Aoife's First Christmas

So, even though she was equally fascinated by the tree and the wrapping paper (and the kitties at grandma's house) as she was her presents, Aoife's first Christmas was a lot of fun. We were so excited wrapping them, it just built anticipation for the coming years when she is more aware.

Aoife and Mommy were up before everyone else, I suppose that this will be routine for years to come (hopefully not for mom though).Anticipation...Fun opening presents.This seems pretty cool.Hmmm...what's this?I do like it!!!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! We wish you the best in the coming year!

Love,
James, Maggie, and Aoife

Snow Day!

Aoife is at an age where she can get really excited when she experiences something new. Our last trip to the zoo was a lot of fun because she absolutely loved the animals; she looked in amazement, and laughed, and as we would walk away from certain exhibits she would climb up over my shoulder and gaze back, craning her neck, so that she could watch for as long as possible! It was probably more fun for mom and grandma than Aoife ; )! Given this new awareness of, and wonder at, the world we were really excited when watching the weather forecast this past week. We knew that the weekend would bring snow! When it started falling this morning Aoife was content to just watch, coo, and smile as her dad held her and talked to her about it, for and hour! When we actually got her outside, she wasn't sure -- we still had fun.



It is 30 degrees outside right now, our highs later this week are supposed to be in the low to mid 20s. Fingers crossed, our travel plans for Wednesday won't be too delayed. On that note, our next post will be made from the land of sunshine and warmer weather, Phoenix, where Aoife will acculmulate even more new experiences for us to share.

Until then, have a wonderful holiday season, take care of yourselves and each other!

We love you!

James, Maggie, & Aoife

Splish, Splash...

...Aoife loves the bath, and she has one every single night ; )!

Aoife's bath helps her relax and she loves to play in the water. Silly Mommy played with her hair the other night (now that she actually has a bit) and took some pictures. She was patient and playful, as usual.
Aoife mohawk!The Alfalfa look.
Wet, combed back look--you know, like an old man with thinning hair.
Just super cute.
She also enjoyed playing with bubbles that Mommy made for her. She wasn't quite sure why she couldn't get a hold of them ; )!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving, we have a lot to be thankful for this year. We hope that you all enjoyed your day, too.



We love you!
-James, Maggie, & Aoife

It's mealtime! -- and other bits and pieces

Here's our little Aoife having her first meal:




We think that she did a great job and goodness knows it was exciting for us. We decided to start "solids" after weeks of her watching every bite of food that made its way to our mouths and actually even successfully intercepting the odd morsel here and there ; )! Successive meals have gone even better, as evidenced by the pictures you will find below.You'd think she actually likes avocado.She does love her sweet potatoes!Aoife thinks: Hmmmm, I might actually need daddy's help to get to the water at the bottom of this glass.

I (Maggie) have been making all of Aoife's food so far. Sweet potatoes, banana, whole grain rice cereal, and acorn squash have been a hit -- she gets so excited she can hardly contain herself as soon as she gets into her high chair. She immediately begins to shake and giggle with excitement. She quickly learned to feed herslef. She likes to take her spoon, put it in her mouth, and then turn it over to dump the contents onto her tongue. Actually closing her lips around the spoon and then sliding it out of her mouth has proven a little too sophisticated for now ; ). Avocado and pears (pears of all things?!?!?) haven't gone over so well. They actually elicit a gag reflex. Next on the menu are some green veggies, peas and green beans maybe, to be followed by some oat cereal. She is also really into water, she will drink it any way we give it to her: bottle, sippy-cup, straw or big girl glass. The big girl glass is her favorite, or course.

Solid food has been our most exciting development to date, but we have other news to report. Aofie was 6 months old on the 23rd of October! Time really just goes by too quickly, we can hardly believe it. At her 6 month well baby appointment Aoife was "off the charts" in height. She checked in a 28 inches long -- she is in her 9 and 12 month clothes already! She was 16 lbs. 13 oz., a healthy weight, but only 66th percentile (compared to her 99th plus in length). We joke that she is going to be our gorgeous, leggy, blonde (not what mommy would have expected before she actually arrived). Not only is she gorgeous, but smart too. She already loves books. The same excitement that she shows for food she has for books. Often just the cover of a book, a couple in particular, actually cause her to laugh. Surpirse, surpirse, she loves good food and good literature, she really takes after mom and dad!I love a good book (especially when mommy sings it to me or does the funny voices)!I am so curious about everything in my world.I'm my daddy's girl!
What a beautiful fall day!

We expect wiggling like a worm or crawling shortly. Aoife has started to scoot backward when she is on her tummy and lunge forward, catching herself on all fours when she is sitting playing and wants to get to something. Stay tuned for that news as well as other exciting developments.

We love you!

Un gran abrazo,
Maggie, James, e Aoife