Taking care of baby.

Daddy is done with Quarter #6!

Tonight we are going out to dinner to celebrate.

These aren't exactly my "dancing shoes"--I live in Iowa where it is snowy and icey all the time.  Luckily for me, pairing boots with dresses is all the rage this season.

A Walk in the Woods

This is a favorite family activity: a walk in the woods, sweetened by the peak autumnal colors and the crunch of freshly fallen leaves underfoot.

Bittersweet October. 

The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause 

between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.  

-- Carol Bishop Hipps

Costume '08

So Aunt Kate is well-established as the costume guru and dress-up queen in our clan.  She is the only person over age 8 I know who has a box of costumes in her closet and delves into with with startling regularity.  Last Halloween, we had a voting contest via Flickr to determine Maren's first Halloween contest.  The choices?  A mermaid

 or a pea pod

(Remember?)

The pea pod won and Maren trick-or-treated in my old stomping ground for her first Halloween.

This year, we were hoping for another public vote for Halloween '08, but we have run into some problems.  It seems that Maren, at 18 months, has developed strong feelings about costumes.  Kate shipped us several to try, and, so far, we are at a loss.  Maren despises anything that has a head covering, which is very unfortunate.  Aunt Kate has decided that this is a matter that requires her personal attention, and is coming to Iowa (along with Aunt Meg) for Halloween this year.  So far, Maren has rejected 3 costumes for various reasons.  The mouse costume got the biggest reaction: she was terrified of it, and it was borderline abuse for me to put her in it for these photos:

So, stay tuned.  Aunt Kate assures me she has the costume covered.  (And don't worry, the mouse costume was returned, never to see the light of day again.)

Cousins

Maren's cousin came to town.  Casey was born on Maren's first birthday, so they are cousins that share the same birthday--how fun!

Maren *loved* having Casey on her turf.  Her affection is rather aggressive, and Casey tolerated all of the squishing and squeezing with great dignity.  It was so wonderful to see them together.

The game is changing...

These days Maren is doing (and saying) so much that it is hard to capture everything with a photo and a caption, so here is our blog!  I just uploaded a ton of photos to Flickr from our recent trip, which is likely how you found the blog, so please leave a comment to let me know you made it here, and whether you think the blog should continue.

We have just returned from a week at the beach in Florida with dear friends of ours.  Samir and Ami have two girls: Annika (2) and Amara (9 months).  Since Maren is almost right between the two in age, it made for a great vacation.  The four adults agreed that vacations are more about "quality time" than "relaxation" when you have three under two.  Quality time abounded and it was awesome.

What's new with Maren?  Let me see if I can give you some highlights:

1.  She has enough hair to wear alligator barrettes!  (Never mind that she rips it out as soon as you put them in.)

2.  She can feed herself with a spoon.  (Roughly 50% ends up in the mouth, and 50% ends up being cleaned off from a five foot radius of Maren's high chair.)

3.  Maren can say both "Mom" and "Dad".  For the past three weeks, she has been calling both Brad and I "Da" or "Dad".  She says it in the sweetest, happiest voice and repeats it over and over until she is in our arms.  For Brad, this is awesome.  However, "Mom" is only said when in or near tears or when she is extremely grouchy and whiny.  What meaning should I draw from this?

4.  Her vocabulary is expanding: ball, uh-oh (used whether she drops it OR throws it), Dad (always said in happy tones), Mom (only said in whiny, grumpy tones), woof woof (whenever she sees something with four legs and fur), ROAR (with great gusto when she sees lions or tigers or Tigger), more, bir (for bird), whoa and cheese (as in "say cheese for the camera").

5. Her nickname in the condo was "klepto", as in kleptomaniac because she was constantly picking things up, carrying them around and discarding them somewhere random.  She particularly loves tubes and small bottles.  Brad and I are accustomed to this, so we remember to hide them.  Poor Samir & Ami, however, spent half the vacation looking for stuff that Maren had swiped.  She darted into their room at every opportunity because she learned there were so many treasures within her reach.

6. My brain-washing perseveres... this child *loves* the ocean.  Yes!

7. She loves other children.  She is somewhat of an aggressive hugger and hand-holder and can be quite intimidating to them.  We're working on that.

We'll look forward to your comments!  Thanks.

Why do we love the sea?  

It is because it has some potent power 

to make us think things we like to think.  

~Robert Henri