Approaching One.

These last few days I have been flooded with thoughts about what life was like a year ago. Big & very unncomfortable, and nervous with anticipation of who was about to rock my world. And she has certainly rocked my world, more than I could have ever imagined. My life feels complete with Maggie.

As she approaches her one year birthday, she continues to excel. FOUR teeth are popping through, her range of emotions are growing, and she is very quickly gaining ground with her new pre-walking moves. She seems to be days away from walking. Her hair is getting longer & she had her first spell of bed hair yesterday. She might just have my baby hair; light brown & thin with little ringlets at the end. I hope so!

She is loving the kitties & has a gentle way with them. She pats their backs & rests her head on them for little hugs. They keep her entertained & distracted when a good distraction is needed.

Whenever one of her toys sounds off she will start to dance, boppin' her head up & down. I melt when she does it & purposely search through her toys for the music to get a little groove time out of her.

And my new favorite, she just found that her finger fits in her nose!

These are the glory days, that's for certain. My little baby isn't such a baby anymore...but she will always be my baby.

My Love For Modern Medicine

Ever since Maggie was about 5 months she has been struggling with reoccuring ear infections. 6 rounds of antibiotics later we finally made the decision to have tubes put in her ears. A bit nerve racking, for sure, but THE BEST DECISION. It's been about 3 weeks now & I swear we have a new child. She hasn't had a fever or runny nose since the surgery, which is actually the longest stretch for her in a very very long time. She is sleeping through the night, 12 whole straight hours! And I am convinced she can hear better. Her speech is exploding, she is pointing to objects & remembering them later. In part it's her age, but I cannot help but think it's because she can finally hear.

My favorite, if you ask her where her monkey is she goes to him. And then if you ask her to kiss her monkey, she will... and sometimes throw in a hug or two. Now, I don't think it could possibly get any sweeter than that?!!

...but stay tuned cuz it just always seems to.

oh and the picture, just a classic that needed to be shared.

A Swing of Her Own

With Maggie loving the swing so much, we thought we would bring the park to our own backyard. We bought a swing & hung it from our back deck (which of course we now call the urban swing set). I hung it after she had gone, so I got super excited for her to wake up the next morning to try it out. The anticipation was sooooo fun (wait til Christmas, right!!).

She was instantly addicted. She has this sweet way of rotating her tiny ankles to tell you she is happy, and those feet were circling like crazy her first swing.

Apricots in Aisle 6

Inspired to explore new food options for Maggie & on a quest for organic produce we set out on our adventure to Whole Foods. A Trader Joe's fanatic, I tend to forget the experience you can have at different grocery stores. So going to Whole Foods with Maggie was a TREAT! Literally. We spent a good amount of time sampling our way through the produce section. Peaches, plums, grapes...and then a few more peaches. mmmmmmmm. A little discovered fact about Whole Foods during this visit, they play some pretty good dancing tunes, so we danced our way through the aisles. We certainly got a few people tapping their feet with us & giving up some big smiles.

I think Maggie's true love of Whole Foods happened in aisle 6 where I pulled out an apricot fruit leather. I think the picture tells the rest! It was caked on the shopping cart, stuck to her fingers & completely smeared all over her face (with bits in her hair).

Our errands could just be errands, but they tend to turn into mini adventures where we laugh & dance our way through them. It's in those moments I find the both of us so carefree and truly bellie laughing together. I smile at the memory & at all the mother's who stopped us along the way to compliment us, and tell us of their little ones. I love the sisterhood of motherhood.

Lab 101 with Uncle Joel

We recently returned from our annual Crowell reunion at Isle of Palm in South Carolina. This year Joel decided to entertain our nieces & nephews with a little 'Candy Lab.' We picked up this National Geographic kit where you can make your own gum, gummy bears, marshmellows & root beer. They LOVED it!!! and couldn't stop talking about it all week. Uncle Joel was in his element... perhaps we should be referring to him as Professor Joel???!

While the kids were gobbling up their sugary treats, Maggie was giggling & loving being surrounded by all her cousins.