showing off for the camera

Maggie loves to help me with the laundry...here she is in action, as well as showing off some fancy moves for daddy.

more bed & Elmo

Maggie's been enjoying her new bed, and she's mastered the steps. So far, she stays in bed and doesn't get out and wander around, which was what I assumed would happen at naptime and bedtime. She loves climbing up there to flip through books throughout the day.


With temperatures pushing 100 degrees for the past several weeks, and me getting quite large and unable to stand the mid-day heat and humidity for more than about 15 minutes, we've been hanging out inside a lot during the day. Maggie has become enthralled by Sesame Street...particularly Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Grover. Thank goodness for DVR! She really likes to hold her Elmo while watching Elmo. I never thought I'd know this much about Sesame Street as an adult...I find myself humming some of the songs as I'm doing things throughout the day! :-) But she loves it, and she actually is learning something (she can repeat the alphabet and can almost count to 10 on her own already...just skips 3 and 4), and it gives me a chance to sit down with a glass of water and rest my back and feet.

big mamma, big girl bed, & big eggs

I'm now at 28 weeks and am filling out quite nicely (this picture doesn't quite show the full extent of my bump). :-)

And Maggie is now 18 months old and is becoming quite the little chatterbox. She is even starting to speak in 3- and (occasionally) 4- word sentences ("pretzels are salty!" and "apples are crunchy sweet" are two of her favorite sentences). Every day her vocabulary seems to increase, which is amazing and so much fun. We also decided to go ahead and move her to a "big girl bed" (a twin bed, custom made by Will) this past weekend and move the crib out of her room and into baby girl #2's room. It's only been 2 days (and I don't want to jinx anything), but so far she's been just fine with the transition. We peeked into her room this morning before she woke up, and she was just too cute to resist...we had to get the camera out! She looks so tiny in her new, big comfy bed!


And on a completely different note, our white chickens are laying every day now. One of them is laying big, full size eggs and the other is still laying small eggs. But so far the big eggs have all been double yolk eggs (top and bottom in this picture), which is pretty cool.

little garden helper

Will snapped a few quick photos last weekend of Maggie "helping" me out in the yard. She spent about 15 minutes taking dirt out of this pot, then putting it back in. (And the video shows how we get her favorite pose - mouth wide open - when we're taking pictures.)

random pics from around the house

The first thing Maggie wanted to do this morning after she woke up (even before eating breakfast) was sweep...such a helpful little girl!


After lunch, Maggie created a couple of masterpieces. Here's the artist in action and also showing off one of her pieces of art.


And on an unrelated note, one of our young hens has started laying. It's one of the white leghorns, and she lays white eggs. They are so cute and, at least for now, much smaller than our mature hens' eggs.

she's a sneaky one!

Maggie is getting sneakier and sneakier every day. She can quietly reach things on shelves that were previously out of her reach. Yesterday evening before dinner, Will and I were both looking at something on the computer and we turned around to see that Maggie had very quietly grabbed the box of granola bars off of the shelf (which is over her head), pulled out one pack of bars, torn it open, and was happily munching away. This all happened in probably less than a minute or two. She looked at us like "What?! I was hungry, and you slackers don't have dinner ready yet!"

4th of July visit from Grandma & Grandad

Grandma & Grandad were in town for an extended visit last week, and Maggie basked in the glow of extra attention. We kept busy and Maggie got to show Grandma & Grandad some of her favorite activities:

checking on the garden,

going to feed the chickens (while Daddy tends to the bbq...notice the trusty beagle guarding the smoker),

making the rounds in the backyard,

posing, yet again, for the camera,

watching Goofy cartoons on the computer,

splashing in the pool,

looking cute,

ready for a walk at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve,

walking with Daddy,

going to pick flowers at the end of the driveway,

checking on the herb garden,

smelling some rosemary,

sitting with two of her best friends, Hop-Hop and Elmo,

and being entertained and showered with attention!