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!).

Rock the cradle

Only two comments for our first video, and of Maisie walking at that?? Lurkers, you really should post a comment and tell us how cute Maisie is. Otherwise we won't know that anyone reads Maisie's blog!

This past weekend, my mom and I took Maisie to an annual event called Rock the Cradle, sponsored by our local NPR-affiliate radio station. It is a kids-oriented music event. This picture was taken at the "musical instrument petting zoo." As you can see, Maisie really enjoyed the percussion! There was also a piano and various string and brass instruments. But nothing beats a good drum (hah!)!


After the petting zoo, we headed to the Kids Disco, where we danced to awesome tunes, especially Sly & the Family Stone and other fun '70s funk. The lights were flashing and kids were running around and dancing like crazy. Maisie had a great time, and ran all around the dance floor dancing with all the other little kids there!

It was a really fun time, but it was also really tiring. When we got home, we all crashed!

Proof that she walks

Inspired by Lael's adorable video of Celia crawling... here is proof positive that Maisie walks like a champ.

It's also proof positive that our living room has been entirely taken over by toys, but that's another story...

enjoy! and check out those teeth!

Not such a big girl, yet.

I know Maisie looks like a big girl, no longer a baby, in a lot of these recent pictures... she's walking around, she's had a haircut, and all of that. But she's not such a big girl yet.

She can still sit underneath the end tables, after all.

If you're wondering if she's wearing red Converse high-tops in this picture, the answer is yes. Maisie has super tiny feet, and it's hard to find shoes to fit her. The Chucks come in small enough sizes, plus she actually likes them. We bought her some Stride Rites, which she tears right off. But these shoes, she'll bring to us and ask them to put them on her! They're so cute, how can we refuse?

Children's Museum

Today was another really cold day. It wasn't quite as cold as it's been, however - it got above zero! Single digits, sure, but on the plus side! - so we ventured out to the Minnesota Children's Museum.

I was a little concerned about going there on a day when all the schools were out. It was a complete madhouse, but I feel like that may just be the nature of the Children's Museum, and not due to any huge influx of visitors on a school holiday.

Maisie enjoyed all of it, but one of her very favorite parts was the water table. You put ping-pong balls into these clear tubes through which water flows. The water pops them out; repeat endlessly.

It is supposed to teach children about... currents, maybe? Or the weight of water? I'm not entirely sure. Anyway, Maisie really enjoyed it!

A chilly day

The title of this post is a serious understatement. It was not just chilly today, it was (and is) downright cold. The high was negative 1, and wind chills never got above -10.

So as you might have guessed, we did not spend much time outside today! Aside from one trip to Target, we spent the day inside - much of it in the kitchen.

Aaron and I both cooked (me: chili in the crock-pot, him: garlic mashed potatoes, roasted butternut squash) while Maisie helpfully unpacked the cupboard where we keep the pots, pans, and tupperware.

The clothes in that picture got messed up, so after bath we changed her clothes. So this next picture really is from today, too, but in a different outfit. (This one also ended up getting changed; she's teething now, and the drool runs like a faucet.)

It's so funny! She likes to play peek-a-boo with her plastic plates. She pushes her face right up against the plate, and we can see her little tongue sticking out as she licks it. We laugh and laugh, and so does she!

Notice how well she's standing in this picture? She's really walking now! She walks everywhere, only returning to crawling when she is especially tired or frustrated.

Driving lessons

Last picture from last weekend, I promise! This was Maisie's first time on one of those coin-operated cars that you see at the big-box stores.

She took her firetruck-driving responsibility very seriously, as you can see. You wouldn't want to crash Sesame Street's firetruck!

Although with Ernie riding shotgun, I think she was fine. He is a good copilot.

Pet store

This weekend, in addition to the shower, we went to the pet store to buy some food and litter for the cats.

Maisie really likes the pet store. She loves dogs, and there's always a bunch of friendly, leashed dogs she can say hi to. Although this time, she met a pug, which really confused her - the dogs she sees most often are greyhounds, and I think she had a hard time fitting both pugs and greys into the category of "puppy"!

She also enjoyed looking at the birds (in this pic) and the "pocket pets" (mice, rats, gerbils, hamsters, etc.). I really hope she does not want one of those "pocket pets" when she gets older... I do not care for rodents in my house! Plus, I don't think they'd last long with our cats.

But, it's always fun to look!

Trixie's shower

Yesterday we went to a baby shower, hosted by our friends Erica and Joe and in honor of our friends Bethany and Patrick, who are expecting a little girl, to be named Beatrix (Trixie!).

Maisie was a little shy when we got there, because there were a lot of people (and kids!) there already. It was a little chaotic! Even though we knew most of the people there, it took her a little while to relax and get comfortable.

A little time... and a little food helped, too. She ate some delicious yogurt with berries in it, and sampled various yummy baked goods. That also helped her get comfortable with the group, because how can you be shy when there are cupcakes?

We are very happy for Bethany and Patrick, and can't wait to meet Trixie! That little girl is so advanced, she isn't even born yet and she already has a blog... you can check out the link to the left.

Dylan and Maisie

This is a poor-quality cell phone pic, but I had to share because it is SO cute. My sister emailed it to me today.

Last month, our daycare providers took the last of their vacation days just prior to Christmas. Laura had one of those days off, so she and Dylan took care of Maisie while Aaron and I went to work. Their day started with Dylan feeding Maisie yogurt for breakfast, while they cuddled under blankets.

What could be cuter? Really, it's hard to imagine. :)

Bris

This Saturday, January 5, we attended the bris of our friends' son. It was a beautiful ceremony, and there was lots of good food to enjoy afterwards.

For her part, Maisie was not too interested in the ceremony. She did enjoy checking out the baby's carseat. She also ate her weight in lox, which really impressed all the aunties and grandmas there. They said "Maybe she doesn't know she's not Jewish!"

Maisie is now fourteen months old, and a full-on toddler! She is walking around all the time - she prefers to hold someone's hand, but can do it by herself too. She also loves to climb up onto the couch or chairs, where she will sit and "read" or "talk on the phone" (that is, jabber away with my calculator on her shoulder). Wonder where she learned those tricks from!

Happy new year!

Happy new year everyone! Maisie did not want to miss a minute of January 1, and got up at 5:00 a.m. Ugh! Fortunately Aaron and I were not out late for New Year's Eve. Then later, we went to Best Buy. Aaron had a gift card to spend, and Maisie wanted to try out the Mario baseball game for the Nintendo.

She had fun with it, even though she struck out.

We're not buying her a Nintendo, though. :)

Maisie's second Christmas

Maisie's second Christmas was a lot of fun. We celebrated with Aaron's family in Iowa the weekend before.

First we opened presents at Grandma Jo's. Maisie got a lot of great books and toys, including this xylophone shaped like a crocodile. Isn't it cute? She likes playing with it, and we do too... Aaron has figured out how to play the chorus of Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark" on it. He can also play a bit of "Ode to Joy" and almost all of "Good King Wenceslas." Not bad for a toy xylophone with six notes!

We also visited Grandpa Greg, Peg, and Katherine. As you can see they had many presents under their tree! Unfortunately we weren't able to stay long - we had to drive back so I could get to work the next day, and the weather channel was promising bad conditions. Unfortunately, their predictions were spot-on. It was clear as far as the Iowa-Minnesota border, but once we crossed that, it got really bad. We actually had to stop for the night in Owatonna, about 40 miles north of the border. It was hard to stop so close to home, but the driving conditions just were not safe.

We were fortunate enough to get a room, but had to wait for four hours (!) until it was ready. We put Maisie in her new Christmas jammies that she got from Santa, and read books in the lobby until the room was ready. Can you tell how tired she is in this picture? Once we got into the room, she went right to sleep!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Whew, sorry for the long break between posts! Maisie had a double ear infection, followed by an awful tummy bug, and between them her illnesses pretty well took the wind out of all our sails. But now we're all mostly feeling better, and are getting ready for Christmas!

Aaron got our tree up and decorated, with some help from Maisie. She's fairly interested in it, especially when we have the lights on. Between her and the cats, though, it's hard to keep any ornaments on the lower third of the tree. They just love to pull them off and play with them. So far, though, only one has been broken this season. So we're not doing too badly.

Our big adventure for today was heading to the Mall of America to see Santa. We arrived early, so the line wasn't too long - Santa's hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. (long day...), and we got there at 9:30 or so. It was quite cute, I think! She didn't really ask Santa for anything, but did like pointing out the roller coaster and other rides around the park.

All that, AND we managed to get some shopping done, too! It was a good, productive day.

Another favorite toy!

One of Maisie's favorite toys is this blue bouncy ball.

She thinks it's lots of fun to throw at us. She actually throws pretty accurately! We roll it back to her, so she can catch it and throw it back. She thinks it's lots of fun, and we do too.

We're pretty impressed by how accurately she can throw already, and I am fairly convinced that she is some sort of throwing genius! Not that I'm prejudiced or anything... :)

brunch

Today Aaron, Maisie and I went out for brunch at the Uptown Bar & Cafe.
Although Aaron and I have been there many times, it was Maisie's first time at the Uptown. It is a real Minneapolis landmark, having been around for many years. All sorts of bands have played there, and it is very popular for breakfast on the weekends. Fortunately, we only had a ten-minute wait... not bad! Maisie liked sitting next to a mirror and playing with the packets of jelly, and she really enjoyed her French toast.

After brunch, Aaron got a haircut while Maisie and I went shopping in uptown. I think we all had a very good time!

Photo call

Yesterday we went over to my mom's apartment. I brought the camera in hopes of getting a cute picture of Maisie in front of her tree that we could use for a Christmas card. Instead, I got a bunch of pictures like this one.

Maisie was way too interested in all the decorations, and would not sit still!

I will keep trying to get a Christmasy pic of her... but if we send out store-bought cards, you'll know why.