Happier times

We've had a rough week around here - Maisie's been sick with an awful tummy bug. I'll spare you the details, but will say that Aaron's spring break has not been the relaxing and productive week off from school that he'd planned. Instead, he's been home with a sick, cranky toddler every day. Neither he nor I has gotten sick, which is a minor miracle. We've been washing our hands a lot.

Instead, I'll share some pictures of happier times: last Sunday!

Auntie Laura had tickets to the Wild game Sunday afternoon, so Dylan came over to our house! We had fun with Dylan, and Auntie Laura had fun at the game, which the Wild won. Woo!

Sunday was a pretty nice day, so Aaron and the kids and I walked up to our nearby elementary school, which has some fun playground equipment.

There is one little set there that's just right for little ones - there's a little slide, and stairs that Maisie could navigate on her own. I have no idea how many times she and Dylan went down that slide, but we were at the park for a good 45 minutes, until they got cold and actually asked to go home! I kept trying to get a picture that would actually catch Maisie's face, but she wouldn't stop moving long enough - she'd just say "cheese!" as she ran past me to go down the slide again.

There was some equipment at the playground for bigger kids too - monkey bars and a big curly slide - but Dylan was very sweet about playing on the little slide that Maisie could handle.

He was particularly impressed that the playground is surfaced with cut up old tires, not wood, so nobody had to worry about getting splinters if they fell!

Pucker up!

Happy Friday, and happy first day of Spring!

Here's a kiss for you, from Maisie!

Editing to add another pic... both of these are from Auntie Laura's somewhat amazing cell phone camera. My phone never takes such good photos! Here's Maisie, as a rockstar.

Spring!

This weekend we went down to Iowa to visit Aaron's parents. We had a great time staying at Grandma Jo's house, and playing at the park with Grandpa Greg! But it was a long drive back today.

We got back to beautiful weather and melting snow. We were tired of sitting after the long drive, so we decided to go for a walk. We had Maisie put on some rain boots that my mom got her last year, and a good thing we did - she immediately found a huge puddle in front of our house and started running up and down the sidewalk, splashing her way through the puddle!

We said "Maisie, don't you want to go for a walk?" She replied "No walk, stay here!" So she splashed and splashed in this gigantic puddle to her heart's content, while we chatted with the neighbors. The water was pretty deep - up past her ankles - and she had some good splashing going, enough so that her pants got soaked!

Eventually she got cold and tired, and wanted to take a warm bath (smart girl) so we went inside. She had so much water in her boots that Aaron had to wring her socks out in the sink!

Some solo parenting time

As you probably know, Aaron's in school right now. This semester he's had a class that meets on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. This week was the last week of it. Yay!

This Friday, Maisie and I hit a favorite coffee shop/restaurant, Anodyne, for dinner. I had a beautiful large decaf latte and a yummy croque monsieur sandwich. Maisie had eaten dinner at home, so she stuck with ice cream. They serve Sebastian Joe's, a local ice cream, at Anodyne. Maisie chose a flavor called Pavarotti, banana ice cream with chocolate chips. She really enjoyed it!

Anodyne is really fun for us because it has a little kid-friendly area in the back, with a bucket of toys and a rocking chair that's just Maisie's size. While we were there two guys came and started setting up microphones and music stands right in front of us. Maisie was intrigued by the activity, and they were really nice about it - one let her strum his guitar, and the other gave her a yellow egg-shaped shaker to play with while we were there. The next morning I asked her to tell Aaron about what she saw at the restaurant. She told him there were animals there - monkeys, that were swinging upside down. She has a vivid imagination. No mention of the musicians, though.

Then on Saturday morning, Dylan came over and the three of us went to the Children's Museum.

One of Maisie's favorite books is Mo Willem's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. If you haven't read it, it's hilarious - basically, the premise is that the bus driver has left briefly and has asked you to watch his bus while he's gone. He says, "remember, don't let the pigeon drive the bus!" Then the pigeon begs, pleads, cajoles, and throw fits trying to get you to say that yes, he can drive the bus. Maisie always says "I drive the bus!!" when we read it together. So I was not surprised that she really loved taking a turn behind the wheel!

Can't you just hear bus driver Maisie? "Exact change only, bud!"

crafty crayons

Maisie loves to color, and we've somehow picked up a ton of crayons here and there. This has also meant that we have a ton of broken little crayon ends and stubs around the house.

We decided to melt them down and make new crayons with them! I picked up this silicon mold pretty cheaply at the craft store. Maisie helped me put the little crayon pieces into the molds, and then we baked it for about 15 minutes at 200 degrees. When I took it out, the crayons were all soupy and they didn't look too hot when they dried... the undersides were all one color, and I worried that maybe they'd just be a mottled brown. But as you can see, when we popped them out, they looked great!

Maisie even tried to take a bite of the pink and red one before she realized that no, they really are crayons, not cookies. Oddly, they're not great for coloring, but they look neat. And I don't have little crayon odds and ends all over the house any longer!

A la peanut butter sandwiches!

Not too much new to report on over here, so this may be a somewhat boring post, albeit with cute pictures.

Today Maisie had peanut butter toast for lunch. She says she likes peanut butter sandwiches, but what she really likes is to lick the peanut butter off, leaving soggy toast behind.

Well, soggy toast, and peanut buttery noses!

And peanut buttery hair, and chins, and cheeks...

After lunch this afternoon, we went swimming at the YWCA, which Maisie loves. I love it too - it feels so good to get in the pool! We played in the water for a long time. When we got home, we were all pretty tired, so instead of cooking we had Chinese takeout for supper. Maisie enjoyed chicken fried rice, and got her first fortune cookie.

Her fortune was so apt, I took a picture to make sure that we remembered it. I think it's right on; wouldn't you agree?