Funny Girl

So as we've noted before, Mazie is a consistently happy kid who smiles a ton, but we usually have to work pretty hard to make her laugh. The other night, as Madison temperatures dropped into the negative teens, we decided as a family to get out of the house and try Lombardino's Italian Restaurant.

Through trial and error, we've learned that if we plop M into her highchair right when we get to the table, she invariably gets bored and wants to get out... right as our food arrives. So it works better to keep her out of the chair until we're ready to eat. That night we were lucky enough that the Lombardino's hostess sat us in a booth -- Mazie loves to stand on the seat and hold on to the back. I set her down next to me and she reached into her diaper bag, pulled out a packet of wipes, looked over at me mischievously and let out a giggle. That made me laugh, which made her laugh harder. And then we were both just giggling uncontrollably. I laughed so hard, I cried. It was a great moment -- the first time I've really gotten to laugh with my daughter, not blowing raspberries on her stomach or tickling her... just laughing together. I'm still not sure what was so funny, but I look forward to lots more laughter with my little funny girl.

- Katie

Videos!!!

Dad got some videos of me so that you can all see some of my daily miracles. I'm not doing anything "major" on the milestones, so it's hard to find the right thing to capture. So... Dad just started turning on the camera at all the lamest times. I'm just eating or crawling or grabbing Wiley's ear or saying "da da." I don't know what the big deal is.

COLD!!!

Current temperature at our home in Madison is -15 F. The high today is -6, and wind chills overnight last night apparently were as low as -45. We are very grateful for our warm house, and needless to say we will not be venturing outside today.

Meanwhile, Mazie is doing great. She got a couple of shots earlier this week and weighed in at 19 lbs. 3 oz. She's been eating solids for about 2 1/2 months now, but it's really only in the past month or so that we've gotten into any consistent rhythm with that. Now she eats 2-3 small meals a day. Here's what she eats:

rice cereal
bananas
avocado (this is her favorite... everything else takes a little coaxing but she gobbles these down)
sweet potato
carrots (haven't done these in a while)
peas (introduced these briefly but then she got a rash... probably unrelated but we suspended them just in case)
applesauce

She's still happy and smiley... not a great sleeper but we've more or less decided to just accept that for now since she's happy and healthy and basically perfect in every other way. :) We're very lucky and proud parents.

- Katie

Better Crawling Video

Here's a better video of M crawling at Avia's house on Dec. 30. Good work, you mobile little thing!

Happy New Year!

We're back in Madison after a great holiday season with friends & family in Colorado. We had a great New Year's Eve up in Winter Park with Uncle Ian and Aunt Jen and Grandpa and my cousins.... Here's a picture of me with Olivia and Crosby. Both of their parents tricked them into going to sleep before midnight, but not me! I stayed up with all of the big kids and celebrated the beginning of 2009!



Plus, Mom and I took a trip to San Francisco and saw Maggie and Audrey and Dan and Meg! It was lots of fun. In our hotel room there was another baby to play with! Mom took a great video of me kissing and screeching at the other baby, but then accidentally erased it, so you'll have to settle for these less exciting still shots....





Back at home Mom and Dad are starting the process of babyproofing our house. I'm a lot more mobile now than I was when we left! Here are a couple of short videos....