Wordless Wednesday

Maggie Loves Her Bubbles!

Maggie had so much fun blowing bubbles at Mimi and Papa's house, they broke out the "big gun" for Thanksgiving weekend.

Her laugh is 100% intoxicating. We'll never get tired of hearing it.

Ms. Maggie's Christmas List

Okay. If you're looking for gift ideas for Maggie, you've come to the right place.' So far she's definitely getting the Loving Family Grand Dollhouse. She'll definitely need more accessories to go with it! The rooms/sets she does not need are as follows:

• Parents
• Twin babies
• Dining Room
• Living Room
• Puppy Playtime
• Nursery
• Work-at-Home Office
• Grandma and brother
• Camping set
• Kids' Room (girl)
• Mini-van

I'll try to keep this list updated if anyone lets me know of other things she does not need for her house. There are about a billion different rooms/sets/accessories available to go with this house, so we'll probably be collecting this stuff for years to come! Other ideas of things Maggie would probably enjoy include:

• Fisher Price Little People play-sets and people
• Kohl's for Kids books and animals (they have four sets available where the animal and the book are just $5 each. She has the cat and "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake" book, but doesn't have the other three books or accompanying animals)
• clothes for her Cabbage Patch Kid

Of course this isn't an exhaustive list, but I just wanted to throw a few things out for those of you currently asking. Her clothes are currently size 2T, and her shoes are a 6 1/2.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!

Wishing a hauntingly fun Halloween to you and yours!

Maggie on Ice

Maggie went to her first ice show recently. Judging by her reaction, I would say she had a good time.

A Halloweekend at Cedar Point

Maggie got her first taste of a real amusement park the other weekend as we pack up the car and headed out for the opening of "Halloweekends" at Cedar Point in Sandusky Ohio. Along with her Mommy and Daddy, Maggie was able to enjoy the day with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Pete, Aunt Alicia, Uncle Rob, Uncle Nolan and Grandpamama. We tried the school bus and lolli-swing in 'Camp Snoopy', but Maggie wasn't much of a fan. She had more fun riding the smaller kiddie rides towards the front of the park. It's too bad we didn't find these rides until the day was almost over. This didn't stop Maggie from trying to cram a ride into every last minute of the day. She was going strong all the way until the park closed. That's our girl!

'Finding Nemo' through the eyes of a 2-year old

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Wow. Our baby is TWO today (at 7:20 ET tonight, to be specific...)! I can't remember life without her, yet it seems like she was born just yesterday. Oddly enough, a couple weeks ago she started randomly singing, "Happy birthday to you," whenever someone lit a candle. We finally figured out the last time she heard it was July 5. Her timing is perfect. She still won't answer, "Two," when you ask her how old she'll be, and I'm not sure if she'll dig people actually singing happy birthday to her. I've been trying it from time to time, and she always interrupts with, "No. No." Maggie's favorites lately include apple juice (although she'll call any liquid in her sippy cup apple juice), the movie Bolt (but Daddy and I have been encouraging her interest in other movies after having watched Bolt approximately a million and two times), her toy phones, and telling us, "That tickles," when we try to tickle her. Well, of course it does! She likes running around naked (don't all kids?), and walks up to me to say, "Knees, knees," when I'm getting ready in the morning. What she means is that she wants lotion on her legs, just like mommy. She also likes being tickled with my make-up brushes. We may end up with a girly-girl on our hands! She's becoming less of a fan of having her diaper changed again, but still not interested in using the potty. She's also stopped eating garlic hummus by the handfuls, but I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Her favorite meat continues to be 'taco' (as in seasoned ground beef). Maggie's teeth-brushing skills are also improving, but she shows Daddy much better than Mommy. There are literally a million things I want to remember about our little two-year-old. She's truly a joy and the love of our lives.

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday

Becki, two years ago :)

Exactly one year later.

Every year, we try to get together with all of local boating friends on July 5th to celebrate our friend Tom's birthday. The birthday celebration is really a moot point, it's more of an excuse to get everyone together at the same place on the same day. If you remember, we were out on the water for Tom's birthday last year. This is when we had the adorable little purple car / boat for Maggie to play in. Fast forward exactly 365 days and we found ourselves in (almost) the exact same location with the exact same car / boat and the exact same kid, only a little bigger now. Maggie in her car / boat 2008: Maggie in her car / boat 2009: All in all, we had a great time on the water. Maggie was a hit and brought smiles to everyone’s faces. Mom and Dad got a little too much sun, but Maggie was well protected with her SPF 1,000,000 and faired her day out in the sun very well. The boat still needs a little work, but we were able to enjoy an entire trouble free day otherwise.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Mother's Day

A tribute to the best mother in the whole wide world!

Love, Maggie Sue (with some help from Dad, but only a little bit.)

Thanks for a very happy Easter!

Once the drama with the bunny was over, Maggie was able to go on and enjoy her Easter weekend. Saturday we went to Grandma's, where Maggie did her very first egg 'hunt,' and got a fabulous bonnet. Hopefully Grandma got some good pictures of Maggie in her dress and bonnet, because although she wore the same dress the next day, we only took pictures outside with her jacket covering her dress! Sunday we headed to church and then Mimi and Papa's. If she'd thought of it before hand, she may have thought it was too good to be true, but Mimi got her a hat too!! Yay!! Tomorrow it may be hard to decide which one to wear, but today there was one for Maggie AND one for Mimi... Maggie also (of course) ended up with plenty of traditional Easter candy. Hopefully she doesn't grow to like it quite as much as her mommy does - YUM! Yesterday she was a little hesitant at first, but then really enjoyed her first Peep. Today she attempted to cram one of those big mallow eggs in her mouth as one bite - don't think so, kid! We were very happy to add matching aprons for Maggie and mommy from Mimi to our collection. Maggie's smock will go perfectly while she works on her new easel from Grammy and Grandpa. We were able to spend some time with all of our favorite people this weekend - thanks!!

Hoppy Easter?

Well, the day started out well enough. Maggie and I got up and had breakfast. When it was time to start relaxing and play, I talked her into taking a bath instead. Once she was clean and dressed, I snuck in a quick shower for myself. After stashing her pretty pink dress in the diaper bag and getting the stroller into the trunk again, we hit the road.

It was a little bit further to Twelve Oaks than to the mall right by our house, but I knew she had liked the Easter bunny there, so I figured it was worth the trip. And the bunny costume there was cute too. Once we got to the mall, my first mission was to find a pair of white tights to go with the dress. Fifteen dollars later (are you kidding me??), we headed to the restroom to change her into her new tights and pretty dress. We got nothing but compliments from there on out. She looked adorable!!

In line for the picture with the bunny, Maggie was having a ball. She kept pointing, saying, "Bunny," and waving and blowing kisses. I was so proud that she was still cooperative after hearing other people's horror stories. We already had two good Santa pictures and a good bunny picture under our belts, and it seemed to just be getting easier.

Then, it was her turn. "C'mon, Maggie. Let's go see the bunny!" One of her first spoken words is still one of the most audible. "No. No. No," while shaking her head. I didn't want to be 'that mom,' so we just hung out for a while. Luckily it was the middle of the day, so there was no line. I sat with the bunny, I sat on the ground at the bunny's feet, I gave Maggie fruit snacks while I was with the bunny and I gave the bunny fruit snacks to give Maggie.

Finally, it was time for the bunnies to switch shifts, and we'd been there over an hour. I decided we'd go with what we got. So here it is....

Hoppy Easter!!

Mr. (and Mrs.) Bayley go to Washington

After a long two week test drive for work into the cold northern wilderness, it was decided that a nice impromptu driving vacation was in order. Without any sort of concrete plans or expectations, we packed up the family car and drove out to our nation’s capitol. In route to Washington DC, we stopped at the Kalahari Resort and Hotel in Sandusky Ohio to bask in their clear blue (because it’s chlorinated) waters of the world’s largest indoor water park. Maggie wasn’t a huge fan of the water park, but she did have fun sitting back and watching Daddy come down the big slides. We were welcomed to the capitol with unseasonably warm weather. Just five days prior, the city was shut down for a snow day. However, we were treated to temperatures in the lower seventies all weekend long. Even better, was that our hotel was two blocks directly north of the White House. We started the day off by posing for pictures in front of the north lawn. After the White House, we meandered over to the Washington Monument and gazed upwards. Maggie also did a few laps around the monument... just because. From the monument, we explored the Air and Space museum. The day concluded with a visit to the Capitol building. Maggie loved running up the stairs, sitting down and then posing for a picture. After her first picture, Maggie remembered her hat that she received from the Hershey chocolate tour the prior day, ran back to her stroller, grabbed the hat, ran back to the stairs and then posed for a second set of pictures. ...and finally, what trip to Washington DC would be complete without a ride on the Metro.

Maggie Goes Sledding

After being cooped up in the house all day, Maggie and Dad decided to take advantage of the fresh fallen snow on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Dad makes sure Maggie is bundled up nice and warm!

"I'm ready to go Dad, bring out the sled!"

"I'm good to go Daddy, HIT IT!"

---

"Too slow Dad, pick up the pace a little!"

"Woot-woot! We're cookin' now!"

"Uh oh, I'm not so sure about this anymore..."

"...I'm ready for my hot chocolate now."

Seasons' Greetings

Happy Holidays!

Wordless Wednesday - Holiday Oreos

Have you seen the new holiday Oreos with the red filling (they taste the same as regular Oreos)? Let's just say Maggie is a fan.

Maggie Reading

Here's an awesome video Becki's mom got while Maggie was hanging out at her 'Mimi and Papa's' house last week.

Our Little Witch

Last year we didn't really get to 'celebrate' Halloween in Germany, so this was Maggie's first REAL Halloween. She loved it! We went out to my parents' neighborhood and walked door to door to probably 20 or 30 houses with her. Maggie insisted on walking on her own. When we tried to pick her up, she immediately squirmed to get down!

At each house, she would reach first one hand, then the other into the bowl of candy so she'd get a treat in each hand. Luckily she was still young enough and cute enough to get away with it! All she ate from her loot that night was a treat sized Kit Kat (and maybe some Nestle Crunch snuck in by Papa), but she sure did like it.

Here are a few pictures from trick or treating.

A Fun Weekend

We headed up to Mackinac last weekend and went camping with my parents. It was a little brisk out (some, like me, would say cold, but others, like Andy, wouldn't agree...), but we had a great time anyway. I insisted on getting the old-time photo on the island. One we had taken somewhere with my parents and my brother and I still hangs in my parents house :) For your viewing pleasure:

Day trip to Put-In-Bay

Another beautiful weekend equals another beautiful boat ride. Since Andy is leaving (again) for Germany this Tuesday for three weeks, this was pretty much our last guaranteed summer weekend on the boat. While we sometimes get a late Indian summer, anything towards the end of September and into October is always a crap shoot. Besides smashing a finger between the spare tire holder and a falling spare tire, everything went well.

We launched the boat down at Sterling State Park and took a trip across the lake into Put-In-Bay. The lake was amazingly smooth. We cruised along at 55mph for the entire distnace. We didn’t want to push anything too hard since the trip out to the island is ~35 miles across some pretty big wide open water. In typically form, Maggie slept the entire was across. Once we got to the island, we did the standard tourist stuff on the island. Ate lunch at the “Boardwalk Restaurant” and took a ride up to the top of “Perry’s Monument”. The ride back in at the end of the day was just as nice as the ride out. The wind and waves built up just a touch once we surprisingly got about 2 or 3 miles from shore. I’m guessing they chopped up to about 2 feet.

Becki did a good job manning the dock lines. We kept Maggie in her car seat when we launched the boat and then left her (sleeping) in the cabin when we retrieved it. This was Becki’s first time out on the boat without anyone else to help her. We all concluded that it was a success.

I Love Macaroni! (Wordless Wednesday)

Walk softly and carry a big stick

Someone found the broomstick handle that we use to lock the rear sliding door. It took my little girl approximately three seconds before she went into Ninja mode.

"I fight you now! Take THAT, you evil table!"

Happy Birthday Maggie

Well, can you believe that it’s been a year already? Some days it feels like just yesterday we discovered that Becki was pregnant. Other days it feels like little Maggie has been with us forever. One this is for certain though, she is growing up FAST! Her cute little staggered walk is rapidly progressing towards a full fledged RUN. It won’t be long before she starts riding bicycles with training wheels and signing up for ice skating classes.

We had a nice little birthday party for Maggie back in July. It was a very casual affair with various family and friends showing up throughout the day. Maggie made off with quite the haul. Some of her favorite gifts include the princess outfit from Aunt Alicia / Uncle Rob and the bubble maker from (second) cousins Linda and Mike. However, her most favorite gift was the new play area that Daddy and Uncle Ron built for her just days before the party.

Maggie with her "smash cake".

Maggie's new play palace!