Well child

Random pic of Maisie and Dylan playing together from earlier this month:

It doesn't actually go with this post. It's just cute.

Maisie had her 15-month checkup today (almost a month late). She's short (25th percentile) and slim (20th percentile), but her height and weight are proportionate so no worries. What I found tremendously funny is that her head circumference is in the 45th percentile. Not exceptionally big, there, but a much higher percentile than her height and weight! That's my big head baby.

Actually, the doctor said, really the weight is the only measurement that's very accurate... they tend to be too squirmy to get an accurate height or head measurement. She is right on target developmentally, which was nice to hear!

Maisie was pretty upset at the end of the visit (two shots plus a finger poke) but she did really well for all that. The lab techs gave her stickers, which were very distracting. And then she fell asleep in the car.

Another winter day...

another afternoon at the Children's Museum.

Aaron had to work this afternoon, so it was just me and Maisie today. We ran through the habitats in the Habitot area (pond, forest, caves, and here the rolling hills of the prairie) for quite a while. It's one of my more favorite parts of the Museum. It's just for little kids, ages 6 months to 4 years, so everything is really small. The stairs are little and carpeted, the slides aren't steep, and there aren't any big kids getting excited and trampling the crawlers. There's also a nice little chill-out area with child-sized chairs and beanbags, and a shelf full of board books.

We also discovered a new space today on the 3rd floor, where there is a big comfy couch, a bunch of books, and a place to play with magnetic poetry!

Maisie isn't writing poetry yet (that I am aware of, anyway), but she really enjoyed playing with the words.

Let me know if you all get tired of Children's Museum pics and I'll try to find something else to share with you... it might be hard, though. It's still February, and there just aren't that many other places where Maisie can run around quite as freely as she does there. That membership was money well spent!

Baby loves disco

Yes she does!

Maisie and I, along with Dylan and Auntie Laura, hit Baby Loves Disco this afternoon. It was so fun! Even Dylan, who was initially skeptical ("I do not want to dance. I do not want to look at people dancing. I only want to have snacks.") had a great time - there were plenty of temporary tattoos and stickers, both of which he loves. They play real, not kids, music, and everyone dances and has fun. Some of Maisie's faves included the bubble machines, the balloons that were everywhere, and the song "Bad Mamma Jamma" which is what she is rocking out to in this picture.

The club had all these different areas, so when we weren't dancing we could go to the chill-out room and read books, play with trains and blocks up in the VIP lounge, or color in the many coloring books set out in a third area.

They also had lots of free kid-friendly snacks and towers of juice boxes out. Maisie had three juice boxes!

It was much fun, but also completely exhausting. Maisie went to bed almost an hour early tonight, and I think I'll be following suit shortly.

Children's Museum - with a friend

Last Sunday we went to the Children's Museum with my college friend Wally and his son Jack. He and Maisie had a great time playing together, and Jack sweetly let Maisie eat a bunch of his crackers at snacktime.

I tried to get a picture of them playing together, but they had both figured out how to go up the slide. Nobody wanted to stand still for a picture!

We love balloons

Maisie and I went grocery shopping at Trader Joe's today. At checkout, the cashier was making friends with Maisie, and asked me if she would like a balloon - they are tied to the cash registers, and Maisie was pointing at them and saying "Dat! DAT!!"

We were like, are beans green?? Maisie would LOVE a balloon!!

The cashier tied it to Maisie's wrist, and there it stayed all day. We took it off at one point and tied it to a toy, because it was getting a little tight and because Maisie needed a bath. But the kitties chewed through the string, so now it's floating free in the house.

(We didn't see it happen, but we suspect Cool Hand Luke was the culprit... he seemed awfully interested in the balloon.)

Anyway, I know this isn't the greatest picture but I hope it gives you some sense of just how much joy Maisie got out of this balloon. It was really sweet - and honestly, it's one of the reasons we're Trader Joe's shoppers.

A simple balloon may not seem like a big deal, but to me, it's the difference between a happy smiley toddler and one who's screaming and angry. And to me, that is worth driving out to St. Louis Park!

It's just a scratch

Maisie got a scratch just under her eye.

Poor baby! It reminds me (a lot) of the big cut she got last summer when someone at daycare threw a Tonka truck. There is a lesson to be learned from this: fingernails can be sharp.

Um, even mine. :(

(In my defense, I was grabbing her to keep her from taking a header down some stairs, but still... I feel so Bad Mama!)

Sunday with friends

Sorry about the long time between posts! A whole work week without new Maisie pics... thanks for hanging in there with us.

Today we went to a baby shower for our friends Nicole and Martin, who are expecting a little girl in a little more than a month. It was hosted by our friends Rebecca and Jason, and their daughter Sophia, who graciously (as gracious as a two-year-old can be) shared her toys with Maisie and the other young guests.


One of the great favorites from Sophia's toy box was this unplugged old keyboard. As soon as it was pulled out, all the kids started banging away at it. You could just tell that everyone was told not to play with them at home! They loved it.

Also - do you love Maisie's "question authority" onesie? It's one of my favorite of her articles of clothing.

After the shower, Maisie and I went to visit our newest friend: Trixie!

You may remember that we went to another baby shower not too long ago. Well, Trixie was born to Bethany and Patrick on Saturday at 8:41 a.m. She is absolutely beautiful, and I am sure that she and Maisie are going to be great friends. She is another blogger - there's a link to her blog on the left.

Maisie the engineer

This weekend my mom and I took Maisie to the Children's Museum again. It was fun, once we got in... when we got there, there was a power outage in downtown St. Paul. I know, you're probably thinking "downtown St. Paul on a weekend? Who would even notice a power outage??" People trying to go to the Children's Museum, that's who.

We waited out the half-hour-long outage and finally got in. This time, as you can see, Maisie spent a lot of time working on the gear wall. All the different-sized gears are on magnets, so you can build long chains of gears and watch them all spin. Pretty exciting stuff!

It's so cool to watch her at the gear wall and the other exhibits. Maisie gets really focused and works really hard at whatever it is she's trying to accomplish - whether it's lining up gears or getting a ping-pong ball into a PVC pipe. I am not sure what she is learning from it, but I really feel like that little brain is getting a workout!

As a plus, Maisie was so exhausted that she crashed really hard on the way home, went to bed at 5:00 pm, and slept through the night! Yay Children's Museum!

Maisie is 15 months old today. In addition to her walking, she had a mini-language explosion recently. She has a bunch of new words, most of which have to do with food: eat, cheese, juice, banana, orange juice, cookie. She can also identify some animals (duckie, kitty, meow, puppy, woof, baa) and "shoes." We can't wait to hear what is on her mind (aside from eating, that is!).