Grandma's Visit

Appropriately titled Grandma's visit, yet I have no pictures of Maeve & Grandma.  Mom came in on Thursday for the weekend to throw cousin Mary Beth a shower at the house.  Bonus for us that she was staying with us so Ryan and I went out for drinks/apps after work on Friday and to the Sabres game...score!  The shower went great and Maeve enjoyed all of the attention.  She would just smile and coo at everyone.  I was certainly reaffirmed that day, that yes, Maeve does mildly resemble me.  It's tough to tell in pictures, but her hair is definitely not my color so here's hoping it comes in just like her Daddy's! 

Adorable

The shower went great. Mary Beth got lots of beautiful things and all I could think about that night was how nice it would be to have new bath towels.  Mom left Sunday morning and the rest of the day was very low key with lots of lounging and laundry. Uncle Brendon came over by for a visit and Maeve was doing a great job of interrupting their hockey video game session by babbling LOUDLY on the floor.  We've been continuing the solid foods and our girl loves to eat... yes, another quality of mine!  Last night we've continued with attempt #2 of bananas, but if she does go #2 today then I'm holding off for a bit before we try again.  So far, she hasn't found a food she dislikes.

Feed me Seymour!

And here is our little chunky monkey "thickening" up.  We head to doctor's appt tonight so I'll update with 6 month stats.

Have a great day!

President's Weekend

Our house has been a mass of tissues lately as all of us have been battling colds.  Fortunately, Maeve is feeling much better and Ryan and I are on the mend as well.  Last weekend was somewhat uneventful as we continued to recover with lots of sleep and lounging in our sweaties.  Saturday I went down to Grove City with Michelle and Al for some shopping.  Successful trip with some new work attire and some adorable Nine West boots for a steal!  We celebrated Drew Daley's birthday that evening and Maeve was so good just chilling on the floor with the adults while the kids were tearing apart the basement!  I'm getting very excited for Florida in March to see the Kings and Harris's because all of the Daley/Vukelic cousins are just awesome with Maeve and it's such a fun interaction.  Hope she gets the same lovin' in FL. 

As you can see, she is morphing into her parents... we are usually on the couch and chair respectively tapping away on our laptops doing work in evening/weekends.  I even love how it looks like her hand is inching towards the mouse while intently looking at the screen.

The rest of weekend was low-key with a delicious Sunday dinner at Al and Jon's.  Please post the recipe for your beef enchiladas Al because I'm still thinking about the sauce on top... amazing!  Fortunately both Ryan and I were off on Monday so we were able to tag-team child and get some stuff done.  I had to bake for work and had timed it with Maeve's afternoon nap.. smart thinking right.  Well little Miss Maeve wasn't in the mood to nap so woke up mid-stirring with a chocolate sauce on the stove.  Fortunately, my running up the stairs and improved quickness in diaper changing meant no burnt sauce.   So Maeve was my little helper in the kitchen.  I put some music on and showed off some of my poor dancing/singing skills for her enjoyment.

I gave her a spoon to play with.  Here she was examining her new toy before jamming it in her mouth.  It didn't take to long before she put the long end in and gagged herself.

I'm loving these short weeks and Grandma comes into town today in anticipation for cousin Mary Beth's shower this weekend at the house.  On a parting note, here is a pic from this morning.  I LOVE how she crosses her hands immediately after you stick the bottle in her mouth.  She lacks any desire to hold her own bottle, so very content just to let you feed her... I'm pretty sure she gets this from her father

First Official Photo Session

Last weekend was somewhat busy with tons of laundry, grocery shopping, misc errands and Maeve's first photo session.  Last October I bid and won a photo session and 8x10 photo from some photography shop in Amherst.  It expired by April so figured with Maeve's 6 month anniversary around the corner, let's do this.  I even got Ryan on board to make the jaunt out to Amherst.  First, probably should have rescheduled with Maeve battling a bad cold, cough, and mucus back-up.  Second, probably should have realized that based on the confusing and dated website that this place might not be the best.  We made the trek in the snow with an adorable outfit from Aunt Kerry and Uncle Brendon ready to document (officially) our daughter.  Looks can be deceiving, but the place was straight out of the 80s complete with a husband/wife team wearing matching 80s style clothes and calling each other "Babe" in every sentence.  We got Maeve all set up and in her pretty dress and got underway.  The husband was taking the photos and the wife helped with staging.  Pattie, "wife", kept attempting to manuvuer Maeve on top of a table, sitting up against these wood blocks that were neither sturdy, nor comfortable.  I told her that Maeve wasn't fully sitting up on her own yet, but then decided to ask if she was born pre-mature, as if thinking that was a reasonable answer to why the girl wouldn't stay still.  I was frustrated with the whole situation, constant stopping to have me wipe drool off her face and Pattie's need to keep squeaking this absolutely annoying toy that did not make Maeve smile once.    I'm all about supporting my local mom & pop shops, but plan on just taking Maeve's pictures myself from now on. 

Here she is doing alittle tummy time.

And getting styled into a mini mohawk after the tub by dad.



Happy Valentine's Day

Well I'm ranking 2012 Valentine's towards the bottom of the list... with exception of waking up to this beautiful face...

I was lucky to remember to grab a card last weekend while grocery shopping, filled it out in about 3 seconds between meetings.  Work was crazy busy and I got stuck until after 7 finishing up something for an 8am meeting the next day.  Ryan and I are both battling colds we caught from Maeve and the evening resulted in the usual Taco Tuesday, followed by both of us logging into work from home and spending about 2 more hours cranking out emails and work.  Unfortunately, the coughing and nose running kept waking me up in middle of the night and sleep was hard to come by.  So much for romance...

Food

So we've been attempting this whole solid food thing with Maeve over the past couple of weeks.  She was moderatelly interested at first and now seems to be enjoying all of the new fruits/veggies.  Rice cereal is probably still her favorite, with sweet potatoes a close second.  She's so far has carrots, sweet potatoes, apples, and ... even bananas.  For those of you who aren't aware, bananas are my least favorite food.  I can't even tell you the last time that I had a banana, but I was likely Maeve's age.  But I am trying to prevent Maeve from having the same complex I have so bananas it is... (can't seem to get picture to rotate) but she's slightly suspect of them.  She just might have gagged a couple minutes later, but I'm trying to be the grown-up and assume it's mucus she's coughing up from lingering cold, not her already distaste of bananas. 

Massimo + Maeve

Maeve's school has been awesome about providing daily updates on feedings, naps, diaper changes, and on what she's done all day (my favorite part)! Today's report was especially interesting... A new boy started this week, Massimo, who is also 5 months old. Looks like Maeve and Massimo were fast friends. They "shared smiles and grrr's"... And "thought it was pretty great to grab at each others feet". Not sure how to respond to my girl's feisty behavior at such a young age... We'll be monitoring this Massimo situation...

5 Month Update

Such a big girl.  I did upload a bunch of pictures on Facebook for 5 months so I'm a week behind.  Maeve's really getting quite a personality.  She's just smiling a ton now (Miss Serious has lightened up alittle) and started this weird squeal noise that cracks Ryan right up.  I personally think her crying sounds better.  She's eating about 3-4 full (9oz) bottles a day and we started her on rice cereal a couple weeks ago.  She's loving that.  We also just started fruits and veggies.  Carrots have been mildly successful, as in she'll eat them, but really contemplate their flavor each time with mixed reviews.  Apples were last night and again, mixed reviews. 

Thank goodness she takes after her parents... she sleeps through the night from about 7pm - 6am.  Her nap schedule is sporadic, but as long as we have nighttime down, I'm set.  She loves to naw on her Sophie giraffe from Tim & Courtney and play with this soft ABC book that Aunt Jennifer got her - her nails make a sound when she scratches it that just keeps her busy for awhile.  We're slowly moving into 6 month clothes, but most are still too big.  3 - 6 months works fine.  Her hair is really starting to lighten to more of an amber color so it's looking more like Ryan's color than my dark brown.  Gingers all around!  Maeve loves the tub and the lotion rub-down that always occurs after... maybe she just knows that the tub leads to lotion.  Either way she's really enjoying splashing.