably not your phone or the connection. Turns out that baby saliva + cell phone = not good.

You'd think we'd have seen that one coming.

First ear infection.

Maisie and I are home today - she's got her first ear infection, poor little bug. But instead of a picture of sad, sick, unhappy Maisie, I will share a picture from happier times: yesterday.


She really loves her swing, as you can see. The tray has two toys attached: a mirror and a little fan-like thing with a pinwheel in it. Fascinating! Sometimes when she swings we'll sit in front of her and tickle her toes when she swings forward, and that always gets huge laughs.

Send good ear thoughts our way!

Sunday plans.

Today was the Heart of the Beast's May Day parade in Powderhorn Park, which is about six blocks north of our house. We were going to picnic with friends in the park, watch the parade, and then enjoy everything the park had to offer.

But we had a change of plans, thanks to the weather - instead of the beautiful, sunny day we'd hoped for, we had grey, overcast skies with intermittent showers, and wind gusts over 50 mph. We actually lost power for a while, thanks to tree limbs on power lines.

So instead of a picnic and parade, we stayed inside, read books, and played with toys.

All in all, we had a very nice Sunday... once the power came back on.

Six months!

Maisie's six month birthday is tomorrow! Although she was almost born on the 2nd, so I am writing this entry today.

To celebrate, she'd like to pull your hair!

Pulling hair isn't her only new skill, although it seems to be a favorite. She's also eating quite a few different foods, and is actually now quite a fan of the mesh feeder. She's constantly rolling over back-to-front. This gets to be a problem sometimes because she doesn't really have front-to-back rolling yet, and she's woken up a few times on her tummy which is quite upsetting to her - and to us, because we have to get up and roll her back over. She's almost sitting up by herself now too. She uses her hands a lot and has gotten very good at getting things to her mouth. And, most fun, she's very social and will smile and laugh at just about anyone who smiles at her.

I can't believe Aaron and I have had Maisie for six months! It seems not as long - but at the same time, I can hardly remember what our lives were like without her.