Haircut

Hey, sorry again for the delay between posts! I do try to keep the blog updated twice weekly but last week was crazy at work... I'll try to keep up this week!

Maisie's hair has been getting out of control. We've been trying to keep up with her bangs, but have been doing only a fair to middling job of it. Plus, the rest of her hair was just crazy. So yesterday, she had her first Real Salon Haircut! I was going to take pictures, but the process kind of freaked her out so she sat in my lap for the cut. But, here are some pictures of the end result.

Our stylist, Brianna (I took Maisie to the same person I see), really cleaned up Maisie's bangs. They're a lot more even now, a little higher above her eyebrows, and go a little further past her eyes than I had been cutting them. I was concerned about giving her Jim Carrey-Dumb and Dumber hair! But as you can see, Brianna really avoided that.

She kept the length on Maisie's hair, but gave it some more layers so the ends curl up more than they had been

Brianna also gave Maisie her first sucker. It was butterscotch, and Maisie really enjoyed it.

Big picture of the final result. Aaron doesn't love the bangs, but at this point her hair is still so baby-fine that it doesn't really have a part. Brianna thinks her hair will start to develop a more adult texture in the next 6-12 months, and then we'll be able to lose the bangs and find the part. But until then, Maisie will be rocking the bangs.

By the way, it took a while to get such good pictures of her hair! Here's a sample of the outtakes of our session, just so you know what I was up against, trying to document this first haircut for posterity.

In the absence of Maisie pictures...

It's been crazy busy at work (me) and school (Aaron), so we haven't had much time to take cute new pictures of Maisie. So instead, I'll show you my brand new CAR!


(Brand new is actually inaccurate - it's a 2006 Scion xB that's new to me, as of two weeks ago.)

Now that Aaron's in school, we've been struggling with just having a single car. It worked really well when we worked the same hours and our offices were within a mile of each other. But now he's running between work and school, and has classes late at night and early in the morning. So, we decided to bite the bullet and get a new car.

I was originally planning on something sensible like a Corolla or a Camry, but once I got behind the wheel of the X Box, I was in love!

Not so neat

Yesterday Maisie and I did some pumpkin painting at home.

We picked up some mini pumpkins and went to town! It was a lot of fun.

I'm especially posting this to quiet those crazy rumors that Maisie is somehow a neater than average child! She loves to paint, but not just the act of painting. She squishes it in her fingers, mixes the colors together to see what happens, and even tries to taste it. (usually she's unsuccessful, but I couldn't swear that she's never eaten paint. Which is why nontoxic is so important!!)

So as I'm sure you can imagine, the little amount of paint on her shirt here is only the beginning. Later, she hugged her pumpkin!

Pizza Tuesdays

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Aaron has a late class. Thursdays we have dinner with my mom at her place, but Tuesdays Maisie and I have a pizza date. We hit the uptown Pizza Luce, where we each get a slice and a beverage. They usually have cute kids' cups with straws, but today they were out. We improvised, and Maisie had her milk in a to-go coffee cup.

Forgive the lousy pics, these were all taken with my cell phone as I had no idea how cute dinner was going to be!

Anyway, the coffee cup was a great idea, so thanks Pizza Luce server! She did a really good job and hardly spilled at all. Plus, it made me laugh to see her drinking out of her coffee cup like she was drinking a big old latte.

I don't know if most of you know this, but Maisie LOVES pizza.

As you can see, she shoves the pizza in with two hands!

She'll eat pizza any day, and any time... occasionally when we ask her what she wants for breakfast, she'll say "pizza!" What would you like to drink, Maisie? "Pizza!" Um, how about some juice? We don't drink pizza. Although she has had cold pizza for breakfast, at 22 months... that's a milestone for the baby book.

Our Pizza Luce dinner is always finished off with ice cream for Maisie.

I know, I know, we had that discussion: Ice cream is not a finger food! Please use your spoon! It took some reminding, but she eventually used her spoon and ate about every last drop of ice cream.

Yum!

Fall Festival

Yesterday my mom and I took Maisie and Dylan to a Fall Festival at one of the local garden centers. We started off with donuts, of course!

Don't the best mornings all start with donuts?

Here, Maisie is standing in front of a hay bale maze. She and Dylan had a lot of fun running around inside of it. After they found their way out, Dylan and Gramma went into a haunted house. It was a little too scary for Maisie, so she didn't go. But Dylan had so much fun that we went back about five times!

After that, we did pumpkin painting.

Maisie really enjoyed painting her pumpkin, using all the colors with her fingers as well as with her brush. I think Dylan described her pumpkin well when he said "Maisie's pumpkin looks like a party!"

What a creative (and apt) description!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Maisie's daddy's birthday is today! Happy birthday Aaron!

I often hear about how much Maisie looks like me. So in honor of Aaron's birthday, I thought I'd post some pictures from this weekend that show just how much like him she is. She may get looks from me, but her personality is 100% Aaron.

This is just one example, but one rainy Saturday afternoon, the thing to do at our house was coloring. As you can see, Maisie and Aaron were both working hard on their projects!

We all take coloring very seriously... normally Maisie is quite the ham in front of the camera. But she was so intent on her coloring that she didn't even notice me snapping pics!

That's some focus, there!

But it isn't just her love of coloring that she gets from Aaron. They really share a silly, goofy sense of humor. While she comes to me for cuddles and hugs and quiet time, when Maisie wants to play and be loud and silly, she is 100% about her daddy!

Maisie's first concert

Today was the Target Children's Book Festival! The lineup featured the voices of the Wonder Pets, Lisa Loeb, and best of all, They Might Be Giants! We were so excited.

Unfortunately, it rained all day long, and TMBG had to cancel - apparently rain + electric guitars/instruments = no outdoor concert. It was a real bummer for me.

Maisie and Dylan, however, still had a reasonably good time. We did get to see the people who voice the Wonder Pets perform, which was pretty neat. (It's three middle-school aged girls! Who knew??) Lisa Loeb was signing autographs when we got there; I didn't have anything for her to sign, but it was still cool to see her. And of course, as with any good Minnesota festival, there was kettle corn.

Maisie really enjoyed her first kettle corn, as you can probably tell!

After the Wonder Pets, we went and played on this ginormous play structure until it got too rainy out. Maisie and I got a lot of compliments on her shirt! Here's a closer look:

Pretty cute, eh?

Happy birthday to Mama!

Monday Sept 8 is my birthday! As an early gift, Aaron gave me the afternoon off and took Maisie to the children's museum, where she apparently enjoyed... um, something.

Yes, the Republicans have gone and downtown St. Paul is accessible again, and not a moment too soon. Although we stayed away from both the convention and the associated protests, it got pretty scary at times and we have some friends who got caught up in it. We're glad it's over, for many reasons.

This afternoon, I enjoyed sitting on the couch, watching football and crocheting. I didn't take any pictures, though, so you'll have to take my word for it. Thanks Aaron!

We also want to say a big fat CONGRATULATIONS!! to Aaron L. and his new FIANCEE Nicole! We are all so happy for you guys, and can't wait to meet Nicole. Much love!

Also, Aaron L., happy belated birthday... all, his birthday is exactly one week before mine, and I always forget until MY birthday, when I think "oh darn, I missed Aaron's birthday again!" Oops.

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!!

Our California Adventure, Part 2

A few more pictures from California, thanks to Kati.


Maisie wasn't always happy about being posed for pictures.



Sometimes she just wanted to be silly!


She really wanted to climb around on the rock. It was pretty steep, though, so she needed a little help.

This picture is my desktop background on my computer at work. So beautiful!

Hiking on Saturday - one of the few times she allowed Aaron to hold her.

Our California Adventure

We stayed at our friend Rachel's grandmother's cabin, high up in the eastern Sierra mountains. If you have a map that has teeny tiny towns, we were in between Bridgeport and Lee Vining, in Mono County.

Here is the view from our cabin.

We were really up in the mountains! The road up there was very steep. Our poor rental car had quite a difficult time with it. We were also surprised by how bone-dry the air was. Coming from a swampy Minnesota summer, it was a huge change!

We took a million pictures of the beautiful scenery, and I won't repost them all here - I'll probably upload them to kodakgallery and I'll put up a link here when I do that. But in the meantime, of course, Maisie pictures!

On Saturday we went for a hike.

Ben and Kati, seen here, hung back with us slowpokes. They were really nice about it... I think it helps that Maisie is Kati's #1 fan! (Well, after Ben, of course!) Maisie always wanted to say hi to Kati, play with her, and show her things, and in the car on the way back to the airport yesterday, she kept asking for Kati. So cute!

Okay, well, I have to post one scenery picture because it was just so amazing.

Just so you know, this picture does not even begin to do justice to the beauty of this place. But Ansel Adams I am not, so this is what I have to show you. You can probably tell that we were pretty high up, which is impressive (to me) because we started down on the lakeshore, and Maisie had refused to walk or to let anyone other than me carry her. The lake is Big Valley Lake, and we were hiking on Dunderberg Peak.

So after a long hike, you of course need ice cream.

Maisie really enjoyed that part, perhaps more than the whole hike!

home again...

We are all home, safe and sound, after a wonderful vacation. As it turns out, Maisie was a fantastic traveler, and even slept on the plane both ways.

One I get the pictures off the camera, I'll share some of them here. But for now, I will just tell you that 1) my friends are lovely people and fantastic parents, and great co-vacationers; 2) 10,000 ft. altitude is really awfully high, and one can get out of breath very quickly; but 3) the stars never looked more beautiful than when you have neither light pollution nor very much atmosphere in between you and them. Last night we saw the Milky Way stretch from horizon to horizon. It was breathtaking. (Or maybe that was the altitude?)

Cousins

When our daycare took a week off, we thought, who will take care of Maisie during the day?

The answer, for at least two days, was Auntie Laura and Dylan!

They took really good care of Maisie. They hung out and played all day, ate yummy corn on the cob (Maisie's fave, of course!), and they even put up with Maisie's silly smell-my-feet games.

Maisie and Dylan are so sweet together!

He really is careful and gentle with her, and loves to show her how to do things. And she really looks up to him, and loves to copy his every move.

They are so sweet!

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!