Vintage Greta...

So, I was feeling kind of like a slacker waiting until Greta was six months to start her blog, so I'm hoping to sprinkle in some flashback posts, with pictures of our little bug in the first half of her first year.  Here goes...

9.26.12: Happy birthday, Greta Jeanne!

Brand new.

Snug as a bug.

Her favorite pose early on.

Spring is here!

Wow, so we're a little behind on our posts, but it's probably because we've finally been able to enjoy some beautiful spring weather!

Two weeks ago, Grandma and Grandpa came for a visit!

Excitedly awaiting
Grandma & Grandpa's arrival

Mmm...mashed potatoes...

We had a great time with them and were able to walk downtown both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday when they arrived, Grandpa put in a ceiling fan for Greta, just in time for the nice weather - she loves watching it spin.  Then we walked down to have dinner at Old Port Sea Grill.  Greta tried mashed potatoes for the first time - yum!  Sunday, Andy came back home from New York, so waited for his flight to land and then we all went to brunch at the Front Room and spent the rest of the afternoon walking around.  We came home just in time for Greta to get ready for bed and then we ordered in some pizza.  Overall, a nice, relaxing weekend...thanks for coming to visit with us!

Portland Head Light

This past weekend, the three of us went over to Fort Williams park to see the Portland Head Light and go for a walk around the grounds.  Greta seemed to love just being outside people-watching - she has a bit of a staring problem, though no one has seemed to mind yet - must be her charm :)

Whoops...wrong end!

Loving apples!

We have had some adventures in baby food, too.  She has added peas and yogurt to her repertoire and we've been doing a lot more blending of foods together, which she enjoys.  She has yet to turn away a spoon!  And as we speak, I'm making up some batches of new foods for her to try this week - a veggie stock we can add to other foods, carrots, roasted butternut squash, and a spring veggie risotto with zucchini, asparagus and peas!  I may try to turn some of the butternut squash into a soup with apple and cinnamon or ginger.  She also just got a new mesh feeder, which is sort of like a ring pop for food she can't quite chew yet (still no teeth, though the bottom two seem pretty close!) and she had an apple wedge this morning that made her pretty happy.

Other than that, she has been getting to sit in her fair share of grocery carts lately and loves looking around and getting attention from anyone who will give it to her :)  She's doing great with sitting up and really has no issues hanging out in there, which makes shopping much easier.

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 :)