Conversations with Maisie

Maisie has become quite the little chatterbox lately. I know it happened gradually, but it seems like all of a sudden, she went from a really basic, small vocabulary to talking about everything! all the time! I don't think she has much in the way of an inner monologue, because she narrates everything - every car trip she spends talking to herself about the cars, the street signs, the trees, the water, the buildings, and the people she sees out the window. Following are a few illustrated examples of some of her recent topics of conversation.


"You help me, Daddy!"
As independent as Maisie is, she can also - usually, sometimes - recognize her limits, especially on playground equipment that is designed for bigger kids. This was at Powderhorn Park on Memorial Day weekend. She tried to make it up the ladder herself, and got most of the way before telling Aaron to help her. It's reassuring that, even as fearless as she is, she knows that she has some limits!


"I need SPACE."
Sometimes Maisie gets overwhelmed and need a little room. She used to push whoever was crowding her and say "You go 'way! Leave me alone!" But this was resulting in some hurt feelings. So instead we taught her to ask for some space, and to walk away when she needs it. Here, she needed some space from Grandma and Dylan. It's pretty effective, and hopefully something that will serve her in the long run... after all, everyone needs some space from time to time.


"I no eat chicken. I only eat french fries."
Somewhat self-explanatory! This is from dinner tonight - it was a long, hot day and we were all tired, so Maisie and I went to get takeout from Holy Land deli at Midtown Global Market. It didn't get taken out too far, though, before Maisie decided she wanted to eat right then, instead of waiting until we got all the way home (12 blocks!). Despite her assertions to the contrary she did eat all the chicken, as well as almost all the fries. She ate such a good supper that she got some ice cream for dessert, which leads us to the next picture...


"My face all dirty!"
"My seat STICKY."
"I like ice cream! I like choc-a-leet!"
Again, fairly self-explanatory... but yeah. Wow. It's kind of amazing, just how big of a mess she can make with a single-scoop ice cream cone. This kid's got talent!

The marker on her arms, by the way, is her "tattoos." The orange that you can see is "a big monster, RAWR!!" There's green on her other arm that isn't visible in this picture, that is stars.

And finally...

"Baby Ella in my mommy tummy!"
36 weeks down, 3 to go! Barring any early arrival - which seems unlikely, given that Maisie hung in there for 41+ weeks, Saturday, June 20 is our c section date. We're all looking forward to it - me most of all!

Afghan!

One of the fun things for me about visiting Aaron's family in Iowa is that Jo will often give me yarn from her sizable stash that she's not going to use. I have built up quite a stash of my own this way!

The stash was getting a little overwhelming so I decided to multitask, and work through some of it at the same time as making a housewarming gift for my mom, who moved this weekend. So I made my mom an afghan!

It's easily the biggest thing I've ever made, at probably 5'x3'. I'd always been intimidated by big afghan patterns before, but I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try, and I'm so glad that I did. I wasn't quite sure how it'd turn out, what with all the crazy yarn colors and patterns, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. I think my mom is, too! We both liked that it has such bright colors mixed in there. I also like that I was able to use up such a big chunk of my yarn stash. Now I feel better about buying more yarn!

The cats acted less than impressed with the end result, but I think they were just miffed because they really enjoyed playing with all that loose yarn, and it's gone now...

why we are careful to buy non-toxic paints

Yes, that's green paint all around her mouth.

I really don't feel like this photo needs further explanation, do you?

Daycare picture

Brief update here! Occasionally our daycare providers will send us pictures taken during the day. Yesterday they sent us this gem.

This was taken in their backyard. Maisie absolutely loves to play outside and run around, and they go outside twice a day to play when the weather permits. They have a huge swingset with slides and a climbing wall, and smaller outside toys for the younger children. What a great picture, and what a happy kid!

Princess skirt!

Yesterday was my and Aaron's dating anniversary - 9 years! Mom babysat and we went out to a movie. Before we left, we told her we were coming home after she was asleep, but Maisie was apparently still very forlorn at bedtime. My mom reports that she said "My daddy lost. My mommy gone. My daddy gone. My mommy lost." over and over. How sad! Then this morning, she asked "Where my grandma go?"

When my mom arrived, she had a present she'd made for Maisie: a "princess skirt"! She made it out of sparkly blue net, a big satin ribbon at the waist, and attached all sorts of little sparkly things to the net layers.

Maisie loved it, put it on immediately, and danced around the living room. She also slept snuggled up with it last night. Then when she got up this morning, she did the same thing!

She did eventually stop dancing to play with her blocks, so I managed to get a better picture of her in the skirt - I think you get the idea.

(cell phone pics, excuse the poor quality)

May Day

This Sunday was the annual May Day parade and festival! Although the weather has been cruddy for it in the past, it was absolutely beautiful - 70 and sunny. So we walked down to the park with some friends to catch the parade!

I know we went to several parades last summer, but Maisie didn't really seem to know what a "parade" was - she must not have remembered. She was fascinated! There were people on stilts, various marching bands, and of course, lots and lots of giant puppets. Maisie's favorite was the amazingly realistic polar bear.


Of course, given the beautiful weather, there were massive amounts of people at the parade, and even in Aaron's arms it was hard for Maisie to see. So Aaron lifted her up onto his shoulders. She got a much better view up there!

The parade was long, and we got hot standing around in the sun. So when it was over, it was time for snacks. I had originally thought we'd get some mini donuts, as they are the traditional summer festival food for Minnesotans. But Maisie requested chocolate ice cream. And who am I to argue with that?

It was delicious!

Belatedly: I stole this picture from someone else's flickr account. Bad me. But, it's a beautiful shot of the massive, realistic polar bear puppet that Maisie was so taken with!