Lovely day for swinging!

Napping on her playdate.

This week has been fairly uneventful for us so far.  Just the usual errands and routines.  However, today brought some things that were out of the ordinary.  Andy flew down to New York this morning to visit with Grandma and Grandpa for a few days.  We sure will miss him up here!  

Swinging!

After he left for the airport, we had a playdate at the Eastern Promenade playground with Katie and her son Ben.  Ben's a little older than Greta, so they weren't exactly the best match for a get-together, but it was a beautiful day out, so it was nice to enjoy the sunshine.  Greta spent the first half of our playdate napping in her stroller (who has it better?), but when she finally woke up, I decided to throw her in one of the baby swings to see how she would do, since she's been sitting up on her own for a short while now.  She loved it!  It was perfect because it was small enough for her to sit without falling over or sliding down.  She probably would have kept swinging, but it was getting a little too crowded for us, so we decided to go for a walk afterward.

That's all for now.  We are looking forward to Grandma Jeanne and Grandpa Marty to come visit on Saturday and for Andy to come back to town Sunday!  Hopefully we have some of the same weather this weekend that we had today :)

Let's go Pirates!

Let's go Pirates!

For Valentine's Day, Andy received tickets to a Portland Pirates game and Sunday was the big day!  We stopped at DogFish Cafe for late lunch/early dinner beforehand and had some amazingly huge and amazingly delicious burgers.  Greta napped.  Silly girl.  Then we headed to the Civic Center for the game.  We were a little worried she might be overwhelmed by all of the people and noise, but she did great.  She seemed to love looking around at everyone and actually appeared to be following the players on the ice (we can pretend, can't we?).  Hockey always captures her attention on television, so maybe she made the connection...  We wound up leaving about halfway through because we wanted to make sure we were home in time to get G ready for bed.  She has been doing great with sleeping, so we avoid messing with that at all costs.

Nothing else too exciting has been going on here this week.  She's tried pureed apples and zucchini, which seemed to go over okay.  I think apples were a bigger hit, but we'll keep to our schedule of 3-4 days per food before introducing a new one and we're only on day 2 of zucchini.  Pears are up next!

Mmmm...apples...

Other than that, we've been rooting for Grandma Meg, who is one of the strongest, bravest women we know.  She had her big surgery on Tuesday and seems to be doing really, really well and we are so proud of her.  Greta is looking forward to video chatting with her as soon as she's home from the hospital.  We love you, Grandma Meg <3

Starting solids and sitting up

We officially started adding solid food to Greta's daily menu on Tuesday.  She was having brown rice cereal twice per day, but after a day and half of seeming less than amused, I roasted up a sweet potato and she is much happier.  So, I think we'll try rice cereal a few more times, since we have it ready to go, but I think my baby wants the good stuff :)  Her reaction to sweet potatoes has been great...she is all smiley and helps put the spoon in her mouth.  With the rice, so sort of looks at me like I'm crazy and then shakes a little once it hits her tongue.  So, feeding has become a longer, more involved process, but I'm excited to be able to introduce our little girl to some real food, especially since I love trying new stuff myself.

Sweet potatoes!

In addition to that thrilling new adventure, we have a sitter!  She has been doing great on the couch for some time, propped up next to something or sitting in the "crack" of two cushions, but she was still having trouble correcting herself when she started to tilt.  Yesterday, she started sitting like a champ on the floor, making playtime that much more fun.  And today we went to story time at the library and she sat up almost the entire time on her own...except for her favorite part of story time, the bouncy songs :)  You can't go down the bumpy road sitting on the rug alone, now can you?

Our trip to New York!

Wow...that went fast!  We cannot believe it has already been a week since we packed up the car and headed back to Long Island for a family visit.  Some of the highlights:

Thursday the three of us, both grandmas and Uncles James and Josh drove out to the east end for some wine tasting.  We had a beautiful day and were able to visit some wineries we hadn't yet tried.  Stops included Clovis Point, Castello di Borghese and Sparkling Pointe, with a detour to the Rhumb Line for lunch.

Friday, Andy headed over to the McDowell's to help set up for the big engagement party on Saturday and Laura and Greta spent the afternoon with Grandma Jeanne and Aunt Lesley in Huntington.  Friday night, after G went to bed, we snuck out to meet some friends for dinner at Mangoes...man, we had missed that place.

Saturday was Uncle Dan and Allison's engagement party.  The weather was perfect and Greta had a great time seeing everyone and getting to meet some new people.  All three of us were even asked to be in the wedding!  We are so honored and excited to be part of their special day :)

Sunday was Greta's first Easter.  We had some much-needed bagels for breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa McDowell's in the morning and then went to Aunt Lorraine and Uncle Keith's for dinner.  Thank you to everyone for all of the lovely Easter gifts for Greta - she is one lucky little girl.

Before we knew it, Monday had arrived.  Greta was able to head out for one more early morning walk with Grandma Jeanne before we loaded up the car to head back up to Maine.  We had such a nice time with everyone these past few days and are looking forward to planning our next visit!

Photos to come soon!  Plus another new post later today or tomorrow...

Happy six month birthday to our favorite little girl!  We cannot believe how quickly the past six months has flown by.  We seriously fall more in love with her each day and are amazed at how she always seems to be learning something new.

We started the day off with her six-month doctor's visit and are happy to report our growing girl is 17 lbs, 2 oz and 26.5" long...with a 42.5 cm noggin.  Everything looks good and we were given the okay to start solid foods, so we plan to try out some brown rice cereal once we return from our trip back to NY.  We've snuck in some banana, applesauce and avocado over the past few weeks, which seemed to go over well, so we think Greta will be excited to try some new foods and hopefully she'll one day consider eating fun foods a hobby, just like her mom :)

Almost six months old...

Welcome to Greta Jeanne's blog!  We are way behind.  We originally hoped to start this venture way back when she was first born, but we've been pretty busy since then :)  So, we figured today was as good a day as any to get started.

This week is actually a big one for our family.  Greta will be six months old tomorrow!  We can't believe how fast this time has flown by and how amazing our little girl has become.  We are loving every minute and are really looking forward to all of the new things she'll be taking on over the next six months.

Yesterday, we went and celebrated our first Maine Maple Sunday.  We drove up to the Gorham/Windham area with our good friend Lauren to visit some maple farms and sample some local maple goodness.

 Being that Mainers love their maple syrup, we may have gotten a bit of a late start to really get in on all the action.  Every farm we drove to was packed.  We finally decided to stop at Jo's and wait on the long, winding line for homemade pancakes, sausage and maple syrup.

The day was sunny and clear, but windy and a little chilly, so after waiting for some time outside, we quickly ate our pancakes at a picnic table and headed back to the car.  All in all, it was a fun day and we'll probably plan a little better next year and start out earlier.  Thanks for joining us, Lauren!

The beginning of this week will just consist of getting ready for our big trip back to NY on Wednesday.  We are excited to see everyone and already have a jam-packed schedule for our short time there.  Hopefully we can head out earlier than anticipated Wednesday afternoon and get in before it's too late.  Plans include wine-tasting, dinner at Mangoes, Dan & Allison's engagement party and Easter!  We know it's going to fly by.  Can't wait to see you all!  We'll have more to share when we get back home next week and hopefully some great photos to post.