Book shopping

We all knew that Maisie likes books. But today she discovered the joys of book shopping.

We went to BookSmart today, a great new & used book store in uptown Minneapolis. Maisie first browsed in the Food/Food Writing section, showing some interest particularly in Anthony Bourdain. She then moved on to music. She tried to read the copy of Heavy Metal you can see in this picture, but it was shrink-wrapped so she couldn't open it.

We stopped her when she got to first editions & collectables, though!

Skoal Vikings!

Okay, it's been a week since we last posted on here. This week has been very busy, so we haven't had a lot of time to take cute pictures of Maisie! Plus, she's going through a growth spurt that's causing her to sleep all the time. Seriously, she goes to bed at like 6:15 pm and sleeps until 6:30 am, and then takes three naps during the day. When she is done with this growth spurt she is going to be three feet tall. But in the mean time, there's not much time to take pictures of her.

We've also got a super busy weekend coming up, and I don't know how much picture-taking will happen. So to tide you over, here's a picture from last weekend.

I think this picture is hilarious, although Aaron thinks we both look really annoyed. Maisie looks like she is saying "Come on and take the picture already, Dad!!" You can really see how blue Maisie's eyes are, and how long her hair is getting.

As you can see, I'm wearing my Vikings jersey! This weekend the Vikings are playing the Packers at home, and Aaron's friend Emily is taking me to the game! I am SO exited; it's a huge rivalry and it's always a really good game.

We can't wait to see you, Emily!

Dinnertime smiles

Maisie really enjoyed herself at dinner tonight, as you can see!

She enjoyed a tasty meal of edamame and blueberries. Yum yum! Maisie is generally a very good eater, and hasn't rejected many foods that we've offered her. But she especially likes meals where she can feed herself - so much so that when we give her yogurt or purees, we have to make sure she has cheerios, or else she'll grab the spoon and wave it all around. She hasn't really figured out how to use utensils yet. So in that respect as well, the blueberries and edamame were a real hit!

Saturday celebrations

One thing I love about the Twin Cities is all the random little neighborhood festivals that spring up during the spring/summer/fall. Today we went to two of them!

We started out at Woofstock in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a celebration of all things doggy.
We're not huge dog people, as you probably could've guessed, but our friend Brian has adopted two retired racing greyhounds and is really active in that community, so we went to say hi to him and his boys, Boogie and Crash. (Boogie is the black one, and Crash is the brindle.) As you can see, Boogie was exhausted by all the goings-on. Fortunately Crash is kind enough to let Boogs rest his head on his back. They are such sweet dogs. If we were ever thinking about getting a dog, we'd seriously consider adopting a retired racer.

After Woofstock we headed home. It was naptime, but Maisie refused to sleep! So we strollered up to a random little neighborhood celebration not too far from our house. There was a bounce house for the kids, sidewalk sales, deals on cones at our favorite ice cream place, and even a really cool taiko drumming performance.


Too bad Maisie slept through it all! She even missed out on the ice cream, one of her favorite treats. She fell asleep about two blocks from home, slept through the whole walk (including the taiko drums), and woke up again when we were about halfway home.

Oh well, it's not a bad thing. Aaron and I enjoyed a nice walk, and Maisie definitely needed the sleep more than she needed the ice cream.

Maisie & Aaron's week

Maisie's daycare provider took this week off. My supervisor is out on medical leave, so Aaron's staying home all week with her.

Even though it's been seasonably (or even unseasonably!) chilly out, they've had a good time so far - lots of strollering around the neighborhood in the afternoons, going to the park to see ducks and stopping by friends' houses. Yesterday they went to our community library to check out the kids' room. They've also had fun at home reading books and playing with the kitties.

A particular favorite game of Maisie's these days is the chase game. It's pretty straightforward - Aaron "runs" from the living room to the bathroom, to Maisie's room, to the kitchen, while Maisie crawls madly after him, laughing the whole way. When she finally catches him in the kitchen it starts all over, only in reverse.

Mondays are always difficult. But I think this coming Monday will be harder for Aaron than most. Even though it's been hard work, who'd want to go back to the office after spending a whole week at home with Maisie?

Books

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone reading this blog that Aaron and I both love to read. We definitely hoped to pass our love of reading on to Maisie, and are happy to see that it seems to be taking!

We've made a real effort to read to her often, and we leave books scattered about with her toys. In the past she would show us a book she wanted us to read to her - most often it was "Yellow Bird" which was a gift from her Auntie Clare. But as you can see here, as she intently analyzes Sandra Boynton's "Not the Hippopotamus," recently she's started "reading" her books by herself - she will sit with them and very seriously flip through the pages and look at the pictures. She isn't interested in help, and will actually get a little angry if you take the book from her to read it aloud. Excuse me, but Maisie was reading that... thank you!

We're hoping it's the beginning of a life-long love of books!

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.

Shoes

I'm not sure if it's a Minnesota thing, a midwestern thing, or a land of ice and snow thing, but around here, it's pretty standard to take your shoes off inside and leave them by the door. You don't want to track all the melting ice and snow, plus whatever's in it (sand, chemicals, etc....) into the house, y'know.

We leave our shoes by the door on a rug that my aunt Donna made for us for our wedding. It may not be a beautiful use for what's undoubtedly a beautiful rug, but it is useful.

It cracks us up to see Maisie's wee soft-soled slippers there next to our shoes, which seem so huge by comparison! That pair only just still fits - she'll outgrow them soon.

Guess how much I love you?

This picture reminds me of a moment in Guess How Much I Love You, by Sam McBratney. That book is a staple of our bedtime routine around here. If you're not familiar with it, the storyline is pretty much Little Nutbrown Hare trying to tell his father how much he loves him, but Big Nutbrown Hare always manages to one-up his son. It's cute and funny, and if I'm especially overtired or emotional, it can make me cry with its sweetness.

"I love you as high as I can reach," said Little Nutbrown Hare.

"I love you as high as I can reach," said Big Nutbrown Hare.
That is very high, thought Little Nutbrown Hare.
I wish I had arms like that.

Chasing the kitties

Maisie's favorite game is to chase the cats around the house.

Into and out of the bedrooms, around the living room, and as seen here, under the dining table.

Pretty soon she'll be too tall, but right now she is still little enough to crawl under the table and then stand up to try to get at the cats, who've taken refuge on the chairs.

If she catches up with them, she tries to pet them, but she gets too excited and ends up pulling out handfuls of their fur, or pulling their tails, as we say "Gentle! Gentle with the kitties, Maisie!" Poor kitties. They're terribly patient. Next weekend we're heading down to Iowa to visit Aaron's family. And to give the kitties a little break.

Fussy weekend

Finally posting after a rainy, fussy weekend.

As you might be able to tell from the drool coming out of her mouth, Maisie is finally teething for real. Her two front lower teeth are finally poking through the gum - you can't quite see them yet, but you can feel them. Maisie was cranky the whole weekend, and didn't sleep or eat well. Plus we were housebound by the torrential rain... well, it was a long weekend.

Even though this picture is blurry, I like it because you can see just how much hair she's got. Aaron and I were looking back at some old pictures from January and February the other day, and we were amazed at how bald she was back then! We thought she had so much hair - but look at her now. We may not get her a real haircut for a while, but her bangs are already starting to get into her eyes.

Tattoos

My nephew, Dylan, is all about temporary tattoos these days.

It's not really surprising, I guess; his mom has three tats, and his dad has one (or maybe two) too. Laura usually gets them for Dylan one at a time out of the vending machines at the grocery store. But when Aaron found a pack of 50 pirate-themed temporary tattoos, he knew Dylan had to have them.

Little did we know, however, that we'd all end up wearing them... including Maisie! (I myself am currently sporting a cutlass temporary tattoo on my belly, and you can see Laura's pirate, on her right elbow.)

Maisie's daycare provider Anna laughed and laughed when I showed her Maisie's Jolly Roger this morning.

Beat the heat.

This weekend was really, really hot and humid (again...), so we escaped to the Mall.

The Mall of America, a.k.a. the MOA, the Sprawl of America (soon to be even sprawlier with a 5.6 million square foot mixed-use expansion in the works), or simply and elegantly as The Big Mall, is a really popular location when it gets super hot outside. Every time the heat starts creeping towards 90, it seems like half the population of the Twin Cities (and the better part of Iowa, and maybe western Wisconsin too, judging from how crowded it gets) heads there. And why not? It's 4.2 million air conditioned square feet of movie theaters, an indoor park, food, and shopping. Plus, free parking.

We go too... how could we resist?

I mean, even Boba Fett goes to the mall.

Play with your food!

Maisie has started doing this thing recently that is so cute.
She will take whatever she's holding on to, hold it up over her head, tilt her head cutely and laugh and laugh.

Here, you can see, she's doing this with a parsley sprig as she smiles at Aaron.

This was at Salsa a la Salsa in Midtown Global Market this evening. Midtown is one of my favorite places in Minneapolis. The building used to be an old Sears, and stood vacant on Lake Street for many many years. It was totally revamped and is now a marketplace with local restaurants and shops, and is really helping to turn around that part of Lake Street. We had a fun time and a delicious dinner, we ran into our friends Jen and Tristan, and Maisie (typically) made several new friends, smiling at everyone she saw. She also got me to buy her two beautifully embroidered Mexican shirts. They are SO cute (and cheap!); I am sure you'll see pictures of them showing up here soon!

Sketti face

When I was pregnant, Aaron and I spent a lot of time wondering what our baby would be like. We figured she'd have curly hair and blue eyes, but beyond that, it was all up in the air. So we'd conjecture based on our own likes and dislikes.

I remember one time we were at Buca di Beppo, a restaurant (for those who haven't been there) that serves family-style delicious, garlicky Italian food. I said to Aaron, "I'm pretty sure our baby will like to eat at Buca."

And although this wasn't at Buca, our first foray into pasta makes me think that I was right! She enjoyed picking up the spaghetti and managed to get a fair amount of it into her mouth. I got some in there, too. I didn't give it to her on a plate, because there's a picture of my sister about this age with a big plate of spaghetti dumped on her head. I did, however, make the rookie mistake of giving her the spaghetti after her bath... oops.

Maisie had her nine-month well child check today. For those following along at home, she's now 27.5" long (50th %ile) and weighs 17 pounds, one ounce (25th %ile). And her head circumference is in the 80th percentile! That's one great big melon she's got!

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!

Sick day.

Maisie's daycare provider called me around 10:30 this morning, letting me know that Maisie had a fever of 101.7 and needed to go home.

I wasn't getting much done at work anyway... people were mostly just sitting around, talking about the bridge collapse. So I picked her up and brought her home.

Her fever has dropped under 100 thanks to a sure-fire combo of baby Tylenol, lots of naps, and lots of snuggles. I think she'll be back to her usual cheerful, busy self in no time. And maybe with some teeth to show for it!

Bridge collapse.

Just in case you were wondering, we're all okay, as are Laura, Dylan, and my mom. Cell phone service is spotty at best right now. I guess this is why people still have land lines.

Tschüß Rob & Liza!

Our friends Rob and Liza moved to Dortmund, Germany yesterday.

This picture (taken by Aaron's sister Clare!) is of us reading at their wedding last month. Maisie had a bit of stage fright, and urped all down my right side as soon as we got to the front of the church. Oops! But nobody else seemed to notice, and aside from that, I thought our reading went quite well. It was a lovely wedding (and a rocking reception).

Their move isn't permanent (at this time), but just for the school year - Liza is a teacher, and she got an offer for a position at a brand new English-language school. It's a great opportunity, and we are quite happy for them, although it was really hard to say goodbye. So we will just say "tschüß" instead!

Good luck, Rob and Liza! We miss you, and we are looking forward to hearing all about your German adventures. We demand stories in person when you get back, and until then, we will read your blog!

Activity table

What a difference nine months makes, hey? Maisie has gone from that teeny, helpless little newborn to this big girl with a full head of hair who crawls all over, feeds herself, and pulls up to standing!

Her current favorite toy is the activity table in this picture, which our friends Laura, Jason, and Oliver loaned her. Oliver was born in February 2006 and really enjoyed playing with it for a while, but he's since outgrown it. They were nice enough to loan it to Maisie! She really enjoys it... it's exactly the right height for her to pull up on, lean against, and play with. It has fun spinny parts, a squeaky thing, and flippy parts, and even a little embedded mirror. She's chewing on a big orange lego-like block that came with the table. Aaron and I especially appreciate that it's not electronic - no annoying blinky lights or tinny music!

Thanks, Laura & Jason & Oliver!