Thursday, August 30, 2007

Great minds...

Think alike.

This past Sunday morning I called Deb to ask the name of the park we visited a few weeks prior as Eammon and I wanted to take Maisie over there for a morning of play. Well wouldn't you know that Deb and family were on their way to the very same park. It was a fun morning and even though LiLi was a little under the weather, children and adults all had a good time. After playtime Deb invited us to join them for Dim Sum where we all enjoyed a great lunch. Of course Deb took some great pics which I once again nicked from her blog...Thanks Deb!

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Today was Maisie's second day at Mother's Morning Out and oh what a start. She happily walked up to the school and in the door but when we turned down the hallway to her classroom and she heard so many other children crying, all H.E.L.L. broke loose and though I tried to calm her, the teacher had to pry her off me. I felt so bad for her but she must have settled down quite quickly as no calls to come pick her up were received. When I returned to pick her up I peeked in and saw her playing on the floor with a doll and a peek a few minutes later she was giving one of her teachers a kiss and hug. Then she saw me, started screaming and they happily passed her over the gate along with her bag and we were out of there. She was calm and happy by the time we got outside but had a bit of difficulty going down for her nap and again tonight she was clingy and didn't want to go to sleep. Now though she's sleeping soundly and hopefully will have wonderful dreams.

Finally, why do I keep clicking on that box that says "remember me" because it never does! Is it some cruel joke to see how many times I'll be dumb enough to do it or is it part of some I.Q. test that I'm failing miserably. But I keep checking the box, just in case it decides to start remembering me.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

First day at Wee School

P8280021.JPG_Thumbnail1 Maisie did so well at Mother's Morning Out, crying on and off for the first hour then settling in and playing and doing okay for the rest of the time. Though two Moms had to return early to pick up their children who were very unhappy, I was lucky today and didn't receive any calls. Hopefully Thursday will be an even better day for little Miss Maisie. P8280022.JPG_Thumbnail1P8280025.JPG_Thumbnail1P82800231.jpg_Thumbnail1P8280026.JPG_Thumbnail1P8280001.JPG_Thumbnail1

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Parker, big sister-to-be

Maisie's ready for her new friend and Parker's ready for her new baby brother or sister. Both will have to wait until March when our library play group will increase in size by one. Congratulations Sara and here's wishing you an easy time until delivery.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

It's Claire Day!!

claire%2B102_1159 Congratulations Cindy and Brent! Check out their blog for all the wonderful pictures of Cindy, Brent and their beautiful new daughter Claire.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Weekend fun

17.jpg_Thumbnail1 Friday morning Deb called and asked to stop over briefly as she had a dress and many pairs of shoes for Maisie so check out the adorable L.L.Bean dress that Maisie sports in the pics above thanks to Deb & LiLi.

After their brief visit Maisie and I headed out to Lisa's to meet little cutie Briana. Briana has such a cute little personality and allowed both Kathy and I to hold her and was good too with a kiss and hug from Maisie.1.jpg_Thumbnail119.jpg_Thumbnail121.jpg_Thumbnail114.jpg_Thumbnail1 (1)15.jpg_Thumbnail116.jpg_Thumbnail1 Can't wait for more play dates and time together with little Briana. Unfortunately Kathy isn't in any of these pictures as she was the one behind the camera. Thanks to Kathy and her new fancy camera for both sets of pictures in this post.

Saturday Maisie and I headed down to Melissa's for our monthly local adopters gathering. Unfortunately Eammon wasn't able to go along with us as he had work and an injured foot but we brought along our best guy who got his first true workout and who performed stunningly. Though a small turnout a fabu time was had by all. Darren made his famous gumbo which was delicious and we all had fun playing in the pool. If it hadn't been for thunder, lightning and a torrential downpour none of us may have ever left the pool or the hospitality of Melissa and Darren. Thanks to both of them for a fun gathering. 2.jpg_Thumbnail110.jpg_Thumbnail1 14.jpg_Thumbnail1
Here it is Monday and the beginning of another busy week starting with Library play group this morning and a swim date this afternoon with our Moms group. Temps for the week will only being the high 90's so much more comfortable than the past couple weeks of triple digit temps so hopefully more outdoor time too. Hope that everyone has a great week.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

9 months and 10-inches

Bad blogger, bad Mommy, bad daughter! Forgive me, it's been two weeks since my last post, but the days have just slipped away. I know I've said it before, but I honestly don't know where the time goes as the days fly by...except of course for those two hours before little Miss M's bed time, which I swear some days passes slower than our wait for referral. But truly we have been busy, busy, busy and that's my excuse for being a bad Mother in that not only have I not blogged but I haven't pulled out my camera to take any photos either. Don't despair though, pictures do appear later in this post as Deb of course came to my rescue and snapped some good ones as usual.

Here's a recap of the past two weeks and what's been keeping us so busy. As usual we've been attending our weekly Monday library play group and our Friday China play group. We've also attended numerous Moms Group activities and met up with friends for various play dates. I try to get Miss Maisie out of the house and involved in some activity with other children both mornings and afternoons but the weather has been in the triple digits with high humidity and pollution, so we've had to curtail most of our outdoor time and have spent many an afternoon at the indoor play ground with all the other Moms and children who are also avoiding the heat. Though Maisie loves the indoor playground I think we're both ready for a bit of a change so we're looking forward to the weather cooling down a bit and getting outside more.

Last Wednesday through Sunday my parents came for a visit and here's where I was both a bad Mother and daughter, I didn't take a single picture during their entire visit. Then again, I don't think they took any pictures either so bad all around. During their visit Eammon and I had our first night out together, in nine months, without Maisie. We enjoyed a nice, leisurely dinner at Yellow Fin...well not as leisurely as we wanted as the temp outside was over 100 and I swear that inside the restaurant it was just as hot if not hotter. Thus we opted not to indulge in dessert at the restaurant but instead headed to the local ice cream parlor where we knew it would be delightfully cool. Even though Maisie only met my parents during a brief day and a half visit way back in early February, she took to them right away. She enjoyed their company, gave them both lots of kisses and hugs, dragged them around by their fingers, delighted in all their attention and of course ran them ragged. Yep, Sunday morning my parents were up extra early and I'm positive I heard tires squealing as they drove off , burning rubber trying to get back to Florida and the relaxing life of retirement, golf and dinners without a 21 month old wearing them down.

I've been thinking about our upcoming trips and planning what we'll need. I still haven't gotten my head around the fact that we managed to go carry-on-only for almost three weeks in China, while contending with three different climates, yet now that we have a toddler we'll have to check luggage for a week at a beach! Then there's that fact that Maisie's a little monkey and with ease can climb out of a pack-and-play or a crib, thus at home her crib is tented so to keep her safe. With our upcoming travels of a week in Jamaica, a week in Utah and two weeks in Aruba my concern was about how I was going to keep her safe and contained at night. To get the tent on her crib properly, it takes a good amount of time and I really didn't want to have to take it on and off with each trip so I considered purchasing a second tent for travel. But then I remembered how rickety the cribs in Aruba always appeared and the cost to rent a crib in Jamaica is ridiculous, so after a bit of searching on the Internet I found what will hopefully be a perfect solution, Maisie's own Princess Peapod. I've had it set up in the family room since it arrived and she loves playing in it, zipping and unzipping the flaps and kissing me through the netting just like she does with her crib tent. Before we make our first trip I'll have her sleep in the Peapod a few times and I'm keeping everything crossed that she takes to it, loves it and bedtime when traveling won't be a huge issue.

So I have a secret to share. Maisie and I have a new man in our lives and he's just wonderful!! He's so intelligent, attractive, worldly, slim, savvy and always ready to offer wonderful suggestions of where to go, places to see and restaurants to try. Both Maisie and I love spending time and playing with him as he's so easy going and mild-mannered, he doesn't even mind us teasing him and pushing his buttons. He loves taking us to new places and in-fact will be tagging along and going to Utah with us. He's so decisive and never at a loss, I think Maisie and I are both in love with him. Before getting involved I talked to some people who have known him and they all spoke so highly about him and his abilities, one gal even raved about his accent and trust me I love a good accent as that was one of the things that really got me with Eammon, a nice English accent. I'm in love, he's the one a girl's dream come true and now he's mine, mine, mine!!

So I know that by now you're asking, what's with the title of this post and where the heck are the Maisie pics?? Hold your horses, the pictures are just a little bit further down this post. First let's talk about the title of this post. Back last November, Thanksgiving week, I went and had my hair cut. No biggie, nothing unusual, nothing new or different, just my usual cut to get me though a few months until the next time. We then traveled to China in December and since then life has been all about Maisie. In the eight months that Maisie has been with us she has not been fed, diapered, put to bed by or woken up to anyone other than Eammon or I. That all changed last week when my parents were here and they got her up from a nap and watched her one day while I went out for a quick shopping trip and they of course were here while Maisie slept, the night Eammon and I went out for dinner. Maisie did great waking from her nap to someone other than Eammon or I and there was no winging, complaining, anxiety or rebound sleep issues, she just went with the flow. Being in her own home and comfort zone was one thing but then yesterday I took her to her friend Ava's home and after dropping her off, handing her diaper bag to Ava's Mom and kissing Maisie goodbye, I headed to the salon where nine months earlier I had last had a haircut. Let me tell you, my hair sure grew a lot in nine months and where it's thick and curly there was more hair than I could manage. A change was needed and a decision was made. A ponytail ten inches in length was taken off and today that ponytail of hair was mailed off to Locks of Love. I love my new short do and am pleased that my abundance of extra hair is going to a good cause. Even though Eammon loves long hair and wasn't too pleased to hear that it was going to be cut short, he thinks the new cut is cute and was totally on board when he heard what I was doing with my long hair.

Back in June I mentioned that we had some big projects that were going to be done around the house. When we moved into this house, we knew there were many things that needed to be done: replacing the polybutylene plumbing (done), New kitchen & bar area (done), new flooring throughout the home (done downstairs), three new a/c systems (done), full interior paint job (3 rooms remaining), installing additional attic ventilation, rebuilding the deck and dock and redoing all four bathrooms. Over the past few weeks we've had our deck and dock rebuilt and other than it needing to be sealed in a few weeks, it's completed. The big issue with our property is that it extends into the pond and we're not allowed to fence what backyard we do have, but I wanted to make at least some of our backyard safe for Maisie where I didn't have to worry quite as much about her falling into the water or running off at top speed. We have a covered patio which runs about 45-feet along the back of our home. Adjacent to the patio was an old, dangerous, no-where-near-any-code-ever, falling down and splinter ridden deck with steps of odd heights and lengths leading down to a dock. We decided to have the deck and dock rebuilt and enlarged with a ramp leading from the deck to the dock and then we'd have the railing run from the corner of our home, along the side of the patio, the side of the deck, the front of the deck, down the ramp, all around the dock and back up the ramp to the other side of the patio to the house, completely enclosing the patio, deck, dock and ramp. Now between the patio, deck, dock and ramp we have just over one thousand square feet of contained play area known as Maisieland. She has her playhouse and playground out there and we've been out every morning before it gets too hot and she loves it. Of course though, with all the wonderful playthings out there, her favorite is kicking her ball up and down the ramp over and over and over.

Finally the pictures, there are before and after pics of the project that I took. P6240015.JPG_Thumbnail1P8160021.JPG_Thumbnail1Current dock and stairs.JPG_Thumbnail1P8160016.JPG_Thumbnail1P6240023.JPG_Thumbnail1P8160015.JPG_Thumbnail1

The patio, house and all the new wood still has to be power washed so it's still a bit of a mess out there but that didn't stop Deb and LiLi from coming yesterday to play at Maisieland and of course Deb took all the good piccies of the girls, enjoy. 5.jpg_Thumbnail112.jpg_Thumbnail16.jpg_Thumbnail116.jpg_Thumbnail17.jpg_Thumbnail18.jpg_Thumbnail1

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Firsts

We had a couple of firsts this week; one good, one not so good and one which I'm totally looking forward to. Little Maisie who doesn't eat veggies or fruit other than red grapes has as of today added bananas to repertoire, so that is a good thing. Also today she was playing quietly, or so I thought, only to find that she had unsnapped her onesie and for the first time removed her diaper, only to pee on the floor. Maisie has a fascination with water puddles and luckily I caught her just as she was getting ready to play in the little yellow puddle...not a good thing!

The first that I'm totally psyched about is that our trip in December to Aruba will not be Maisie's first time experiencing the ocean. Nope, that will happen in early September when Eammon, Maisie and I head to Jamaica for a week of sun, fun and all-inclusive indulgence! Yes September is going to be a busy travel month with us going to both Jamaica and Utah. I might live to regret all this travel especially when it comes to nap and sleep schedules. First a week moving back one hour followed by moving forward one hour for a week, only to then move back two hours for a week before coming home and moving forward two hours. Shoot, that messes me up, can't imagine what it's going to do to little Miss Maisie.

I know that people really come to the blog not to read but to see Maisie pictures and since I haven't posted any new ones in about a week, here are some that Deb took at LiLi's pool on Monday and at The Playroom Wednesday morning. 5.jpg_Thumbnail1 3.jpg_Thumbnail110.jpg_Thumbnail16.jpg_Thumbnail18.jpg_Thumbnail1

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