Happy Holidays!

The weeks are flying by! We have been so busy with Hal's birthday and Hanukkah, and Christmas coming up. Magnolia has been doing all kinds of new things. She got her first tooth a few weeks ago, and is starting to crawl. She started very slowly, but has been picking up speed as of late. We put up a Christmas tree and she is pretty interested in it! She is also loving standing, and in gaining confidence in her abilities to balance. I can't believe all the new things she is doing. One of my favorites is that she will imitate kissing noises. It is so cute! It is so amazing to watch her explore her world as it gets bigger and bigger. Here she is crawling, with Daddy on our tree hunt, teething on a piece of apple, exersaucing, and by the tree.

Here are the answers to the most frequently asked questions I get about Magnolia...
1-No, she is not sleeping through the night. She used to sleep all night without waking up. Now she wakes up about every four hours.
2-She is eating pureed fruits and veggies still. She likes everything we have offered her. Her newest favorite it to take a quarter of an apple and scrape it on her new bottom tooth!
3-Cloth diapers are awesome! So much easier than I anticipated.
4-She is happy, fun and calm most of the time. But when she is tired or hungry, or has tender gums... watch out! She will let us know!

We wish all our friends happy holidays!

Gobble Gobble (Happy Thanksgiving)

Here's some photos from the last few weeks. Grammy Linda came for a visit, we went to Great Grandma's (GG's) on Camano Island for Thanksgiving and played with cousin Mason. Maggie talked up a storm on Thanksgiving, she wanted to make sure everyone heard what she had to say! Mason wasn't to sure about that, he would cry when Magnolia got really loud. She had some sweet potato and apple puree, but dinner was cut short when some food accidentally got in her eye. That does not feel good (sorry Maggie!) She was more interested in what else was going on anyways. She has been having so much fun lately, scooting around backwards and starting to pull up on people and furniture. We dropped her crib mattress down last week. She loves being sung too, and likes to 'walk' around holding on to someone's hands. She also likes being naked (sorry Maggie) Ahh the simple pleasures of life. We hope all our friends had a great turkey day!

Busy busy busy

I don't even know what we have been doing the last two weeks! But here's some pictures of Maggie. She is doing all kinds of new fun things, like scooting backwards on her hands and knees, trying to pull up on people, and furniture, putting everything in her mouth, and laughing. This girl laughs at everything, remind you of anyone? It is so funny because I will get her laughing, which makes me laugh, which makes her laugh even harder. I remember last winter when I was pregnant and Erin said to me 'your baby is going to love your laugh'. I thought 'she will either love it, or it will drive her nuts.' So far, she is digging it. She finally fits into her Wilco onsie, I feel like such a cool mom, with my kid already in a band tee (I think Aunt Bee will appreciate this the most, or maybe Uncle Brad) She is also loving eating. (She really loves everything, seriously the happiest child)

Halloween, continued...

Maggie's first Halloween was full of spooky fun. We first went to pick up some gdiaper inserts in Issaquah that we found on Craigslist. (We are making the switch to cloth diaper service in the next few weeks and will also use some gdiapers when we need something to throw away. The gdiapers are great because you can flush them, toss them or compost them!) On our way back home, we stopped at Grandma's school and saw all kinds of costumed junior high kids. We listened to some talented kids in music club sing their songs, and showed off Maggie in her ladybug costume. She also was wearing her trusty pumpkin hoodie as a backup. We then went to U Village to meet up with Shellie and Eli, who won Amy's 'favorite costume of the year award' as Einstein (Albert 'Don King' Einstein). Shellie and I then brought the kids to work where they attracted quite a crowd due to their adorableness. We picked up Hal and went to dinner with Auntie Nessie and Uncle Deuce. We ended the evening with a fun party at my coworker Steph's. Today we continued our dress up at baby group. Here's some photos!

Happy Halloween!

Here are our masterpiece pumpkins! (Photo courtesy of Daddy) Costume pics will be posted later tonight when peanut is sleeping. Hope everyone got lots of tricks or treats.

Learning the Keyboard

Last weekend we went to my parent's house for dinner. Maggie showed off her musical skills and we all watched. She loved this little keyboard! She is still the happiest baby, she smiles and laughs all the time. Only when she is hungry or tired does she get grumpy, and then, watch out! Magnolia is starting to become more mobile, she scoots backwards on her hands and knees. It won't be long before she is into everything!

Punkin hunting

Last weekend we went to the South 47 Farm to go through the Corn Maze and find some pumpkins to carve for Halloween. We had Grandpa Nelson and Uncle Brad and Aunt Andrea with us to help us through the corn maze and find the perfect pumpkin. Maggie wore her jack o lantern sweatshirt, and had some awesome photo ops on our outing. Here she is among the pumpkins, with her Grandpa and her face in a scarecrow.

Sitting up

See, Magnolia doesn't spend all her time in her high chair. She likes to sit and play in the living room, too.

Apples, rejected!

Maggie was not too excited about the applesauce. The first day she only ate two bites, but she is getting used to it and last night she ate it up! I then made her some bananas, which she wasn't too sure about. I am making her food ahead of time and freezing it in ice cube trays. When it is dinnertime, we just warm a cube!

Squash time

So Maggie had her first solid food last week. I made her some yummy pureed squash, she was not too sure at first what to do with all that texture and different taste, it sure is different than 'shirt milk'. But now she is really into meal time. The last picture of Hal feeding her while videotaping is pretty typical mealtime around here, including the dog trying to get a bite. He is going to be so happy when she starts on cheerios. She loves him so much, I am sure she will sneak him as many as she can. She gets so excited when she sees him. She laughs and squeals and her arms reach out. He just likes to taste her. Tonight I made some applesause. We will see how she likes it. But who doesn't like applesause? Oh, yes, Magnolia has found her toes. She always wants to have them in her hands or mouth, even in the high chair. Yummy yummy toes.

New Maggie Pics

Here are some pictures of Maggie in her exersaucer last week. She has such a good time! She laughs and laughs. Notice the 'drool bib' I swore I would never put her in a bib just for drool, I just don't like the way they look. But I cannot keep up with it, so I gave in. This is not the first time I disagree with Maggie's fashion choices I am sure!

Magnolia's Room

I thought I would post some pics of Magnolia's room for those who have not seen it. I think it may be my favorite room in the house. I had such a fun time putting it all together!

Baby Group

Here is a picture Allison took at our baby group two weeks ago. Maggie is the baby in the denim dress! We hang with some pretty cute babies! Clockwise from Maggie is Ryder, Jaxon, Oscar, Ella, Nora, and Katie. We have really enjoyed our group get togethers. It is really nice to meet other moms and babies Maggie's age.

Sippy cup

Maggie and I had a very busy day today, one of the things we did was go to a class about starting solid food. Maggie is letting us know that she is ready for this she is very interested in mealtime sitting in her high chair every night when we eat dinner. This week we will start food! She has been practicing with her sippy cup and some water, as you can see.

Zoo!

We took Maggie to the Woodland Park Zoo last week with Shellie and Eli. She slept most of the time, until we got to the elephants. Still, she did not seem too impressed, until we reached the farm animals. That girl loves her chickens! and cows and sheep and goats and pigs.

Our summer vacation!

So these pictures take a long time to post. I am going to keep adding a few as often as I can. Here is Maggie camping in her fleece suit, the new high chair, and us at the M's game.

First Post!

So I want to share some pictures from our summer. We went to a few outdoor neighborhood concerts at St Edwards State Park, we also went to three Mariner's games, enjoyed the wedding of Brad and Andrea, Grammy Linda came to visit, Maggie went on her first ferry ride, we camped in a yurt on the Washington coast, and lots of other adventures with our newborn. I am playing catch up here, I have no idea where the last five and a half months have gone!