Maddy at Eight Months

 

 

Two-thirds of a year! Time is flying! This month's quick update brought to you by photos from my phone, and mobile blogging from the midst of our moving-box maze.

Maddy had a big month of mobility, perfecting her crawling and learning how to pull up to standing on everything. She's going to be standing independently in no time, I'm afraid, and walking won't be far behind.

 

Besides calling me “mama,” it seems that “dada” is beyond her grasp. It sounds more and more like she's calling Johnny “Bubba,” which I find pretty hilarious. At our prompting, she said, “bye bye” – clear as day- to a cat; neither of us would've believed it if the other hadn't been there.

 

The day we left California, it was 94 degrees. Last Sunday in Massachusetts, it snowed. True to her Minnesota ancestry, Maddy enjoyed it (though she's still confused by precipitation in general).

She's been spending a lot of time exploring the very small territory of our non-childproofed apartment, reading books to herself, and conducting in-depth studies of her own toes. Real troublemaking is just around the corner!

 

 

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Easy Listening

I’m in the midst of packing for tomorrow’s redeye back to Massachusetts, but I just had to write a quick post to share a couple links.  I’ve been trying to spend more time outside lately, which mostly consists of late-afternoon walks (occasionally runs) with Maddy in the stroller.  Having caught up on all my favorite podcasts, I’ve been delving into past episodes of This American Life, and a couple stories in particular have stood out.  They were both just innocently delightful, which is a nice change of pace.  I found myself retelling them to Johnny, but inadequately, because a hallmark of this show is that it’s usually unbelievable until you hear it for yourself.  Eventually I just made him listen for himself, and he liked them as much as I had.

I’m linking directly to the segments I loved, but in each case, the entire episode was worth listening to (though I think there’s a language warning on one segment, so don’t let the kids listen unsupervised).  Each segment is about 19 minutes long.

First, the tale of a young married couple of comedians who get the chance for their big break on the Ed Sullivan Show.  Listening to the two of them retell the story may be better than the story itself.

Next, a story about twelve kids and their father who went to great lengths to entertain them (and teach them life skills in the process!).

Enjoy – I guarantee you’ll be smiling at the end!

{p,h,f,r} County Fair Edition

Yesterday was the opening day of the local fair, and since we can't pass up a good time, we headed over as a family after Johnny got home from work. Admission was $1, which meant that even if we had a baby meltdown in short order, we weren't losing much.

{pretty}

I'm still not really used to the variety of produce that grows around here. The garden variety produce (literally) I can understand, but it's weird to go to the farmers' market and see homegrown grapes and avocados. So it follows that the produce competition at the fair was a little different from usual, including this beautiful variety of grape colors.

 

Bonus pretty: The best of the quilt competition. It was a pretty great selection!

{happy}

Maddy enjoyed the fair a lot more than we expected, especially since we were there close to (and then past) her bedtime. She's turning out to be a real extrovert, so anytime she gets to be around a lot of people (kids, in particular), she's very excited. She babbled at no one in particular, and then loved the parakeets in the Floriculture building.

{funny}

We didn't go too crazy with the fair food (mostly because it was a last-minute trip and we didn't have a chance to get more cash), but the splurge of the night was a cinnamon roll with cream cheese frosting and bacon. Yes, it totally looked like a baked potato. And yes, it was awesome. The stand was selling one for $6, or a value pack of 5 for $30. Super value.

 

{real}

Just to keep us from having too much fun, we ended up with three very flat stroller tires. We discovered on our way back to the car that we had parked in a field full of sand burrs, and Johnny has his suspicions that they were to blame. I'm holding out hope that they're just mysteriously flat but not injured; wish me luck.

 

Linking up with Like Mother, Like Daughter for {Pretty, happy, funny, real}!

 

Friday Night in the Garden

Last night, we met some friends at a local business with a genius idea: every Thursday and Friday, this garden center hosts food trucks and local music for a great night out among their plants.

Statues of St. Francis and the Blessed Virgin chaperoned.

The music was great, the weather was perfect, and they even have a liquor license, so it was the complete package!

Putting the “garden” in “beer garden”

There were tons of families and kids running around, and no one seemed overprotective of the potted plants and merchandise, which was refreshing (for the record, I didn’t see anyone abusing the privilege).

There were at least ten food trucks parked around the perimeter, offering everything from bourbon pecan pie to wood-fired pizza.  I have a real weakness for both of those, but I stuck with the pizza, which was great.  Johnny’s mom is planning an event and needed a food truck recommendation, so Johnny sampled no fewer than nine tacos, for the sake of being thorough.

They have events scheduled through the end of the year, so we’ll definitely be back!

Maddy and Daddy, getting carded.