Out of control

That's the pollen this past week in Atlanta. Yesterday was the second highest count on record with April '99 holding the record at 6013.

Even though we've had a higher one day record in '99, I don't remember so many days in a row being so high. Luckily Eammon, Maisie nor I suffer from pollen allergies, but with counts so high even we feel the effects. I'm just about ready to scratch my eyeballs out due to so much pollen getting between my eyeballs and contact lenses. And breathing, it's like trying to suck air though pea soup, the air is just so thick. It's impossible to be outside for even a short time without pollen collecting on you and especially I find that it likes to be on our eyelashes, thus getting into our eyes. Hopefully we'll get some significant rain in the next few days and that will help knock down some of this yellow haze.

Even with the pollen and itchy eyes we've still been busy this week. Monday Maisie and I attended story time at the library and then we spent the afternoon at the playground.

Tuesday we attended a lovely luncheon hosted by Kathy. I had Maisie dressed in an adorable dress and I think she looked so cute and even allowed Lisa to take some piccies of her. Deb & LiLi were at the lunch too so Maisie had a playmate as she waits for all the other Mom's to be matched so that she'll have more playmates. We also got to meet Randi who's over a year into her wait and Amy who's just about at the end of her paper chase. It was a fun afternoon and we thank Kathy for arranging it and inviting us.

 
Wednesday morning was our final Music Together class in the Drum program and next week we start a new program, Tambourine. In the afternoon I took Maisie to the park and met up with Deb, Dan, Ian & LiLi. On Wednesday afternoons all summer long, Jay Memory is at the park singing and the park is just filled with kids and their parents. Maisie really enjoyed the music and loved running around. When we got home she was filthy and exhausted. Eammon was at work later than usual and so I kept Maisie up so that he could visit with her before she went to bed. When I laid her down in the pnp she didn't even whimper, she was so exhausted and I was excited as I didn't have to spend all evening trying to get her to sleep.

I thought I had a great night going until about 2am when she awoke screaming. As she usually does, she stood up in the pnp and I reached over to stroke her head and shhhhh her. But before my hand could even make it to her she just somersaulted herself out and over the top of the pnp. I heard her head hit the wood floor and she ended up on her back with her head under the pnp. Luckily it was a short fall and she was probably more startled than in pain as she cried for less than a minute. Once I checked her over and made sure that all was working OK she was back asleep in the pnp but no sleep for me as I was afraid that she would climb out again. Needless to say, Thursday morning started with a visit to BRU for the purchase of a crib tent. In addition to the crib tent I had to buy new outlet plugs because little Miss figured out how to lever out the ones that were in the sockets.

Our day improved after that as we met Trixie at the Roswell Teahouse for lunch. In the afternoon I tried to run little Miss ragged so that hopefully she'd go to sleep in her newly tented pnp. Come bedtime she was barely staying awake as she played with us and her toys but once she heard me zip up the tent, all he11 broke lose and she screamed her head off. She did spend the night safely in her tent and I slept better knowing that she was safe. Today we've had another busy day and I'm hoping that she won't stress the tent too much tonight.

Finally, here is a piccie of Maisie from Wednesday morning wearing one of the the very first outfits that I bought for her way back, the day after we were DTC. When I pulled out her summer clothes I was bummed to see that this duck outfit (as well as the dress she wore when she met the bunnies) were size 6-9 months. But as you can see they both fit her perfectly...well perfectly as long as the pants are cinched in and safety pinned to her diaper so that they don't fall off her. I've been very lucky with the clothing that I purchased so long ago because only one outfit is too small and all the others either fit her now or hopefully will in the future.

Lonely

It's just not the same eating my spaghetti without my Baba.

Hot pot

Tonight we had plans to recreate one of our wonderful dining experiences from China with one of the other couples from our travel group. Unfortunately our dinner had to be rescheduled but Eammon had his heart and mouth set on hot pot. With this being such a good week with Maisie and I both sleeping better, Eammon getting appointed to a new position at work and tomorrow being our three month Anniversary of being home with Maisie, I decided to just go ahead and make hot pot for dinner.

From the little bit of research that I've done on hot pot, it appears there are three different varieties. The first being plain boiling water devoid of flavor or just a mild broth. The second is a slightly spicier version in which the broth has a little pepper dropped in. Then there's the version that we had whilst in Chongqing, a giant bowl of fiery red, a metal bowl filled with red peppers, Sichuan peppercorns, chili oil, and flaming hot water, all mouth numbingly delicious.

What a feast we had and there are lots of leftovers to keep the mouth tingle going. In the picture you can see the electric skillet filled with all things hot and spicy. To the left is a larger bowl containing garlic infused oil which is used to dip the food into, after it has been cooked, to help rinse off some of the peppers and spice. The smaller bowl contains what the package calls, "indispensable condiment" or hot pot sauce. Both Eammon and I found it quite dispensable and didn't bother with it. The upper left plate contains beef, shrimp, pork and quail eggs. The plate to the right contains mushrooms, baby bok choy, potatoes and sweet potatoes. The plate in the forefront contains lotus root, dumpling filled with a mixture of pork, shrimp and leeks, fish balls filled with shrimp and finally bamboo root. Then just for Eammon, a nice cold Tsingtao.

Both Eammon and I found it just as delicious as what we had in China but we missed our Chongqing hot pot buddies, B, B & RG as well as J, K and K. We thought of you and remembered a screaming Maisie the good times and can't wait until we can all get together again and enjoy this as a group.

Couch, bench, it's all the same

Today I took Maisie to a local store that was holding a little petting zoo and taking Easter photos.

Well as you can see, Maisie was not going to sit pretty and have her picture taken with all the cute bunnies and lambs, no way, no how! Seems if there's a couch, bench or chair and posing needs to happen, little Miss Maisie is having no part of it. To check out her previous couch photos, click here, here and here.

Just so you don't think Maisie is a screaming banshee all the time, check out how cute she looked all dressed up both yesterday and today...not that I'm biased or anything!

Sleep update: For the past two weeks, Maisie has not been in bed with me, she's slept only in the p-n-p. Even bigger and more important news, for the past 6 nights she's pretty much slept through the night. She usually wakes once around midnight making sure I'm still there then sleeps until around 6:45am where I can generally coax her back to sleep until closer to 8am. Compared to her previous sleep pattern of waking up screaming every 1.5-2 hours, life is looking up. Funny thing is, now that she's getting more sleep than ever before at night, she's actually starting to nap a few days a week. Odd, but shoot I'll take it!

Maisie & the Tramp

Maisie and Baba share some spaghetti Bolognese.

Artist in the making

We have a little artist in the making. Maisie had lots of fun sticking her fingers in the color gel and painting her first work of art.

Personally, not that I'm biased or anything but I don't see much difference between what Maisie produced and this painting.

I'm going to get you!

Maisie loves the ducks and if we ask her "where are the ducks?" she runs to the back doors looking for them. In fact her favorite word is 'duck' as she says it more than Mama & Baba combined.

Now that the weather is nice and warm and she's a girl on the go, the poor ducks don't stand a chance. She loves feeding them every morning and here she is tonight chasing them around the yard.

Seventeen on the seventeenth

Yesterday Maisie turned 17 months old and what a day and night we had. In the morning we met with the Ladies-who-lunch and the wee girly-girls for a play date at Monkey Joe's followed by lunch. Maisie fell asleep on the drive home and I was actually able to transfer her to the p-n-p where the girl who does not nap, napped for about 40 minutes. Daphne and Emily came back to the house with us and once Maisie awoke, she, Emily and Eammon pulled out every available toy and had a good time playing. Greg joined us once he got off work and then I grilled some steaks for dinner.

After Daphne, Greg & Emily left it was bedtime for little Miss M so I got her settled into the p-n-p where she fell asleep right around 8PM. Then wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, she slept though until 6:47am at which time I was able to settle her back down where she slept until just past 8am. Wow what a great feeling for me, to finally get some sleep!! What made the night so amazing is that Maisie generally wakes every 1.5-2 hours all night long always checking to make sure I'm there and needing to be calmed. Though generally I can get her back to sleep within 15 minutes or so, sometimes she'll stay awake and want to play for hours at a time. And just because she's able to fall back asleep within 15 minutes or so, that doesn't mean I'm falling back to sleep. Once again Wow, what a difference for me, getting a decent nights sleep and I hope this is the start of a new and improved sleeping pattern for both of us. Who knows, maybe soon I'll actually get her to sleep in her crib in her very own room.

Catching up

For the past four days my internet service has been dodgy at best. Also Maisie and I have had some busy days so now I'm playing catch-up. Working in reverse order I'm starting with wonderful slide pictures taken by Deb at the playground on Monday. She has a new camera and was clicking away (350 pictures) testing out all the features, she even captured a picture of me.

Sunday was our 3 month anniversary of Maisie Day!! So we went out and brunched with Mick and James. It was fun getting together with them and the boys got to talk a little footie while Mick and I discussed packing lists and China travel.

Maisie actually allowed both Mick and James to briefly hold her. Hopefully next time we get together she'll be more familiar and allow more contact.

Saturday I attended a beautiful baby shower for Cindy. Her friends really went all out and made a lovely shower for her. I'm so excited for her and can't wait for her referral which will hopefully be here in May.

This was also the first time since we've been home that I've left Maisie with Eammon, or anyone for that matter, for more than an hour. It was nice having some adult only time and everyone survived even though Eammon did need a 3 hour nap once I returned home!

Singing together

Maisie and I have been attending Music Together classes, which she just adores. She has two favorite songs, one about a cobbler where she taps her feet and the other is a clapping song. Well Maisie has started singing along to the clapping song. If you listen past my off key singing carefully you'll hear Maisie singing along.

21 minutes

Today I took Maisie to apply for her Social Security card. I was prepared with every document imaginable, a full container of her beloved goldfish, a full sippy cup and numerous spare diapers and wipes in preparation for the expected wait. In the end I had too much of everything. After just an eight minute wait our number was called and thankfully the lady who helped us was quite efficient, knew what she was doing and only needed a few of the documents. From the time we walked into the office and got our number to the time we walked out the door was an elapsed time of 21 minutes...No complaints here!!

Maisie & LiLi

Monday was a beautiful, warm, sunny day so Maisie and I joined Deb, LiLi and Ian at the playground. Maisie is really starting to enjoy more of the equipment and in addition to going through the large tube a couple hundred times, she for the first time, really enjoyed the slide.

Pizza & playsets

Saturday night was our local adopters gathering which was hosted by Stephanie & Jason at their Rainbow Showroom. It was a fun pizza party and everyone was able to play on all the playsets. Lots of families showed up and everyone had a good time.

Thanks to Stephanie & Jason for hosting and also thanks to Deb and Lisa for taking such great photos of Maisie which as you can see, I've nicked and have added to my site!!

Playground play and headaches

On Friday, Maisie and I along with Cindy and Amelia, attempted to go to the Imagine It! Children's Museum with our FCC playgroup. But due to a major accident on one of the highways, there was no getting into town. Instead we headed to the playground where Maisie and Amelia had a grand time.

Amelia is much more daring than Maisie but in the end Maisie came around and allowed me to push her on the swing ~ briefly.

Both girls really enjoyed the big tube that they could walk through and had a good time together.

After play time we headed to a Mediterranean restaurant for some wonderful Gyro sandwiches followed by a quick trip to one of my favorite consignment stores. Both girls along with their Mom's were tuckered out and Amelia took full advantage of lounging in her car seat, falling asleep almost immediately. Maisie and I came home and though Miss M wasn't feeling it, I had a wicked headache so we were going to nap! I slept a bit and Maisie did some play and eventually did fall asleep. My headache got progressively worse over the afternoon and I called Eammon to come home as I just couldn't care for Maisie with what was then a migraine. Eammon returned home some hours later to find Maisie greeting him at the door and me, well I was passed out on the living room floor. Needless to say, it was a rough night for all of us. I was sick, sick and sick again and Maisie only wanted Dad for a short time then wanted me to be with her and get her to bed, but there was no way I was lifting my head off my pillow. Eventually we all got to bed and luckily for me the drugs kicked in and the migraine had mostly subsided by mid-day Saturday, leaving behind only a sinus headache to deal with, which was good because Maisie and I had big plans for Saturday night with our local adopters group.