Ike

For those of you who haven't heard, we had a BIG hurricane here in Houston. Ike came through Friday, September 12th. So, at just over 5 months old, Maisie has experienced her first hurricane. I don't think she'll remember much, especially since she slept through the entire thing! Brian and I were up on and off all night listening to the 80+ mph winds blow. We, like 95% of Houstonians, lost electricity. But, Maisie didn't seem to mind the lack of air-conditioning quite as much as we did. After 2 days without power, we rode out the next few days at Brian's mom's house. Some of those pictures are below:

"Auntie Brooke there's a hurricane coming!" Waiting for Ike

Hanging at Grandma Lois', waiting for our power to come back on
MMmmmm, water bottles, one of my favorite toys:

Making funny faces with mom:

We were some of the lucky ones - we got our power back after 4 days. Its now almost 2 weeks later and we have many friends who still don't have power. We also sustained some cosmetic damage to our house from a downed limb from our neighbors tree. Again we were lucky, since we have friends with trees through their roofs.

In other news, Maisie continues reaching new milestones. She can now move around quite a bit and turn over. She doesn't do it for us very often, but when I go to get her from her crib she is often in a completely different place than where I put her down - sometimes sleeping on her stomach instead of her back. She is also SOOOO close to sitting up by herself. She can balance in the sitting position for about 10 seconds before falling over, and tonight she even pulled herself up from a reclined position into a sitting position. It won't be long.
Finally, Maisie has had her first taste of real food. So far she's had rice cereal, apples, and sweet potatos. When we get a chance we'll edit and post her first bites.

Back in "The Port"

Maisie has already had a busy September and we are only 1 week in.

Possibly the biggest news is that Maisie has a new caregiver. Her nanny, Miriam, started 2 weeks ago. We are SOOOO lucky to have found Miriam - she's been a nanny for 18 years and is just great with Maisie. Many of you have heard the horrors of our problems getting Maisie to take a bottle. Well, Miriam has persevered and now has her taking 3 bottles - almost 20 oz a day. Its nice knowing that when I go back to work (ahhh! went to the office for the first time today) that Maisie is in good hands.

Here are Maisie and Miriam:


In addition, we have made another pilgrimage to Shreveport. This time for Aunt Julie's and Uncle Ken's wedding reception. Maisie continues to be a trooper in the car - sleeping for well over half the trip.

Here is Maisie and Dad all dressed up for the party:

And not so dressed up with Mom on the couch:

Giggle monster

For those of you who have spent time with Maisie, you know that overall she's a pretty happy baby. In fact, she loves to giggle. She giggles when you tickle her, she giggles when you sing to her...a regular giggle monster.

Since we have yet to invest in a camcorder ( I know, I know, I'm working on it!), Brian caught her on tape with his cell phone video. We couldn't catch her in one of her real giggling fits, but this at least gives you a little taste:



As usual her are some of the most recent pictures:

Tummy time seems to be paying off, I can lift my head!!

So many toys, so little time...The exersaucer

All smiles after an afternoon at the lake
Hanging with Dad. I think half of the pictures taken of Maisie and Brian are in this chair.
Sitting pretty...(or standing, actually)A link to the rest of the August photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/michele.moncrief/August2008?authkey=cFkA-CL0CPU

The Maisie Fan Club

You would think it would take a girl a little while to amass a following, but at 4 months old, Maisie has legions of adoring fans and plenty of people who love and try to spoil her. Here are just a few:

Her grandma Lois:


Her Nanna:


Her great grandma:

And with this face, how can we resist?!?!?

Here are the rest of the pictures from July for your viewing pleasure:

End of July 2007

Head of the class already...

Today Maisie went in for her 4 month old doctor's appointment. Our little girl is already top of the charts. She's 25 and 1/4 inches long (90th percentile) and weighs 14 lbs, 11 oz (75th percentile). We always knew she inherited her parent's appetites, and it seems to be paying off. Overall she was pronounced in fantastic health and after 5(!!!) vaccinations, we are back home and she is sleeping it off. I promise to post new pictures soon (from visits with all the grandparents and great grandparents).

More firsts...

The "firsts" keep on coming....

Maisie's first swim. Friday we went over to our friend from playgroup's house for a dip in the pool. Don't the girls look adorable in their matching swimsuits? (on the right is Carly, she's about 3 weeks younger than Maisie)


As you can see here, Maisie wasn't so sure about this whole swimming thing to begin with (especially the crab float), but after a few minutes floating with mom, she decided she liked it and had a good time.

Maisie also held hands with a boy for the first time! Here she is with Ben from playgroup. To be honest, it doesn't look like she's convinced that he's the one for her, but he is certainly smitten. Smart man! :) What you can't see in the picture is each of them trying to get the other's hand in their mouth.

Mmmm...toes

We've had a major new development the last few days...Drumroll please.

MAISIE HAS FOUND HER TOES! And boy do they taste good!

What started as some innocent reaching toward her feet has turned into full on toe-sucking. With quite a display of limberness, Maisie can grab her foot, fold her body in half, and stick her foot in her mouth. I'm sad to say her mother cannot do the same.

Now that she's found her feet, she has no plans to let go any time soon. I find her this way in her crib, on the changing table, just about anywhere.

Enjoy!


MMMMmmmm...toes.