Thanksgiving

Mom, Dad and I went to Bellingham, WA, for Thanksgiving. We stayed at Nanny and Papa's house the whole week. Avia flew from Colorado to meet us there and Uncle Ty Ty and Aunt Sara are living there now, too. Uncle Logan couldn't make the trip because he's Canadian now. We also got to see Auntie CaCa (Nanny's sister), Nunu (Nanny's mom), and Sara's whole family: Sharon and Rick and her brother Zack.

I had the best time ever. Every day I was surrounded by so many people who love me. Every half hour someone new would walk through the door and I would greet them with an enthusiastic rendition of their name.

On Tuesday, we went to Canada and I got to ride a Skytrain. We went to Science World for a few hours and then headed into downtown Vancouver for dinner.

On Thursday, we ate more food than I've ever seen in my entire life. Uncle Ty Ty is a chef and he and Sara orchestrated a beautiful meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, two kinds of stuffing (we had two turkeys), a squash casserole, a green bean casserole, two jell-o molds, a salad, gravy, apple pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. I ate a little bit of everything, but I did not have seconds...until Friday morning.

I've started talking in short sentences more often this week.
"Ae Saar go wis ew?" - Translation - "Aunt Sara go with you (aka me)?"
"Mamee wa mo tukey." - Translation - "Mazie want more turkey."

I also walked into the bathroom and pooped in the shower. I came out and told everyone, but no one really believed me. I should mention that I also pooped in the potty a couple of times this week -- this is a hobby I've been working on for a couple of months now. I think I'll probably stick to mostly using my diapers for a while, but it's fun to pee and poop in the potty every now and then.

All in all it was a great trip. Now I'm back home with just Mom and Dad and my dogs and cat. It's nice to be home, but I'm sure going to miss having so many loving faces around me. Thank goodness for Skype!

True Broncos Fan

Mazie's Dad here:

After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal we walked to a local bar here in Bellingham, WA to watch the Broncos game. When we arrived, there were only two other patrons and they noticed, with lighthearted displeasure, that we were Broncos fans.

Sometime in the second half of the game Mazie wandered over near the two gentlemen and I said, "Careful Mazie, those are Giants fans." Her face immediately turned from happy to sad and she was genuinely scared of the two men. I tried to calm her down and told her, "It's okay, they're just fans of the other team." That did not help. She started wailing even louder and only the warm embrace of her mother could calm her down.

I was a little surprised, but mostly I was really proud of her. Go Broncos!!!

A few thoughts on my little angel...

Mazie's mama here.

First a quick update on Z's elbow. We saw a pediatric orthopedic specialist on Monday and the verdict was that her elbow was indeed still dislocated, and that rather than popping it back in (which works in 95% of cases, but not for our exceptional child), we have to wait for the tendons to tighten and pull the bone back into place. This means 3 weeks of wearing a sling/Ace bandage to keep her arm mostly immobilized and protected. The good news is that this doesn't seem to bother her a bit-- she gets by just fine with one arm. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, either. We get to take the sling off in the evenings, and tonight she was moving her arm pretty well, so we're optimistic that she'll heal quickly.

Now a few other updates on our sweet little almost 1 1/2 year old Peanut....

Talking...
Our girl is quite the little chatterbox. She talks constantly, repeating everything we say and keeping her own running commentary throughout the day. She babbles a little bit, but mostly she's saying words and stringing little sentences together, although it still takes a parent's trained ear to decipher a lot of her words. The word that she repeats most often is "Mazie" ("May-mee," or more recently, "May-meez" -- when we try to get her to put the Z in the middle she just sticks it on the end), as in "Mazie mama," "Mazie daddy," "Mazie bear," "Mazie string cheese," etc. Everything she sees becomes "Mazie's" so-and-so. It's pretty neat to watch her realizing that she's her own little person. One of the earliest signs of this came a couple of months ago -- when she would wake up in the morning or from a nap she would take a "roll call," naming all of the people around her. "Mama, Daddy, Mazie!" Along with this development also comes the inevitable "No," although her use of the word is still fairly moderate.

Counting....
With a bit of prompting, Mazie can count to ten. Sometimes she'll start somewhere in the middle ("three, four"). Last week when she was at the zoo with her dad, he said, "Look, Mazie, giraffes!" and she replied, "TWO giraffes," holding up two fingers. Since there were in fact two giraffes, we thought that was pretty amazing, although I should note that over the past few days I've heard her pointing out "two" of things when there are actually more than two -- I think it means "multiple." Still, not too shabby for a kid who is still only ONE year old. Another counting story: Today at Little Gym, Caleb said, "One, two, THREE!" before helping her with a little flip. When she landed on her feet, she continued: "Four, five, six!"

Being sweet...

More than anything, it's Mazie's sunny, sweet, engaging personality that makes our home such a happy place these days. One of her most heart-melting moments came a couple of months ago when we were in Colorado. We were out running errands and Mazie started to get hungry -- she used her sign for "food" a few times but we didn't have anything with us. I left Mazie with my mom while I ran across the street to grab some snacks, and when I got back and handed Mazie a cereal bar, she looked up at me and signed, "Thank you." It was such a genuine, sweet gesture-- while we had taught her the sign, we really hadn't prompted her to say it. She just sort of picked it up on her own. She says it all the time now -- when we give her dinner, she says, "Thank you, Mama. Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Mazie." Pretty adorable.

There's so much more I could say... clearly, I'm a very proud Mama. Very grateful for a happy, healthy, amazing little being. Each day brings new wonders....

ER

Well, I'm almost a year-and-a-half and today I finally visited the Emergency Room. Dad, Mom and I had lunch down on State Street and on the way back to the car we had to cross the street. Dad took my hand and we ran across the street together. I stumbled half way and instead of letting me fall, Dad held on to my hand and swung me back up onto my feet. He does this all the time, but it turns out that he shouldn't. This time he managed to dislocate my elbow. When we got to the other side of the street I made it pretty clear that I was in pain. Daddy knew just what was wrong. He asked me to put both of my hands up in the air and I just raised one. Mommy and Daddy thought that I had probably hurt my shoulder or my elbow, but they weren't sure. So, we drove to the hospital to get me checked out. I fell asleep on the way there.



Then I woke up.



(This one is me following Dad's instruction to make a "happy face." Hey, YOU try making a happy face with a dislocated elbow.)

The people at the hospital were very nice, but they weren't able to fix my elbow for me. I did, however, impress them all with my knowledge of stethoscopes. They gave me a sling to wear home and now I have to wait until Monday to go see Dr. Blaise.




It's not that bad. I mostly just use my right arm to do everything. It's really frustrating when I fall down though, and climbing is pretty much out of the question. Those are probably two of my favorite activities.

I'm just lucky that I have Mommy's milk and Tylenol to comfort me.

Halloween!

We just got back from a fun trip to Durham and Boston! We left last Wed for Durham, and I had lots of fun with my friends Miles and Tobin. We got to meet Tobin's little brother, Evan, too -- he's pretty cute. The best part of the trip was HALLOWEEN! I got to dress up as Dr. Jones and go hang out in our old neighborhood. I even got a little bit of candy! Then on Sunday we flew up to Boston so Mom could go to a conference. We got to see Andrew and Elizabeth on Sunday night, and Eric and Allison on Monday, and Dad and I had fun exploring the city while Mom worked. I've now been on 51 plane rides.

Here are more pictures of Halloween and other fall fun.