Five Months

Here's a nakey Mazie James at 5 months...
 And here's Athena...
 Mazie sitting up...
 Athena...
 Mazie standing...
 Athena...
 Cute girls!

Athena Eats

Yesterday, just 9 days shy of her 5 month birthday, we let Athena try her first solid (sort of) food. On the menu: rice cereal mixed with breastmilk. At our 4-month visit to the pediatrician, Dr. Mehl gave us the go-ahead to start solids whenever we were ready. We weren't in any particular rush, and decided to go with the strategy of waiting until she showed an interest in food. Well, we didn't have to wait long. Over the past couple of weeks, Thenes has gotten very interested in the process of eating -- she watches very closely when we eat, and successfully eating or drinking while holding her (which she often insists upon) has gotten much more difficult as she'll reach out and grab cups, utensils, or food items in her range. So we decided to go for it... here's the footage. Notice how she pulls the spoon into her mouth.


Caleb and I both thought Athena seemed more enthusiastic about her first food experience than Mazie was, but I just looked back at this blog post and they look pretty similar (in lots of ways!). Mazie was just a couple of weeks older when she had her first cereal meal.

Thena continues to be a wonder baby -- she's a very happy kid who is generous with her smiles and squeals. After rolling from her belly to her back in early December, she learned how to roll the other way just a week or so later. She's in a very tactile phase and will reach out to feel everything around her... our clothes and hair, furniture, windows.... She's also working on sitting up -- she can do a couple of seconds unsupported and quite a bit longer leaning forward and holding herself up with her arms. She coos a lot and will "talk" to us in a series of shrieks that are very entertaining. She also has a short kind of cackle laugh, but we haven't gotten many big giggles out of her yet. At this stage, Baby Mazie was soothed by having us sing "Baby Beluga" to her... Athena generally does NOT seem to be a fan of our singing -- or at least it doesn't seem to calm her when she's unhappy -- but she will calm down in the car when we turn on the radio. She seems to have a preference for classic rock.

Her big sister continues to be incredibly loving -- one of my favorite things is listening to Mazie talk to Athena in the back seat of our car. After Christmas we took a trip up to the mountains... first to Vail to have our Christmas with Ty and Sara, and then to Winter Park for New Year's with the Dickinson clan. On the long car rides Mazie talked to, sang to, and handed toys to her little sister. It's so fun to watch her be so caring, and I'm so grateful to my big girl for making our transition to a family of four so seemless.

The Many Christmases of 2011

This year, as usual, Christmas was a multi-day event filled with food, family, and presents. On Christmas Eve, we went to the "candlelight" service (they've actually switched to glowsticks) at Gil's church in Boulder at 4:30, and then raced over to GG Thelma's house in Arvada for a yummy Mexican-themed potluck dinner with the Hansen/Bandy crew. We drew names for a gift exchange this year rather than doing the white elephant thing, and Uncle Larry got Mazie a little talking bear with a book -- there's a button corresponding to each page, and the bear reads the book when you press the buttons. That was a big hit, so Christmas was off to a great start!

On Christmas morning, we woke up at our own house (second year in a row... so nice!) and went downstairs to see what Santa brought. Here's the video:


Mazie had asked Santa for 2 things: 1) a "set of dolls" and 2) a "stuffy fish." Santa wasn't exactly sure what she meant by either of these things. The fish idea apparently came from when we were over at Uncle Randy and Aunt Janis's house for Thanksgiving... the koi from their outdoor fountain were inside in a tank for the winter, and Mazie decided she wanted some big fish like that, so Ahya suggested that maybe she could get a stuffed animal fish for Christmas. This actually ended up being a tough thing for Santa to find, but it turned out that Nanny had given Mazie a Beany Baby goldfish a while ago, so Santa dug that up and put it under the tree. On Christmas, Mazie seemed satisfied with this (and if she realized that it was not a new toy, she didn't say anything about it) -- her attitude mostly seemed to be, "Okay, check! Santa did his job." After which the fish was ignored. The dolls were a bigger deal -- Mazie got an "American Girl" (not the real thing) big doll, and with a little help from Nanny Elf, a bona-fide MINI American Girl.

After we checked out Santa's presents, Ahya and Uncle Logan came over with some more presents, including these adorable matching dresses -- Mazie's has tigers on it for her sister, and Athena's has elephants! (It took Mazie a little convincing that this was a sweet "swap" of their usual animals... in general, her present-receiving skills showed room for improvement this year.)


Grandpa Gil and Grandma Ann also came by and brought big stuffed animals (a lamb for Thenes and a lion for Mazie), and then Nana came over a little later with lots of princess stuff for Mazie -- much as I try to resist the princesses, Mazie is crazy about them, so I gave Nana the go ahead. In the afternoon we went over to Great Barb and GGpa's house and had a lovely, quiet Christmas with hors d'oeuvres and a few more presents (a new supermarket duplo set for Mazie and panda-themed wrist rattles for Thenes). The NEXT stop was Aunt Jen's house, where we assembled in the evening with the Dickinson clan. We had a delicious Italian meal and Mazie had tons of fun playing with her cousins.

After Christmas we got a day or two to rest, and then Michael, Alaya, Lily, and Abby got into town and the festivities resumed. We had a gathering on Wednesday with the Dickinsons where the cousins exchanged the gifts they had made for each other -- very sweet. Mazie made aprons for all her cousins this year -- she wrote their names on each one and helped me decorate them. It was great to see how much fun she had GIVING these presents, along with all of the receiving she did!

On Wednesday night, we got to visit with our friends Eric and Maggie who were in town from Madison, and then we got up on Thursday and drove to Vail for Christmas Part 57 with Uncle Ty and Aunt Sara. Their present for the girls took the "Best in Show" award handily -- a book called "A Restaurant's ABCs" that they wrote and Sara illustrated, with some editing help from Nanny and Papa. Such a treasure. As I noted above, however, Mazie's gift receiving skills are not what they could be -- the first thing she said when she opened the present was, "This doesn't look like fun for me." Once we got the book out and read it, she changed her mind... but we did have to have a little talk about polite ways of showing one's gratitude, not to mention the "don't judge a book by its cover" lesson (although this book has a beautiful cover as well). Of course, Christmas at Ty Ty's also included a FABULOUS meal -- like last year, he cooked a goose, but instead of roasting the whole thing, he seared the breasts and made an amazing goose confit (cooked in its own fat... yum!), and then we also had a delicious barley and goat cheese side dish as well as brussels sprouts with bourbon-soaked currants and chestnuts.

On Friday we had a nice morning with Ty and Sara and then headed to Winter Park to meet up with the Dickinson clan again. We had a very low-key New Year's celebration and spent some time relaxing while Mazie was completely entertained by the troupe of cousins... all 10 of them together! As always, we loved the holiday craziness and felt incredibly blessed to be surrounded by our big, loving family.

Happy New Year, everyone! We're excited to see what 2012 has in store!