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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Day 158: Girl at Work

Another day at work for the Goose.  It was a long day, and although she had her moments, she came through it like a rock star.  I, on the other hand, barely made it!  Having her at work can be tricky, but you definitely cannot ever be in a bad mood for long.  I had a moment today where I simply got fed up with something, she started to jabber, and when I looked over, I got a big ole' toothy grin.  Nothing better to keep you going.


I know I posted a picture of Michal with her friend Trey a while back, but they were too adorable today not to post a repeat.  Whenever Trey comes into my office, he always checks to see if Michal is there (he actually is pretty close to perfect on the pronunciation of her name - impressive for a four year old), and THEN he looks for my stash of Hershey Kisses.  Today he came in as I was giving Michal a bottle (read: she was laying across my lap, holding her bottle herself, continuously using my body or the desk as a springboard from which she could push herself backwards, angling her head off of my lap and eating nearly upside down).  Trey came over to make funny faces for her, and she could not stop giggling.  Through her milk.  In Michal's world, Trey is HILARIOUS.  Later, he got down on the floor to play with her - in the picture above, he is showing her how to work the pop up toy.  Too much cuteness.


 Rolling girl

Yes... she rolled under the chair.  Then rolled under another chair and got stuck.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 157: Roly Poly

Michal's main form of movement these days is rolling.  It has even gotten to the point where it seems like she does it with purpose, in that if she wants to get over to a particular toy, she rolls in that direction.  At night after her bath, she rolls all over her room.  She is starting to figure out how to take steps while holding on to our hands and she likes to stand most of the time - usually accompanied with jumping/bouncing/dancing - but for movement, it's rolling.


 Don't let her fool you - she is NOT about to crawl.  I cannot tell you how many times I lunge for the camera, frantically flounder and manage to hit the power button, just in time to catch this pose.  And she starts to rock back and forth a bit.  She starts to lean.  And then... she cannot figure out how to move that leg in front.  So, 99 times out of a 100, she face plants.  And then rolls away.


 Happy baby today, smiling for me


Super friendly baby - she LOVES watching people wherever we go.  Today she could not stop waving hi to everyone.  We spent about 5 minutes today waving to Miss Helen, our secretary.  And then we waved to strangers while eating dinner at California Tortilla.  Must work on that.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Day 156: Post Hunt

 Busy day today for the Goose.  Unfortunately I was not able to participate, so today's photos come from Josh.  Today was Post Hunt, the fourth annual scavenger hunt of complicated and unusual puzzles put on by Dave Barry, Gene Weingarten, and Tom Shroder, and Michal joined her daddy and our crazy friends for the brain bending fun.  Before the festivities got underway, she and Josh hung out on the National Mall.  Here, she is in front of the Smithsonian Castle.


 At one point the soccer ball came sort of near her, so her attention was grabbed and she couldn't stop watching.


 Time to start - joining the crowd at Freedom Plaza with The Willard in the background.

 At a later stop - in front of the Newseum (awesome museum, btw), where an acrobat gave some clues to one of the puzzles.

Later - scene of a girl in her city - hanging outside of The Corner Bakery with her daddy, waiting on friends who were grabbing food inside.


In the end, they managed to decipher most of the puzzles, but they did not walk away with the $2,000 grand prize.  There is always next year.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Day 155: Race for the Cure

Our day started earlier than is normal, as Josh was running his first 5K during the Race for the Cure here in Washington DC.  He joined nearly 40,000 other runners and walkers for this amazingly inspirational event.  I might have cried a bit. 
  
 Michal does not look excited to be awake this early.

 
It took us longer than we expected to get down to the race site, so we let Josh run ahead so he could get to the starting line.  Michal and I took a slightly more leisurely walk and arrived at this corner, where the runners turned onto Constitution Avenue.  We set up shop here, just to watch the runners and see if we could possible spot Josh in the crowd.  We actually did - it was a bit of Where's Waldo, but we found him.  


This was where most of my tears happened - not only were we so proud of him for taking on this challenge, but the race was so much more emotional than I anticipated.  We happened to stand behind two women in pink shirts with matching feather boas who cheered and screamed "Yay, Survivor!" every time a woman ran past in the official pink Survivor t-shirt.  It was hard not to be touched by this.


 Once Josh passed, we continued along our way to the National Mall, coming across the staging area for the thousands of walkers.  It was a pretty spectacular sight.


We finally found the finish line.  We got there around the 30-minute mark, and while I didn't think Josh had finished already, we really had no idea when he would.  So we hung out here for a while, hoping we might possibly be able to spot our Waldo once again.  Michal passed the time by practicing her vanishing jelly sandal act - she has gotten quick at wiggling her toes and feet out of her sandals.  I watched all the people around us.  That guy was TALL.


 Taking a break from her shoe escapades to people watch.

 There he is!  So surprised we were able to find him after all.  He finished the race, running the entire way.  Yay, Josh!

Watching intently. 

The runner with his cutest fan!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Day 154: Berry Queen

Food is so much fun right now.  I was so happy, a month or two ago, when we said good-bye to purees and switched pretty much full time to finger foods.  In addition to her bottles, of course.  Since food at this age is mostly all about fun and experimentation, Michal still gets the majority of her nutrition and calories from her formula, but I am so excited to let her experiment and discover all of the tastes and textures of food. I especially want her to grow to like tastes in a more natural form.  When she has yogurt, it is either plain or with fresh fruit in it - no need for any added sugar.  In fact, she occasionally has bites of my Greek yogurt, which I find has a stronger taste than regular yogurt, and she always has that plain, and then demands more.  I am not worried that she will never develop a taste for the junky side of food - who doesn't like chocolate, ice cream, and all of that yummy stuff?  


I picked up some raspberries today, so I thought I'd see if she liked them. 


Hmm.... what is this taste?

She definitely enjoyed the raspberries.  It was tricky getting a single picture of her eating them - the one at the top of the post was pretty much it.  She popped them in her mouth before I could snap the picture!  

On to the main course - yogurt with fresh strawberries (I'm trying to prevent a yeast rash because of some recently prescribed antibiotics, so lots of yogurt for M).  I wanted to get a picture of her with the meal.  I didn't move quickly enough - right after the picture, she grabbed for the bowl and yogurt was everywhere.


Somebody LOVES yogurt... and berries... and all things delicious!
You can tell - she is bouncing up and down and waving her arms in the air.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Day 153: Family Bedtime

Josh doesn't usually wear a suit to work, but we think he looks rather dapper when he does!


Bedtime with Michal is pretty awesome.  Most nights she gets a bath - who doesn't love playing in the tub? - and we hang out in her bedroom for a while.  Lately that involves a good amount of rolling all over the room, swinging her legs through the air and thumping them against the ground, and general goofiness.  Gone are the days where I worried she might be a SERIOUS CHILD.  While she has her focus, she can be a goofball.  One very common nickname these days: Goose.  Which is short for Silly Goose, of course.  Variations include: Goose, Baby Goose, Goosey Girl, etc.  After silly time - pajamas, bottle, and bed.


We lucked out tonight.  Josh was supposed to attend a work event (hence the suit and tie), but he ended up deciding to come home instead of staying late.  I know a big part of his decision was because of the baby.  Time flies by too quickly to miss even one evening with her.  We ended up having to run a quick errand at Target (photo shoot locale), so pre-bed time together was limited.  It was nice to spend it as a family.  Josh put on some Tunes, Michal and I danced.  Pretty much perfection. 



Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Day 152: Bangled, Tangled, Spangled, and Spaghettied*

When I was pregnant with Michal, I remember being anxious for her birth.  What would she be like?  Which personality traits would she inherit from us, and which would she develop all her own?  Would she be a diligent student, or would she find new and inventive ways to make schoolwork a challenge?  I do remember wondering what she would look like.  I assumed she would have a darker complexion like us, so you can imagine my surprise when she was relatively pale upon birth.  I guess that will come with time... and the sun.  I definitely remember wondering if she would be an ugly baby... and whether I would even know.  And hair - would the old wives' tales be true in linking my occasional heartburn to the presence of hair?


Well, she did have hair, although looking back at those newborn pictures, it does not seem as abundant as it did in those first days.  Everyone commented on it, though.  Such hair, such a lucky girl.  Her baby friends, who were not as generously locked, expressed their jealousy.  


While I do not dislike accessories, I have not gone wild with the bows and headbands.  From time to time, usually if I remember, I will use one of our Hello, Charlotte James headbands or, more recently, a clip of some sort.  But for the most part, I'm just thankful that her hair doesn't obscure her vision too much, so I can just brush it to the side and not worry about accessories.  It seems like she has inherited my hair.  It is fine in texture with a bit of a curl, especially with increased humidity.  The curl could be because of Josh, too.  


Today's theme, however, was crazy hair.  We picked her up at day care to find that the older son had styled her hair.  It has been a near-record day of heat in the DC area, so we were not surprised to find Michal and Krystal, the women who watches her, outside on the stoop of the house, hose in hand, spraying Krystal's two children.  I half-wished I would "accidentally" get sprayed.  It looked like Michal got some of the castoff spray, so her hair was wet and ended up resembling a curly Mohawk after Krystal's son played with it - so cute!  So when we got home, we played a bit more with it.    


 Just getting a sense of the wild nature of it - it has some length and curl, just enough to make it CRAAAAAAZY. 

 It is definitely shorter in the back, partly because she sleeps on her back.  Everywhere else, her hair is fine and silky, but here it is slightly coarser, and it seems as if the strands that survive tend to be thicker and a little rough.  In time, I'm sure this will change.

 Faux-hawk baby!

Whenever anyone raves about her "long" hair, I try to let them know that looks deceive.  There is not a ton of length to her hair.  I can barely make this little Kewpie topknot happen, partly because of her hair's texture, partly because of the length.  But it IS possible!

More than anything else, what perplexes us is the color of her hair.  Josh and I both have dark hair, while Michal's can glint gold to auburn to light brown.  I have heard stories of friends who started out towhead blonds and are now bona fide brunettes.  I guess we'll see!


Bangled, Tangled, Spangled, and Spaghettied*