Moments with Maisie: February 2008

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Can't imagine me without you

Yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Atlanta so Maisie and I met Deb & LiLi at the playground where the girls had a lot of fun playing and running around. Deb of course took some great piccies of the girls and created the two pages below for LiLi's scrapbook.

The pages were just so perfect for both girls I just had to nick them (with her permission of course) and post them here. Thanks Deb!

This picture was taken March 5th last year. The girls were sitting on the same slide as they are in the center picture on Deb's top page. What a difference a year makes in how much they've grown and how much they love being together. Friends rock!!

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Washable? I hope so!

Yet another week passes here at Chez Maisie.

*Monday we attended Library play group but had to leave very early as Maisie was in total meltdown mode and did nothing but scream from just moments after we arrived until we walked back into our house. She had slept really well over night but must have still been quite tired as she did take an extra long nap and had a better (not great) afternoon.

*Tuesday there was no Mother's Morning Out because of President's week so Maisie and I met up with a few of my Mah Jongg ladies and their children for a quick and fun lunch. After nap we ran a few errands and then played in Maisieland.

*Wednesday morning we had fun at music class and then after nap Orla and Rachel came over to play outside as it was a beautiful day. The girls had fun blowing bubbles, sliding down the slides, running around and just being kids. Maisie also decided that all she wanted to eat all day were baby carrots and granola bars, I guess her food choices could be worse so I'm not worrying about it.

*Thursday morning Maisie returned to Mother's Morning Out which allowed me time to get some errands and shopping done. Thursday afternoon was wet and cold so we stayed home for the afternoon having fun playtime together.

*Friday morning we met up with Lisa & Briana at The Playroom where the girls had a blast jumping on the tramps and playing. After a nice nap we headed over to Deb & LiLi's for a little bit of late afternoon playtime.

*This morning Cindy, Brent & Claire came over for a play date where the girls had fun coloring with the washable markers. Claire decided that her face, shirt, pants and hands were more fun to color than the paper but she had a great time.

Maisie loves playing with the markers so I put together a new easel that I bought for her and she spent hours there coloring on the white board then cleaning it off, over and over and over. Needless to say she was covered in marker ink. Maisie's now playing in the bathtub and I'm lounging in the nice warm bathroom keeping an eye on her and blogging, a nice way to finish off the afternoon.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Jumping chicken

Okay, so there aren't any jumping chickens but my little jumping girl is eating chicken which is huge, huge I tell you. Shoot, this new addition to her diet has me jumping for joy!

Maisie really doesn't eat meat of any kind so getting protein into her is challenging. So to have her finally enjoying chicken is wonderful and since Eammon and I love it too, it makes life easy on me. Mind you, she's finicky even with the chicken but I've found a few ways to make it so that she really enjoys it and asks for more, more, more!

Before I share two simple recipes that have Maisie coming back for seconds, let me explain the piccies. Sunday morning we attended a birthday party for Tommy, one of our friends from Library play group. The party was held at The Playroom and Maisie loves it there spending all of her time jumping on the trampolines. The first two piccies are of Maisie on the tramps and the third picture down shows one of the rare moments when Maisie actually took a break and sat still.

The final picture is from tonight, Maisie enjoying the dinner she helped to make, bbq chicken on biscuits. She really loved helping me cook but even more she enjoyed eating her creations.

Here are the links to two easy recipes which have Maisie eating and loving chicken. BBQ chicken quesadillas and BBQ chicken on biscuits.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

My little Valentine

Maisie wishes everyone a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Maisie had a great day at Mother's Morning Out, partying with all her little friends and bringing home lots of treats that Baba will surely enjoy. Now she sleeps and as it's turned into a nice day we'll spend time later this afternoon playing outside. Once Baba gets home from work, we'll open cards and enjoy our Valentine's evening as a family. We hope that everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Maisie would have loved to spend time with her friend LiLi today, but LiLi is probably pool side in one of her cute new bathing suits, enjoying her cruise. Deb and I did get the girls together last Thursday so that they could play and show off their matching Valentine's outfits. It was a beautiful, sunny day and the girls played in our back yard spending most of their time running up and down the ramp from the deck to the dock. It was great, they had fun and then Maisie at least went down for a nice extra long nap.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Who knew???

That picture taking could be so much fun!! Even though I don't really know how to use it yet, I love, love, love my new camera!!

What a difference it makes not having a delay after you press the button. Most of my pictures before were of the back of Maisie's head as my little energizer bunny isn't one to stay still.

We've had a quiet weekend at home and thankfully Maisie's antibiotics have kicked in and she's feeling so much better. Her energy level is back up, she's not whining as much and is less clingy.

On the less positive side, I'm already missing the sleeping in until 7am or later and those three hour naps, oh my gosh, heaven!! Who knew that so much could be accomplished when the wee one naps for more than an hour and twenty minutes.

We did spend a good part of this afternoon out in the back yard as it was such a beautiful day, sunny and with temps in the 70's. Maisie had fun blowing bubbles and I had the opportunity to play with my new camera. Now that Maisie is feeling better, we're looking forward to a busy and fun filled week with hopefully lots of new piccies.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Oy, what a week

Monday morning Maisie awoke fever free but still wasn't quite herself. She had her usual runny nose but no fever, cough or anything specific. We decided to go and play with our library play group friends and she did well and enjoyed herself. Interestingly one of the little boys had something similar the prior weekend, high fever for 24-36 hours and then it was gone with no other symptoms. He though cut some teeth directly after the fever but Maisie is still waiting on her final two 2-year molars. After play group we returned home and she went down for a longer than usual nap and even went to bed earlier than usual that night.

Though a special day, Tuesday was not a day filled with celebrations nor lots of activities as Maisie was still not feeling great. Even though she went to bed earlier than usual Monday night, she slept in until almost 7:30am which is so unusual for her. She had no fever and I figured after a good nights rest she was probably feeling better so I took her to Mother's Morning Out and she had a good morning there. Once home she went down for another longer than usual nap but when she awoke she was absolutely miserable; tantrums, screaming and doing her best to recreate the head spinning scenes from The Exorcist. She was just so-not-herself, I called her doc but as it was late, they couldn't fit her in. I decided to bring her down to the walk-in urgent care office where they checked her over, ran a strep test and looked in her ears but found nothing. I mentioned that I thought I might have a sinus infection and asked if she could have one too. They thought it a possibility and suggested that I keep her hydrated, give her some decongestants and ibuprofen and said that if she stopped drinking and peeing, take her to the hospital...great! Once back home Maisie just wanted a bath so I got her in the tub for a nice long bath and then once again she went to bed early.

Wednesday morning we had to get up early as I had an appointment to get new tires for my car. Deb was kind enough to meet us at the tire place so that we wouldn't have to hang out doing nothing for a couple of hours. Maisie was still dragging and I just wasn't in the mood to go to music class as she was super clingy and I knew she would be miserable. As it worked out, we had tornado warnings so we stayed at Deb's house until it was really too late to go to class and once I picked up my car we just returned home. Maisie actually fell asleep in Deb's car during the quick drive to the tire place so I though once home doing an activity would help perk her up and make her feel better, so we made brownies together and she had a lot of fun doing it.

Ready to bake.

Adding the flour.

Look it’s almost mixed.

I’m good at this.

Mmmmmmm…

Chocolate!!

Homemade brownies are worth the work.

Once the brownies went in the oven I laid Maisie down for her nap and then Theresa came over and visited. We were able to have a nice long chat together which was nice because we haven't had time together in ages. Also while Maisie napped, all of this was delivered! I must be crazy going from only using this, especially not knowing anything about photography. Maisie is so fast, I miss so many good shots and Deb promises that it's easy and is willing to teach me so I'm game for something new. Before I knew it, Maisie had been napping for three hours, another long nap!! She woke up in a decent mood so a couple of friends came over to play for a bit but after about 2 hours of play, Maisie only wanted a bath so she sort of chased her friends out of the house and into the bath she went. Another early night for my little girl.

Thursday she slept in again, not waking until 7:15. She was again dragging but said she wanted to go to school so I took her. After dropping her off though I decided that we both should probably go see our doctors before the weekend so I made appointments for both of us for Friday. When I returned to pick Maisie up, she was snuggled in her teacher's arms and just looked exhausted. They told me that she had fallen asleep for about 10 minutes during class and this is something she has never done, other than her bed and car seat, she's never fallen asleep anywhere no matter how tired. I was so glad that I'd made a doctors appointment for her the following day. She once again napped for three hours and woke just before Deb, LiLi & Ian showed up for a little afternoon time together.

Maisie woke up well and the girls played well together and even watched the premier episode of Ni Hai, Kai-lan which they both enjoyed. Once again though she just reached her limit and even after her late wake-up and long nap, she was sound asleep by 6:45PM.

Maisie slept well overnight and awoke late again this morning. I took her to her doctor and sure enough she has a sinus infection which is now being treated with antibiotics. She took a nice long nap and then it was time to head to my doc where sure enough my diagnosis was correct and I too am on antibiotics for my sinus infection. We are now planning a quiet weekend at home to rest up and get better but unfortunately we're going to miss a few activities including Chani's 1st Birthday Party. Total bummer but we're sending lots of germ-free hugs and kisses to the birthday girl, Happy first birthday Chani!

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Four hundred twenty-one plus one

Maisie was placed in our arms when she was 421 days old and as of today, she's been with us 422 days, one day longer than she lived her life without us.

Four-hundred twenty-two days a family

When I think about it, I hardly remember our lives before she was with us and though we did miss over a year of her life, I can't explain it but in some ways I feel like she's been with us from the beginning. Sadly though I know that Maisie wasn't with us for her first 14 months of life and with that we missed her first birthday, the first time she crawled, her first tooth and the first time she stood up on her own. Over the past 422 day we've experienced many Maisie firsts and for that, we are so thankful.

When we first met Maisie, even though she was 14 months old, she had only had a bottle so we were there when she ate her first food. We witnessed her first steps and of course her first words. We have seen Maisie go from being a scared, timid, cautious baby to a little girl who is full of life, smiles, gets herself silly and loves giving and receiving hugs, kisses and snuggles all the time. Maisie is such a perfect fit to our family and just the best little girl we could have ever hoped to have in our lives. Here's to our first 422 days together and to a lifetime of days to come.

December 2006December 11, 2006, Family/Gotcha Day