Do I look like a boy to you?

Today Aaron, Maisie and I went to the YWCA, where I was asked if Maisie was a boy.


Um, no.

Granted, she wasn't dressed in a super-girly riot of pink, like she is here. She was wearing jeans and a gray hoodie. But even so, I don't think she looks like a boy. After all, I was wearing jeans and a gray hoodie, too!

(I'm not really sure why it bugs me so much that she was taken for a boy, but it really does.)

Three Maisies.

My nephew Dylan is three years old.

This picture is from when we went bowling last week. He can usually get the ball all the way down the lane - it only ran out of steam and stopped halfway down one time.

Anyway, my mom watches him two days a week. She called me yesterday to let me know that on Friday, Dylan had told her that there are three Maisies.

Really?, she said.

Yes, he said. The first Maisie is his doll. (He has a baby doll he named Maisie, and he's really cute with her. You can hold her, but you have to wash your hands first.)

The second Maisy is the mouse, of course.

And number three?, my mom asked. Dylan said, "Uncle Aaron has a Maisie that moves!"

Here she is, napping instead of moving. The swing used to be Dylan's when he was little... he's such a big kid, it's hard to remember when he was napping in the swing!

Kitty Interlude

Dear blog,

You may be curious as to how my furrier brothers have been behaving since I moved in. Let me tell you! Badly!

They stay up late and get up to crazy cat fraternity hijinks.

Like creating paper bag necklaces in the shape of the fifty states out of my favorite paper bags. Naughty kitty!

(this one is supposed to be Texas I think, although it could be Oklahoma with the panhandle folded towards the camera)


Don't even bother asking them WHY they're making them. You know what they told me? That they were going to some fancy kitty geography or map ball or something like that!
Called the Cat-rography Society, I think.

Also I'm beginning to think they're trying to replace me, or get rid of me or something. They hide like little crocodiles lying in wait for me. Like under my snow suit, or in my favorite car seat.

I just have the nagging suspicion that when I'm not around, they're plotting against me.



Oh well, I'm probably just being paranoid.
Maisie out.

Go Bears!

Even though the Vikings didn't make the playoffs, we're still watching football. We just didn't tell Maisie that her Vikes are out of it, because she looks so cute in her hat.

Go Bears!

Embarrassing habit revealed.

Stop looking at me! Don't judge me! Everyone bites their nails.

So what if I don't have teeth?

Well Child

Today was Maisie's two-month well child appointment. Her weight, 11 pounds 3 oz, is in the 50th percentile, and her height, 23", is in the 75th percentile. These are the same percentiles as at her one-week appointment, so her growth is right on track. Her head circumference, though, has jumped from the 35th percentile to 75th! The nurse said that Maisie must have a lot of brains to have such a big head. We liked her. But then she gave Maisie three shots, so we didn't like her quite so much after that.

But, we got over it.

By the afternoon, Maisie was her smiley self again!

Speaking of which, Maisie's pediatrician (who we love) warned us that our happy baby may not stay that way. He said that four-month-old babies have sudden and dramatic mood swings, and will be cranky and fussy for no reason at all!

Aaron and I were surprised to hear this - we thought we had at least thirteen or fourteen years before we had to deal with that kind of thing. I've heard of a four-month sleep shakeup. But mood swings, really?

What's going on here?

Maisie looks a little confused by recent events...



It's just your dad carrying you around under his arm, sweetie! It's nothing to be alarmed about!

Now that I am back at work, Aaron is home with her during the day. He and Maisie are enjoying getting to know one another, and he takes very good care of her while I'm gone. I am enjoying being back at work... although I miss Maisie a lot during the day. I like that my office is so close to home, though - sometimes I come home for lunch and see Aaron and Maisie!

Maisie's two-month checkup is on Monday, and we're looking forward to finding out just how much she's grown. As you can probably tell from the elbow dimples and wrinkles on her wrists, she's a fat little baby! She has the cutest round little belly. She's also gotten a lot longer recently and has actually outgrown some of her onesies. One thing we're not looking forward to, though, is that she'll have to get some shots. I'm sure it'll be harder on us than it is on her - we know what's coming, and she doesn't.

Hands!

You know what's a ton of fun to chew on?



Fingers!!

Maisie has discovered her hands, and they're apparently delicious! She will shove her whole hand in her mouth if she can get the angle right. If not, she'll happily gum the side of her hand until it's covered in drool.

It makes her very happy!

2 months old!

Maisie is two months old today!


Maisie is growing and changing so quickly! When she's awake, she's much more awake than she used to be. She has become a very smiley, happy little baby who laughs a lot. She is discovering her hands and loves getting them into her mouth - actually, pretty much anything grasped in those little hands goes into the mouth!

She is also getting much stronger and can hold her head up when we support her in a sitting position. She has even flipped over from tummy to back twice now, effectively getting out of the hated tummy time!

The last two months have brought us so much joy. I can't wait to see what the future holds for our little family!

Meeting Auntie B.

Hey there Auntie B!



I really enjoyed meeting you and my uncle J. - finally - at Christmas at Grandma Jo's house! I guess I was at your wedding this summer, but I don't really remember it all that well, seeing as how I wasn't born yet or whatever. There was some good food, if I recall correctly.

Anyway, it was great to really meet you! I hope that I get to play with you again soon. I hear you live pretty far away so I won't hold my breath or anything. But maybe we'll get to see you this summer...?

Love, your niece,
Maisie

xoxoxo

From our house to yours.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

All tuckered out.

We had a lot of things planned for today - there's some things we need at Target, dishes and laundry to do, a kitty-hair-covered carpet to vacuum... you get the idea.

But Maisie is sleepy, so we have scrapped those plans and are sitting, cuddling, and snoozing.


"So quiet down, cobwebs, dust, go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

Making friends

One really fun thing about Maisie is that she likes (or, doesn't dislike) to meet new people. We love taking her places and showing her off!

On Sunday, for example, Maisie and I went to Turtle Bread Co. for brunch with a bunch of my friends. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of this. But she got to hang out and snooze on Geri's shoulder, which she clearly loved.


That afternoon, we went to Caroline's house to help her decorate her Christmas tree. Maisie got to meet Yasser, who'd helped Caroline pick up her tree and bring it home.


Then after we left Caroline's, we went to Nye's Polonaise Room where our friends Kate and Ry4an were celebrating their recent wedding. Maisie loved hanging out with Kate and all our friends who were there.

It was a very busy day, but very fun!

What we do with our days.

Some people have asked me what I do with myself during my days. Do I read a lot? Watch a lot of daytime tv? What do you do when you're not working?

Maisie and I do some interesting things - today, for example, we went Christmas shopping in downtown Minneapolis with her grandma (first time in the skyways!) - and even when we're at home, taking care her is pretty time-intensive. But the truth is that she sleeps quite a bit during the day. However, her favorite place to sleep is on a person. And during the day, that's me. So this picture is a pretty good representation of how I've spent my maternity leave.



All I can say is, it's going to be hard to go back to work. I'm really going to miss sitting at the laptop with a sleepy baby on my shoulder.

My left hand is frickin' huge

Dear blog,
So I've been working out a lot recently - nothing much, you know, just some toning exercises, some core stuff, you know, tummy time. And I've been pretty happy with the results.

But now my good friend (Mommy) and I were out to lunch at this really swanky restaurant. There were pictures of celebrities all over, and guitars and stuff, and cardboard cutouts of really famous politicans and moviestars. Anyway, so someone snapped a picture of me, and WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, my left hand looks frickin' huge! I mean, maybe it was a reaction to this crazy diet I've been on (it's called the Breakfast Out Of Bounds diet, I don't know why)? I have to admit, whenever I go out to eat, people always stare, but I always thought it was because I looked so GOOD...

Maybe my hand was, like, swollen or something?

Anyway, check out the cardboard cutout of the man right behind me (who's he supposed to be anyway? must be famous German popstar or something) in the photo - it looked kind of phony up close, but in this picture it looks like he's practically got his chin on my head! Ooooh! Spooky, right? Totally.

Maisie out.

Al Franken and tummy time

This picture isn't Maisie, obviously, but instead what we did yesterday.



Along with our friend Sarah, we went to a broadcast of Al Franken's Air America radio show at the Brave New Workshop. It was funny and interesting to me and Sarah, and intensely boring to Maisie, who slept almost the entire time.

(Incidentally, Sarah and I are now convinced that he's going to run for Senate. At one point he made a joke about the contents of Spam, and then said "There goes the Austin vote...")

But because no post is complete without a cute picture of Maisie, here is a shot from today's tummy time session. She hates tummy time, but is getting really good at pushing herself up and controlling her head!

Cousin Dylan

Maisie's cousin Dylan came over yesterday to visit her and me.



Dylan is three and loves to help me with Maisie. He holds her, will help me burp her, and gets very distressed when she cries: "What does she want, Auntie Leah? Is she hungry?" (Usually, yes.)

They are very cute together!

One month

Yesterday was Maisie's one month birthday!



She spent the day cheering for the Vikings. They lost to Chicago, but that's okay because we still had fun watching the game with our friend Abi.

She also celebrated by doing her favorite thing, taking naps on people.

Bath time

One of our favorite things to do is give Maisie a bath. We know she doesn't hate it, because she doesn't yell at us, but we can't figure out if she enjoys it or not. She always looks like she's trying to figure out what on earth is going on.



"I just don't understand, Mom and Dad! Why am I wet? Where am I? What's happening here? Someone, please, tell me what's going on!!"


But even though she seems unsure about it, we definitely enjoy Maisie's bath time!

Thanksgiving Comb-Over

Dear blog,
I was hanging out at my grandpa's house on Thanksgiving (a totally overrated holiday in my opinion, I mean, what goes with milk?) and I totally had the post-lunchie nap thing going when all of a sudden my mommy yanks me out and someone takes this crazy picture. It looks like I have a freakin' comb-over, for goodness-sake!
What about my street cred!? I'll be like, yo, how's it hanging Jordyn? Hesus? And they'll be like: Hey Donald Trump. Buy me a trike?

My. Life. Is. Ruined.


In this other picture I was totally giving this wicked gang sign and I totally blinked.
Now it just looks like I'm saying, MU. I mean, MU? What's that? Shout out to MU? Muscle Umbrella? Milk Up?

Maybe like people used to say, Saddle Up?

Milk Up, dawgs.

Maisie out.