California

Last weekend, me, Jake, and his girlfriend, Shayla, took a quick trip down to Arroyo Grande, California to visit my mom and grandparents. (Morgan had to work.) We flew down, stayed a couple days, and drove back up in my Lancer that has been parked at my grandparents' house for several months now. Ah, it's good to have Lance back!

Macy has been on a lot of road trips in her short little lifetime, but this was her first plane ride and she did fantastic! The altitude changes didn't seem to bother her at all and there was no crying (but plenty of squirming). Even though Macy was a perfect angel for the most part, it would have been a whole different adventure if Jake and Shayla hadn't come. Traveling with an infant is a lot of work! I was so glad to have them there with me to help out with her.  Here are some photos of the journey:

Helping mom pack

Cheeeese

Avila Beach

We found a nice place in the shade for vampire baby

Macy with Grandma Rista

Shayla & Jake

The weather was great but the water was still very cold

This was about as much water as Macy would tolerate

Pretty sunset at grandparents' house

Boyd, mom's pet robin

Apparently I missed a spot with the sunscreen!

Pismo Beach

Ha ha, great shot of Macy! (she was asleep)

I can't believe I didn't get any photos of grandma and grandpa! Oops.

Driving home

 ...Aaand we're home again...

More silliness

We recorded these last night..

April videos

The reason I'm posting this next one is because towards the end of the video, the ball she's playing with says "Good bye" and she waves bye-bye to it! Ha ha..

Macy thinks it's hilarious when you shake your head at her. You'll have to excuse the shaky camera, as I couldn't shake my head and hold the camera still at the same time! :)

She looks so big in the Jumperoo these days! This is one of our mother-daughter squealing sessions. Umm, her squealing is much cuter than mine. ;)

I just love her goofy grin in this one.

Enjoying some time outside on a lovely day. She's not a big fan of the sun in her eyes--notice how she flinches or moves whenever the sun hits her.

Macy is now 8.5 months old. She...

• loves to smile and make silly faces, and will mirror the faces I make. 
• makes the craziest noises and sounds. 
• waves & claps and "dances" (more of a bobble) to music.
• is a good eater and definitely prefers to feed herself. 
• still only has the two teeth (that she's had for over 2 months now!), but that doesn't stop her from gumming that food to a mush. 
• is not crawling yet, but she is still quite ambulatory--she just rolls wherever she wants to go. Last night she started scooting forward a little too, inchworm-style. 
• is very good with strangers unless they have facial hair. Scruffy men almost always make her cry.
• loves cats, but cries at the sight of most dogs (the only exception seems to be small dogs that resemble a cat and are not too hyperactive). 
• usually sleeps 12+ hours a night and still takes two naps during the day.

I am a very lucky mama. Here are some new photos:

Out for pizza in her PJs! (This is our neighbor, Megan)

Spaghetti face

My sister came for a quick visit at the end of March. Macy hated spending time with her, as you can see.. :)

The neighbors got some Easter bunny ears for Macy. Pretty cute, eh?

I tried to capture her "Judson pose" during a nap, but of course she heard me scrambling around for the camera, so I didn't get the shot of her sleeping with her hands behind her head. Still cute, though!

Our friend Jimmy came to visit last weekend. The weather was gorgeous, and Jimmy's great with a camera, so we took a walk down to the beach with the intention of getting some family shots, since we had our very own photographer with us. We managed to get one before the battery died. Oops!

Macy is enjoying her baths more and more. She is sort of a wimp about getting water in her eyes (much like her mom), but other than that, she has a good time.

She's almost too big for the duck tub! 

For all you parent's out there who have Mattel/Fisher-Price products who are not familiar with their Replacement Parts website, take note: I wanted to buy a new high chair pad for the high chair I'm borrowing from Eva, because the pad is pretty beat up, and stumbled upon this website. For $12.50 plus shipping, I was able to just replace the cover, and wa-lah, the high chair looks good as new again!... ;)

Eva: here is a sneak preview of your new high chair pad! :)

WARNING: The following photo contains lewd and inappropriate acts by a baby and is not suitable for all viewers.

Look at that face!! She is so grounded.

 I had a two-day (8-hr/day) class to take in Eugene this Monday and Tuesday (a nursing certification course), so Ramie baby-sat Macy for those days. We thought it would be good practice for her, since she will soon have another little one of her own here in a few months (!!!)... However, Macy made it waaay too easy on her ;) Both days, she woke up at around 10:30 AND took her usual naps AND had a smile on her face throughout almost all of her waking hours.

Story time with the Moodys

March Photos

I don't really have anything to "blog" about, but here are some new-ish photos!

"Mace Ventura"

This is after their walk-- it must have been windy! 

Twinsies!

Mace with her "crinkle owl"

Videos

These first two videos are from the Jumperoo chronicles.

Macy has been working on her waving and clapping. I was trying to get her clapping on video, but got this instead:

She is getting very good at waving. She waves at the "catty," the plants, and I'm pretty sure one time she even waved at the blender. But mostly she likes to wave at the "baby in the mirror" and at the pictures of her cousins on the refrigerator. Often times, if I need to distract her while I'm in the kitchen, I'll place her in her high chair and place her in front of the fridge to talk to them.

This is Morgan's nightmare:

Last Friday, at 3:40 am, Morgan and I were awoken by a noise outside the window that at first sounded like coyotes. But we knew that it wasn't coyotes, and that there was only one thing it could be: Bandon's emergency siren. After a couple minutes, the ominous coyote-siren stopped and the announcement commenced: "Tsunami evacuation is in effect. All low-lying areas move to higher ground by 7 am..." (or something like that) I went online to find out about the earthquake and subsequent tsunami. They were predicting "3-to-6-foot waves" to hit the Bandon coast, which doesn't really mean much to us since there is a 40+ foot cliff between our house and the ocean. Regardless, we figured that it'd be better to be safe than sorry, so the three of us headed over to Jim & Jill's at 6:45 am to watch the tsunami's havoc unfold on the news... All that to say that this video is from that morning, at the Boyd Safe Zone:

Oh! I almost forgot to mention my favorite part of that last video--Mr. Bear! Macy has a bedtime routine... no, it's really more of a formula:  Mobile on + Mr. Bear (the pink blanket-bear in this video) cradled in her arm = 2 fingers in her mouth & she is out-like-a-light. Anyway, I usually don't let Mr. Bear leave the crib, but since I figured she'd be napping over at the grandparents' house this day, I brought her (yes, Mr. Bear is a she) along for the ride. So as soon as Macy picks up this bear, those two fingers are in her mouth and she's ready for a nap-- it's like magic! And it's sooo cute.

For the last week, it's been getting harder and harder to get Macy to eat her pureed foods. She just doesn't seem interested anymore! It's been a little frustrating, but I think I've figured it out: I don't think she likes "baby food" anymore. She loves it when I let her gnaw on toast and celery and apple slices, but of course when she does manage to break off a chunk, it's usually too big for her to manage, so I just have to immediately scoop it out of her mouth. Well, I decided to try giving her some little bites of cheese this morning, and she ate (or dropped... okay, she probably dropped more than she ate, but still...) everything I put in front of her! (About 30 tiny pieces) I guess it's time to expand her menu...