Far-Away Friends

This weekend was great - we got to see my brother John and his family on Saturday and then my college roomie Lauren and her family this morning!

We have a bunch of fall birthdays on the Rabine side, so my parents had the family over for a 6-person birthday celebration!  We got to play with all the kids and sing our long-winded version of the birthday song!  Here's my neice Katy ready for her first big high school dance:

My gorgeous niece, Katy
ready for homecoming!

Today we went to one of our fave breakfast spots to see Lauren and Ben and their adorable little Henry.  They recently moved from Hawii to Minnesota... quite a change, but it sounds like they are really happy with their new home.

Lauren and Henry @ 18 months

Maggie is pulling herself up much more often now, and is more vocal everyday.  We've heard a few new syllables, but it's pretty much always "da-da" for now.

(sorry for the annoying squeal)

Maggie's been holding her bottle for a long time, but I'm trying to get her more into eating independently.  She's does really well as long as she's leaning backward enough.  We're still working on learning to tip the bottle up when she's sitting up.  We let her have little tastes of whatever we're eating, and so far nothing seems to bug her.  I'm trying to make sure she's not snacking all day long though, just getting a few nibbles at her feed times.

Jamie left Maggie for a minute...

Playing with our socks

Good one, Mommy!

Waking up after our 2.5 hour nap...
Mommy and Maggie were pooped today!

Jamie made me post this to commemorate the end of
Breaking Bad.  Note - I would most likely not leave
our daughter in the hands of a meth-man.

September days

Not much to report this week, Maggie just continues being her cute self.  She gave us an extra hour of sleep on Saturday morning, which was much appreciated!  She does an awesome job of feeding herself finger food... and paper when we're not looking... I think she has aspirations to become an office recycling bin.  She continues to twist and grunt and squirm to get where she wants... she performed some sort of half crawl movement, but I wouldn't say she's crawling yet.  She loves to pass balls by rolling them.

We went to Cuz Lauren's 30th birthday party on Saturday... I made sure Maggie had a late nap, but it did no good.  By 7pm she was ready to sleep for the night - her schedule will not be compromised!  Unfortunately we had to leave before  ice cream cake, and I was even going to let her have a little!

Happy Birthday, Miss Cuz!

I definitely need to do some shopping for warmer clothes.  Maggie has a few outfits for fall, but I struggled to find something that looked a little dressier for church today.  So it looks like we're going shopping!

I picked an outfit, Mommy!

And I'm really excited to wear it!

Look what I found!

Eat 'em Up Tigers

The day Daddy has been waiting for – Maggie’s first Tigers game!  We got her bundled up and went to see the boys play this afternoon.  Thanks to cousin Donna for the tickets, so awesome!  She even left a swag bag for Maggie with her first baseball cap and a cute stuffed Tiger!  Maggie was pretty good, and we ended up staying for all 9 innings, which was totally unexpected.  We didn't even leave the seats!  Tigers won, so of course Daddy thinks he has a new good luck charm.  

Ready to go!

'sup

Go Tigers!

Family Photo

It's not a hotdog, but it'll do

Scherzer's looking good today, Daddy

We had a few cool things happen this week.  Maggie is finally saying “da-da!”  I’ve been waiting so long to hear something other than “ah!”  Maggie also managed to pull herself up to her feet this week by dangerously grabbing onto a drawer.  She hasn’t repeated it yet, but she definitely keeps trying.  She’ll figure it out soon.

We went to Maggie's first football game on Friday at Foley.  It was pretty chilly, so we only stayed for a little while.

We went to St. Thecla’s mom-to-mom sale on Saturday.  I had no idea that these things were so intense!  We got some good stuff though, including a new car seat!  We also went to the Laneway festival at Meadowbrook, and Jamie got to meet the bass player of his favorite band, The National.  It was a really cool festival, way more chill than I thought it would be.

Here’s a few other photos of our girl from the week:

This outfit was cute on the hanger...
but she kind of looks like a baby hooker....
so we changed outfits!

Umm... pancakes?? Yes!

Helping with the laundry

Wearing Harley gear for Pops'
birthday

Playtime!

Have a good week!!

9 Months!

I'm a few days late posting, but Maggie has reached the 9-month mark!  We went to her pediatrician appointment this week, and our "little" girl is 23 lb - 9 oz, 29.5 inches... 98th and 95th percentiles.  The doctor said everything is looking good.  She hasn't reached all the milestones for 9 months, but he did not seem at all concerned.  She has a ton of personality and is moving in the right direction!

Getting weighed... she might kill me one
day for posting this... but it's too cute not to

Sometimes she likes to snuggle with a
dolly at nap-time

Maggie and I took a trip to the park by our house on Wednesday.  She had an awesome time, can't believe I didn't do it sooner!  We got to see lots of kids playing, and met a nice little boy about her age.

Look at me!

I'm here for the Grease auditions

Maggie took a 2-hour nap this week, which never
happens!  I just thought she looked so sweet here,
had to get a pic

We got to babysit Luke tonight while Bobby and Al went to a wedding.  We had such a blast!  Maggie was in her glory watching him move all over the place.  We had dinner, went for a walk, then quickly walked home because it started raining.  Jamie went to get us ice cream while I put Maggie down for the night.  We made a fort and had tickle fights, lots of giggling!  It was awesome to spend some time with him!

Maggie successfully evading her diaper change to get
closer to Luke

Ice cream!

Maggie and Luke's debut duet:

Go Lions!

Napper!

We FINALLY have a nap schedule!  We’re still easing into it, but I can usually get Maggie down for naps at 9am and 1pm, and sometimes another one later in the afternoon.  She only sleeps for 30-60 minutes, but it’s amazing what you can accomplish in that amount of time (or what you can choose not to accomplish by watching terrible television instead)!  I figured out that while she likes to snuggle with me before bedtime, she just wants to play or whine when you try to calm her before a nap.  So I just put her in the crib with some white noise from the fan… after 5 minutes of whining, the girl is down for the count.

Maggie two front teeth are both coming in… they look huge compared to her other teeth, but I suppose they will look more normal once they are finished making their entrance.

This is me trying to get Maggie to
show her teeth...

Trying to levitate toys toward her

Nothing better than water from a straw!

Andy and Katie came to Michigan for a visit this week, and they stayed a few nights at our house.  It was great to see them, and Maggie is all about playing with Katie (Andy’s not so bad either)!

Look at my new friend!

Jamie and I celebrated our 3^rd anniversary last week, but decided to wait until this Friday to do something special… which consisted of going to dinner and watching Superman at the dollar theater.  It may sound pathetic, but it was a great night for just the two of us (thanks Grammer and Pops for watching Maggie!).  Then we came home and our basement was flooding again… nothing says “romance” better than stinking, flowing water!

I love Daddy

I have a couple of fun videos from Maggie this week.  I’m so happy I have a phone that can record videos… it totally perks up my day when I’m at work!

This is from an evening when Maggie was really irritated about eating dinner.  So Daddy decided to just let her feed herself...

Grandma let Maggie make some music, Daddy-style: