Visiting (great-)grandparents

I'm almost at the end of my maternity leave. Time goes so fast... So last weekend, we decided to head down to Iowa so that Ella could meet her great-grandparents for the first time.

We went to Ames on Friday and stayed with Grandma Jo. Then we headed out to Vail, IA, where Great Grandma and Grandpa live, on Saturday. They got to meet Ella, and to see Maisie again - it's been a while! We had a really lovely visit with them.

Maisie enjoyed her visit to Vail, too. Aaron's cousin Rob was visiting at the same time with his family, including his daughter Elise, who's just a little older than Maisie is.

Maisie had so much fun playing with Elise at Grandma & Grandpa's house! And we were happy to learn that Rob, Trish, and their family are moving back to the Twin Cities. So, hopefully this was just the first of many play dates for Maisie and Elise!

I love a parade

Last weekend was the Highland Park neighborhood festival. Saturday morning there was a children's parade with a costume contest, so we had to go!


When Grandma Liisa first asked Maisie how she wanted to dress up, she said "a SHARK!!" But Grandma was able to redirect her to "flower princess." She helped Maisie decorate her doll Becky's stroller, and made Becky a princess skirt. Pretty cute, eh?

Maisie wasn't sure about walking in the parade, so I got to walk with her.

Disappointingly, she didn't win a prize in her age category (4 & under)... we were robbed!

Dylan, however, won 3rd prize in the 5 & up group for his excellent rocket.

He was so excited to win! Good job Grandma Liisa! And he shared his prize candy with Maisie, so she got over her loss pretty quickly.

(Ella slept through the whole thing.)

Sisters

With a little help, Maisie can hold Ella. It's one of her favorite things to do! She asks to hold her "stisser" a couple of times a day. She'll also say, "Look at me, baby Ella!!" as she shows off a new dance step or fancy twirl.

It makes me so happy to see that Maisie has adapted so well to being a big sister! I love watching her interact with Ella, and I look forward to seeing their relationship grow.

Picture post

I don't really have it together enough right now to write a coherent post, so here are some cute pictures to tide you over, until I get some sleep!

Also: because I am delinquent in writing thank yous - THANK YOU to the Ely J's for the Target card - it has turned into some very useful diapers and wipes. And THANK YOU to Cathy C for the book - I love the Finn family Moomintroll, but we did not have any picture books! It's now in our regular bedtime reading. Maisie really enjoys it. And finally, THANK YOU to my Portland honeys for the beautiful handmade gifts! You are all incredibly thoughtful.


Maisie and Aaron peeking out of a giant tire at the Children's Museum. The display says it's from a tractor, but it reminds me of the tires from the huge mining trucks on the Iron Range. Although, those tires were actually much bigger, now that I think about it!

(Yes, I see the "One person at a time" sign behind the two of them... we noticed it afterwards, in the picture. Oops!)


Laura and Dylan invited us over to their house for supper a few days ago. It was really hot, so we ate in the backyard. Dylan was delighted to help give Ella a bottle! He really enjoyed helping out with Maisie when she was little, and I was happy to see that he still wanted to help take care of the baby, even as a big kid of almost 6.

When Maisie saw Dylan feeding Ella, she wanted to help too, but she doesn't quite have the patience yet. Soon enough, though, I'm sure!

Ella seemed to enjoy the bottle process too, even though it seemed like she got as much of the milk on her as in her. By the time she was done, her onesie was soaked!


Sisters! Or, as Maisie says, "That my baby stisser!"

Carleton... past and future!

Most readers here probably know that my mom and I are both Carleton alumni. My mom has determined Maisie's and Ella's class years, too (2027 and 2030, respectively)!

I sent this picture to the alumni magazine today, but I figured I'd share it here for those who won't see it... also, so you can see both girls together.

Wow. I just looked at the picture again, and boy do I look tired! Well, it's accurate; I am really tired. I need to get better at the "sleep when the baby sleeps" thing.

Introducing Ella Ann!

A week later, I've got a minute to do a proper introduction!

This is our new little girl, Ella Ann! As you know from Aaron's previous post, she was born last Saturday, June 20 at 9:45 a.m. weighing 7 lbs 1 oz and 20" long. She was born via scheduled c-section - since I ended up delivering Maisie via c-section after a long, hard labor, this time we opted to skip the "long, hard labor" part and get right to the good part with the baby. We had a great team of docs and nurses at the hospital, and the invaluable presence of my good friend Caroline who was there as our support person during the surgery. I'm recovering much more quickly than I did with Maisie's birth. We've all been home since Monday.

Ella's a little smaller than Maisie was at birth, but she's working on catching up - she eats all the time! She lost a little weight right after birth, which is to be expected, but she's almost back up to her birth weight already, which is great!

She eats whenever she's not sleeping, I should say. I hate to write this in case we jinx it, but she's a pretty good sleeper, too, going up to 3 hours at a time at night. Yay! Isn't she a cute little sleeper?

Ella is also a real cuddlebug. She loves to be held and snuggled all the time, and her favorite place to sleep is on my chest.

Second favorite: sleeping on her grandma.

Ella has blue eyes of course, but we are pretty sure they'll stay that way, since Aaron, Maisie and I all have blue eyes too. She has a fine little head of hair, which appears to be a little darker and maybe curlier than Maisie's was when she was born. And, if you have ever seen Maisie's toes, you know Maisie has these crazy Jalonen toes - the second and third toes are joined by a little web of skin up to the first joint - that both my uncles apparently have. Ella has that too, but only on her left foot!

More later on how we're all adjusting and making the transition from family of 3 to family of 4 (short version: Maisie is awesome and adjusting really well), but for now - kisses from baby Ella!

Ellalicious?

Ella: born 9:45am, 7lbs 1oz, 20inches

The countdown is on...

38 weeks and one day down...

six days to go! I don't remember if I updated our delivery (c-section) date here, so now you know: next Saturday, June 20 is the day! I can. not. wait. I couldn't be more excited to meet our new little girl - and, to be honest, not to be pregnant any more!

These last few weeks have been slow for us - Aaron and I have been kind of hunkering down, getting ready for the new baby and not really doing too much or going much of anywhere. Consequently, we don't have a lot of pictures to post, or interesting things to blog about...


Maisie is going through a major princess phase right now, which you may have figured out from her deep love of her princess skirt. Here, she is wearing a beautiful princess hat. Doesn't she make a lovely princess?

Fortunately, other people are doing interesting things for us to write about. Yesterday our friend Emi turned 1! We celebrated with her by swimming and then having cupcakes (which Maisie calls "pupcakes") at Lake Nokomis (or, as Maisie says, "Komis Lake").

Obligatory hilarious first birthday cake picture:

I love this picture because Emi looks SO SERIOUS as she sits in her cake. I also love that she's holding a fork - maybe purely decorative, given that she's clearly been using her hands to eat! Anyway, this picture cracks me up.

We had a good time swimming in the lake, even though the water was pretty cold. It was a beautiful day, and there were lots of people there, including many little kids who stared open-mouthed at my belly, which amused me. Only one child actually asked me "You got a baby in your tummy?" Hee.

Random cute picture of Maisie from this morning:

The way Maisie's speech is developing is so interesting. She has trouble with sounds in compound words that she can say just fine on their own. She can say "cup" and "cake" just fine, but together it's always "pupcake." My favorite though is "swim" and "suit" - no problem separately, but when combined, form "swimpoop." Much hilarity ensues every time we talk about going to the pool. Daddy, you got your swimpoop?

Memorial Day

Catching up on some pictures here... on Memorial Day, our friends Jason and Rebecca (and their daughter Sophia) hosted a barbecue. At Sophia's insistence, they put up their tent in the backyard for the kids to play in.

It was a huge hit! Maisie, Sophia, and the other kids there had a blast running in, around, and through the tent.

As you can see, Maisie wore her rainbow dress and her princess skirt to the barbecue. It's so cute - when she sees this picture (it's currently the wallpaper on our desktop computer at home) she always says "I love my rainbow dress! I love my princess skirt!" and then asks to go back to "Fia's party" to play in the tent some more.

Conversations with Maisie

Maisie has become quite the little chatterbox lately. I know it happened gradually, but it seems like all of a sudden, she went from a really basic, small vocabulary to talking about everything! all the time! I don't think she has much in the way of an inner monologue, because she narrates everything - every car trip she spends talking to herself about the cars, the street signs, the trees, the water, the buildings, and the people she sees out the window. Following are a few illustrated examples of some of her recent topics of conversation.


"You help me, Daddy!"
As independent as Maisie is, she can also - usually, sometimes - recognize her limits, especially on playground equipment that is designed for bigger kids. This was at Powderhorn Park on Memorial Day weekend. She tried to make it up the ladder herself, and got most of the way before telling Aaron to help her. It's reassuring that, even as fearless as she is, she knows that she has some limits!


"I need SPACE."
Sometimes Maisie gets overwhelmed and need a little room. She used to push whoever was crowding her and say "You go 'way! Leave me alone!" But this was resulting in some hurt feelings. So instead we taught her to ask for some space, and to walk away when she needs it. Here, she needed some space from Grandma and Dylan. It's pretty effective, and hopefully something that will serve her in the long run... after all, everyone needs some space from time to time.


"I no eat chicken. I only eat french fries."
Somewhat self-explanatory! This is from dinner tonight - it was a long, hot day and we were all tired, so Maisie and I went to get takeout from Holy Land deli at Midtown Global Market. It didn't get taken out too far, though, before Maisie decided she wanted to eat right then, instead of waiting until we got all the way home (12 blocks!). Despite her assertions to the contrary she did eat all the chicken, as well as almost all the fries. She ate such a good supper that she got some ice cream for dessert, which leads us to the next picture...


"My face all dirty!"
"My seat STICKY."
"I like ice cream! I like choc-a-leet!"
Again, fairly self-explanatory... but yeah. Wow. It's kind of amazing, just how big of a mess she can make with a single-scoop ice cream cone. This kid's got talent!

The marker on her arms, by the way, is her "tattoos." The orange that you can see is "a big monster, RAWR!!" There's green on her other arm that isn't visible in this picture, that is stars.

And finally...

"Baby Ella in my mommy tummy!"
36 weeks down, 3 to go! Barring any early arrival - which seems unlikely, given that Maisie hung in there for 41+ weeks, Saturday, June 20 is our c section date. We're all looking forward to it - me most of all!

Afghan!

One of the fun things for me about visiting Aaron's family in Iowa is that Jo will often give me yarn from her sizable stash that she's not going to use. I have built up quite a stash of my own this way!

The stash was getting a little overwhelming so I decided to multitask, and work through some of it at the same time as making a housewarming gift for my mom, who moved this weekend. So I made my mom an afghan!

It's easily the biggest thing I've ever made, at probably 5'x3'. I'd always been intimidated by big afghan patterns before, but I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try, and I'm so glad that I did. I wasn't quite sure how it'd turn out, what with all the crazy yarn colors and patterns, but I'm pretty happy with the end result. I think my mom is, too! We both liked that it has such bright colors mixed in there. I also like that I was able to use up such a big chunk of my yarn stash. Now I feel better about buying more yarn!

The cats acted less than impressed with the end result, but I think they were just miffed because they really enjoyed playing with all that loose yarn, and it's gone now...

why we are careful to buy non-toxic paints

Yes, that's green paint all around her mouth.

I really don't feel like this photo needs further explanation, do you?

Daycare picture

Brief update here! Occasionally our daycare providers will send us pictures taken during the day. Yesterday they sent us this gem.

This was taken in their backyard. Maisie absolutely loves to play outside and run around, and they go outside twice a day to play when the weather permits. They have a huge swingset with slides and a climbing wall, and smaller outside toys for the younger children. What a great picture, and what a happy kid!

Princess skirt!

Yesterday was my and Aaron's dating anniversary - 9 years! Mom babysat and we went out to a movie. Before we left, we told her we were coming home after she was asleep, but Maisie was apparently still very forlorn at bedtime. My mom reports that she said "My daddy lost. My mommy gone. My daddy gone. My mommy lost." over and over. How sad! Then this morning, she asked "Where my grandma go?"

When my mom arrived, she had a present she'd made for Maisie: a "princess skirt"! She made it out of sparkly blue net, a big satin ribbon at the waist, and attached all sorts of little sparkly things to the net layers.

Maisie loved it, put it on immediately, and danced around the living room. She also slept snuggled up with it last night. Then when she got up this morning, she did the same thing!

She did eventually stop dancing to play with her blocks, so I managed to get a better picture of her in the skirt - I think you get the idea.

(cell phone pics, excuse the poor quality)

May Day

This Sunday was the annual May Day parade and festival! Although the weather has been cruddy for it in the past, it was absolutely beautiful - 70 and sunny. So we walked down to the park with some friends to catch the parade!

I know we went to several parades last summer, but Maisie didn't really seem to know what a "parade" was - she must not have remembered. She was fascinated! There were people on stilts, various marching bands, and of course, lots and lots of giant puppets. Maisie's favorite was the amazingly realistic polar bear.


Of course, given the beautiful weather, there were massive amounts of people at the parade, and even in Aaron's arms it was hard for Maisie to see. So Aaron lifted her up onto his shoulders. She got a much better view up there!

The parade was long, and we got hot standing around in the sun. So when it was over, it was time for snacks. I had originally thought we'd get some mini donuts, as they are the traditional summer festival food for Minnesotans. But Maisie requested chocolate ice cream. And who am I to argue with that?

It was delicious!

Belatedly: I stole this picture from someone else's flickr account. Bad me. But, it's a beautiful shot of the massive, realistic polar bear puppet that Maisie was so taken with!

weekend update

Despite the 50-degree, rainy weather, we had a really lovely weekend. We got stuff done around the house, Maisie was in a good mood all weekend, and we went to the Children's Museum both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

On Saturday, Maisie spent a long time playing at the water tables. She was really focused on it, as you can see!

I know I've written a lot about the Children's Museum before, but it's really one of our favorite places to go with Maisie when the weather's not great - or even when it is - then she can play in the big sandbox on their rooftop garden. I think it'll continue to be a favorite place, too! On Saturday, I ran into a Carleton friend (Thistle P-H, for those who remember her) who was there with her two children, ages 3 and 1.

She said that since having her younger son, she appreciates the toddler area even more than she did before, because it's enclosed. So when she needed to nurse the baby or change his diaper, she knew that the older one would be okay for the brief time she had to step away. That was great to hear!

So, dear reader, the upshot of that is, I hope the Children's Museum pictures do not bore you, because I think there's quite a few more in our future. :)

The first thing Maisie likes to do when she gets to the Museum is to paint her face.

She takes it very seriously. What she ends up with may look random to the untrained eye, but it's not at all - she looks for specific colors, uses the mirror, and really takes her time. It's serious business.

Today we didn't spend as much time at the water tables. Instead, she enjoyed building with the large wooden blocks they have there.

When we asked her what she was building, Maisie said, "This your work, mama!" So this is what my office looks like, at least to her.

Pretty neat office, eh?

Three random things

Three random pictures for your enjoyment.

First, Maisie's outfit this morning:

You can't quite tell just how cute and crazy it is from this carseat picture, taken on the way to daycare. She's wearing a pale pink turtleneck sweater dress, red fleece pants, white shoes with twinkle lights, a purple and black striped hoodie, and the pumpkin hat her Grandma Jo made her. It was quite the ensemble. I've totally given up on trying to dress her so she matches. Now, as long as she's weather-appropriate, I'm happy. Mornings are a lot easier that way.

Second: what I found in my bag when I got to the office:

A few times when Maisie's been too sick to go to daycare, or if daycare's been closed, she's come into work with me while Aaron went to a morning class. She really enjoys it - I have her watch videos on the portable DVD player so I can actually get a little work done while she's here, and people usually bring her chocolate and candy and pay a lot of attention to her. She thinks my office is one big party. Not usually! But she'll sometimes stick things in my work bag that she thinks I need. Today, apparently, I needed this Barbie (a.k.a. dancing baby, at least at our house).

Third: reserved parking.

I used to think the "stork parking" was so, so silly. But now that I have sciatica and various other pregnancy-related complaints that make walking pretty difficult and sometimes painful, depending on how far I go, I totally appreciate it, and make use of it when I can. Thanks, Sears!

At the park

sorry for the delay between posts (I feel like I start every post that way these days...) - I've been under the weather with a horrendous head/chest cold. I think I'd be fine if I could take some Nyquil and get some sleep, but that's not really an option that's available to me these days. Sigh.

So here are some pictures from a few weeks ago, of Maisie and Dylan playing in the park together.

Maisie really loves to go down slides - it's probably her favorite thing to do at the park. She'll do the little slides by herself, but she likes a little help with the bigger ones.

Luckily, Dylan is happy to lend a hand! He's such a sweet kid.


So with my down time, I've been keeping up the crocheting! I recently completed two baby blankets for friends who are also expecting.

The first is for Dacia and Jeff, who are expecting a boy, about two weeks before I'm due.

The second is for Ben and Kati, who are expecting a girl about two weeks later! Both blankets are made with cotton yarn, so they're a little bit lighter, so they'll hopefully work as summerweight blankets. I'm pretty happy with how they both turned out. I can't wait to see those cute babies!

pregnancy update

Sorry for the delay between posts... we haven't had a lot of great picture-taking opportunities here. Maisie rarely stops moving - this picture is one of the clearer ones I've taken of her lately!

She's in a bounce house at Edinborough, an indoor play park nearby where our friend Oliver celebrated his 3rd birthday today.

Anyway, when she's not moving, we've been working on potty training! She's a little young yet, but she showed a lot of interest, so we're letting her run with it. It's tremendously exciting for us to think that we won't have two in diapers. But at the same time, spending 20 minutes reading to Maisie while she sits on the potty isn't super exciting to most people, and definitely isn't the kind of thing I want to be taking lots of pictures of. So I'll spare you the details, and leave it at: potty training is in progress, and going really well.

Speaking of two in diapers, I'm now 28 weeks pregnant. Gratuitous belly shot:

28 weeks generally marks the beginning of the third trimester. Yay, the end is in sight! This hasn't been the greatest pregnancy for me - I'm a lot bigger than I was with Maisie, at least so far, and I'm definitely feeling it... I'm fairly uncomfortable in some ways that I never was with Maisie, and we still have 11 weeks to go (c section is scheduled for June 22, at 39 weeks). So I'm excited to meet our new baby girl (I told you it's a girl, right? because it's a girl!), and to be a mommy again, but I'm also really looking forward to not being pregnant.

I realize that the front view may not look too big - at dinner last weekend, a friend said "But you're so small! Why are you so small??" I told her that it certainly didn't feel small to me! But check out the belly from the side!