chatty girl

Maren loves her play mat - and she is especially fascinated by the Girl in the Mirror, who mysteriously shows up every morning. She loves to talk to this girl. It looks like this:

Maren's first Christmas

Maren's first Christmas, in summary:

Eat.

Sleep.

Fill diapers.

Eat.

Open presents.

Visit family.

Sleep.

Fill diapers. (Including occasional massive blowout.)

Eat.

Sleep.

Repeat.

But the written description isn't that much fun. Pictures are better.

Thus we present Maren's first Christmas, in photo form:

Our first family photo (in which Dad is mesmerizing to Maren).

With cousin Wyatt...

...and cousin Sofia.

And Grandpa! (While trying to eat my bib.)

Meeting cousin Matt...

...and Uncle Bob.

One of many hours spent on the World's Best Play Mat (made even better with cousin Lauren).

Hanging with Aunt Brenda

With almost all the Bray cousins...

...and almost all the grandkids. (We got to video chat with cousin Katie, but we missed her!)

Also, Maren's mom got a great camera lens for Christmas, designed for taking close-ups, so you'll be subjected to lots of these:

fine dining

Tonight, Maren's cousin Sofia helped give her a bottle. It went a little something like this...

First, you help Maren drink the bottle.

You have to hold it just right.

Like this.

After she drinks for awhile, you have to burp her.

You keep patting until she burps really loud.

Then you feed her some more.

After awhile, you get so good at this that you can totally watch the game at the same time.

Thanks for the help, Sofia!

the girl in the mirror

Maren really likes to talk to the girl in the mirror on her play mat. She lies there for quite awhile most mornings and they chat away (while mom enjoys a cup of coffee and some breakfast, if she's lucky). She's making more gurgles and coos, and she finds that Mirror Girl just fascinating.

it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Maren is busy getting ready for Christmas. Which, at the moment, mostly involves wearing cute holiday-themed outfits. Like this one, with penguins:

which comes with a matching hat.

Or her snow-girl fleece, which is great for cold, rainy weather:

And the fancy dress she wore for her holiday photo with Grandma and Grandpa McCallum and the cousins.

Yesterday, we hung her first ornament on the tree (which was such a moving event, she wept through the whole thing).

Maren and her parents wish you a very joyful Christmas and happy new year!

I love to make you smile

So far, Maren is mostly smiling while she sleeps. Which means she looks like this:

and then, all of a sudden, she does this!

We are catching more 'awake' smiles too, but so far they've eluded the camera. She smiles and smiles, until the instant we point the camera lens at her, at which point she becomes either perplexed or fascinated by the camera and stops smiling. Oh well.

She isn't quite laughing yet, although occasionally she lets out an almost-giggle while she sleeps. (She does a lot of things while she sleeps.) But she is starting to make some non-crying noises while she's awake. She especially likes to talk to the yellow quilt on the couch. Apparently the yellow quilt is quite the conversationalist.

Thanksgiving

If the only prayer you ever say in your lifetime is, "Thank you," that would be enough.

- Meister Eckhart

We had much to be thankful for this year! Maren was so excited by her first Thanksgiving that she slept through the whole thing. (Mercifully, she also slept that night - more gratitude from her parents.)

She met a lot of family members...

She got to hang out with her cousins...

And then, the next day, she got to meet some more friends.

All in all, not a bad weekend.

Maren, week three

It's hard to believe that we are approaching Maren's one-month birthday soon! She's had a good third week. Many adventures. Including:

Meeting cousin Lauren, who visited from Montana (and brought her some super cute shoes to wear later...thanks, Lauren!)

Several car rides, in which she usually looks like this (seems horribly uncomfortable to us, but she sleeps like a rock)

Going to church at Holy Spirit Lutheran, meeting lots and lots of parishioners, all while wearing her spectacular hot-pink flower hat (a gift from one of said parishioners)

Maren's first bacon! (More of an observation experience for her - dad ate the bacon)

Tummy time with dad (who has been home from school because of the snow)

Maren's first snow! (Don't worry, grandmas - she was only outside for two seconds while we took the photo.)

Coming soon: Maren's first Thanksgiving. Hopefully coming shortly after: Maren sleeps through the night! (Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding.)

how you can recognize a new parent

There are a lot of ways to recognize a new parent. Such as:

1. Glazed-over expression from sleepless nights.

2. Someone who looks like they might not have showered for a few days.

3. A person whose head whips around at the sound of a baby's cry.

4. Pale skin (from not having left the house in a week).

And, of course, there is this tell-tale sign:

This is the stroller we received as a gift, which is designed for use with the infant car seat. I put it, already collapsed-down, into the car and took Maren to the mall (to get out of the house and avoid sign number four, as indicated above). It was a little tricky to set it up and get the carseat into it, but I figured it out.

However, re-collapsing it so that it would fit back into the car...well, that's another matter. I tried numerous times, all while the woman in a large SUV waiting for my parking spot at the mall was getting a day's worth of entertainment out of it. Eventually, I gave up, crammed the whole stroller into the car, slammed the door shut, and took off.

Also a sign of a new parent: people who take pictures of the stroller their desperate wife crammed into the car while they both laugh and then go into the house to practice collapsing and un-collapsing the stroller (we're pretty sure we figured it out this time).

open mouth, insert fingers...eventually.

Shhh...don't tell Maren, but her fingers are actually attached to her arms, which are - in turn - attached to her body. Which means that, someday, she is going to be able to get those fingers in her mouth on a regular basis, and that is going to be an exciting day.

For now, the Great Finger Search is on. It's a daily event. We'll keep you posted.

hand-me-downs

Once upon a time, my mom wore these clothes. She and my grandma thought it would be fun to have me wear them too. I, personally, am not opposed to that - I mostly just like to wear things that are comfortable and that don't involve getting naked when my diaper is being changed.

I wore this sweater to church today (my first church service - I slept through the whole thing).

And my grandparents have a photo of my mom wearing this University of Washington Husky jersey from...a long time ago. Featuring some guy named Sonny Sixkiller. I did not particularly enjoy wearing this jersey (I spit up on it big time) but, according to my mom, that does not mean that I am a Washington State Cougar fan. (My dad swears by this theory, however.)