In Case You Were Worried

I think it's official. Maizie is over her fear of the bath. This is also an excellent sample of the exotic language know as Maizese. She usually hushes up when I have the camera, so I'm pretty happy to catch this little-known tongue on tape. I'll be forwarding this to the linguistic historians at UT tomorrow.

Pictures from Last Week

These weren't showing up from an earlier post, but I don't think I'm up for writing captions again, so you can write your own in your head. Enjoy.

Happy Easter!

This Easter weekend, we went to the farm in Normangee (Camp Bullnettle, as they call it) to hang out with Jason's family. All 10 of our neices and nephews were there and we had fun playing kickball, ultimate frisbee and hanging out by the fire. Maizie fought a nap all day Saturday, so she ended up only sleeping maybe an hour between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. I think she is like me. Once she misses sleep, she just goes into hyper mode and makes the most of her awake time. We saw baby Olivia and Koby and Irma in College Station and she is getting so big and so cute! Maizie loved yelling "BAY-BEEEEEE" at her. Easter day was nice, but I think Maizie was still catching up from her busy weekend. She was cranky all day, even though I kept reminding her about Jesus being risen. Hasn't quite gotten a grip on that yet. Hope yours was fun!

This is a framer! Maizie hanging out near Paw Paw's tracter at the farm.

Little Maizie on the big farm.

Mow the lawn or go to church? Tough choices for such a little girl. Easter dress handmade by Aunt Jodi in Nashville! So cute!

Um, hello. My Easter egg is empty. How 'bout some juice?

Nana's Birthday Trip

My Mom and Dad came into town last week for my Mom's birthday. We had a great time. Maizie had her first overnight stay without us, and it was AWESOME. My parents took her to Houston to visit with my aunt and grandma. Jason and I went out to eat, to a movie and to a comedy show. We used every possible second of freedom.

Our big plan was to have Maizie's first zoo trip happen this week, but the weather didn't cooperate. So, we went to toddler time at the Children's Museum and to the Austin Rodeo Fairgrounds that night. They had a free petting zoo that was the highlight of Maizie's week, if not of her entire life. She chased after all the animals calling them all dogs and barking at them. Here's a video of her in action.

Catch-Up

Jason's New Do courtesy of Caren's New Do. That's right, I chopped it all off. It's nice. My hair has thinned since the pregnancy, so now I can actually have short hair without it being a fro! I'm really enjoying this positive development from being pregnant (other than Maizie, of course).

Jason and the "He-men" from church went backpacking last weekend around Lake Georgetown. The wives and Maizie hiked out 1.5 miles to meet them for dinner Saturday night. We gave Maizie the heaviest pack since she's the youngest and most agile.

Happy to see daddy, snot-face and all.

Really cool 70s style sunset picture. I love it.

Things that Have Amazed Me This Week

1. Jason's Musical Heritage

We were with the Georges this week to celebrate the life of Jason's grandma, Louise Anderson, who passed away last Sunday night after 92 faithful years. The service was beautiful, and I was overwhelmed by how every single member of Jason's family, immediate and extended, is musically gifted. Not just "they can sing," but really, amazingly talented. His uncles and mom sang a song and it was beautiful. Then Jason, his brother, sisters and mom sang a song and proved their title yet again of the "Van George Family Singers" (i gave them that title :-). Jason's grandma was a church pianist and taught Margaret how to play. She taught Jason and he already enjoys sharing his piano bench with Maizie. I can't wait to see how this musical legacy plays out in her life. I, on the other hand, am the only one on both sides of our family missing the gene. Whaddayagunnado?

2. Maizie's Mysterious Southern Accent

So Maizie doesn't say "Dog", she says "DAAAAWWWWWGG". No joke. And she doesn't say "Baby", she says "bay-BEEEEEEEE!" And on Old McDonald's Farm, Maizie goes, "E-Ah-E-Ah" not "E-I-E-I". What HAPPENED HERE? She's hangs out with a loveable Yankee all day long and comes out with this Southern dribble?!? Jason doesn't really have a drawl either, except if you catch him singing the song "Light the Fire," which is completely excusable. Not sure where this is coming from, but this Mudblood (half Yankee :-) child better start getting in touch with her Northern side soon. My parents are in town this week, but they are finding her accent endearing and aren't helping out the situation. Again, whaddayagunnado.

3. How A Girl Can Go From 100% Happy to 100% Unhappy in One Second Flat

4. This Man

A short list of things Jason has done for me over the past 2 weeks: moved us to a new place, set up his fish tank, hung kitchen shelves and a pot rack, hung curtains, rearranged a perfectly good looking dining room, changed all our lightbulbs to the curly q kind, put our bed together, put our computer together, hung wall shelves in our office, put Maizie's room together, set up our tv and dish, handled the horrible dish customer service when I had had enough, took time out to read and pray to Maizie every night, figured out our washing machine was broke, researched said washer on the internet, ordered a part for said washer on the internet and fixed said washer (amazing), took me out to eat, took me to a movie, took me to a show, helped me take everything out of our garage and put it neatly back in, helped me dye my hair (he does it all, ladies!) and cooked me breakfast. And this is just the short list. I was on the phone with T-mobile changing our address this morning and they had to verify something with Jason. I said I'd have to hold up the phone since he was cooking breakfast and the operator couldn't shut up for the rest of the conversation about that. She kept repeating how lucky I was. And I agree.

5. How My 14-year-old nephew, Ramsey, Can Do This

16 Going on 17

Since I skipped her 16 month birthday, I thought I'd go with a complete "Sound of Music" theme and update you on some of Maizie's favorite things:

1. DOGS
2. CATS
3. CHAIRS
4. DAD
5. MILK OR JUICE
6. HER GREEN KNIT BLANKETS
7. HER PACI AT NIGHT
8. BREAD
9. SAMOAS (jason shares with her)
10. BABIES
11. GRAPES
12. SONGS (especially "if you're happy and you know it")
13. HER PIANO
14. BALLS (she tries to carry as many as possible)
15. KEYS and DOORS
16. ME!
16.5 HER FRIENDS AND FAMILY