our little Dark Knight

Is that not the most amazing baby garment you've ever seen?

It is. This shirt, along with about a dozen other geeky little treats (referencing things like Firefly, Lost, and even Daniel Plainview's signature mantra - - that last one is my favorite - it even has a picture of a milkshake!), was made for Maeby by our friend Mindy.
We're starting to get excited about the new clothes the wee one can fit into, and a little sad about the things she's already outgrown.
Isn't it ridiculous, the things we get attached to?


She's enjoying tummy-time more and more all the time, and has long since ceased to be a tyro at holding her head up.

Look up "dignity" in the dictionary: you'll find this picture.

The same thing goes for "adorable" with this one

Now that's just embarrassing.

"Why? Why are flashes going off in my face?"

eating her fist

(photo of Joker removed due to complaints from Grandma)

We try to go walking in the park at least once a week. It's been rather cold of late, so little Mae has to get pretty bundled up. She usually sleeps the whole time - but here I caught her in a rare moment of clarity, staring at the trees and the sky.

The point of this shot was to try and see the trees reflected in her eyes. Instead, you can see Jenn and myself, which is actually just as cool.

(editorial note - I apologize for the poor resolution on some of these photos - blogger is being a pain lately when it comes to uploading - and has never had a good track record, anyways, transferring shots in all their high-res quality. It's frustrating)

Hey, I've got Large Motor Skills!

At 6 weeks old, Maeby is holding her head high!!! She loves tummy time and is more than willing to hold her little head up and look around at the world to show it who's boss!!!




Mommy and her Grandma Jurgens thought they'd try to see if Maeby would play with some toys. Her keys are her favorite. She LOVES to shake them around, that is, until they hit her in the face and she gets mad. She makes a very grumpy face. She also makes grumpy faces now that she's discovering her hair - and that when it's pulled it hurts, but she hasn't figured out that SHE is the one pulling it (we'll try to get pictures of that soon).

NOTE: Every time she experiences something new, that little froggy tongue of hers comes out to "taste" the experience. It's pretty funny.

Look! It's the Ocean Maeby!

Our very good friend Mindy came out for a visit from Utah so that she can get more familiar with what will be her home by next fall :) We hope at least!! (NOTE: Mindy, I will not think less of you if you go to grad school elsewhere) Anyway, we promised we'd take Mindy to the beach for Maeby's 1st trip to the Ocean! She slept through much of it, but she did experience sand and water.

She also was present (although asleep) when we saw a whole colony of Harbor Seals and Endangered Brown Pelicans (about 4.5 million additional pictures of pelicans on flickr).

We had an awesome time and the weather was awesome! What a fun family trip with our friend Mindy!

a month . . . and a day

Maeby's a month old now, up to almost nine pounds and well on her way to running the household with an iron (and admittedly small) fist.

Here are some photographic highlights of the past couple weeks, along with the usual exposition.

Like what we did with the wall above her crib? Each letter has a theme. M has a beach theme, A is farm animals, E is wild animals, B is bugs and flowers, and Y is birds. The Y is my favorite.

I actually took this in an almost completely dark room by using a 30 second exposure and a tripod. She really laid that still for 30 seconds.

This kid loves the bath. Loves it. Whenever she gets really upset and needs a good calming down (beyond what rocking, cooing, and desperately pleading with her to be quiet through a wall of our own salty salty tears can accomplish) all we have to do is let her float a little bit.

See? Happy as can be.

We've actually been a little surprised at the lack of concern/angst on the cats' part as regards the new occupant in their castle. We were expecting fits, attacks, growls, and months of sulking. After all, when we brought Beesly (not pictured) home, Aravis (pictured - the brownish one) hid under the bed for weeks, stopped eating, and tried several times to get him evicted by framing him for crimes (really.) So, when we brought the baby home, and all they did was stare at her for a moment before going back to their napping and bathing, we were . . . startled.

This right here is about as close as they've come to a confrontation. As you can tell, it was electrifying.


I know most of the pictures we take of her are when she's asleep - but you can't argue with that cute-level.

Smiling in her sleep. Probably dreaming about that one time where she breast-fed and then burped and then pooped and then got wrapped in a blanket.

Does she not look a little like Albert Brooks?

Yes, she does.

"Where's my child support check, Albert Brooks?"

Another close encounter.

More sleeping pictures.

Maeby's 1st O Hallows Eve!

This past week Maeby experienced her very first Halloween!

The week started out with the traditional carving of pumpkins. Usually we carve pumpkins on the Monday before Halloween while watching something like the 1931 version of Dracula. However, this year we carved pumpkins while watching another iconic film, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Maeby wasn't too interested in the jack-o-lantern making, but she likes the bright lights of the TV and the cats enjoyed playing with the innards.

Later in the week we dressed Maeby in her costume & went to Heavenly Harvest, one of the many local farms here in Corvallis featuring activities such as rubber ducky races, pumpkin patch, hay rides, cider, hay maze, corn maze etc etc. It was a cute little place with lots of photo-ops.

Mommy and Daddy had to wake me up from the car ride! I did not like it!

I can't believe they made me lay in this corn! It keeps moving and they won't let me wiggle my way into being comforetable to go back to sleep!!!!

This "hay" is scratchy and I can't sit up very well....I bet I fall over and they laugh at me, like its cute or something...


See....I knew it!

I don't think this is commentary on how we look, although I am putting some weight on.

I JUST WANT TO GO HOME ALREADY...

How many of these cut out picture are there anyway???

This wasn't as uncomforetable as it looks....

I found a pumpkin that's just my size! But I'm not allowed to take it home because I already have one....but I waaaannnnt it!!!!!

With the view from up here, this maze wasn't too hard...

Halloween itself rolled around and since Mommy and Daddy were too sick to go up to Salem and visit Uncle Chris & Aunt Sara for Maeby to go trick-or-treating with her cousins, Alec & Jayna, we followed another tradition in our family of watching scary movies all night.

All in all it was a fun 1st Halloween for Maeby.