The Ella Report

I feel like we talk a lot about Maisie here, so I want to take a moment to get you up to date on Ella.

She's now completely recovered from her hospital stay. She's a fully healthy almost five month old baby, smiling and cooing and trying like crazy to be mobile!

Her big sister is one of her favorite people. Here, Maisie was running circles around Ella's bouncy chair singing DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD! DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD! Ella was trying so hard to watch Maisie that she almost flipped out of her chair!

Maisie loves to give Ella hugs and kisses, and Ella loves that too. She gets a huge smile on her face every time Maisie gets up near her face to say hi and kiss her!

We love our Ella! And it seems like she's pretty fond of us, too.

Birthday party!

It's about a week late, but here's the recap of Maisie's 2nd birthday party! Photos are courtesy of our friend Patrick, who is Trixie's daddy and a great photographer. Thanks Patrick!

Everyone had a blast! (I'm pretty sure, anyway!) I know Maisie did, and I did too.

We had the party at the Children's Museum. It was pretty small - just immediate family plus a few friends with similarly-aged kids.

We all had cake and ice cream. The kiddos had juice, and most of the grownups went to the coffee shop conveniently located in the gift shop of the museum. That's some good planning, there!

After cake and ice cream, and running around with the other kids, Maisie opened her presents (with some help from me and Dylan).

Maisie got a lot of great presents from our generous friends and family! She really loves them all, especially her toys that she can "cook" with, her Mr. Potato Head (with friends), and her new "wodot" (robot). You all are so thoughtful! We could tell a lot of thought went into choosing her gifts.

After opening presents, we went upstairs and played in the museum. They have a great new exhibit all about balls! There's a special area for littler kids where they can explore how different size balls bounce on different surfaces. It's kind of crazy, but they had a blast.

This picture really only hints at the lunacy of that room.

Afterwards, everyone went home and had naps. At least, that's what we did, and I can only assume others did the same!

Thanks for helping us celebrate Maisie's birthday!

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!!

As promised...

a full Maisie update to start your week off right!

On Saturday, we went to the Uptown Art Fair. Maisie wasn't really interested in the art, but she is interested in getting on the other side of the camera. So here is her first picture, a portrait of her daddy (with stroller).
While we're talking about Aaron, for those who don't know, this is his last week at his current job! Yes, he's finally leaving the ticket office after six and a half years. He'll be taking a few weeks off (yay!) and then going back to school at the end of the month! We're all very happy.

After the Uptown Art Fair, we went home and strollered up to the Powderhorn Park art fair where we met Dylan and Gramma. We saw some art, played with puppets (Open Eye Figure Theater had a booth), and perhaps most exciting for Maisie, had some roasted corn on the cob.

Maisie really loves corn on the cob, much more so than almost any other food. She wasn't at all interested in my delicious fried rice or spring roll. Well, maybe that's because we let her have all those mini donuts earlier. Anyway! She ate almost the entire cob by herself! Although she is getting pretty good about sharing.

It's cute - she will hold it up to you and say "Bite?" Then once you have a bite she says "My turn!" and takes it right back. She's sharing... but not much. Which, for an almost-two-year-old, I think is pretty good.

Maisie is 21 months old today! She really is looking grown up, isn't she? She's a good sleeper and eater, and is social and funny and smart. She has a lot of words, and is even putting together three- and four-word phrases! She says "hi" and "bye" to everything - when we leave in the morning, it's "bye bye kitties, bye bye house," and she says "Hi!" to pedestrians as we're driving. Her favorite toys are her crayons, her blocks, and her cars, and she also really enjoys pretending to cook. If you ask her what she's making, she will always say "eggies!" She pretends to feed the eggs to her Elmo, and to me and Aaron. It's ridiculously cute.

It's hard to remember what our life was like before she came around. I'm pretty sure we got more sleep. But I'm equally sure that we laugh more now, and that our lives have a lot more love in them.

Happy August!

Hi all! Sorry it's been so long since we updated last... life gets busy and all of that. So I promise a full blog post this weekend. And in the meantime, here's a Maisie grin from this morning's commute to keep you smiling on a beautiful Friday.

Say cheese!

18 months

Can you believe Maisie is 18 months old already? Our baby isn't a baby any longer! She can kick a ball, talk in three-word phrases, dress and undress herself... and even walk in her mommy's shoes.

The milestones are passing so quickly now! She is becoming a sweet, affectionate kid, although a very strong-willed one. She won't hesitate to let you know if she's unhappy!

This weekend we did lots of fun things, aside from walking around in my shoes and chasing the cat around.

Maisie discovered that she can actually see through one of the hats that Grandma Jo made her, and hijinks ensued. She pulled it down over her face and ran around, chasing me and Aaron and the cats and laughing like a loon. It was so funny!

On Sunday, we went to check out the May Day celebration at Powderhorn Park. Maisie napped right through the parade, but we took a look at the floats parked in the park.

Her favorite was the Hare Krishna float, because of the balloons. But right as I was going to take her picture, she got distracted by the butterfly person walking by in the background.

Today was also my and Aaron's 8-year date-a-versary. Or, as Aaron said, it's our eight-a-versary! We hired a babysitter and went out to dinner. It was a lovely evening.

So, I'll leave you with a good picture of Maisie, since the above are all somewhat covered up of her! This is Maisie reading one of her favorite books, "Brown Bear Brown Bear," to Spiderman. This was on Saturday, shortly after the chasing-in-hat incident.

Maybe she was trying to make it up to him.

16 months!

Maisie is 16 months old! As you can see, she's a very happy girl, especially when she is playing with her dolls.

She is really in to dolls these days, and always seems to be carrying one or another around by its hair. In this picture she is holding the dolly that her Auntie Clare gave her for Christmas, and another that she got from her Grandma Jalonen is on the couch next to her!

Maisie comes out with a new word just about every day. This weekend she said a few words for the first time: doll (natch!), toast, Gramma, Dylan... and NO! That last one has reappeared more than once since then. I guess it's a preview of things to come as we head towards age two.

Well child

Random pic of Maisie and Dylan playing together from earlier this month:

It doesn't actually go with this post. It's just cute.

Maisie had her 15-month checkup today (almost a month late). She's short (25th percentile) and slim (20th percentile), but her height and weight are proportionate so no worries. What I found tremendously funny is that her head circumference is in the 45th percentile. Not exceptionally big, there, but a much higher percentile than her height and weight! That's my big head baby.

Actually, the doctor said, really the weight is the only measurement that's very accurate... they tend to be too squirmy to get an accurate height or head measurement. She is right on target developmentally, which was nice to hear!

Maisie was pretty upset at the end of the visit (two shots plus a finger poke) but she did really well for all that. The lab techs gave her stickers, which were very distracting. And then she fell asleep in the car.

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!).

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!

Birthday fun!

Maisie celebrated her first birthday on Sunday!

Her birthday was actually Saturday, as I am sure most of you know. But Auntie Laura had to work on Saturday, so we had the party on Sunday... at Auntie Laura's house! As you can see, we had plenty of snacks including some beautiful cupcakes from A Baker's Wife, our very favorite local bakery.

Lots of people came to Maisie's party. We counted 30 people who came! I think that's pretty good for a first birthday party, don't you?

Here she is with her Grandma J! There were lots of people there.... it actually got a little overwhelming for her after a while.

She also celebrated with other family members including her Grandpa Greg and Peg, Auntie Laura and Dylan, and my Uncle Emil and Aunt Donna.

At one year, Maisie is a joy and the light of our lives. She is so funny - she loves to play peekaboo and be silly. She always makes us laugh. She is cruising and has taken her first steps, but is a great crawler and seems content to get around that way for the time being. She doesn't have any words yet but understands a lot - she can find noses, eyes, mouths, and hair if you ask her to! ("Where's mama's nose?") She is social and enjoys being around people, although it takes a bit for her to warm up to new people.

She is a great sleeper, and a good eater too with a healthy appetite, and none too picky. Basically, we have a great baby and cannot complain!

Here she is with our friends Christian and Susan.Yum yum, cars!

Our little pumpkin

BOO! Here's a belated picture from Halloween.

We're still dealing with some problems somewhere between the laptop and the camera... but hopefully we'll get them resolved soon.

In the meantime... today is Maisie's first birthday! We had a good day that included buying and installing a Big Girl forward-facing carseat and dinner at the Bad Waitress. Tomorrow we'll celebrate with lots of friends and family!

Swingin!

Today was probably one of the last warm days of 2007 here in Minneapolis. Did I say warm? I mean hot! It got up to 85, plus it's been raining all week so it was really humid as well. We coped with the weather by going to a nearby neighborhood park.

Maisie tried out the swings for the first time, and she loved it!

We helped her down the slide a few times, and she didn't seem to enjoy that quite as much as she did the swings. She did like crawling around in the sand that surrounded the swingset.

I don't think I noted her 11th month birthday! She's getting more mobile and interactive every day. At 11 months, she says "mama" and "dada," though without a lot of meaning to them. She is very interested in airplanes, and looks up to find them when she hears them going over... even if we're inside, and she ends up staring at the ceiling. She is almost exclusively eating regular table food now, with only the occasional puree. Maisie has two teeth - bottom front - the top front two are just about in, but not quite yet, and are causing her lots of problems. She isn't quite walking yet, but is working really hard on it. And - knock on wood - she regularly sleeps through the night!

Visiting Iowa + 10 months!

Happy Labor Day, all! We took advantage of the long weekend and went down to Iowa to visit Aaron's family.

We stayed with Maisie's Grandma Jo, who Maisie loves to pieces. Maisie gave Grandma Jo plenty of hugs at every opportunity! It was really cute. Maisie also enjoyed playing with Grandma Jo's toys, including this awesome car. We also got to see Auntie Clare, Auntie Brynna & Uncle Jason, Cousin Nika, and Grandpa Greg, Peg, and Katherine, and had breakfast on Sunday with Aaron's high school friend Emily! Hi Emily! We want you to come visit us!

We came home on Sunday so we were able to relax today, which is Maisie's ten-month birthday. Yay!

We celebrated by going out to Chiang Mai Thai, one of our favorite Uptown restaurants. We shared chicken satay, egg rolls, fried tofu, and toasted coconut ice cream. Maisie particularly enjoyed the satay and the ice cream, as I am sure you can tell.

At ten months, Maisie has lots of skills. She cruises confidently, and has started letting go of her support when she's standing up. She can only stand independently for a second or two... but I think walking is coming soon! She has three signs (milk, more, all done) and is getting very talkative; she can also recognize several words, including "kitty!" She plays peek-a-boo, claps her hands, and loves to give hugs. She finally got some teeth last week... the bottom front two, at the same time. I don't think the top ones are too far behind. And today's discovery: her armpits are ticklish! It's so cute.

Nine months!

An action shot, appropriately, to start off this entry. I say appropriately because these days, Maisie's constantly in motion. She crawls all over, and fast, too; she pulls up to standing; she's taken a few steps "cruising" along the furniture; and yesterday, she let go while standing up and stood for a few seconds before falling down onto her bottom. At nine months, she can feed herself all kinds of food (even though there's no teeth yet). She can sign "milk." She recognizes her regular caregivers and loved ones (us, her daycare provider, my mom, my sister, and Dylan) and is happy to see them.

This picture was taken today as we played a fun game about testing limits. Our living room has a door that opens onto a screen porch. For various reasons, we don't want Maisie to go onto the porch unless we're out there, too. So this game involved her crawling as fast as she could to the door, and then stopping at the doorway and screaming with laughter as we said "Maisie!!" and hauled her back into the living room. Rinse, repeat. Pretty hilarious stuff - we were laughing too, much more so than we will be when the limits-testing involves boys and curfews!

8 months old.

Maisie turned eight months old yesterday! It was actually kind of a difficult day, as you may be able to tell from this picture (taken today)...

Eight months marked Maisie's first injury: she got in the way of a thrown toy fire truck at daycare. At urgent care, the doctor said that the eye was fine and the cut didn't need stitches. So no lasting harm, although I think she'll have quite the shiner. The doctor also proclaimed her to be "feisty" as she screamed and wiggled the entire time he was checking her eye, cleaning the cut, and putting some goopy stuff on it to stick the sides together. It took the doctor holding her head, me holding her arms, and a nurse holding her eye open to get the exam done. Maisie wasn't hurt - she stopped crying the minute I could pick her up - just angry at being held down!

Today is the Fourth of July. We have plans to go to a nearby park that has a wading pool with my sister and Dylan, and then grill for dinner over at their house. It should be fun!

7 months

Maisie is now seven months old!This pic illustrates our recent nights: we hear her fussing and go into her room to try to settle her, and find her in "tummy time" and grinning. That's no way to go to sleep!

This weekend we had our first visit to Urgent Care, prompted by an ear infection.
We didn't realize she was sick because her symptoms were pretty much the same as teething symptoms: she was irritable, drooly, rubbing her face, and running a low-grade fever. Sigh... she's now on two different antibiotics: ear drops as well as an oral amoxicillin. Poor peanut.

But ears and teeth (or lack thereof) aside - seven months so far is a good age! Maisie can sit up on her own, and is getting ready to crawl soon, we think... she spends a lot of time on hands and knees, getting her tummy up off the ground. Look out!

One funny thing is that now that Maisie has noticed the cats, she adores them, but they are really leery of her - she tends to grab at their fur. We talk to Maisie about being gentle with the kitties and model how she should pet them (gently! gently!), but she hasn't quite got the hang of it yet. Soon, though!

Six months!

Maisie's six month birthday is tomorrow! Although she was almost born on the 2nd, so I am writing this entry today.

To celebrate, she'd like to pull your hair!

Pulling hair isn't her only new skill, although it seems to be a favorite. She's also eating quite a few different foods, and is actually now quite a fan of the mesh feeder. She's constantly rolling over back-to-front. This gets to be a problem sometimes because she doesn't really have front-to-back rolling yet, and she's woken up a few times on her tummy which is quite upsetting to her - and to us, because we have to get up and roll her back over. She's almost sitting up by herself now too. She uses her hands a lot and has gotten very good at getting things to her mouth. And, most fun, she's very social and will smile and laugh at just about anyone who smiles at her.

I can't believe Aaron and I have had Maisie for six months! It seems not as long - but at the same time, I can hardly remember what our lives were like without her.

Fun with food, part 3.

And now, more of Maisie eating.

I'm sorry to keep posting these pictures of Maisie eating, but I find them so hilarious and cute! I hope you do too.

As you can probably tell, today's food was peas. She enjoyed eating them almost as much as she enjoyed smearing them on her chair. This weekend we'll introduce another food... maybe avocado? I'm not sure yet, but I do know we'll be moving these eating sessions out of the (carpeted) living room and into the (hardwood floor) dining room. If we don't, it'll only be a matter of time before our carpet starts collecting bright orange and green stains!

One great thing about starting Maisie on solids is that she's now truly sleeping through the night in her crib.


Boy, I really hope I didn't just jinx anything...

hey, good lookin'!

Maisie's 4 month well child appointment was on Tuesday.
She's 13 lbs, 24.5 inches long, and her head circumference is 16.75". This is all 50th percentile, 75th percentile, and 75th percentile respectively, which is the same as at her 2-month appointment. They really watch to make sure that she's growing at the right rate - staying on the same percentiles - rather than looking at the absolute numbers.

At four months, Maisie loves to be read to. She really enjoys being talked to, singing, and dancing. Her favorite, though, might be looking in a mirror.