Pizza Tuesdays

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Aaron has a late class. Thursdays we have dinner with my mom at her place, but Tuesdays Maisie and I have a pizza date. We hit the uptown Pizza Luce, where we each get a slice and a beverage. They usually have cute kids' cups with straws, but today they were out. We improvised, and Maisie had her milk in a to-go coffee cup.

Forgive the lousy pics, these were all taken with my cell phone as I had no idea how cute dinner was going to be!

Anyway, the coffee cup was a great idea, so thanks Pizza Luce server! She did a really good job and hardly spilled at all. Plus, it made me laugh to see her drinking out of her coffee cup like she was drinking a big old latte.

I don't know if most of you know this, but Maisie LOVES pizza.

As you can see, she shoves the pizza in with two hands!

She'll eat pizza any day, and any time... occasionally when we ask her what she wants for breakfast, she'll say "pizza!" What would you like to drink, Maisie? "Pizza!" Um, how about some juice? We don't drink pizza. Although she has had cold pizza for breakfast, at 22 months... that's a milestone for the baby book.

Our Pizza Luce dinner is always finished off with ice cream for Maisie.

I know, I know, we had that discussion: Ice cream is not a finger food! Please use your spoon! It took some reminding, but she eventually used her spoon and ate about every last drop of ice cream.

Yum!

Fall Festival

Yesterday my mom and I took Maisie and Dylan to a Fall Festival at one of the local garden centers. We started off with donuts, of course!

Don't the best mornings all start with donuts?

Here, Maisie is standing in front of a hay bale maze. She and Dylan had a lot of fun running around inside of it. After they found their way out, Dylan and Gramma went into a haunted house. It was a little too scary for Maisie, so she didn't go. But Dylan had so much fun that we went back about five times!

After that, we did pumpkin painting.

Maisie really enjoyed painting her pumpkin, using all the colors with her fingers as well as with her brush. I think Dylan described her pumpkin well when he said "Maisie's pumpkin looks like a party!"

What a creative (and apt) description!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Maisie's daddy's birthday is today! Happy birthday Aaron!

I often hear about how much Maisie looks like me. So in honor of Aaron's birthday, I thought I'd post some pictures from this weekend that show just how much like him she is. She may get looks from me, but her personality is 100% Aaron.

This is just one example, but one rainy Saturday afternoon, the thing to do at our house was coloring. As you can see, Maisie and Aaron were both working hard on their projects!

We all take coloring very seriously... normally Maisie is quite the ham in front of the camera. But she was so intent on her coloring that she didn't even notice me snapping pics!

That's some focus, there!

But it isn't just her love of coloring that she gets from Aaron. They really share a silly, goofy sense of humor. While she comes to me for cuddles and hugs and quiet time, when Maisie wants to play and be loud and silly, she is 100% about her daddy!

Maisie's first concert

Today was the Target Children's Book Festival! The lineup featured the voices of the Wonder Pets, Lisa Loeb, and best of all, They Might Be Giants! We were so excited.

Unfortunately, it rained all day long, and TMBG had to cancel - apparently rain + electric guitars/instruments = no outdoor concert. It was a real bummer for me.

Maisie and Dylan, however, still had a reasonably good time. We did get to see the people who voice the Wonder Pets perform, which was pretty neat. (It's three middle-school aged girls! Who knew??) Lisa Loeb was signing autographs when we got there; I didn't have anything for her to sign, but it was still cool to see her. And of course, as with any good Minnesota festival, there was kettle corn.

Maisie really enjoyed her first kettle corn, as you can probably tell!

After the Wonder Pets, we went and played on this ginormous play structure until it got too rainy out. Maisie and I got a lot of compliments on her shirt! Here's a closer look:

Pretty cute, eh?

Happy birthday to Mama!

Monday Sept 8 is my birthday! As an early gift, Aaron gave me the afternoon off and took Maisie to the children's museum, where she apparently enjoyed... um, something.

Yes, the Republicans have gone and downtown St. Paul is accessible again, and not a moment too soon. Although we stayed away from both the convention and the associated protests, it got pretty scary at times and we have some friends who got caught up in it. We're glad it's over, for many reasons.

This afternoon, I enjoyed sitting on the couch, watching football and crocheting. I didn't take any pictures, though, so you'll have to take my word for it. Thanks Aaron!

We also want to say a big fat CONGRATULATIONS!! to Aaron L. and his new FIANCEE Nicole! We are all so happy for you guys, and can't wait to meet Nicole. Much love!

Also, Aaron L., happy belated birthday... all, his birthday is exactly one week before mine, and I always forget until MY birthday, when I think "oh darn, I missed Aaron's birthday again!" Oops.

Avoiding the RNC

So the Republicans are in town this week. We're doing our best to stay out of their way, and this weekend was so far, so good!

Yesterday my mom and I took Maisie to a nearby park. There was supposed to be a big festival there, but we couldn't find it... bummer! We did find some fun things to play on, though. so it all worked out in the end.

The big news for us was that this weekend, Maisie moved from her crib into a Big Girl Bed!

Yay big girl beds! It feels like a big change, but she seems ready. She slept in the big bed while we were in California, and did really well, so we made the change.

She really likes it, and wouldn't you? Doesn't it look like fun? I certainly think so, and am now considering getting a fun tent like that for our bed too. She's fallen out a few times, but it seems like that's par for the course, and overall she's doing really well with the change.

Last pic is Maisie modeling a hat I made this weekend for my mom:


Of course I made her a hat too, but she couldn't be less interested in it - she only wants to wear the hat I made for Gramma. Oh well!

Finally, this post comes with lots of get-well-soon wishes for Grandma Jo. Feel better soon! We love you!!