Little Swimmer

What a weekend! Maizy had her first over-nighter! We spent the night at the Osthoff Resort and Spa in Elkhart Lake on Thursday. My mom had a conference there and rented a suite for us to join her and my dad for the night. We left after football practice and realized all of the stuff that we packed was more for Maizy than for us. When we arrived, my mom was still in her conference, and my dad decided to go check out a local church in the area-my grama's father was a preacher at a church there. My dad met up with a congregant he'd called up earlier in the day. She had graciously put together a packet of info on my great grampa and his church, along with pictures of him and my great grama with church members. When my dad went up there, choir practice was going on. The congregant introduced my dad to the choir as Reverend Selmekeit's grandson, and some of the choir members had been confirmed by my great grampa and had heard him preach-how neat-living history! The church is known as the Rooster church because of a rooster weather vane that sits atop the church. My grama was a huge rooster memorabilia collector, so it was a total god thing to hear that her own dad's church was known as the rooster church.

So while my parents were off doing there thing, the Good's decided to make it family swim night. Except Maizy wasn't really haven't it. So we already had our swimsuits on, and our suite had an enormous whirlpool tub, so we took a Good family bath together! What a riot! Maizy loved it, and as cramped as the tub was, the jets and bubbles were actually relaxing. We crashed good that night in our king sized bed-matt and i had our own zip codes!

The next morning grampa ralph had to head back to milwaukee for work, and grama kim had to go to her conference. So, we attempted swim time again. This time, we really did it. The water was a little chilly, and i think i was the more apprehensive one in the water than Maizy! At first she did a little startle and held her breath a bit, but then she just floated along in my arms. She splished and splashed her arms tons. We swam forever! Matt thought she'd like the hot tub. Guess again. Back to the pool!!

Maizy has been vocal for a while, but she has really found the power of her voice. She started really "talking" on Thursday, and literally, she hasn't stopped since then. Non-stop chattering. (Hm. Wonder where she gets that from?!) It's a riot. We were driving around on friday, and she'd started talking, and i'd mimic the noise and talk back to her. This is pretty typical of our car rides, but this time, she just started cracking up! She was laughing at herself, just laughing! So of course, we're laughing but trying not to so we don't startle her so we can keep hearing her laugh.

Saturday Matt had his huge football game. They played against New Berlin, the number 1 seed in their division, the team they had their only loss to this season (by one point), and they CRUSHED their opponent!!! It was 48-0!!!! We are so thrilled! THis is the first time in Brown Deer's school history that the football team has made it this far in play-offs. They usually make it to second round games, but they've never won it. We say this is the year they've broken the "nevers". His football team never won against 2 specific teams, and this year they did. Same with the second round playoff game, and they did. So, as much as i'm ready for football season to be over and to have a normal life again, i'm glad Matt and his team have rocked and are continuing on their journey. If anyone wants to come to the quarter-final game, it's a home one at Brown Deer Saturday at 3.

Blessings!!!

Happy 75th Birthday Nana!!

It was family bonanza this weekend! Friday morning Maizy's (great) aunt Jane and (great) uncle Phil and her (2nd) cousin Bekah came up for the weekend to celebrate Great Grama Judy's 75th birthday. The Allen's first stop was our house to love up Maizy with kisses, cuddles and baby clothes galore! Bekah is so good with Maizy-i need to hire her to be my helper!! She even changed diapers!

After spending our morning together, we met up with Great Grama and Grampa for our standing friday lunch date at Ted's diner. This week were so happy to be joined by the Allen's. Maizy was a trooper shopping with us for the afternoon and then out to dinner for a Friday Fish Fry with my parents, Great Aunt Claudia, Uncle Luke, the Allen's and Great grama and grampa.

Saturday we all went out to breakfast together, but had a very special afternoon. Great Grama, Grama Kim, Great Aunt Jane, Maizy, Bekah and I had our portraits taken to commemorate four generations of us women for Great Grama's 75th birthday. I'm such a sap- i had tears the whole time! That evening we all regrouped as a family and had dinner at the Capital Grille downtown, where Maizy's 3rd cousin, Judy Anne and her husband Jim, joined us and met her for the first time-even more tears! Dinner was fantastic, and as i looked around at each member sitting at the table smiling and laughing and enjoying each other, i am reminded again of how blessed i am to have such a tight knit family that loves the Lord and each other so much. So happy 75th birthday Nana!! We love you!!

Nummies

Maizy hit another milestone today-she ate her first solids, rice cereal. I don't know why i was so nervous about her eating it though. Probably because we have her eating routine established, and we're in a rythm when she does it. Things are good, and now we have to go and throw a wrench in our system because Maizy needs to keep growing (by the way, who said she could grow up so quick?!). Or, my nervousness came from the fact that every mom i've talked to has introduced solids with different techniques-ie, with milk, or water or formula; at dinner, or lunch or breakfast; once a day versus twice a day right away. Et cetera, and so on. Plus, now Maizy is her first step away from not depending on me-she's getting food from another source now. Yes, there are plenty of things she is totally dependent on me for, but it's starting now.
Maizy did great eating though. Matt wanted to feed her the cereal, and i gladly snapped pix and videoed. I was expecting her to either A) have it dribble right out of her mouth because she's not used to something being fed to her or B) make icky faces and spit it out due to a totally new texture. Well, once again, my child surprised me. She took it like a pro! First bite was good, and she opened her mouth right back up for another bite. Same thing with the next one, and the next one. Slowly, but surely, the dribble began, her nostrils began to flare and her face got this look of "what the heck is this crap?" and the spitting it out ensued. All in all, we had ten bites down. Then we realized, how do we know when she is full? I mean, she can't tell us, and we don't want to just shove it down her if she's going to puke the excess. So, when all else fails, i ran over to the neighbors house while matt was still feeding her. They are pros with a 2 1/2 and an 8 month old. They told me know more than 3 bites, or no more than a tablespoon, otherwise it will cause havoc on her digestive tract. Well then i'm realizing we've been just giving Maizy bite after bite, and Matt's at home still feeding her and who knows how much she's had at this point and oh my goodness!!! So i ran back home, measured out how many ten spoonfuls that we fed her measured up to and thankfully we were at a tablespoon. so hopefully, we're in the safe zone!! And you'd think the girl would sleep better due to cereal in her tummy. No. She didn't take her usual evening snooze, and was up until 845. Oy!! Too much excitement!!

Blessings!!! (ps-if you click on the image, it will open larger in another window)

13 lbs, 24 inches

Sorry it's been a bit since i last wrote you. Maizy had her 4 month check up, and she's now 13 pounds, 24 inches! So big. Her shots were on friday, and she was a trooper for them (i plugged my ears and turned away). We were able to go to Matt's homecoming game with our friends Nick and Erin, and watch Brown Deer win. Saturday came, and so did the ramifications of the shots. Saturday, Sunday and Monday Maizy had a fever, the sweats, poopy diapers and was so listless. It was hard to see our happy, active baby so blah. Considering she's been a perfect baby (thus far, knock on wood!), we figured it was okay to just baby her completely during her sick days and just coddle her. This weekend was big for Maizy-it was her first encounter with Matt's hunting bonanza with his Iowa buddies. While the guys hunted, we played! Maizy shopped till we both dropped on saturday, and sunday we had church. I just can't believe how great of a shopper she is!! Oh, i forgot the biggest news yet- the day after my birthday, Maizy rolled from her back to her belly!! All of her grunting and to get past her arm and roll payed off. Now that's all she wants to do! Lay her on the changing table, and she rolls right over, that little stinker!! Then when we use the nose booger sucker up thing, she rolls right over then too and little battle of the will ensues. Thus, it begins! She's trying to sit up as well-slow down, one thing at a time little one!! My heart can only handle so much growing up at once! Enjoy the pix of her-trying to sit up, and our little thumb sucker.

Blessings!!

Harvest!

Autumn is here! We decided to hit up a pumpkin farm on Saturday, a rare warm day for this time of year, and we thought we'd take advantage of that. We bought a little Maizy pumpkin to display on hay bales with Indian corn and gords. I can't believe a new season is already among us that Maizy is apart of! She's become pretty vocal lately-no clue where she gets it from! Here's a pic of Matt and Maizy talking back and forth with each other. She gets a stitch out of us repeating what she says, and you can see the anticipation in her eyes for us to talk back to her when she talks. Her new thing is humming-she purses her lips tights, but just makes tons of sounds. If she had her mouth open, i swear it would be a scream, thank goodness it isn't! We're still working on the rolling over thing though-Maizy really wants to go from her back to her belly, and just grunts when she gets stuck on her arm. She hasn't figured out how to maneuver around it. Soon enough. Maizy has also become quite fond of herself. When we are in front of the mirror, she just giggles at herself!!
Maizy did great at Matt's huge victory football game on Friday. They beat their arch nemesis, Pewaukee, with an on-side kick and a 2 point conversion in the last 2 minutes of the game and it was exhilarating to watch and experience. This was the team that hosed them out of state playoffs for the past two years, so victory was very sweet! This week is homecoming, and we're excited for another win under the Brown Deer belt.
Blessings to you all! We'll let you know how her 4 month check up goes on Friday.