One of the perils of moving is having dangerous boxes around for Maggie to explore. While the boxes that she was climbing on didn't have anything dangerous in them, they were empty which made them dangerous in and of themselves since they could tip over pretty easily. (And, here I am taking a picture instead of getting her away from them.) You always have to have one hand and one eye on her now. There is no setting her down and going into another room for a minute. She is fast and able. This morning I set her down while I checked my email and she promptly went over to the set of plastic drawers that we have her clothes in and lifted herself to standing using those. They are fairly tipable, but not so bad since they are chock full of clothes, then she pulled herself over to the nearly empty clothes hamper and would have pulled it right over onto herself if I hadn't taken her away from there at that point. Ugh... it is going to be hard to get everything done in time. Wish us luck!

We had a nice time this past weekend at Matt's parents house. Maggie got to show off her walking and crawling and getting into everything abilities! Maggie will move any way that she can. She loves to pull herself up onto couches, baskets, people's hands or anything else she can find and explore. When we hold her hands she tries to move, if you move with her she'll walk and if you stay in one place she moves from foot to foot in a rhythm that reminds one of dancing. Maybe this means that she won't be a typical "white girl" and dance with her feet firmly planted in one location! We dressed her up in a cute onesie that has a skirt and brought her over to the reception after the church service so that we could show off how much she had changed since the last time we were there. As usual, she was a hit! Grammie and Grandpa Meserve had a great time seeing her and we had a great time being pampered with banana and blueberry pancakes for breakfast!

I've heard of post partum depression and post partum psychosis, but how about just being plain crazy. Three months now of 4 wakings a night, most nights. What I wouldn't give for a full nights sleep. There are so many stressors in our life right now and the next month or so promises to be even more stressful with the move. I'm sorry, I don't mean to complain, but I do want to paint an accurate picture for anyone who might read this who is going to be or is a brand new mom. Your baby can do splendidly wonderful things, but there are times when it seems so overwhelming that it's hard to justify why you got yourself into this situation. If anyone feels that they can come over and give me a few minutes to myself, please don't hesitate to drop by. Or, if you'd like to give me some time to pack... awesome. Faye, what was that idea you had for me about helping her sleep through the night... don't hold out on me.

I recorded this video a week or so ago of Maggie's first music lesson. It's awesome. It's a little hard to hear her, but she's doing it!

We had a nice little photo session with Maggie today, it's amazing just how different she can look from one picture to the next. I wanted to get her picture in this beautiful shirt/vest that Rebecca's friend Erica gave to the girls. Maggie looks stunning in it. Although, these two pictures are not the greatest for seeing the vest. You can check out the pictures that I just uploaded to Kodak Gallery. I also put up some beautiful pictures of Maggie and my mother among the tigerlilies that are growing outside her store. The first picture shows how Maggie is now doing some hands and knees crawling and the second one shows her current habit of sticking out her tongue. Again, I wish that I had a movie of it. It is especially cute when she hums while doing it. Maggie is growing up so quick I can hardly believe it. I'm starting to get not so sure about this "she'll let you know" thing with solids. I am finding that if I offer them to her most of the time she'll take them, but she also takes booby if I offer it and will just eat that if that's all that is offered. With both she is being pretty picky though. Maybe it's the heat, but she will eat a little and then refuse to continue. I hope that she is getting enough to eat. I am also trying to be concious of making sure that she drinks water. This heat is very draining and even in the air conditioning of most places I'm in she, and I, are both getting quite sweaty throughout the day. I just put her to bed in a short sleeve onesie, when I picked her up after feeding her she was drenched. This weekend we are going up to Freedom, NH to visit Matt's parents. Hopefully I will have some nice pictures to share with everyone when we get back. So far, I have moved to containers of stuff over to the new apartment. I had just separated out Maggie's clothes, so I put the clothes that she hasn't grown into yet into her closet today!

I wish that I had been able to get a video of Maggie's latest addition to her repetoire of actions. Yesterday she started to stick her tongue in and out of her mouth like a lizard. It is so cute. Sometimes when she does it she makes an mmm... sound.

The even more exciting thing is the day before yesterday she started taking a few crawl steps here are there on her hands and knees... another thing I have to get a video of.

It is so amazing how quickly they grow up. The first few months went by a little slowly, sort-of, for me. Babies grow, but other than smiling there really aren't any milestones to watch for in the first three months. Now, I feel like she is doing something new every day and that her clothes are fitting tighter faster. I just organized the majority of her clothes and saw that a lot of what I have for her now is 6-12 month clothing. She is going to be a year old before I know what's happened. I sure hope that Josh Bear Baby Chic is up and running smoothly by then and/or I have a job outside the home.

We have decided that we are going to move into an apartment in Walpole. It saves us around 100-150 dollars a month. Then, hopefully in a year or two we can afford to buy our own home. We wanted to move into our own home now, but it just isn't plausible (unless someone knows how to get us an extrememly low interest rate with lots of debt and not so good credit).

The big news today is that Maggie pulled herself up to a standing position. Matt was lying on the couch and Maggie crawled over to him, pulled herself first to her knees and then all the way up on her feet. It didn't last long before she fell, don't worry Matt didn't let her fall to the ground, but she was up there. I wish I had been able to get a picture of that!

Maggie had a colorful dinner tonight. She had peas and carrots. Hmmm... as I was writing that I realized that I now think of her solids as her meals and that is the least that she eats... She ate a lot today, I think that she is going through a growth spurt. We got some great pictures of her with green and orange all over her! Definitely should have had one of the ultra cool Josh Bear Baby Chic bibs on her. However, as Matt pointed out she needed to be changed anyway. We always put her in something a little warmer when we are trying to get her ready to go down for the night.

Speaking of that, it's getting a little better, she is going to sleep before ten most nights, but she is still waking up around 11 or so 1 or so 3 or so and then at 5 I usually bring her into bed with me. I've read all sorts of things on how to prevent this, but I'm at a loss. I wish there was some way of breaking her of the habit of needing me to help her get back to sleep. I think the most important thing is going to be moving her to her own room, that will take a lot of effort though, so if you'd like to help let me know!

Here is a video of Maggie's growl. She just growled once right at the beginning. There is more to the video, we were waiting for more growl, and it is cute, but just the one growl.

I have lots of things to comment on, so this will be a three part post.

The other day I went to get out Maggie's 6-9 month clothing and found out that I should have organized the bags a while ago. I thought that they were pretty well separated into sizes, but come to find out that there was 0-3 and 3-6 month stuff mixed in, I also found some 12 month and 18 month stuff. So, I'll sort through what I have. I feel a little silly that I went out and bought onesies though, there were more short sleeve ones, just not where I looked originally. One of the items of clothing I found was this cute pair of overalls. I just had to put her in it. It says it is only good to 26 1/2 inches, but she is 26 1/2 inches and there is still a little room. I'm thinking of cutting them off and making it into a summer outfit. You can't really see it all that well in this picture, but she isn't wearing a shirt underneath it and she looks like a hillbilly, if they were cut off this effect would be even stronger. And, I had to post this picture because her smile in this picture is so awesome.

I don't get it, Maggie hates baths, but she seems to love the water. I figured when we brought her over to Faye's pool that she would scream bloody murder when we dunked her feet in, but she didn't so I brought water her in a little farther and a little swimming with each of her parents and also sat on the raft for a bit.farther with no reaction. I never had the courage to dunk her in, but Matt poured over her head and Maggie splashed up a storm and never once did she cry. If we bring her to the pool often enough, maybe she will be an early swimmer. Matt was predicting Olmypic Gold Medalist, but I would be happy with a strong, healthy swimmer. She had a turn That wasn't as much fun as going in circles around the water, but cool all the same!

On the way to Faye's Matt and I stopped at a yard sale and we found a Johnny Jump Up. We had been wanting to get one for her because she naturally jumps on her own and this would allow her some real movement. Instead of just having mommys leg as a jumping board she would have a large metal spring!

Maggie had green beans again today. I gave them to her frozen like I did the peas and she happily ate them up. Green beans, like peas, are not really a vegetable but a legume. I just read on Faye's blog her reaction to my mentioning that peas weren't vegetables and felt I had to clear up the issue of what they really are for anyone who cares to know and didn't already. Of course, anyone who reads this is incredibly smart and would know these things... so I'm really just rambling. I also gave Maggie chicken for the first time today. I only gave her a tiny bit cause the idea kind of weirds me out and I realized, after having given her a few bites, that Matt is slightly allergic to chicken and his brother is quite allergic. She's fine though. So, I probably should have waited and started a different new food today, but what's done is done. I have been lax about pictures lately. I'm terribly sorry. Faye also mentioned messy baby faces in her reaction to my post and I definitely think that I need to get up some pictures on Maggie with green food all over her.

I am currently in the process of washing and sorting more clothing for her as she is beginning to be a little tight in her 3-6 month clothing. So, the 6-9 and 6-12 month stuff is being washed and will be sorted. It's always fun to pull out new clothing. The t-shirts from our friend Josh Jenisch aka Josh Bear were in with the 6-12 month clothing. His inspirational clothing was fun to see and it will be lots of fun to have Maggie wear it. I am close to getting the Josh Bear Baby Chic line up and running I have a box with 80 onesies in the sitting room and Katherine has gotten a few of the bibs put together. We just need to get the onesies printed and the tags with the logo made up and sown on! Then, I can open up an ebay store, register with Google Ads and pray for people to find me. We have a few ideas for expanding the line, the dresses will be first, then possibly a second style of bib my mother showed me, then possibly nursing tops, then possibly maternity pants. I'm excited and scared. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

I'm definitely slowing down now.... Maggie has started growling. We got a good video of her doing it today, but I am too exhausted to put it up right now. I will add it later. Matt made the comment that Maggie needed to work on her "anger management" skills. It was cute.

I'm not sure if the peas that I gave Maggie last week gave her diaper rash, but that is the only thing I did different right before she got it. So, today I gave her peas again and we will see if she gets it again. I hope that it was just random and that she isn't allergic to peas. I know that she had it before she got her shots, so it wasn't a reaction to them.

Maggie and I had a very relaxing time at my parents house while Matt was having an inspiring (musically) trip to NYC. My parents pulled out a highchair that they had bought for a visit quite a few years ago from Maggie's cousin Meir. He is now very much outgrown highchairs, but his old highchair came in quite handy for this trip. Maggie got to try sweet potato for the first time, she loved them! She seems to be pretty open to new foods, she even gave the green beans a few bites before deciding that they weren't for her. I'm probably going to try them again soon since they say that babies tastes change quickly.
Mom helped Maggie and I get settled in downstairs the first night we were there, she played with Maggie while I got the bed set up and our stuff organized. She was quite a help the whole trip, allowing me to get some beading done and I even got a chance to try out their jacuzzi bathtub on Saturday! It was so relaxing to sit in there and get a sort of massage from the jets and be alone (gasp) for a good fifteen minutes. In the morning, while Maggie napped we got some stuff moved out of their garage. I'll have to go back and help again since there is still a lot of work to be done in there.
After the bath, we went down to the center of Westmoreland (which consists of a store and the town hall) and joined in the Annual Fireman's Barbeque. They served half a chicken, a baked potato, coleslaw and a roll for only $8. It much be a great fundrasier. We got there shortly after it started at five and the line was quite long, it didn't die down until well after six o'clock. They served a lot of people that night. Then, we went over to Stuart & John's for ice cream. What a treat! My parents really pampered me this weekend. My mom was glad that she got to see Maggie in action. We usually visit her at work, so Maggie doesn't get to go down on the floor and roam around. At my parents house she was able to really show off her stuff. It's so amazing how much she can do already.
Her teeth are starting to look pretty real, and they certainly feel real. She still wants to chew on my fingers and it is not much fun when she chomps down with those incisors. Ouch.
My mom was especially nice and stayed for a bit after driving me home so that I could get some stuff done around our house. Thanks so much!