Splash!

Today was a beautiful August day: 88 degrees with low humidity. What could be better than hitting a nearby park with a wading pool?

There's a great park just a few blocks from our house that has multiple swings and slides, and best of all, a wading pool. The weather was perfect, so we headed over there this afternoon.

Maisie had a ton of fun splashing, walking around, and especially being twirled in the water by her daddy!

We had to keep a close eye on Maisie, because she's really not very cautious in the water - she kept trying to run, stumbling, and almost going under.

So Aaron and I took turns wading in the water with her as she ran around and splashed.


Eventually she got chilled to the point where she was shivering pretty strongly. She didn't want to come out of the water even then, so we had to distract her. Instead of going back in the pool, we pointed her towards the slide that was in full sun.


One thing she's learned to do from Dylan is to hang off the bar that's at the top of most slides. She has so much strength! She'll grab on and just dangle there until she decides it's time to finally go down the slide.

Maisielicious fans, we are about to head out on vacation! We'll be heading to a friend's cabin in a remote part of California, just outside Yosemite in the Sierra National Forest. We're leaving on Wednesday and returning on Sunday. I don't think we'll be able to update much in the next week as a consequence. But we'll take lots of pictures, and give you a full update when we get back!

Cook!

Maisie is getting really good at imaginative play these days. She drives her little matchbox cars all around, changes her doll's diaper, and puts Elmo on the potty. But her favorite imaginative play has got to be cooking.

This girl loves to cook! Which makes sense, because she also loves to eat. I think her love of cooking started over 4th of July weekend, when we stayed at our friends' cabin and she and Sophia played cooking, but it's really taken off since then. Now it's pretty much her favorite thing to do.

We have started to get Maisie her own cookware, because she was taking all the measuring cups and steamer baskets and various other things out of the kitchen to play with, and it started to get annoying. Where did I put the potato masher? Oh yeah, it's in the toybox.

We got her some wooden utensils at IKEA, some toy metal cookware at Target, and our friends Jen and Jo got her a wooden stovetop at a thrift store. She loves to cook "eggies" and "noodles," and pretend to feed them to us and to her dolls. I can't wait until she's old enough to really help us in the kitchen - I hope she is still interested!

Backyard bbq

Our friend Brian had friends over on Sunday for grilling and general hanging-out good times. It was really fun!

We knew our friends Wally and Mary Jo would be coming with their little boy, Jack.

(they actually brought both their little boys, but Charlie is just a wee thing and slept in his carseat the whole time. Good baby!)

So we brought sidewalk chalk to help keep the kids entertained while the grownups watched the Olympics and chatted. Because even though Jack's a little older than Maisie, all kids like sidewalk chalk, right?

First, of course, Maisie had to instruct Jack in the proper use of said chalk.

Finally, and with some parental involvement on both sides, they were able to resolve their issues ("MINE!" "Maisie, share...") and draw together.

I like to think they enjoyed each others' company, at least as far as the sidewalk chalk and drawing goes. Or maybe I am just hoping and projecting, because I like MJ and Wally, so I want our kids to be friends? It's hard to say.

It's especially difficult to figure because, when they got tired of the chalk and we broke out the Tigger kickball, it was an entirely different story - there was no sharing to be had at all!

That's right - Maisie took her ball and tried to go home. Sigh. Sharing is a lesson we're still working on!

This week

This week has been (is) a busy one. It's the Fringe Festival, yay! Which means that I'm often running off to see a show and leaving Aaron to do solo bedtime duty. Thanks honey! As mentioned before, it's also Aaron's last week of work, also yay!

Complicating those two yays are that our daycare providers have taken this week as a vacation. It's not that I begrudge them the time off - heaven knows they've got a tough job, and I certainly need vacations from my job too. But it's just poorly timed for us, since Aaron can't really take much time off and I can't either, as one other attorney in our (small) office is already out.

So what this means is that we've been cobbling together daycare, thanks mostly to my family. Maisie hung out Monday and yesterday with Auntie Laura and Dylan, and she's with my mom today and Friday. Aaron conveniently has a use-it-or-lose-it personal day to burn, so he's home with Maisie on Thursday.

All this ALSO means that I do not have recent pics! So, I'm going to illustrate a story with older pictures that I just got (so they're new to me!) from Uncle Chris. Thanks Chris!

When we left this morning, my mom and Maisie were talking about going to a park.

She was very excited! As soon as my mom mentioned it, she said "shoes! hat!" and ran to get and put on those items. It was really cute. She loves to slide, and swing, as you can see!

The only thing she doesn't really like about the park is that sometimes, you have to share the swings. Sorry kiddo!

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!

Mommy's little blues musician

Maisie's singing the Bedtime Blues!

Well, it's 7:00, and I have to go to bed
Yeah, it's 7:00, my dada says to go to bed
But when I get up at 5:30
You'll wish I'd stayed up instead

Got my bear and my blankie, it's time to go to sleep
Mama read me "Good Night Moon," now it's time to go to sleep
Pretty soon I will be dreaming
I won't even make a peep

Morning comes early, it'll be a brand new day
Yeah, morning comes early, and it is on its way
Gonna get a lot of sleep, yeah
And tomorrow, play all day!

Another hot weekend

This weekend, the weather was really hot! We were outside a little, but not too much.

This weekend Chris, Kim and Nika were in town! On Saturday, we joined them at a park in Eden Prairie, where they were celebrating Kim's niece Reese's second birthday. Maisie had lots of fun playing with the bigger kids, going on the swings, and of course, going down all the slides.

I didn't manage to get any pictures of her with Nika, or with Chris and Kim. So Chris and Kim... if you have some, send them to me please!

They had some great climbing structures at this park. It was a lot of fun for Maisie to be able to get up so high!


Today we had brunch with Chris, Kim and Nika which was fun and super yummy. Then in the afternoon, we did an art project. (This is actually an idea we stole from Chris and Nika!)

One of the things Maisie loves to do is paint. So we bought some kid's paints - they're washable, which is really important, as you'll see. And then we picked up some plain wood picture frames at IKEA, 3 for $1.99. We put down some newspaper and let Maisie go to town, painting the frames. Presto, cheap and fun personalized picture frames!

She used the foam brush I gave her a little bit, but really preferred her hands. See, as it turns out, Maisie is less interested in the paintING than she is in the paint itself! She really enjoyed squishing it in her hands and looking at the way the different colors combined. She kept saying "more purple! more!" I had to put the purple jar away, or she would've had me pour out the whole thing. But I managed to save some for next time.

They grow up so fast.

Target? Sounds great.

I can think of a couple of things I need at Target. Let me just make sure I have everything here... let's see, I have cell phone, wallet, paci, crayons... now where did I put my keys? I could've sworn they were in here somewhere.

Okay, there they are. Let me just get my board book... I'm ready to go!

Shotgun!

My do it!

We went for a walk a few weeks ago, and took some pictures...

We were going to the nearby park, and Maisie got tired of riding in the stroller.

She decided that she needed to push. Because it's too tall for her, Aaron showed her how to pull it down so that it only rides on the two back wheels, and the handles are at her level.

It was a lot of fun for her, although the stroller was somewhat awkward and hard to control.

She does a pretty good job controlling the stroller, considering how much bigger than her it is! Look at her smile: doesn't she look proud of herself?

Camping!

This weekend, we went on Maisie's first camping trip! It was pretty cush camping - our friend Rebecca's parents have a lodge in northern Wisconsin, where we stayed, so we had indoor plumbing and wifi and satellite TV - all the amenties, in the great north woods.

It was a lot of fun!

Here, Maisie is suited up for her first boat ride. We went for a short trip in a paddleboat, which she quite enjoyed, and then in a canoe, which she haaaaaaaated. She had a meltdown in the middle of the lake, and screamed "Out! Out!!" until we got back to shore. Poor Aaron had to paddle us back in by himself while I kept her from leaping out of the canoe!

But of course, the highlight of a camping trip is spending time with your friends. For Maisie, this meant playing with Rebecca's daughter Sophia, who's about six months older than Maisie is.

They had a LOT of fun together.

They discovered some plastic margarita glasses that were great fun to play with (until one got broken, then the glasses had to take a time out); they spent a lot of time playing outside in the playhouse, on the slide, and in the toy car; and they went for walks with Sophia's Grandma Sue. I don't have many pictures of all their outdoor activities, because they were so busy, they didn't want to stop to let anyone take a picture!


Inside, they read books, tried on Grandma Sue's hats, colored, and pretended to cook eggies and vanilla cookies.

Because they were so busy, they also ate voraciously! They had cheese pizza and grapes for dinner on Saturday night, with ice cream bars for dessert. (The grownups had grilled walleye.)

Maisie enjoyed it so much that when we got home, she asked for pizza for dinner again tonight! Ah, a girl after my own heart. But she got carsick on the ride home, so no pizza tonight for Maisie.

We had so much fun camping with our friends! The weather was perfect, the food was good, and the company couldn't be beat. The whole way home, Maisie kept asking "See Fia? See Fia?" Soon, kiddo, we promise! It was also neat to see how many changes we having coming up in the next 6 months. Sophia has so many more words than Maisie does, and is quite the little chatterbox! I can't wait to hear everything that Maisie will have to say.

We can't wait to do it again!

Strawberries

On Sunday, my mom and I took Maisie to the St. Paul farmer's market. She was kind of squirmy and not enjoying riding in the stroller, so I bought some strawberries and started feeding them to her...

She was shortly covered head to toe in strawberry. And when I say "head to toe," I'm not exaggerating. She had red streaks in her hair from the berries!

It actually looked pretty cute, and if I'd seen it in college, I probably would've followed suit myself!

The children's museum: not just for winter.

Yesterday, we joined Gramma J and Dylan at the Children's Museum where we all checked out their new exhibit, "Once Upon a Time." It's all about fairy tales, and is very cool.

The exhibit has a number of interactive stations based on various fairy tales. Here, Maisie (and Dylan's shoe) are going for a ride in Cinderella's carriage.

The exhibit had all kinds of interesting fairy tales, both familiar and new to me. For instance, there was a Hmong fairy tale, Lon Po Po, that I had never heard of before!

Here, Maisie and Dylan are the elves in the fairy tale about the shoemaker and the elves, where the elves mended shoes all night... remember that one?

I don't really recall its name, but I'm sure you remember the one I'm talking about. The whole time they were pounding shoenails on this exhibit, Dylan kept saying "We're elves! We're elves!!" It was very cute.

Finally, she spent a lot of time climbing up Jack's beanstalk (with a little help from her daddy), and sliding down the slide on the other end. She really loved that part of the exhibit!

Artist at work

Happy solstice, everyone! It's officially summer, and we know it here. Although it's been raining a lot elsewhere (and we think of our Iowa friends and family often!), it's beautiful and sunny here, and we haven taken the opportunity to get some much-needed yardwork done.

Yardwork used to be a real challenge, what with Maisie wanting to help trim the hedge and mow the lawn and all that. But now we are able to be more productive, thanks to perhaps the best $5 we have spent on Maisie: a bucket of sidewalk chalk.

Like most kids her age (I think), Maisie loves to scribble with different colors. When we bring out the crayons inside, it's a perpetual battle of "No, Maisie, crayons stay on the paper. On the paper! Don't color the kitty, okay? No, not in Mommy's book! On this paper!" But with sidewalk chalk, she is free to scribble away as the mood strikes her. We also sometimes draw pictures that she can color in, but she really prefers her free expression.

It's also a great way to keep her occupied while we do yard work. Today we were able to mow the lawn, weed a bit, and trim the hedge while she colored.

It was a very productive day!

Tire swing

A few pictures from last Sunday's trip to a park with Dylan and Auntie Laura.

Maisie used to be scared of swings, but now they are the BEST EVER. She likes the bucket-style baby swings, big kid swings - whatever you've got, she'll swing on it. But the clear favorite is the tire swing.

It's fun to swing by yourself, but it's even better with Dylan!

Picnic!

Auntie Laura and Dylan had us over for a picnic/bbq dinner yesterday!

It was not just us - Gramma was there, too, along with her friend Sue Ellen and Cliff, our family friend Gayle, Gayle's mom Verna, Gayle's sons Lenny and Marco, and Marco's girlfriend and her two kids, and their two dogs. It was a lot of fun!

We had barbeque chicken (with veggie burgers for Aaron, of course), grilled asparagus, pasta salad, fruit, rosemary potatoes...

and of course, no picnic is complete without corn on the cob!

As you can see, Maisie's gotten really adept at handling corn on the cob. She hardly ate anything else, until the cupcakes came out, that is. I think she had two ears of corn and two cupcakes, along with a juice box. That's a balanced meal, right? Right?

There were a lot of people there, and it was very fun and good to see everyone.

Dylan sometimes pretends that he doesn't like having so many people over.

But he really does enjoy having parties! And we enjoy it when they invite us over.

Why I don't go out on Saturday nights anymore.

This morning, Maisie and I got up bright and early: 5:55 a.m.! Aaron and I take turns sleeping in on the weekends, so we let him sleep until 8:00, when we woke him up and suggested going to the Minnesota Zoo.


The Zoo has this new exhibit called "Russia's Grizzly Coast" that we'd heard great things about. We figured that, given it's a weekend day with beautiful weather, the exhibit would probably be pretty crowded unless we went early.

It was a great exhibit! There were bears, of course, and several boars,

sea otters, leopards, tigers... it was really well done.

But even though the Zoo opens at 9 and we got there by 9:30, it was already pretty crowded. So, we headed out to check out the Family Farm. Along the way we had to stop and say hi to some friendly prairie dogs, though.

They were very cute and pretty friendly - as you can see, this one came right up to Maisie! There was one big fat prairie dog that kept jumping to try to get over the fence. We were like, buddy, you're going the wrong way. Think tunnels!

One funny thing about the prairie dog exhibit is that, even though there is information all over about how beneficial they are for their environment, there's always a farmer or two complaining about them at the exhibit.

Anyway, we got out to the Family Farm, which is about a mile's walk (or stroller ride). We saw draft horses, a bull, pigs, chickens, and sheep. The highlight, though, was the goat barn!

For $0.50 you can get a handful of little pellets to feed the goats. The goats are really kind of aggressive about seeking it out, and if you put out your hands you'll have a whole bunch of goats nosing around looking for food. Maisie was clearly delighted by this - you should have heard her laughing. If she'd had her way, we would've stayed at the goat barn all day!

She wasn't happy when we said it was time to go,

but she got over it pretty quickly.

Then, this afternoon we spent a couple hours doing yardwork and playing outside. It was hard work!

I never thought I'd turn down a babysitter, but tonight we did. We're bushed! It's a movie and an early bedtime tonight.

See a resemblance?

A lot of people have said that Maisie looks just like me. Others have said that she's a perfect combination of me and Aaron. As for me, I don't really see it - she just looks like herself!

Well, that is, until I saw this picture that Aaron took of us watching Curious George this weekend.

I always thought it was just the curls, or something, that made people say we look alike. But with this pic, I guess I do see the resemblance between us now.

Just wait until she gets glasses. (Inevitable, I think.) Then the resemblance will be really clear!

Rooftop sandbox!

Now that summer is (finally!) here, a new part of the children's museum has opened up:

Rooftop art park!

Maisie's favorite part of the rooftop art park is the giant sandbox. Which, clearly: who doesn't love a giant sandbox? She had a lot of fun playing in the sand.

You might be able to see that the sandbox is decorated with hexagons. It has pictures of all kinds of different hexagons you can find in nature, including snowflakes and turtle shells! It's really cool.

Of course, you have to take your shoes off to play in the sandbox.

Then, when it's time to go, you can wash your hands and feet off at the tap on the side of the sandbox.


Aaron had to help Maisie get the water started so she could wash off her hands and feet. But once he got it going, she was ready to do it herself... or as Maisie says, "my do it!"

I don't know how well it worked - the sand really stuck to the sunscreen on her arms and legs, and her carseat has about half a cup of sand in it now. But she had fun with the water, anyway, and isn't that more the point?

And at least she tried!

The joy of parks

The weather was (mostly) beautiful this weekend, so we spent a lot of time outside.

(there was a freak hailstorm on Saturday, but it missed us entirely.)

Saturday afternoon, we went to the city park a few blocks south of our house. As you can see, Maisie really enjoyed the swings! This was the first time she actually enjoyed swings - in the past, they've been a little scary to her.

She also had a lot of fun on the slide!

She went down the slides over and over - she loved both the regular and the curly slides.

It was near 80, so we had to stop by Dairy Queen on the way back. Maisie and I shared an ice cream cone.

Or, rather, she allowed me a few bites of her ice cream cone. It was not her first ice cream, but it was her first cone, and she really enjoyed it. Living four blocks from a dairy queen has its advantages!

Then, today, we had a new first: Maisie's first street fair and parade. Maisie, my mom, her friend Gayle, and I went to Grand Old Day today! We watched the parade and ate some mini donuts.

Maisie also suffered her first skinned knees this weekend, but she took them like a champ, with minimal tears. All in all, it was a beautiful weekend.