Last Day in Infant A

Yesterday was Maeve's last day in the Infant A room at daycare. We will miss her teachers. They were so wonderful and Maeve smiled every morning when she saw them. On Monday she'll be in Infant B where they have more structured naps and eating times. I think Maeve is gearing up for her first day in Infant B because she's been sleeping for almost 2 hours so far this afternoon and she never naps that long! We will be excited if she takes 2 longer naps a day instead of 6 or 7 30 minute naps.

Here are some pictures of Maeve with her teachers and a few more art projects that she did.

Trip to Mom's hometown of New Orleans

The three of us enjoyed our trip to NOLA for Memorial Day weekend. Maeve did great on the flight - only a few outbursts of tears for 5 minutes. Nothing we couldn't handle, but I can't imagine having a baby that screams like that the whole flight. Maeve enjoyed chewing on my necklace that Jan got me - it was a great toy for the plane since it can't drop on the floor too easily!

There were lots of new people to meet in New Orleans. Maeve met Ashlie and Cherie's baby boys, James and Nolan, and was waiting to meet Michelle's baby (due Friday) but he was born today so we just missed meeting baby Harrison. Per usual for a trip to New Orleans, we ate lots of food. Our friends had a crawfish boil on Sunday and it was delicious! We hung out all day at Cherie and Scott's house where Maeve enjoyed her first dip in the kiddie pool. Hopefully she'll enjoy the food in New Orleans as much as we did someday (although Kate didn't enjoy all of the food growing up as her brother, Paul, would attest to since he made it a point to poke fun at his youngest sister for being so picky!) Other must-haves to eat this trip included beignets, po' boys, snowballs, Tastee donuts, redfish and Zapps chips. We showed Maeve some of the city highlights including City Park, Royal St, Bourbon St, St. Louis Cathedral, the Lakefront, and the houses in Lakeview. We stayed at Jimmy and Ashlie's house where Maeve enjoyed playing with James and his toys and Nolan (Cherie and Scott's little boy) let us borrow his rock 'n play so Maeve would have her back-up sleeping arrangement which did come in handy 2 of the nights. We're looking forward to planning another trip to Kate's hometown.

Enjoy the pictures!

6 Month Check-Up

And the stats are in.....

 

Height: 26.75 in (83%)

Weight: 15 lbs, 12.5 oz (44%)

Head Size: 16.7 in (59%)

 

She spiked her first fever tonight after the shots so hopefully that goes away soon!

Now, we need to get Maeve to eat more solids - breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and go down to 4 bottles a day.

6 months old

Happy 1/2 birthday to our beautiful baby girl! She's growing up so quickly and I can't get her to stay still for pictures. She's constantly rolling over and loves to sleep on her stomach with a finger or thumb in her mouth. She's eating more solid foods - so far she has tried carrots, bananas, apples, green beans, and peas. She's also having mostly formula now - just down to 1 or 2 nursing sessions a day. She is almost sitting up too and loves cooing and smiling. We go to her 6-month appointment on Thursday so we'll report back on the stats.

Cape May, New Jersey

Eric was trying to post some pictures from the road the other day so I thought I'd provide more detail and some more pictures of my (Kate) cousin Elizabeth's wedding. We traveled through Philadelphia where we met up with Jan and Steve (Eric's parents) who were visiting Eric's aunt and uncle, Lin and Walt. We saw them for a few brief moments in baggage claim at the airport because we had to hurry to the rehearsal. With an hour plane delay, we didn't have any time to spare to make the 1 1/2 drive to Avalon and Cape May.

Jan and Steve joined us to watch Maeve while we attended the wedding festivities. Brigid and Ed (Kate's parents) drove to the shore so they brought back-up sleeping arrangements - a rock 'n play. Maeve can always sleep in this if she is having a hard time falling asleep in a crib or pack 'n play. We ended up using the rock 'n play more than the pack 'n play that was provided by the hotel so thank goodness we had it so we could get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. Having both set of grandparents on the trip was a treat. We got to enjoy time with and without Maeve which was perfect.

She was a great traveler even though she is getting over her 2nd ear infection. We are learning new things about airport security too. Our bottles sounded the alarms the past two weekends, and the Philadelphia airport security line worker hadn't seen "infant in arms" on a mobile boarding pass yet which required the supervisor's supervisor to let us through! You think TSA would be similar at different airports but they're not so we get to learn new things every time. Maeve and I enjoyed first class on the way home thanks to Grandpa Steve so that was a treat. We didn't even get any dirty looks for bringing a 6-month in first class. All in all it was a great trip, and we wish we could've stayed longer.

Mother's Day

Look what Maeve made at daycare - my first Mother's Day card!

I loved being able to spend the morning with my mother, my mother-in-law, and my daughter! We had brunch in New Jersey and then headed back to Minneapolis. Maeve enjoyed first class thanks to her Grandpa Steve who sat in coach so Maeve, mom and Grandma Jan could hang out. Maeve was great on the flight.

Wedding in New Jersey!

Maeve and Uncle Walt in the Philadelphia airport.

Grooms cake - Fenway

Bride and Groom at Grooms Dinner

Road Trip to Madison

We drove to Madison this past weekend for a wedding. Eric's old co-worker, Josh, married Raechel in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. The drive usually takes us about 4 1/2 hours but things are different with a 6 month old. Maeve still isn't a good bottle taker so when she refused a bottle before we left home at 8:30am on Saturday morning (note that the wedding started at 2pm) we knew we were in for trouble. Maeve slept for a few hours and then refused her bottle the rest of that morning. We tried plugging in our new bottle warmer in Eric's truck but it wouldn't work because of the heating element in it, so we resorted back to what we usually do - warm the bottle in a glass of hot water. No luck still! With 30 minutes left to go we were starting to become concerned because Maeve hadn't eaten in 6 1/2 hours. We stopped at a rest stop and finally had the bright idea to try the bottle warmer. It worked! So our 4 1/2 hr road trip took about 6 hours. We didn't make it in time to go to the ceremony but were able to check into the hotel and go to cocktail hour.  It helped that our hotel was a 2 minute walk from the reception facility. Maeve was great during the cocktail hour and dinner and then Kate went back to the hotel room where she held Maeve most of the night (oh, did I mention that she was getting an ear infection and didn't want to sleep in her crib - good thing we brought the rock n play as a back-up). She finally went down and Kate fell asleep at 9pm. Eric came home later after enjoying the reception with his former co-workers.

The way home was just as eventful! Every stop we made the first thing we looked for was a plug for the bottle warmer! That thing came everywhere with us. She took her bottles like a champ - guess she likes it really HOT! No lukewarm milk for Miss Maeve. Our last stop was eventful. Eric wanted to get Spotted Cow beer - only sold in Wisconsin - and Maeve was fussy. We thought she just couldn't put herself to sleep. Well, we found the problem. She had a dirty diaper that required an outfit change! Welcome to solid foods and formula!! We stopped at Holiday gas station and changed her in the back of the truck. It was a two-person operation! After that, we were on to Culver's to find a plug for the bottle warmer and get a much needed ice cream cone for Mom and Dad.

All in all it was a fun trip! Just takes a lot longer and we didn't get to watch the 4 movies that we brought along! This upcoming weekend we're flying to New Jersey for Kate's cousin's wedding.  Lets hope the start of an ear infection is better come Friday morning!  Wish us luck on our travels!

Mom and Dad