A Week of "Firsts"

Merry Christmas! What an incredible Christmas week for us (key word being week, not day!). On friday i took Maizy to the doctor because all she ate was 4 ounces by noon, and normally she has 12 at that point in time, plus fruits and veggies. She's had a cough for about a week and a half, and i was starting to get worried once she wasn't eating. So i took her in and her doctor said she has croup and bronchitis : ( But, thankfully her medicine brought her appetite back and she's Maizy again. The hard thing is that she never seemed sick, and i don't want to be one of "those parents" who rush to the doctor over a sniffle. But the doc reassured me and said he was glad i listened to my intuition about her because her cold was beginning to settle in her chest and could lead to pneumonia had it not been addressed. He also said that in the next day or two her tooth would pop. Boy was he right!! By 8 that night, she had not one but two teeth completely surface and they are sharp little daggers!!

Once we got Maizy taken care of, we headed out that evening to Iowa for Christmas at the Good's, but turned around once we hit Lake Geneva-the fog was so thick we couldn't see more than 15 yards in front of us, and it was rather scary. Early the next morning we hit the road and finally made it to Iowa. We had a great time at Maizy's grandparents. Her Aunt Debbie even made it home for Christmas! The two had a blast together-Maizy loves having the attention paid to her, and Aunt Debbie loves just chatting away and having someone (anyone!) listen-so we put Maizy in her jumper and wheeled Debbie over by her. The two had the best of time-Maizy had all the attention in the world while Debbie had the best listener. Maizy ended up jumping herself to sleep!! Tons of gifts were exchanged amidst an incredible snow and ice storm that hunkered us inside for a few days. The car was totally iced over and we couldn't get out of the house!! Grama and Grampa Good spoiled us and we had such a great time with them.

Christmas Eve we headed back home, and were able to make it to church and then off to the Lechner's house for dinner. We haven't been able to spend Christmas with the Lechner side for a few years now, and it was such a treat that we could. Maizy was passed around and loved up by her cousin's and great-Aunt's and great-Uncle's. Even though Grama and Grampa Lechner are in heaven, it's a blessing that we are able to come together still as a family with the same love for each other.

Christmas day was a long one! We had fun opening gifts just the three of us at home in the morning. Matt and i agreed we weren't going to get Maizy gifts this year because we knew she'd already be getting spoiled as it was, plus we'd like to save up for next year when she kind of understands what really is going on. Well, Maizy has her daddy wrapped around those little fingers and he surprised her with bunny slippers that she can't get enough of. Plus, he bought her a pink sweatsuit with matching pink and silver tennis shoes!! Daddy's little girl for sure!!

After the morning at home, we headed over to Nana and Bomps for quiche and presents with Drew, Bekah and Great Auntie Jane and Great Uncle Phil, and then to grama kim and grampa ralph's for more Christmas. That evening, more family came over to celebrate over a ham and turkey dinner. There was so much that went on, and so many gracious gifts!!!

Not only did Maizy get her two front teeth for Christmas and the croup and bronchitis, but she started waving hi and bye regularly, and says momma non-stop (especially when she's frustrated!). This was a big week of first for us, but i'd have to say the wave was my fav.

Now that Christmas is over, it's off to Daddy Day Care for this week and next-lucky girl!! I wonder what daddy's little girl willl have him buying/doing by the end of Christmas break-i got him on camera admitting he almost bought her leopard print shoes!! Crazy how a baby changes you!!

Blessings!!

Smiley

Check out the sweater Maizy is wearing-isn't it gorgeous? Her Grama Good made it for her!! Can you believe that?!

Well, it's official-Maizy is sitting completely by herself and not wobbly anymore. She's getting ready to crawl too! Maizy's not up on her hands and knees rocking yet, but she's trying to push off the ground with her toes and gets frustrated when she can't move to get something that's out of reach the she wants. It's so fun to see her progress in all the things she can do. She's eating everything now too-all sorts of nummy baby food, and she's starting to eat little finger food baby crackers. Stop growing up!!! Maizy is an absolute delight-smiles, and personality galore. She definately will let you know when she wants to do something different or is done eating. Everything is so entertaining to us.

This past weekend Maizy and i went to Iowa to see a concert with her great auntie jane, great uncle phil, and cousins drew and bekah. Grama Good came up saturday morning to love up Maizy and it was so great. The weather for the concert stopped us from going-raining, but was 14 degrees! We slid through an intersection, and three cars in front of us on the freeway slipped right off the road. So the next night, John Waller (the concert we were going to) held a concert at Auntie's friend Kate's house, and there was about thirty of us sitting around her family room while he gave us an intimate acoustic concert in front of the fireplace and christmas tree. It was so spirit-filled and incredibly moving. Maizy continued to show us her heart for praising and worshiping Jesus by how enthralled she was with it-she stayed awake for the whole performance (of course, she doesn't want to miss a thing!). The most incredible baby-perfect i should say. All in all, the weekend was incredible, and Maizy was great in the car too (thank God!).

Maizy's great grama and great grampa called us up last night last minute to meet them out for dinner because they were going through Maizy withdrawl. What a blessing for us to be able to jump in the car and spend the evening with them! And Maizy hammed it up and put on a show for them too, and they ate her up!! We love getting to spend so much time with Nans and Bomps.

Blessings to you all!!

Thanksgiving

Well, Thanksgiving was a bit of a bust. Between all of us eventually getting the 24 hour puking flu, we eventually made it to the Allen's for Thanksgiving. We had a blast celebrating Maizy's first Thanksgiving, spending time together with all of the Allen's now that Drew is back from his semester in China, celebrating Bompie's birthday, great shopping, making jewelry, and of course being with all of our family, even the Good's made it up!




All of the cousin's



Maizy, Bekah, Bompie and Java snuggling up in the sunroom




Maizy and Bekah (our new babysitter-wherever one was, so was the other!)


The girls' reading a bedtime story


Bedtime bottle with nanie's princess #3

Aunt Debby

Meeting Aunt Debby for the first time


Hugs and kisses from Maizy's Auntie


The Good Family photo


Loved up by Grama and Grampa Good

Grama and Grampa Good

As i mentioned in the last email, Maizy has cut her first tooth. I know, already?! It seems too soon, but i saw the little guy popping up about 1 1/2 weeks ago-i thought it was her rice cereal sitting on her bottom gum. Tried wiping it away, and then the fear took over-tooth time has begun. And what, only like 20 more to come? Oy! But, it totally explained her behavior-fussy and a little warm too. We were doing really good for sleeping through the night, and then the tooth destroyed that. We also had cut out her evening nap to get her to bed earlier, but she'd wake up hungry. I just got so confused on what to do. Here for the past 5 months we had our rhythm down with Maizy, and then in a few days it flipped again. We're not supposed to go get her in the night when she's crying so she can soothe herself back to sleep, and not to feed her because she'll wake up the next night to feed again. We made that mistake and took a few nights to get back to sleeping through again. Now we brought back the evening nap because she'd wake up at 11 hungry, and then at 4 hungry, and wouldn't eat again until noon. So we realized that she could go for a long period of time at night without eating, and that we just need to fill her up as much as possible in the day.
When it seemed we were at our wits end, Grama and Grampa Good came up for the weekend. We were worried that they'd be awake all night with us, so they offered to stay at a hotel. Well, they might as well have stayed with us. The moment they came into town, Maizy hit the charm switch and the old loveable perfect baby returned!! Like Grama Ginny said, all she needed was a little Grama time to get her back to Maizy again (and to that i asked, when are you going to move here?!?!). We had a great time with Matt's parents, and realized just how blessed we are to have them as parents. Of course they ate her up to pieces-Grampa Ron would just look at Maizy and she couldn't do anything but just smile! Grama Ginny had Maizy talking all weekend and spoiled her with new clothes. Maizy even learned to play dominoes with us, our favorite thing to do together. We started green beans this weekend, and she is eating them up great (she'd better too-i made a bunch of it for her!). About a month ago, she really found her voice. This past week, she has found the tonal ranges of it and tries to scream but makes it raspy and squealy and is hilarious to listen to! This weekend is huge for us-Maizy gets to meet her Aunt Debbie for the first time when we go to Illinois for her Thanksgiving, and then we'll head to Iowa for turkey day next week.

Hope all is well. Blessings!!

Chompie!!

Hi all!! It's been a while, but rightfully so-we have a tooth amongst us!! So Maizy has been a little, well, not as perfect baby as normal. I'll brief you all a little more on what's going on with her in the next blog, but in the meantime, enjoy these pix. Here is Maizy with Uncle Lukie, and posing as a poster girl on his camero, taking a nap with daddy, and showing us her sitting abilities.

Blessings to you all!!

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!!!