weekend update

Despite the 50-degree, rainy weather, we had a really lovely weekend. We got stuff done around the house, Maisie was in a good mood all weekend, and we went to the Children's Museum both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

On Saturday, Maisie spent a long time playing at the water tables. She was really focused on it, as you can see!

I know I've written a lot about the Children's Museum before, but it's really one of our favorite places to go with Maisie when the weather's not great - or even when it is - then she can play in the big sandbox on their rooftop garden. I think it'll continue to be a favorite place, too! On Saturday, I ran into a Carleton friend (Thistle P-H, for those who remember her) who was there with her two children, ages 3 and 1.

She said that since having her younger son, she appreciates the toddler area even more than she did before, because it's enclosed. So when she needed to nurse the baby or change his diaper, she knew that the older one would be okay for the brief time she had to step away. That was great to hear!

So, dear reader, the upshot of that is, I hope the Children's Museum pictures do not bore you, because I think there's quite a few more in our future. :)

The first thing Maisie likes to do when she gets to the Museum is to paint her face.

She takes it very seriously. What she ends up with may look random to the untrained eye, but it's not at all - she looks for specific colors, uses the mirror, and really takes her time. It's serious business.

Today we didn't spend as much time at the water tables. Instead, she enjoyed building with the large wooden blocks they have there.

When we asked her what she was building, Maisie said, "This your work, mama!" So this is what my office looks like, at least to her.

Pretty neat office, eh?

Three random things

Three random pictures for your enjoyment.

First, Maisie's outfit this morning:

You can't quite tell just how cute and crazy it is from this carseat picture, taken on the way to daycare. She's wearing a pale pink turtleneck sweater dress, red fleece pants, white shoes with twinkle lights, a purple and black striped hoodie, and the pumpkin hat her Grandma Jo made her. It was quite the ensemble. I've totally given up on trying to dress her so she matches. Now, as long as she's weather-appropriate, I'm happy. Mornings are a lot easier that way.

Second: what I found in my bag when I got to the office:

A few times when Maisie's been too sick to go to daycare, or if daycare's been closed, she's come into work with me while Aaron went to a morning class. She really enjoys it - I have her watch videos on the portable DVD player so I can actually get a little work done while she's here, and people usually bring her chocolate and candy and pay a lot of attention to her. She thinks my office is one big party. Not usually! But she'll sometimes stick things in my work bag that she thinks I need. Today, apparently, I needed this Barbie (a.k.a. dancing baby, at least at our house).

Third: reserved parking.

I used to think the "stork parking" was so, so silly. But now that I have sciatica and various other pregnancy-related complaints that make walking pretty difficult and sometimes painful, depending on how far I go, I totally appreciate it, and make use of it when I can. Thanks, Sears!

At the park

sorry for the delay between posts (I feel like I start every post that way these days...) - I've been under the weather with a horrendous head/chest cold. I think I'd be fine if I could take some Nyquil and get some sleep, but that's not really an option that's available to me these days. Sigh.

So here are some pictures from a few weeks ago, of Maisie and Dylan playing in the park together.

Maisie really loves to go down slides - it's probably her favorite thing to do at the park. She'll do the little slides by herself, but she likes a little help with the bigger ones.

Luckily, Dylan is happy to lend a hand! He's such a sweet kid.


So with my down time, I've been keeping up the crocheting! I recently completed two baby blankets for friends who are also expecting.

The first is for Dacia and Jeff, who are expecting a boy, about two weeks before I'm due.

The second is for Ben and Kati, who are expecting a girl about two weeks later! Both blankets are made with cotton yarn, so they're a little bit lighter, so they'll hopefully work as summerweight blankets. I'm pretty happy with how they both turned out. I can't wait to see those cute babies!

pregnancy update

Sorry for the delay between posts... we haven't had a lot of great picture-taking opportunities here. Maisie rarely stops moving - this picture is one of the clearer ones I've taken of her lately!

She's in a bounce house at Edinborough, an indoor play park nearby where our friend Oliver celebrated his 3rd birthday today.

Anyway, when she's not moving, we've been working on potty training! She's a little young yet, but she showed a lot of interest, so we're letting her run with it. It's tremendously exciting for us to think that we won't have two in diapers. But at the same time, spending 20 minutes reading to Maisie while she sits on the potty isn't super exciting to most people, and definitely isn't the kind of thing I want to be taking lots of pictures of. So I'll spare you the details, and leave it at: potty training is in progress, and going really well.

Speaking of two in diapers, I'm now 28 weeks pregnant. Gratuitous belly shot:

28 weeks generally marks the beginning of the third trimester. Yay, the end is in sight! This hasn't been the greatest pregnancy for me - I'm a lot bigger than I was with Maisie, at least so far, and I'm definitely feeling it... I'm fairly uncomfortable in some ways that I never was with Maisie, and we still have 11 weeks to go (c section is scheduled for June 22, at 39 weeks). So I'm excited to meet our new baby girl (I told you it's a girl, right? because it's a girl!), and to be a mommy again, but I'm also really looking forward to not being pregnant.

I realize that the front view may not look too big - at dinner last weekend, a friend said "But you're so small! Why are you so small??" I told her that it certainly didn't feel small to me! But check out the belly from the side!