Those Boots Were Made for Walking

OK, well they are not really boots are they. But they are cute little lion Robeez.

While Mimi and Pop Pop were in town, we visited one of our favorite toy/clothing stores. If you've been reading the blog you'll know that Maeve is practicing her walking. Furniture cruising is a specialty of hers. Free walking though, only one step to date. While at the toy store, Maeve found a perfect walking buddy - a little doll buggie/baby walker. The video below was her first go at it. As she started to walk I quickly got my camera going. Had to make sure there was evidence because Pa wasn't with us and I knew he would want to see. The video clearly isn't shot by a professional, but I think it captured the moment just fine. Little did I know that Maeve would continue to walk up and down the store a few more times. I probably could have gotten a better video, but had run out of space on the camera card. Oi, technology.

(just click on the little play button).

Next time I do video, I'll have to remember to keep quiet. I know we are our own worse critics, but I sound goofy!

Judging by her skill here, I don't imagine walking is too far off. And from what a little birdie in Chester told me (and a random FedEx email), Mimi has sent Maeve a walker buggie of her own. Watch out sidewalks, here we come!

The Birthday Girls

Well I am proud to say that there haven't been any posts recently. Two birthdays in the past week and some attempts at celebrations.

My birthday was a great day. The weather was beautiful which is always an essential ingredient for a good day. Mark, Maeve and I went for a hike at Blue Mounds State Park. Mark and I got to walk and talk for over an hour...Maeve was asleep (she's that little striped blob on the right side of the picture). Something that probably only new parents can really appreciate. Mark then took me to dinner at Sardine, a nice restaurant here in town. I even got to get dressed up and Maeve was left at home with a babysitter. Big day for the adults!! Woo-Hoo.

And now that you have all read all that you really want to hear about me. I know how it is. Little interest in anyone but Maeve. She's ONE. A whole year has gone by and so much has changed. She came into the world so peacefully last year, aside from the few expletives her mother was barking. Mark and I watched the video of her birth and shed a few tears as we watched our beautiful daughter take her first breath. This past month she has been working on taking her first steps and practicing her first words. So much happens in a year.

And yet so little changes. Maeve and her sleep habits, mentioned previously on the blog here and here, have changed very little. Many of you probably thought I was just being overly dramatic for the sake of the blog. Mimi and Pop Pop (the Healy's), who came to hang with Maeve on her birthday, can now verify that I have not been embellishing any of it. The eve of Maeve's birthday she thought she would turn our night into an all night dance party. Unfortunately, I wasn't in the mood to dance. Neither was anyone else for 4 long hours. The car became her sleep inducer once again this weekend. And, thanks to Pop Pop, we all got to meet Jill, his new GPS. The end result being that we did very little for her birthday. Almost everyone was taking a nap, including her (thank goodness) for a good portion of the afternoon. We even tried to do a candle and cake that got thwarted because of a tired baby.

Here she is opening a gift and enjoying a few other ones!

I've got more for you, so stay tuned and I'll be sure to update with more soon.

Ciao!

The Book Worm

I had the funniest experience with Maeve at the book store the other day. Normally I wouldn't even think of taking her into a book store, but I was needing to kill some time and thought their might be a kid play area. Many of you know that Maeve has an affinity for books. Mostly for eating them, but more recently for having them read to her. We have a bath tub version of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Maeve laughs in delight every time I read that line. I dare say that the funny looking fish might have something to do with it.

Into the book store I go, searching for the kids section. I thought Maeve was having convulsions. I couldn't set her down fast enough. She wanted to pull all the books off the shelf and have a taste of each of them. I let her mouth one covered in plastic for a bit while I read a book myself to see if I might be able to tolerate reading it again, and again, and again...you get the picture. Reading time didn't last long though. She is getting more dexterous and deft (a little Seuss inspiration there) and was soon through the plastic and onto the book binding.

I picked her up and told her it was time to go. First I had to clean up all the books, the the stuffed animals that she pulled out and had strewn about her. As we left it was the first time that Maeve made herself known that she didn't like leaving. I'm sure there is more of that to come.

Have fun reading. If you're in need of some good kids books, try Frog and Toad or Gossie and Gertie.

A change for Maeve Space

You are in the right place. Maeve Space had a makeover. This mama needs to change it up from time to time.

Let me know what ya think. Remember, change is often hard initially, but we can always go back.

Sweet dreams everyone!

Fun in threes

Good things come in threes, or is that bad things??? Whatever the tale, we had three good things come our way this weekend. The first two good things come from beloved friends sharing good news with me.

One friend announced she will be getting married, how lovely for a new fresh start. Good luck and believe.

A different friend shared with me that she and her husband are newly pregnant. Hhhmm...the wonder of a new life. Breathe slow and drink it all in.

The third good thing came through Maeve, as good things in my life often do these days. Maeve and I were called this morning by our lovely midwife, Ingrid, to see if we would join her at a birth. Mark is gone this weekend, off with the corals and our car, so I warned Ingrid I came as a package deal. The birth we were heading to was to be the 5th baby for the couple. We figured Maeve certainly could blend into the chaos that is 4 children mulling around. Chloe, who is now the second youngest, is just 2 months older than Maeve and she is walking. Maeve was fascinated with Chole in a, "wow" sort of way. Chloe was fascinated with Maeve in a "I'm finally not the youngest" kind of way. Watching Chloe walk definitely had Maeve intrigued. As she stood unsupported, as she is doing more and more of these days...along with baby pliés (aka baby squats), she took a step towards Chloe. She looked a bit unbalanced and perplexed so soon let her self down to the floor.

Two by two

I read in a parenting/baby book that we can expect teeth to come in two at at time ever month to every other month. That concept brings to mind the phrase two by two, which in turn makes me think of that song, "the ants go marching two by two, hoo rah, hoo rah." Then as my brain keeps going with this idea, I think of evenly spaced out little soldiers marching along. So far Maeve's teeth have behavied nothing like this orderly little army.

As many of you know, Maeve had no teeth at all until she was 7 months old, than BAM...6 teeth all in the span of 1 month. It's like all those little soldiers were piled up behind a door somewhere and finally the door opened and they came spilling out. Fortunately for Maeve, all those teeth at once didn't bother her a bit (or at least we didn't think so). She took it all in stride, granted her shirts were soaked with saliva, but that had been going on since she was 2 months old. We didn't know any differently. Eventually that stopped once her teeth were in and for the first time in many months, Maeve wasn't always holding her own personal wet T-shirt contest. Since that explosion of teeth there havn't been any more. Until this week that is.

We have eye-spyed two upper molars coming in. Wasn't hard to figure out either once Maeve started drooling like a rabid dog again. Unfortunately this time around though, Maeve is feeling kinda crabby and under the weather. She's got a runny nose and real low grade fever on and off. She's just not as happy as she usually is. Sad to see. I'm hoping for her sake (and ours, I'll be honest) that she doesn't have another explosion of teeth. It might be nice to follow that two by two rule. Get two now, take break and work on two more a month or so form now. Guess those molars are serious business.

Send Maeve some love.

A beautiful day

Today is the first day the heat wave we were having finally broke. Thank goodness for that. I love the fall, the weather being crisp, the leaves changing colors, and not to mention it's a big birthday month in our house.

We decided to take a walk to breakfast this morning to enjoy the weather, and unsure how chilly it was outside I got Maeve ready to brave the breeze. Go figure, I bought that hat last year when she was just a few weeks old thinking it would fit this year. Guess she got cursed with Mama's small head.

We had a great breakfast, despite it being from a place that is a bit of a greasy-spoon (not my favorite) as Mark can attest to. The walk home found Maeve snoozing in the carrier. I took the time to walk around and admire all the things I love about fall. It's different when you slow down and breathe in the day. The leaves rustling, the water lapping at the shore. It was wonderful.

By the time Maeve woke up, I decided that the entire day should be spent outside. I returned home to change a diaper and gather some goodies for us to hang out at the park with.

We packed some water, Sophie, her fav book, crackers, and some stuff in there for me too. The sun was out, the breeze was blowing and we had a great time just hanging on a blanket together.

We did eventually head over to the playset 'cuz there were lots of kids and Maeve wanted to be in the mix. She sets herself in the middle of all the older kids playing, has no clue that they'll knock her over. She is just delighted to be in their presence.

Now I will admit, the pictures today were not just to fill everyone up with a little Maeve. My mission was much more focused than that. I know I am biased, but I just think Maeve is about the cutest thing going. I thought that perhaps others would think the same. Gap is having a casting call for new Gap babies. I took a peek at other kids entered in her age group and both Mark and I think she has a good a chance as any. We're hoping maybe Helen will post Milo's pic there too...they could be Gap babies together. (I'm goofy, I know.)

So here is how it works: A panel of judges will narrow all entries received down to 20 finalists (5 boys, 5 girls, 5 baby boys, and 5 baby girls). Those finalists will be voted on by the public from November 20, 2007 through December 15, 2007. The children who receive the most votes in each category will be announced as winners in January 2008.

If Maeve gets picked to be in the finals, I'm gonna bug you all to vote for her. I guess it doesn't pay much, but Mark and I would get a trip to San Fransico as well as a few other goodies. Besides, maybe someone will see Maeve there and we'll get some leads that will pay for her college. And, you could all be lucky and see Maeve plastered across your local Gap. So start early, send some lucky love!

Underwater diving

Everything was moving along like normal tonight at swim class. After blowing bubbles in the water - which Maeve is becoming proficient at I thought we would move next to practicing jumping in....but I was wrong. Tonight we practiced going underwater.

I will admit that I probably would not have adventured here on my own, but thought there were some qualified folks around, they must know what they are doing, right??? I did look to see if the other parents were doing it first though. I didn't want to be the only crazy to do it.

We were told to blow into their faces just before putting them under water and then dunk them and pull them towards your body to keep water moving over their faces to decrease the amount of water they might pull in if they haven't closed their mouths. Maeve held her breath on cue and under she went. She came up and was a bit confused and whined a bit about it, but then was fine. So we tried one more time. This time she didn't close her eyes or mouth and I think took on some water. She did cry after that dunk. I guess we'll be trying it again at some other class. Who knows, maybe Maeve will be swimming underwater soon!

One little monkey

Sunday was not the most successful day in Maeve's acrobatic endeavors. First the girl was hanging out by the couch playing with some stackable blocks. She is slowly learning how to climb and thankfully it's mostly on things that are already in place. Meaning she hasn't put together that she can willfully move things into strategic position to climb on. As she was climbing on said blocks, one tipped over and a** over tea kettle she went.

Although admittedly not as gruesome as Helen looked here, for an 11 month old, I think it might be the equivalent.


The block she has in her hand is not the guilty party, but perhaps how she retaliated. Her eye was a bit red and swollen yesterday. Unlike Helen, Maeve's is already looking better the day after.

Now you might ask why I would consider posting a picture of Maeve that is somewhat blurry (despite Mama trying to hold her still by pressing my own face against hers). It's because this is about as good as it gets these days (at least for our little camera). She is in CONSTANT motion. Most the pictures come out looking more like this...



















Alas, with the help of a crazy bright flash I caught her on camera appearing somewhat still.




Now the day wasn't over. No, No. This one little monkey rolled off the bed, our bed that is. Mark and I are not totally sure how it all transpired. Just moments earlier she was sleeping peacefully, then "thud." We raced in to pick her prone little crying body off the floor. She's fine, she cried some, but she's fine. Mark suspects she was crying more from the fact that she learned that her parents were total morons rather than the shock or pain.

All is well today, no major bumps or bruises to tell of. I'm sure they'll be more to come though!