Mami in the house!

My mother comes once a week to take care of Maceo and give him that grandparent unconditional love. Maceo digs it; it's very evident. Yesterday, when I arrived home from work, they were sitting together at the dining room table, eating applesauce and reading the NYTimes while chicken stock cooled on the stove. Not a bad deal for all of us!

Labor Day

We realize it's been a while since our last post. In that time, coaching volleyball and teaching have started for Nick, Kate is back to her normal grind of work and aerobics, and Maceo has begun day care at a Catholic center near our house called St. Ann's. But here's some recent news from the beginning of September, and we will work on getting back into the swing of posting family news, especially now that sleep training for the three of us is going so well (Can you say 7 pm to 6 am? We can!)

An on-again, off-again tradition was back on this summer, as we rented a house for the long weekend with a large group of friends. The large group now includes a gaggle of children, all under 16 months, with Maceo the youngest. The house was on the water, just north of Baltimore, and it was really lovely. All the kids get along as well as 1 year olds can get along, and the parents get along even better.

Most of the weekend is spent hanging out, with various delicious meals prepared throughout the day. This year, with the river right out in front of the house, people went out kayaking and sailing, too.

Head Control

Maceo's a strong boy. At least, that's what people are telling us; we don't really know. In any case, Kate found that he's strong enough to enjoy the swing. And she enjoyed it more than he did, I think!

Go Sawks!

Maceo received some pretty cool presents from the McMurrers of Amherst, MA. Who are Bruins fans. And Cletics fans (gah). And Red Sox fans.

Maceo is taken in, and his father, a Mets fan, isn't happy about it.

Trying some new things...

We took Maceo in to the doctor's last week and she suggested that he could start sleeping unswaddled and on his belly. She also said we could try feeding him some solid food and recommended a few. We went with avocado, I think more for the possible disgusting factor hours after the feeding, rather than rice cereal or banana. So be it.
Here're some scenes from the event.

Then he got cleaned up, and I gave him a Richie Rich hair style.

The Challenger!

And in this corner, the challenger in a grey shirt, blue shorts, and new shoes--weighing in at 16 pounds, 13.5 ounces, 27.5 inches tall, and undefeated in all his previous bouts with Sophie, his little rubber giraffe---Maceo, looking nervous about the entire situation!

Notice shoes are on the wrong feet; typical rookie mistake.

Working Vacation

Kate is ecstatic to have more responsibility at work, and it's paying off right away. She was sent to Lincoln University, outside of Philadelphia, to speak to an incoming group of Fulbright students, and Maceo and I were able to tag along.
We left on Sunday and drove to Philly itself where we stayed overnight with friends, Liz and Stefan, and their three adorable and precocious kids.

Kate and Maceo snacking, while Oliver and Josephine play with an iPhone.

Evan, the middle son, was off to zoo camp at the time of this photo. Stefan is a photographer and we are lucky enough to have a number of his photos in our house. For the birth of Maceo, he has given us another print and we are super excited to get it! He's having it matted and then I will build a frame for it.






Stefan also gave me a flash for my camera and I got to play with that in the hotel room while I watched Maceo and Kate went out to make money.
Overall, for our first trip with Maceo, it was quite fun. He had a rougher ride up in the car than coming back, but he was pretty good the whole way. He didn't sleep as well as he has been at home, but that seems easily attributable to the changes in schedule and routine. And he seemed to like going in the pool, though, sadly, there are no photos of that.