Fall fun

Today was a beautiful fall day. We got some much-needed yardwork done, including raking the front yard. Maisie really enjoyed playing in the leaves as Aaron and I raked and bagged.

Where's Maisie?
There she is!!



She had a lot of fun crawling through our leaf piles, as you can see. She pointed out to us all the airplanes as they passed overhead (saying "Dat! Dat!" and pointing), all the cars that drove by ("Dat!), and the pedestrians ("Dat!"). She also practiced her new walking skills, using the gutter downspout to balance. As you can see, that was also a really good time!


We got some much-needed yardwork done, and Maisie had a lot of fun while we did it! We just hope that next year, she can help us rake. Fingers crossed!

First birthday present

Hey, it's our 100th post! Thanks everyone for following along, and for your comments. They make blogging so fun!

In another milestone, Maisie got her first birthday present today, from her Grandma Jo.

It's this crazy toy schoolbus that she can push in front of her, which we knew she'd really enjoy. She really likes practicing walking, so this is a great toy for her. Plus it sings a catchy little song. What's not to love?

What we didn't figure on is how much she was going to love riding on it! Once we sat her on it and started pushing, we were off to the races!

We pushed her up and down the sidewalk until it was time to go in and eat supper. And when we took her in, she got mad - she did NOT want to stop playing!

Future scientist

This past week was a rough one. Maisie was at home three days, was diagnosed with an ear infection, and is now on antibiotics.

At the same time, she took her first steps! Yay! It happened a little too quickly to catch a picture of it, but hopefully soon we'll be able to post one.

Actually, we're hoping to be able to soon post pictures at all... our camera is being difficult and not wanting to talk to our computer. It makes this whole picture blog business quite difficult. So in the meantime, here's a picture from our visit to the Science Museum today!

Maisie loves to type, so we let her type our name on our Scientist badge. That's why we're "4eww."

We really took much better pictures while we were there, but they're trapped on the camera! So for now, you've got the silly photobooth group portrait.

The science museum was a ton of fun, by the way, and we ended up buying a family membership. Maisie especially enjoyed investigating the Hmong house, crawling around the Mississippi River exhibit, and looking at the bears. So watch this space for more science pictures in the future!

Blog action day!

Today is blog action day - when bloggers worldwide (webside!) unite to talk about the environment. To put you in the right mood, here's another cute picture of Maisie playing outside.

I wanted to say that one of the easiest things you can do to help preserve the environment is to switch your lightbulbs from regular incandescents to compact fluorescents. They are awesome... they last forever (less purchasing! less shipping! fewer materials used!) and use a teensy fraction of the energy that conventional incandescent bulbs do (less coal burned to power your lightbulbs!). All in all - it's an easy, small change to make for the good of the environment.

Happy blog action day!

Busy week!

Sorry about the long time between posts! Last week was crazy - my last day at my previous job was Wednesday, and I started at a new firm on Thursday. So far it looks like it's going to be a great fit, but the changes made our week pretty hectic!

We did manage to get outside and play yesterday, though.

It was an unexpectedly beautiful day, 60 degrees and sunny. Aaron did a lot of work yesterday outside, taking down the porch screens and cleaning out the gutters, while Maisie and I played in the yard. She really enjoyed it - there was a lot to see, touch, and hear! In this picture you can tell that she's talking about something... I don't know what, as she doesn't really have any intelligible words yet, but she speaks with real inflection and tone, so you can tell she means what she's saying!

She's aaaaaaaaaalmost walking now, too. She has a push-along walker toy, and yesterday out of the clear blue, she pulled up on it and started walking along, pushing it in front of her! She looks tremendously pleased with herself when she does that. It's so cute.

I'm glad she's not quite walking yet, though. I'm not ready for her not to be a baby!

Beat the heat, take 2

So today was crazy hot, again. Hello, it is October 7 in Minnesota! Why is it 80 degrees out and so grossly humid? Blech. Some folks were out enjoying the unseasonably warm weather - some actually ran the Twin Cities marathon today! - but we caved.

We spent the day indoors, in air conditioning.

We might be weather wimps, but we were cool and comfortable weather wimps!

The forecast for tomorrow: high of 61. Ahhhhhh.

Swingin!

Today was probably one of the last warm days of 2007 here in Minneapolis. Did I say warm? I mean hot! It got up to 85, plus it's been raining all week so it was really humid as well. We coped with the weather by going to a nearby neighborhood park.

Maisie tried out the swings for the first time, and she loved it!

We helped her down the slide a few times, and she didn't seem to enjoy that quite as much as she did the swings. She did like crawling around in the sand that surrounded the swingset.

I don't think I noted her 11th month birthday! She's getting more mobile and interactive every day. At 11 months, she says "mama" and "dada," though without a lot of meaning to them. She is very interested in airplanes, and looks up to find them when she hears them going over... even if we're inside, and she ends up staring at the ceiling. She is almost exclusively eating regular table food now, with only the occasional puree. Maisie has two teeth - bottom front - the top front two are just about in, but not quite yet, and are causing her lots of problems. She isn't quite walking yet, but is working really hard on it. And - knock on wood - she regularly sleeps through the night!

Opinionated baby!

Maisie has lately been growing very... opinionated. And vocal. She used to be very tractable, but lately, if she doesn't want to do something, she'll let you know in no uncertain terms. For instance, tonight when we were driving, she did NOT want to be in her carseat. She screeched at the top of her lungs all the way from Target to home.

This has become especially true during diaper changes, for some reason. As soon as we put her down on the changing table, she starts screaming and kicking. She hates it!

The only way to keep her calm is to give her a toy, or a bottle, to distract her. It'll work for a few minutes. But as you can probably tell from the look in her eyes... it won't last.

I'm not sure if she's just an opinionated baby, or if this is a glimpse of the toddlerhood ahead of us.