6 MONTHS!

Yes, our little girl is six months old! Last week she completed the half year milestone and we just can't believe it. Time is spinning in baby world. We've watched in awe as she changed each day. Her personality is so strong we wonder what will come next. She says 'mum', whispers a lip-synched 'pa', is sporting two bottom teeth with an upper on the way and is now beginning to eat adult food. First we mash the crap out of it and then we turn her loose with a utensil.

She eats some rice cereal but really prefers things like sweet potato, avocado, banana, beer bottles, watermelon and BLTs (bites, licks and tastes) of everything we eat. She keeps trying to eat all my sailing magazines but I'm still not convinced that is actually "food".

...and here is a gratuitous shot of us having fun in the sun. You remember the sun? It's that thing that came out in the sky on June 6th.

We're both having a great time discovering our daughter and re-discovering ourselves.

First sail

We have been slowly introducing Maggie to some fun things we like to do, and over Memorial Day weekend, we all went sailing on Gracie. We were worried Maggie wouldn't like sailing or she might get seasick or fussy ...

we should have known not to worry.

Lillian and Maggie, exactly who let you two take your life jackets off?

These two couldn't have had a better time.


Our Family

A special thanks to Lance and Christie for an awesome weekend on Gracie and some great pirated photos.

How YOU Doin?

Maggie is growing and learning every day. She is currently 5 months old and her personality is really starting to show and glow. How you ask? Well, she really doesn't care to be on her tummy too much, so she is very skilled at rolling over from her belly to her back (Not so much from her back to her belly - as I said, she doesn't dig it). She is FINALLY drinking milk out of a bottle, which eliminates an extraordinary amount of stress from my life when I leave her for any extended period of time... like more than 2 hours. Before now, she would gag on it, cry and carry on and on and on, until I came to her rescue. Margaret is starting to gain more control of her body, as she was sitting up the other day, very much unassisted; She has much more dexterity with her hands and is grabing and pinching and shoving all sorts of things in her mouth. One of her latest fun feats (no pun intented) is that she finds great pleasure in sucking on her piggy toes. Oh, and her voice. She screams and growls and squeels and talks and hits pitches and tones to be admired. It is just so fun to be this little girls' mother. I LOVE to love love love love everything about her.
Which one do you like? The color or black and white? I couldn't decide, so I figured I'd post them both and get your opinions.

Snuggling with my girl on Easter.

See Ya!

Yes, the Bruins just swept their arch rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, 4 games to 0 in the first round of the NHL playoffs. Now it's on to the conference semi-finals where it looks like they might play the NY Rangers. Here's an old time hockey clip of another game when the Bruins played the Rangers:

The Tasmanian Devil going into the stands isn't too surprising, but my favorite part is when Mike Milbury beats a guy with his own shoe. Good stuff.

Florida

Florida!!! It has come to our attention by several of Maggie's fan club members that we havn't posted in over a month. Sorry folks, I guess this is an indicator of what parenting does to your free time. Maggie and I did manage to squeeze a fun trip to Florida in at the end of March to enjoy some warm weather and family fun.

Great photo op with Goofy, the Baptista's and Meme. Everyone is still in good spirits, even after a 40 minute wait in line to meet the Disney characters and me not heeding many warnings about spinning rides, small spaces or getting motion sickness on my first ride of the day (oops).

Typhoon Lagoon! Wicked fun day meeting up with some hometown friends and splashing around in a seriously great water park. Maggie went on her first ride, The Lazy River, and loved every minute of it. Sally fell asleep right before going under a waterfall and had mixed feelings about it.

We went to a very cool beach on the Gulf of Mexico with Grandpappa so Maggie could have ample opportunity to show off her puppy belly in her bikini. We also learned that swim diapers really do work.

Maggie loved her trip to Florida and had a great time with everyone!

The Chair

As Maggie grows older and continues to develop Carey and I are confronted by many controversial issues. We keep asking ourselves: how do we want to punish her when she is bad? While looking for an effective method we figure it's never too early to start, so when Maggie misbehaves we now put her in "THE CHAIR":

She really understands...

Unfortunately, I think she really LIKES IT!!!

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!
(foiled again)

Obviously, we'll have to keep on trying...

Reading

We've been spending some of our family 'awake time' reading children's books to Maggie. Carey and I both love to read and consider books to be at the forefront of learning and knowledge.
There are lots of good stories that keep all of us quite entertained. Like this one:

THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL

There was a little girl, and she had a little curl

Right in the middle of her forehead;

When she was good, she was very, very good,

But when she was bad, she was horrid.

Nice, huh? These books aren't filled with fluff and kittens like I expected. They get right to the action and don't mince words concerning the desired moral. I won't tell you the story of "Teddy's thoughts on alcohol and drugs."

...especially because this shot of our bookcase was taken before I could prep the frame (oops!):

And here are some gratuitous shots of our lovely daughter for all of you since I've been so lax in posting this last week:

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had loads of fun celebrating Valentine's Day (which lasted all weekend) with a playgroup brunch at our friends Tim, Poppy and Colm's house (along with many other little ones and their respective parents) and Mom and Pop's return to the world date night. Gina graciously watched Maggie as Carey and I went out for drinks and dessert in the Old Port's Chocolate Bar. Yummm!!! We hope everyone had an equally fine weekend.

the moby

Here's our newest tool in the arsenal: the Moby wrap. Five yards of Jersey Knit (or similar) fabric cut down the middle lengthwise. We each got one from one piece of fabric. Comfortable and cozy and awesome!
This wrap offers many versatile arrangements. At our disposal are the options to face Maggie in like when Velcro man trampolines into the wall...or face her out like a Baby Bjorn...or kinda sideways like...or many more we'll learn, I'm sure.

Wearing the little one is full of advantages and creates untold depths of trust and bonding. We love all our slings and use them all off and on throughout the day. Maggie loves them, too!

Happy Sunday!

We had a fun filled day today and it started out making new friends at a brunch hosted by Jess and Ruby Taylor....

Then we went for a walk because it was so beautiful outside (you'd think we were going for a walk in Antarctica by the way we dressed Maggie though). Maggie's Aunt Amanda made her the very adorable gnome pompom hat, which you can check out more photos of on soulemama.com in the "baby gnomes" post. Thanks for keeping her warm and cute Amanda!!

After all that, it was time for a family nap. Hope your Sunday was as great as ours!!