Mother's Day 2008

Today was a wonderful second Mother's Day for me spending time with family and friends. We had a nice quiet morning at home followed by a delicious dinner over at Deb's house. Just a wonderful day.

     
Happy Mother's Day everyone, to all the Moms and Moms-to-be.

Talking with Cinderella

Deb made this adorable page of a conversation she and LiLi had the other day. The page is for LiLi's scrapbook but it made me laugh so hard and it's so sweet, I had to post it here.

Conversation (text on page):

Li Li: Blah - Blah - Blah
Deb: Who are you talking to.
Li Li: Cinderella and she is Maisie.
Deb: Oh - you're talking to Maisie and she is pretending to be Cinderella?
Li Li: Yeah.
Deb: Do you want her to come over and play?
Li Li: No - Cinderella is in time out.
Deb: Why?
Li Li: Because she is crying.
Deb: Why is she crying?
Li Li: Because Miss Lisa won't give her a Go-gurt.

Ta da!!!

It's only taken about three months but thanks to all your wonderful name suggestions and huge thanks to Deb and her digital scrap booking talents as well as her time and effort, Our Journey to Baby Shanahan has been transformed into Moments with Maisie. I hope that you love the new look as much as I do as I feel that the new look really reflects the funkiness and sparkle that is Maisie.

Day out with Thomas

It was a gorgeous day to be outside up in Tennessee with bright blue sunny skies and temps in the high 70's, just perfect. Maisie had a blast visiting with Thomas and even though I was concerned that seeing a full sized Thomas would freak her a bit, she couldn't get enough of him. Oh  what fun to experience life through the eyes of a two year old. 

Here comes Thomas!!

Maisie giving her tickets to the conductor.

Riding on Thomas the Tank Engine…Woo Hoo!!  

Fun to meet up with Maisie’s friend Alexander.

Meeting Sir Topham Hatt.

Bubbles!!

Checking out the animals.

Having fun with the train sets.

Trying to get a Thomas tattoo.

Another attempt on the tattoo.

Settling on a stamp when the tattoo didn’t work.

One knackered little girl for the drive home.  

Car talk

Maisie and I had the following little conversation this morning in the car:

Maisie: I'm sick.
Me: No, you're not sick, you're perfect!
Maisie: Maisie's perfect AND Mama's perfect.
Me: Awwww... What about Baba, is Baba perfect too?
Maisie: Nooooooo Baba's not perfect, Baba's old!!

Bwaahahahaha, I love it especially since Eammon is 3 years younger than I, yeah Maisie!!

Back in August '06 I posted that my car reached 188,000 miles, I had been averaging 3,600 miles per year and was paying $2.64/gal for gas. Now with all of Maisie's activities I've almost doubled my annual mileage averaging 6,800 miles per year. Just minutes before 11 this morning, I clocked 200,000 miles on my car. I think it's sort of cool reaching 200K miles especially considering that I probably put 95% or more of those miles on the car. The other big change from twenty-one months ago is that today petrol was $3.42/gal...OY!!

Since my post linked above had a few whinges in it, I've decided to add my whinge of the day to this post. I have an appointment this afternoon and I called the office to get directions. I was told to take highway XX, get off at exit XXX, take a left and then at the second red light take a right and they would be immediately on the right. Well what happens if after getting off at the exit I only encounter green lights, do I keep going until I count out two red lights and then, will they really be there immediately on my right when I'm eighteen traffic signals down the road?? Yes, I know I'm being silly but it's just a pet peeve. Just for good measure here's another pet peeve. When someone tells me that they are the last yellow house on the road. Well thank you very much, now I have to drive by their house, all the way to the end of the road only to turn around to find the last stinking yellow house on the street...especially wonderful when paying $3.42/gal for petrol.

I've been bad about taking pics of Maisie but hopefully this weekend I'll get some nice ones. We have a fun weekend planned as we are heading up to Chattanooga, TN to have a Day out with Thomas the Tank Engine. Maisie loves Thomas and trains in general so I'm hoping for a good day. I've been talking up the whole event, about riding on the train and meeting Sir Topham Hatt so I'm just hoping that seeing a full-size Thomas with giant eyes and a huge mouth doesn't freak her out. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Early morning baking

This morning Maisie and I decided to bake some brownies. Maisie loves helping to measure out the ingredients and stir everything together but her favorite part of course is licking the spoon. The brownies are almost finished baking and the kitchen smells all chocolaty-minty delicious. Now I'm just hoping that my jury-rigged recipe works out and that they taste as good as they smell.

In other news, the duck that is nesting right outside our front door now has eight eggs in her nest. It's fun for Maisie and I to go out there each day to see either the duck or look at the eggs in the nest. Can't wait for those cute little ducklings to arrive.

UPDATE: The brownies were FABU, now I just have to remember how I made them!!

At the Aquarium with friends

Yesterday morning I had an appointment and Deb offered to watch Maisie for me. She made plans to meet up with Kathy & Chani and they all ventured down to the Aquarium and the playground. Deb did bring Maisie's boy-toy Ian along to provide additional support in keeping both Maisie and LiLi in check but from all reports, all the children were on their best behavior and the day was tantrum free. Thanks Deb for taking Maisie for the morning and thanks Kathy for all the wonderful piccies.

Five hundred

As of today Maisie has been with us for 500 days. I know that it's not all "that" long but to my ear it sounds so much longer than saying 1-year-four months-and-twelve-days. We had a nice morning of our 500th day with a visit from Georgia & Zoe. It was our first time meeting Zoe and she is such a smiley, happy little girl. And Georgia, even through her sleep deprived eyes you could see how happy she is to be a Mom. 

Seeing Maisie next to Zoe made me think about how little Maisie was 500 days ago and how much she has grown.

Five hundred days ago Maisie was 19 lbs - 2 oz, 29.75" tall, wearing 9 month clothes and size 3 shoes.

As of today Maisie is 25 lbs, 34.75" tall, she mostly wears 18-24 month clothes and is almost into a size 6 shoe.

We had a really nice but oh too short visit and the girls were so cute together.

We have a duck that decided to nest right near our front door, just under Maisie's bedroom window. Yesterday I didn't see the duck around at all and the nest was empty so I thought the duck decided to just find a new, more private spot.

Well this morning when I walked out I was surprised to see four duck eggs. I've already seen numerous little goslings and I'm looking forward to seeing the little ducklings soon, yeah!!

Playtime with BaBa

Today was the last day of Eammon's mini-vacation so he spent a good part of the day having fun and playing with Maisie. While Maisie enjoyed all the attention from her BaBa, I'm not so sure that BaBa quite enjoyed all the activities that Maisie imposed upon him.