Friday, October 31, 2014

Happy Halloween

Our little lion enjoyed Halloween today. She got a Halloween e-card from Grandma and Grandpa Edmonds (which she watched on the iPad) and a card, book and onesie from Grandma and Grandpa Kirchner. We went to her school around 3:30 for a party with the kids. We enjoyed snack time and coloring with Maeve and her friends. After school we met our neighbor, Lucy the giraffe, who is 14 months old and we went trick or treating together. The first house we stopped at, Carter (aka Spiderman), gave Maeve some treats in her pumpkin (that was Eric's pumpkin when he was little). The lion costume that Maeve is wearing was Carter's costume when he was little. It was nice to be able to borrow a warm costume for the 40 degree night.

Happy Halloween!











Sunday, October 26, 2014

New mom group get-together

Eric, Maeve, and I had a wonderful weekend up north with the moms, babies, and other dads from my new mom's group. All of the babies are all turning one within the next 3-4 weeks. We celebrated their birthday and reminisced on our first year of parenthood and how I talked to these girls a lot over the past 12 months. We are excited to watch our babies grow up together and hope to continue to do this in the years to come.





Sunday, October 19, 2014

Restaurant Week

It's our favorite time to eat out during the year. $30 for a 3-course meal at some of the top restaurants in town - Restaurant Week. We invited Jan and Steve to join us but Maeve wasn't too excited about sitting in the high chair for the whole meal. She liked her vegetable pouch and cheeseburger but was fussy for the rest of the dinner. Luckily there was an area right outside of the restaurant where she could crawl around. Her favorite thing to do (and has been all weekend) is to walk with her mom or dad with two fingers holding on. She's so close to walking, and she's so proud of herself. So we all took turns taking her out during dinner tonight. When we did bring her back to the table, she took everything out of her diaper bag as you can see from the picture. Luckily there weren't that many people near our table.

In other milestone news, we were excited when Maeve turned around to go down the one step we have in the sun room and did so unassisted.  That was exciting!

Here are some pictures from the not-so-relaxing dinner out.






Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Notre Dame vs North Carolina

Maeve enjoyed her trip to see her grandparents in South Bend, Indiana this past weekend. She has now been to 12 states in 11 months of life. We did have a scare on Friday morning when daycare called to let us know that Maeve had 101 fever. We gave her some tylenol and let her rest until our flight that night. We crossed our fingers that it was just a bug that would go away on Saturday. She did great on the plane except for the pilot coming on the loud speaker and startling her right before she drifted off. Luckily, by Saturday, Maeve was all better and back to her usual, happy self.
It was a weekend filled with fall activities, football, and family. We went to the Notre Dame bookstore to get some apparel, took pictures on campus, walked around the tailgates on Saturday, and enjoyed the beautiful weather and win by Notre Dame. We met up with Kristin and Jay at their tailgate in the morning and ate lunch on campus with Maeve and Finn. Maeve and Grandma Brigid stayed home during the game so Maeve could get her beauty rest. In between naps and eating, she enjoyed pulling books off of Grandpa Ed's shelves, admiring her cousin Finn and his funny baby noises, and pushing the walker around the big basement.

Eric helped out with projects around the house while Anne, Kate, and Brigid shared stories about the craziness of motherhood. Never any downtime to relax because one of the babies always seemed to need something. We went to the pumpkin patch on Sunday but Maeve was fussy the whole time. She probably thinks her mother and Aunt Anne are crazy with all of these pictures but we love documenting the activities. One of my favorite pictures that I included was when Maeve was crying and you can see me holding a pouch of food to try to get her to smile. We managed to get a few good pictures but it was not a fun outing. All I can remember is squeezing between two car seats in the back of the Toyota and trying to entertain two fussy kids for 20 minutes. We eventually took out a Baby Einstein video to help calm them down. All and all it was a great trip. It is so fun to have cousins close in age and we are looking forward to meeting up with the rest of the Edmonds clan in Texas in December to meet our newest cousin, also close in age to Maeve and Finn, Audrey.


























Monday, October 13, 2014

11 months old

Happy 11 months to our baby girl. I can't believe we were counting down to the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy this time last year. Maeve enjoys traveling, eating most finger foods, drinking from a sippy cup, and walking with her walker. She still does not enjoy a lukewarm bottle - it has to be hot, getting teeth - she's working on the 2nd top tooth right now, shoes and fall weather. Well, I kind of made the last one up but we've taken her to an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch and she's usually a happy baby but is not happy when we put her next to pumpkins for pictures. Our outings to the orchards happen to be the only time I've put shoes on her too so perhaps that is the issue. I'll report back after Halloween to determine which fall activity she doesn't like.

And Maeve was cooperating for her 11 month old picture - you can even see her 3 teeth with her big smile. But last weekend when we took a picture of her for her birthday party invitation, she cried because she is not excited about turning the big "ONE."



Monday, October 6, 2014

Transition to a new room at daycare

Maeve transitioned from Infant B to Infant C today at daycare. She learned so much in Infant B and loved music class and art projects. Arriving in Infant C today, Maeve was ready for her new teachers and routines. Eventually we'll transition to 1 nap, sleeping on a cot, and getting rid of bottles. Starting today, she won't get any more pureed foods. Every teacher has said she is such a good eater. Let's just hope she has her dad's metabolism! We were the first in her classroom this morning so Maeve used the little chair as a walker, climbed on the table, dumped her cheerios out of the bowl and took a bite out of the styrofoam bowl. And that was all before I left! She had a great day and loved coloring with crayons and using the shakers and drums for music.

Here are some pictures of her Infant B teachers on her last day (she wasn't happy to be taking pictures before breakfast), some of my favorite art projects, and Maeve exploring her new Infant C room (notice the cheerios on the table and the empty bowl).