The "Dark" Side of Maggie

Ok, so if you look through all the pictures on this blog, you will note at least two things:
1) Maggie is just about the cutest darn baby you have ever seen and
2) there is not a single crabby picture of her except for the ones taken right when she was born.

So I've been thinking I need to post some crabby pictures of my baby! These were hard to come by because she is so happy and my camera always seems to click right after a crabby face, but Maggie thought she would oblige me with several really good fits the past couple of days so I could capture them. I hope you enjoy them, it was hard not to laugh at her trying to get the best sad faces on camera!

Our adventure into cereal

So, Maggie has started staring at me and Tyler when we eat, and I mean REALLY staring. I swear she is pretending to chew when she watches us eat now. And she likes to suck on a finger dipped in salad dressing (Italian, not Ranch), enchilada sauce, spaghetti sauce, you name it (except pickle juice - that was a funny face!). So after much debate we decided she could try some cereal. She can't sit up on her own yet, so I can't use the booster seat I have, so we put her in her car seat on the coffee table for her first adventure into rice cereal. Tacky, I know, the kitchen table would've been a more civilized choice.

I think she enjoyed the cereal, at least the part where Mama put it in her mouth, but I'm not sure how much actually made it into her little belly. Her tongue-thrust reflex is still working, so a lot of the cereal made it's way back out onto her face and bib. But you could tell she was entertained by the whole scenario. She is Ms. Grabby-Hands too, so I have to hold down both her hands with one of mine and feed her with my other hand, which is quite a coordination challenge for me!

At this point the cereal is just a novelty not a needed nutritional supplement, so we are going to take things slow. For the next several weeks we'll just practice with the cereal until she gets the hang of eating, and once she actually starts eating it in quantity (both Monday and Tuesday evenings I think she ate the equivalent of 2 teaspoons, maybe) we'll move on to new foods. It's fun to try new things with Maggie, like eating solids, but sad too, because she is already growing up so very fast.

You know when your Mom or Dad got teary-eyed when you did something for the first time like ride a bike, write your name, lose a tooth? Well, know I know why. Watching your baby grow up is SO bittersweet! Every new thing is exciting and makes all kinds of parental pride bubble up inside, and at the same time I wish Maggie would stay the same and not grow so I can have just one more day of her just like she is. Wow, I am TOO sentimental, I'm going to have to toughen up before she starts school!

5 Months Old

Wow. We're almost at half a year already! Maggie is growing like a weed. We tried rice cereal for the first time yesterday (5/26) ... more on that later. She can almost sit up by herself, but not quite. She's confident that toes taste way better than fingers, and puts hers in her mouth whenever possible. She also does not like to be lying down nearly as much as she likes to be propped up (don't worry, she still gets a lot of tummy time to see if she can figure out what her legs are really for - crawling). Maggie has also discovered that water splashes if you hit it hard enough, so bath time is WAY more fun now. I wish I could post video to this blog!

Our baby girl is all smiles, and we love her!

I wouldn't call it the 7-year itch so much ...

... as I would call it a ruined anniversary. I got REALLY sick on our anniversary (Monday). So much so that on the way to dinner I had Tyler first turn around and head back home when we were about 10 minutes from the restaurant, and second, pull over about 2 blocks from our house so I could hurl in front of some lucky person's house. Yep, some poor family (probably eating dinner) got to see some crazy lady all dressed up pull over in front of their house, open the door and hurl. Ick! Ick! Ick!

We even had a baby-sitter for Maggie that went to waste! Ug. We were fortunate enough that she did not pick up my stomach bug. And I will commend Tyler on being so kind and caring while I continued to barf the night away (other than the fact that he slept in the guest bedroom so HE wouldn't get sick)!

Look what I found!

That's right. Maggie discovered her toes. She grabs them all the time now. It is so darn cute!

Summer Cruise 2006 - Center Hill Lake

This last week Maggie and I went out with the CBC youth group to Center Hill Lake, about an hour East of Nashville for summer camp (which is why I didn't update the blog sooner). We got to spend the week on the water with two big houseboats, great weather and 3 ski boats. Our speaker was Jon Anderson, the youth pastor from Grace Immanuel Bible Church in West Palm, FL. And, with a bunch of Jr. High and High school girls on board, I had lots of baby sitters for little Maggie.
Everyone got to wakeboarding, tubing, kneeboarding, skiing and swimming to their hearts content! I joined in jumping off the top deck of the houseboats a couple of times, it was a lot of fun. I even spent several days wakeboarding, which was a real treat since I’ve only gone out wakeboarding once or twice a year in the past three years. It was a real treat! Maggie did take one afternoon to “enjoy” the lake. She didn’t like having to be bundled up in her lifejacket very much, and tolerated it about as much as cats tolerate being dressed up in doll clothes. But her little swimsuit was so cute, even though you can’t see it because of her life jacket. I did put a dollop of Desitin on her nose – the zinc oxide in it acts as a sunblock since she is too little for real sunscreen.

She had a much better time just in her swimsuit and little cover-up on the lounge chairs on the top deck of the boat. I didn’t let her stay out in the sun for more than a couple of minutes, though. It was at least in the 80’s each day and wonderfully sunny.She got to sleep in a little hobbit hole in my cuddy cabin. It was just the right size to lay down a blanket for her, and out of the way on the boat so that at nap time and bedtime she wasn’t disturbed by the youth group kids. She didn’t sleep as well as at home though, woke up every morning at 3 or 3:30 and then again at 6:30.

Maggie's 4 month check-up

Maggie and I just got back from the doctor's office. She weighed in at a healthy 13 lb, 13.5 oz, and 25 1/2 inches long (I am pretty sure when I measured her I got 27 inches, but whatever). That puts her in the 75th percentile for weight and 90th for height. We got the go ahead for solid foods whenever we want, but we can wait until 6 months if we want to. Since nursing is still going well, we are going to wait on solids for a bit longer. I'd like her to be able to sit up on her own before we start solids, but we'll just have to see.

I'm taking her to the health department tomorrow for her shots. That will be fun (NOT).