The countdown

Today is a big day in my little mind. Today Maeve is 11 months old. The countdown to Maeve's first birthday begins. I have appreciation for all the parents now lamenting over children getting older. It is bitter sweet at times. So exciting to see the milestones, head out on new paths, yet sad to let go of the days that have preceeded.

Our girl is busy babbeling, furniture cruising, starting to stand on her own more and more. She is a cruiser with her crawling. Thankfully my two legs still move faster than her four legged locomotion. She knows how to climb stairs, working on going down feet first. It's all great. The world through her eyes is shiny and new.

I'm sure the upcoming month will be just as fun as the rest, perhaps even walking by the end of it. I'll keep ya posted.

Sophie

Today Maeve and I went to Happy Bambino to get a present for a friend of Mark's that just had a baby. What to get, the store has so many cute little baby things? In reality I went for one purpose, to get a Sophie la Giraffe that is the rage of all the kids. If you've been checking out the sidelines of the blog, you would have noted that Maeve's Sophie la Giraffe (they are all named Sophie) has been missing now for some time. A rather sad loss as it was one of Maeve's favorites and a present from Jake, Helen and Milo. We have search hi and low for her. The Burley, the strollers, under the crib, in the hamper, behind the dresser...she is no where to be found. Not sure that Maeve really noticed one way or the other until today.

We found the Sophies and as I picked one up, Maeve's eyes lit up and she made a gleeful sound and lunged for her. Now I'll be honest, she could have had that reaction to just about any toy, but then again for those of you that witness her disdain for the snorkeling turtle, you'll know that Maeve doesn't jump for joy over any toy. I must admit I was just thankful she wasn't confused by the fact that it had appeared that Sophie cloned herself a few times over. I'm also glad I wasn't explaining why one of her favorite toys that has been missing for some time was now wrapped in a box at some store. That first pet (and loss of it) is going to be a hard one on this mama.

Well this won't come as a surprise to most of you, I'm a sucker. I bought two Sophies and busted one out of the box right in the store. Maeve was so happy to be chewing happily on Sophie's long legs again. She didn't much care that another Sophie was being gift wrapped right in front of her eyes.

We'll do our best to keep Sophie 2 safe.

Her first official word

For some time now Maeve has been babbling and often would say "ma mum ma mum" I just figured she was making noises that I wanted to attribute to her actual vocabulary. Turns out she has been saying my name. Today when I walked in during lunch and headed for the kitchen, Maeve definitely said "ma mum" to get my attention. I'm not sure where she got the British tones from, but we'll take it.

I'm sure Mark would love for his name to be next, but we decided today that she hasn't uttered any sounds similar to "Pa" just yet. I swear that when I'm home with her I talk about Pa all the time, but admittedly, Mark is home with her more. I guess Mark will start needed to make some plugs for himself.

And while we are on the topic of official words...where did all the comments go? While it's nice to keep writing and keep everyone updated, it's nice for me to know that you're actually out there reading. No comments is like being on a one-sided phone conversation. I know none of you are that shy, so get writing.

She can blow bubbles

Mark and I have been showing Maeve how to blow bubbles all summer and she has put her face to the water many times. Today at swim class she actually put her face down and blew some bubbles. I was so darn excited that I think I threw her off. She didn't do it again after that, but I suspect we'll have lots of time to give it a try again.

She did do some kicking too. I don't think she really knew what she was doing, but there must be something slightly innate about it.

While Maeve has an outgoing personality, I think we did her right by exposing her to water since she was born. Most of the other kids are really tentative about the water or just plain do not like it. Maeve has still been squeeling with happiness and likes to be there. Hopefully we'll keep that going and have her swimming in no time!

Well off to sleep. Have a great day everyone.

What a difference 6 ½ months make!

The blog has been looking a little sad lately. No recent pictures of Maeve (or anyone else for that matter). We just have been bad about taking the camera...and honestly, while I know that these moments do not last forever, I just can't bring myself to be snap happy all the time.

But alas...Helen of Destroy comes through for us.

Here are Milo and Maeve, 6 and 16 weeks respectively, cozied up together on a cold winter day.

Here are Milo and Maeve again, 6 ½ months later, 8 and 10 months now. The 10 weeks between them is quickly fading into the background.

We hear that Milo is now properly sitting (he wasn't so sure about it for awhile, so would just lounge about like George Castanza on Seinfeld), crawling AND standing. He likes to just go for it and make it a learning fiesta.

I love how adoringly Milo is looking at Maeve. It's like she just made some smart sarcastic remark about that crazy looking penguin in her book and Milo just had to give her a little smile. Yep, that's right, with parents like Mark and I, don't think that Maeve won't be slinging the sarcasm either.

Jake and I were off to the beach in the picture above and just decided to load them both into one Burley. At the time Milo still wasn't so keen on sitting up, but we thought Maeve would help hold him in place. They both got to the beach just fine. Just imagine this time next year, we might be having to pull the bike over to settle a dispute about who's book is who's.

A Girl and her hair

Well I am sad to report that Maeve my have been cursed with some aspects of her mother's hair.

Gone are the humid days of summer (not that I'm sad about that), and gone are the curls that use to adorn Maeve's little head. With the crisp days of fall upon us, Maeve's hair looks like someone ironed it in the morning. Let's just hope this is the only characteristic of my hair she got. I have strong hopes that she'll have nice thick hair like her Pa. I do hope she'll keep hers longer that her Pa is keeping his. (See previous post)

I will say that in addition to the straight hair, she has added a bit of bird's nest appearance after sleeping. Where ever she has been rubbing her head on the bed sticks straight out and gets all fuzzy. Oh that girl just might be cursed.

Swim lessons

Maeve and I went to her first swim lesson today. The goal of the class is not to actually teach her to swin, but to help her feel good in the water and to learn some basic swim skills and safety.

She already knows how to blow bubbles in the tub, although does not do it on command, so missed her chance today at swim lessons to impress everyone else. I do believe she is the youngest there and by far the smallest. All the other kids are walking and talking, but I think some of them are closer to 2 or even 3....so we're doing OK.

Not that I thought Maeve didn't like the water, just the opposite. I figured it would be a nice way to spend some time with my girl after working all day. Especially as the weather cools some. It will feel nice to get into a warm pool. Of course when you really stop to think why you smell so heavily of chlorine when you get out, it muddies the image of a nice swim (pun intended).

Meandering to Montreal

Today is the day that Jake, Helen and Milo left for Montreal.

This week, through our window we watched the truck arrive in the driveway, get packed over the next few days, and then leave to eventually meet up with the Vanderkinos on the other side of the border. Of course I knew what this all meant, Maeve on the other hand just looked at me like I was crazy and laughed a lot.

Today as I watched and waved to them as they drove away, it set in how much we will really miss them. "Without their loving kindness, I don't know what I'd do." (A line from a Greg Brown song that always brings them to mind.) It's a good thing the seasons are changing and we'll all naturally take a shift into the crisp, sweet weather of fall. I won't have to bemoan that my friends will not be biking with us to the Farmer's Market or sitting out on the front lawn eating yogurt and granola. We can move through the next 9 months, exploring in a different way. Spring will be here before we know it.

We wish them well and expect that Milo's blog will soon be up and running. Helen won't have any more crazy meetings about a little dam up north that no one is communicating about. I hope this will allow her the time to send us updates of Milo and his milestones.

Ciao my friends, until we see each other again. (Our passports will be arriving in approximately 10 weeks).

Tall news on the homefront

Yesterday, for what seemed like 15 minutes to her parents, Maeve stood on her own. The reality is she stool for maybe 10-15 seconds, but she did it all on her own. After she got such a rave review from her adoring parents she thought she would give it a few more tries.

It's amazing to me how proud we are of this. We know that she will eventually stand and walk...most children do. Somehow though it is the most wonderful accomplishment. Of course, today when I tired to coax her into doing it, she would have nothing of it. Her mother's daughter....I think so.

Well off to enjoy an beautiful day. Hope you are all well.

Things found in Maeve's diaper

Things found in Maeve's diaper. One would think the end of this statement would be so simple...#1 and #2 right. WRONG.

Let's see...

- We have found a piece of a paperback Tom Clancy novel - of which both Mark and I knew right away what the foreign object was. Apparently book covers don't get digested much.

- One of our more recent finds has been styrofoam. I picture the scene went down like this in Maeve's mind..."hhmmm, that looks interesting. What could it be? It feels funny, it makes a squeaky noise when I touch it. What does it taste like? Ohh...just like that rice cake Mama tried to feed me the other day. Stop chewing immediately, just swallow and it will go away."

- A black bean completely undigested. I bet the corn would have done this too except that I ground it up first. I hear Milo passed some corn though. It happens in babies too!

- Grass. A little fiber is how I look at it.

- I am happy to report, as is Grandma Beth I imagine, that I have never found any stones in her diaper. Grandma Beth was very concerned when she was here that Maeve was putting rocks to her mouth. I was pretty sure that none went into the gullet and down the hatch, but one ever really knows. Then again, the fact that I haven't seen it in her diaper could mean that those stones remain in her belly. I hear that folks in other cultures do this on purpose to aid with digestion, or was that sand?? No fear, Maeve ate some sand today.

The possiblities are endless really. It brings to mind my friend's dog. I'm sure Spanky thought he was getting the short end of the stick. That crazy dog ate socks, aluminum foil and various other things. I do think the funniest was when he ate some crayons. His poop was speckled with color. If a human has to pick it up, might as well make it interesting.

I imagine Maeve is trying to spice her parents life up in this same way. Diaper changes can get boring after all. 6-7 diaper changes a day, 7 days a week, etc.....

I leave you with that lovely thought.

locomotion

Come on baby, do the locomotion...if you can identify the artist of that song you should hide your head in shame! I had nothing to do with the fact that she shares my first name.

Anyway, here in Maeve land we are working on locomotion. Maeve definitely wants to walk, she just has not been handed those skills just yet. She's been holding on to furniture and moving around some and will gladly tip-toe around if you give her a little support. Walking is just around the corner. For now she is crawling. Army crawling days are over though, big girl crawl is here.

Boy can that girl can move. She has the bruises all over her body, mostly her shins to prove it. I have to admit it's pretty darn cute to see her hustling across the park to see what the other kids are up to. Once she gets there she isn't even aware that she's still too small to play. Mama has to step in and redirect her focus. I'm sure those days will be here soon enough.

Other forms of locomotion. Maeve is really digging the swing these days. A month or so ago she thought it was cool and would take a push or two. Now she is happy to be pushed in the swing for 10-15 minutes. I think she'll take after me and like roller coasters and crazy upside down rides. Mark can stay on the ground and keep an eye on all our stuff while Maeve and I throw up our arms and scream into the wind as we roar down the coasters together.

Well, that's it for now. Sorry the posts have been few and far between this past month. The days are full with the day-in-day-out life stuff. I'll try to make September more exciting.