18 Months for Mayzie

Question: What has two thumbs and sucks at keeping up with his blog?
Answer: This guy (yeah, I pointed both thumbs at myself)

As one or two of you may have noticed, it has been 7 months since I posted anything on the blog. I didn't even post anything for Mayzie's first birthday, and that is lame. Anyway, trying to make up for it by posting a whole bunch of pictures we took of her when she turned 18 months last week, so here they are. If you'd like a picture printed, just let me know by email (jsmieja@gmail.com) which one (by number) and what size! I can always zoom in on some of these, too, if you'd like.

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11 Months and big happenings!

So Mayzie turned 11 months today, but let's start two months ago when I last posted on the blog.

We had some special visitors for Thanksgiving. Grandma and Auntie Denise came to visit. We even made a real Thanksgiving dinner.

We also, of course, had our first Christmas! Mayzie had a blast with the family, enjoyed ripping some paper off her gifts, but mostly just had fun crawling around and tossing her new clothes all over the house.

After Christmas it was time for our epic first vacation to Mexico! A week in Cancun with a 10 month old and the Pennell kids is exhausting, but we had a blast. Unfortunately, Mayzie didn't like the sand all that much. I was able to get one good picture of her not crying.

After we got back from Mexico we decided that since Mayzie didn't like the sand so much, maybe we'd try the snow again. Let's just say she wasn't too excited about that either.

And last, but definitely not least. For those of you willing to put up with all the pictures above, something really exciting happened tonight for Mayzie's 11 month birthday! Enjoy the video.

Swim lessons and new teeth and crawling (Oh My!)

Despite my "fugitive in hiding" style absence from the blog for the last two months, there has been A LOT going on around here with our little lady. For the past three Mondays we have been off to the gym for baby swim lessons. We are happy to report that Mayzie loves the pool, but would probably prefer it was a little warmer. We have to get her little robe on her really quick when she gets out or her teeth start to chatter (more on the chompers later).

So far we've floated on our backs, floated on our tummies, passed her back and forth like a sack of potatoes, recited some very funny pool songs ("if you're happy and you know it get your tummy wet," you know, the classics), and even gone under water (twice). We are happy to report that all this has been tear-free and that we've seen more smiles than frowns.

I also mentioned some teeth. We're up to 3 (and a half) now! The first top tooth came in last week and the second one looks like it'll be shortly behind. Teething hasn't been super-fun, but overall not so bad this time around. All these teeth have also come with new responsibility (for all of us). First off, Mayzie is eating all kinds of new foods now. Fun things like bananas, avocado, these little rice puff things, bread, cheese, and sweet potatoes! If anyone has any fun ideas for new foods to try, let us know. Then there's the responsibility for us. We are not awesome at remembering to wipe those little chompers off, but hopefully that'll come with (not a lot) of time.

We also have a very mobile baby on our hands these days. Mayzie is crawling everywhere, trying to get into everything, and picking up a lot of dog hair as she does it. Unfortunately, dog hair isn't the only thing of Lincoln's she's picking up... she's also obsessed with his toys. It is like she has some sort of sonar on those things. Around corners, in the dark, doesn't really matter what the situation, if she can get there, she'll find one. One of my favorite things to do these days is watch her push a ball around the floor and chase it. She'll try to grab her ball, it'll roll away, she'll watch until it stops, then she'll go after it. Funny what amuses you when you have a baby.

Last, but not least, we have a bunch of snow here now! We got to take Mayzie out to sit in it on Sunday in her VERY cute little pink snowsuit from her Great Auntie Cyndi. We got some pictures, but they really don't do it justice.

And, for the one or two of you who care... here's a picture of Lincoln. (If you look close, Mayzie is in the background)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I'm sure I'll put some more pictures up soon, but hopefully we see most of you in person soon too.

7 months old, 6 month photos

So this took way too long, but I thought people might want to see some of the 6 month photos we took of Mayzie. It was so fun taking the pictures of her ourselves... and so cheap. We also want to give a very big thank you to Alicia for taking time out of her weekend to take come and take some family pictures for us. They turned out great! (At least we think so)