Appa

(confession: i actually wrote this post a long time ago. but apparently instead of publishing it, i saved it as a draft. the kids have sucked my brain away.)

A couple weeks ago, Mike's dad came out to visit. 

It was wonderful having him around. Tennyson took to him so quick, and woke up every morning asking to see Appa. 

We tried to go on an outing once a day. 

Not anything too big or exciting. Just something around town.

The zoo was a natural choice. 

It's one of Tennyson's favorite places in the whole wide world.

(i'm obsessed with this picture.)

(he's signing bird.)

We took the afternoon Mike was home (yes, "the", he's a busy guy) to go to the cider mill. They don't have apple picking this year, so they were giving train rides around the orchard instead.

Tennyson would have loved to pick apples. Have I ever mentioned that every single apple we bring into this house is bruised up pretty bad because they are Tennyson's favorite toys? Yeah. He's quirky like that.

And to be honest, we couldn't be that sad that there was no apple picking, because we really just go there for the cider and donuts anyway. I love fall in Michigan.

(he climbed up this giant dirt hill and then got stuck because he was too scared to go back down.)

(he's signing "maggie" because he wanted her off the bench.)

But I think the train ride was a fair alternative. He seemed to enjoy throwing the hay onto Appa. And riding the "choo choo".

We also spent some time showing Mike's dad around town. We went to the local farmer's market, to a cool pet store, and brought him some food from our favorite chinese place.

It was a lot of fun having him around. We wish we got to see the Fiske side more often. 

Four Months

It's crazy how time can go so fast and so slow at the same time.

Like, somehow I can't believe she is already four months old.

But it is strange to try to remember life without her.

Our MJ is chunking out quite nicely. We weighed her on a veggie scale at the farmer's market the other day and she is just over 16 pounds. We just started putting her in her 6-9 month clothes because her 3-6 were getting just a tiny bit tight.

Recently, she's really fallen in love with her bunny, Mr. Darcy. I'm trying to wean her off the swaddle. It isn't working very well, and I've lost so much sleep I'm about ready to wrap her up again, but she sure does love holding her little bunny to go to sleep. I don't blame her. He really is the cuddliest bunny around.

She's been munching on solid foods lately, too. You already saw she had pear. The other night I put some banana in a mesh feeder and she devoured it. So far, I'm really liking baby-led weaning, and I don't miss the stress or the mess of purees.

(she looks so angry!)

Miss Maggie can now sit on her own for a couple seconds at a time.

She still loves us to hold her so she can stand.

She's playing with her toys.

She's absolutely in love with being on her tummy.

She's still a good napper, and an okay sleeper at night (although with this business about the swaddle, that's kind of gone to the wind lately).

She's not a fan of baths.
She is a fan of being naked.

I love this age, because you can really start to guess what kind of kid they are going to turn out to be. But at the same time, you know that it is completely a guess, and they'll still surprise you in the long run. Like we knew Tennyson would be a quirky one, but even we couldn't guess just how quirky he'd get.

Right now, we are guessing she is going to be a little fireball. And she is going to run us ragged. She has so much energy balled up in that little four month body of hers, I can only imagine what's going to happen when she turns two. Let's just pray we are wrong.

First Foods

This week, Maggie got to eat her first real food.

We were at the farmer's market on Wednesday night, and I decided it'd be fun to give her a pear. So we bought one, and on Sunday, she got to try it.

She was enthusiastic about the venture.

And she was hungry.

I'm basically doing my own version of baby-led weaning with her, something I ended up stumbling upon after Tennyson rejected all purees, and fell in love with, which means I didn't need to puree the pear. I just gave it to her to gum on as a sample. We did have a bit mashed up for her to try, but since she still hasn't lost her tongue thrust reflex, it just came right back out of her mouth. 

(I love those baby blues.)

Maggie was actually a big fan of the pear. But also a little unsure of what in the world it was. But also really enjoying it. But also wondering why it wasn't milk. The faces kids make when first trying out foods have to be some of my favorites. Have you ever watched YouTube videos of babies trying lemons for the first time? If you haven't, you should.

Eventually, she just wanted to grab it and shove it all in her mouth. Which is pretty much what she wants to do with anything and everything.

But I wouldn't let her do it by herself. I'm such a mean mom. I know it. One day, I'll invest in a mesh feeder, and she can gnaw on food to her heart's content. But I don't have one right now, and I'm not brushed up on my infant Heimlich, and I'd prefer to not have a choking baby. Just a personal preference.

For some reason, she didn't understand that. And she was just sad when we took the food away. Like, extremely sad.

But also extremely cute. Sometimes you just have to snap pictures of sad babies instead of comforting them.

retired

it is a sad, sad day in the fiske house.

after nearly 2 1/2 years, the batman shirt is going into retirement.

it was with us as he grew up.

as he took his first steps.

as he fell in love with the outdoors.

as he turned into a little boy.

it was with us through a million cuddle sessions. 

through his first birthday. 

and as he slowly became brave enough to let go of furniture and stand on his own.

his shirt was with him when he had to brave the doctor's office.

he wore it first time he watched the superbowl.

and the first time he saw a train in real life. 

but the time has come to pack the batman shirt away.

and i feel like this:

we will miss you, batman shirt. you have been a wonderful part of our life.

escape

Remember how there used to be a time when I blogged a lot more? Yeah, I remember, too.
Life wasn't as busy then.
And since I'm not as on top of things now as I once was, this blog story actually starts two weeks ago.

With one sick boy.

Tennyson caught some sort of bug that hit fast and hard. Monday morning, he was fine. Monday night, he was the most miserable boy I'd ever seen. His cough actually scared me, and I'm not easily scared when it comes to medical things. He didn't sleep much monday night. Okay, he didn't sleep at all.

one am.

three am.

Finally, at four am, I got him down in his bed, with a heavy dosing of cough syrup, a thick coat of Vicks Vaporub, and a giant prayer.

Tuesday was pretty much chaos. Tennyson was still sick. His cough was better than it had been the night before, but it was still scary enough that I didn't want him anywhere near Maggie. Mike was gone all day. So I spent the day running back and forth between two different rooms trying to keep the virus contained.

It didn't work.

Tuesday morning, Maggie was fine. By Tuesday night, she was in the same place Tennyson had been the night before. So, while Tennyson slept all night, I was up for the second night in a row with a very sick kid.

Wednesday morning, I was a zombie. I had already been planning on going down to Chicago that weekend to say goodbye to my sister before she leaves on her mission. When i woke up Wednesday morning, I let Mike know that I couldn't do another day on my own, and that I was leaving for Chicago early. I needed a mommy.

So we went down for a very long weekend.

We spent some time recovering.

I was able to go to the Chicago Temple with my sister before she left.

Tennyson got to enjoy a night of bowling.

And some time in the pool.

We took a family trip to the zoo.

And celebrated my mom's birthday.

And by the time we went home, we were totally recovered, and ready to tackle the world again. It's nice having family close. Because sometimes, you just need to escape.