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.

Rollie Pollie

Maizy is great-our little peanut is now 17 weeks today. she found her toes and is always grabbing at them. when we come get her in the morning her feet are up in the air and she's trying to get them. too silly.she can't get them to her mouth yet and it frustrates her. she's trying to roll from her back to her belly (she can do the opposite), and she grunts when she gets on her side because she can't get all the way over yet. She fits in her exersaucer now, and is enthralled with all of the activities on it, and smiles and talks to this one smiley sunflower toy on it. I'm beginning to think she likes the toys better than her parents now.

Things are just crazy busy here still. we went to matt's football game on friday and it was craziness there. they played against new berlin. to preface, the week before new berline and pewaukee played, a pewaukee player head butted the head new berlin coach with this helmet on, and the coach pushed him down, so the coach is suspended for two games (the player has no penalties of course, and they even tried to file a law suit against the coach for pushing him, even though he head butted the guy!). so, we played new berlin the first week of the coaches suspension and the team definately had something to prove. It was a sold out, jam packed home game. we were smooshed in the stands. i left at the middle of the 3rd quarter, when new berlin was winning 21-0. maizy needed to feed, and i didn't want to see the monstrasity that was unfolding on the field-i'd get to hear about it at home anyways. Maizy was a riot though. when the crowd would cheer, she would sort of scream along with them. at first it was sooo super cute, but then i think she got scared, so that's anaother reason why we left. so i get to the jeep, packed her up and hopped into my seat, and it started pouring! there was nothing in the weather report for rain either. but it had been lightening all through the game and they never cancelled it which was totally weird. i was so glad maizy and i had left when we did b/c i'd have to run in the rain with her, and then deal with traffic in the parking lot. so we left just in time. well, come to find out, matt's team pulled up in the 4th quarter, tied it and they went into overtime!! even thought they lost 29-28, they kicked butt!! now that's what friday night football is all about! we're preparing for this friday's game, against their nemesis-Pewaukee.

On Sunday, Maizy's 2nd cousin, Christine had a jewelry party that we went to, and we were able to hang out with her Great Aunt Claudia and Great Aunt Susan (so weird for me to call the Great Aunt-they are too young for that!), and her 2nd cousin Liz. It was so good for us "Lechner" women to be together again-it's been a while, and we loved being with them. Great Aunt Susan had Maizy just talking and talking, and Great Aunt Claudia had Maizy all cuddled up and smiley. Chris is a natural with Maizy, and Liz was already prepping her to be head captain of the cheerleading squad.

We'll let you know how the game goes; next week Maizy has her 4 month check up!!

Blessings!!

Ballet and Tricks

Saturday Matt brought Maizy up by us in bed and was trying to convince me that she can roll over. So he layed Maizy on her belly and she rolled to her back. Well, she can't be doing that yet. She's still a newbie-they can't do tricks yet! It just must be that she was on a soft mattress which caused her to roll. So Matt put her back on her belly, and she rolled again. I rationalized that it must be the fact that there are divets in the bed from our bodies, and it was enabling her to roll. So Matt layed Maizy on our floor and over she went! And then she did it again! This is too much too soon!! So we are now officially having to start watching her like a hawk-no more quick walk aways to get the phone or change the laundry. I just can't believe that she's rolling over. It's amazing to me, trying to process that this little person was just born and she has done so much in her short little life thus far. God is so incredible with His creations! Here's a pic of her in position to roll over-she tries to alot on her changing table, but knocks her noggin' on it, and keeps wanting to roll. Yesterday we put her tights on under her dress for church, and pulled out the tutu that grama good gave her and couldn't resist! It's like going to the circus with her-she has a tutu and does tricks!!

Blessings to you all!!!

Maizy's portraits

Are these too cute or what?!

Last Saturday Matt and i tried to have her pictures taken, but she was not having it. So this friday, on my day off, as soon as she woke up and ate, we headed out the door and had them taken. It was a ball! The little diva loves her pictures being taken, and knows totally when a camera is on her. We were there for two hours just shooting pics! Not a single fuss or tear. The hardest part was selecting which ones (and of course, i'm a sucker for them all, no self control!).

It has been a crazy, crazy week for us. Matt and i both started back full time, and Maizy started daycare. We're very fortuante that she is spending her days with a very loving, christian woman's in-home daycare. It's been great for Maizy so far. Apparently, she a little socialite and loves the other kids there. She will only take a 45 minute nap in the morning and in the afternoon because she's afraid she'll miss something (i wonder where she gets it from?!). But, it has helped us because she's been sleeping through the night this week for us. In fact, when i had off on friday (i'm working monday through thursdays), she was so tuckered out from her week that she slept 12.5 hours, and didn't get up until 930, fell asleep about noon until 3, fed, and then went back to sleep for another hour and proceeded to have another night of not waking up!! We should've done daycare long ago if it entailed undisturbed sleep!!

It is very difficult for me to be away from her for such a long period of time during the day. I do good until about 2, and then i get bummed. please pray for me and my bosses this week. i'm working up the courage to ask them if i can shorten my work day, and have it end at 3, versus 430. it's just so exhausting-it takes 40 minutes for me to get her due to rush hour, and we don't get home until almost 530-so she's at daycare from 730ish to 515-a super long day for her, and i'm not a fan of that at all. by the time dinner is made and matt gets home, its 7, and then we try to straighten up the house a bit, and spend as much time playing with Maizy as possible until she crashes at about 9. I kind of feel like we are going through the motions right now, and that there is no emotion to it all, rather robotic. i just don't know how full-time careers and full-time parents coexist in perfect harmony. but then again, if it does, let me know!! At any rate, i'm nervous about approaching my bosses this week-i don't want to push it with them, but i don't want to keep this up either. Please pray for encouragement/confidence for me and the right words to use, but mostly that they are receptive and totally willing to work with my request.

as for matt, his team is 3-0, with a 38-0 win on friday! another conference championship season is brewing! he's got a crazy schedule too, just go go go during his day with minimal down time. already on his first day of class he had a puker-welcome to a new school year! Right now i hear him sweetly talking to maizy, getting her bath ready for her (so i can be done during halftime of the iowa game-she's not aloud to miss one).

Let us know if you want any of her pix-i can email you the high resolution file. Blessings on you all!!