Hayden and Portland

Info coming soon.

Best Friend

What better way to spend a summer afternoon than nappin' on your dog?

Mavis the Experimental Model

For a few days, Mavis was really fascinated by the camera and wanted to pose. Here, she wanted to see what she looked like with her eyes closed, which I thought was very interesting. Do you know what you look like with your eyes close?

Mavis the librarian.


And Mavis the Punk Rocker, which you may have seen featured on her infamous 2nd Birthday Party invitations.

Traveling Economy

In June we made a quick trip to Tulsa. Fortunately, Mavis fit within the luggage sizer, so we were able to take her as a carryon and didn't have to check her. The hard part was deciding between overhead and under the seat in front of us.

Dylan Comes to Visit

In May, Dylan and her parents came to visit. Mavis had a great time -- even shared her swing and volunteered to push.


Sharing can only go so far, though. Mavis "bowed up" and got in Dylan's face when she tried to use Mavie's ball-blowing toy.


Mavis eventually let Dylan play with it, but didn't tell her that if you look into the hole, you get a big blast of air in the face.

Catching Up.

Yes, I know it's been 8 months since our last post. I know, I know. Lots of catching up to do. So here it goes:

Back in May, I thought this was an amazing picture because Mavis looks so grown up. Now she looks that way all the time. The "soft lens" effect was achieved through the application of some unkown sticky substance to the camera lens. It took dad a couple of weeks to spot the problem, so all of our photos from this period look like they were set up as shots of Cybil Sheppard in Moonlighting.

Our new car

As you may know, I totalled my Suzuki. So here's our new car. I think it's at least as cool as the Suzuki. I even let Mavis get behind the wheel.

NASCAR!

During the football off-season, Mavis has found interest in other sports. As you saw, she loved the basketball game (which she calls BaKall.) She's also taken a liking to NASCAR, which she has no trouble pronouncing.

Hand Shoes

Mavis loves shoes and one day she wanted to see what it would be like to have shoes on her hands, so Mommy obliged.

Kim and Finch come to visit

Kim was with us when Mavis was born. And 1 year to the day later, she and Rob had their own little one, Elliot Finch. Kim and Finch came to visit just after Easter.

Mavis LOVED Finch. Here she gives him a hug while he's crawling.


And here she carries Finch around the backyard, with a little help from his Mom.

Happy 95th Birthday Gigi!

In early April we took another trip to Tulsa for Gigi's 95th birthday. It went much better this time.

Mavis had a fun time playing with Grandpa, but she wasn't too sure about sharing the cool phone she found in his guest room.


Grandpa came up with a little game that Mavis loved.



Playing with her "Danny and Sally Go Camping" book, a present from Grandma Barb.


Hanging out with Gigi at the birthday party.

Pushing Daddy in Gigi's walker

It was also Easter weekend and Mavis got to participate in her first Easter egg hunt at Grandma's house.

Mavis got all kinds of presents. Her she is with Grandpa and Suzanne and one of her Easter baskets.


Mavis and her cousin Josh became best friends over the weekend.

Grandma and Grandpa Mike Visit

Mavis says, "I'll tell you what. I sure 'nuf had me a good time when Grandma and Grandpa Mike came to visit. And I sure love this ball cap from The Greats. Grandma should have spring break every week!"

Mavis shows Grandma her new bed.


Last time Grandma was here, Mavis got mad at her because she made her walk. This time Mavis loved walking with Grandma.


One highlight of the visit was that Mavis got to go to her first basketball game -- and it was OU! The OU women's team was playing in Austin in the NCAA tournament. Grandma, Grandpa Mike, Daddy, and Mavis went to the game, and Mavis absolutely loved it. Here she is all dressed up and ready to go.

Here she is dancing and cheering at the game.



Waving her pom pon and saying "OU!"



Wants to see Grandma. (Not sure why I started this one sideways...)

SXSW

The annual SXSW (South by Southwest) festival was in mid-March. Mavis had a great time once again. She particularly enjoyed the Public Enemy and X Clan show Friday night, and the kids band Sippy Cups Saturday morning (which, in true SXSW style, was immediately followed by a profanity-spewing British punk band.)

Here she is dancing with Mommy and singin' "Yea, yea..." to the music of X Clan.



Later, Mavis got ahold of the camera and took some pictures of Mommy.



For some reason, State Farm had people running around taking pictures and posting them to the web. Here's our happy little family. Cara is displaying the fine lemonade we enjoyed that day.

Dancin' Machine

Mavis loves music. When she hears something she likes, she says, "Wanna dance." And she does. Here, she shows off her moves:

Surfin' the Web

Mavis loves the computer and likes to get her hands on it whenever possible. She's even mastered the concept that a mouse is not only a little white rodent...

New Bed!

In early March, Mavis graduate from a crib to a toddler bed. It was an exciting event.

When Cara brought the bed in, we set it up in the office. Mavis loved walking back and forth on it.



Next, we had to take down the crib. This was very upsetting to Mavis, which isn't too surprising since in the past she has cried when she saw Cara changing the crib sheet. (Please excuse the slight profanity in this one...)



The crib was soon forgotten and she immediately fell in love with the "NewBed."

Trip to Tulsa

Well, I've obviously fallen down on the job of updating the blog. So we have a lot of catching up to do...

In late February we took a trip to Oklahoma. Mavis was in a bad mood all weekend, so she didn't score many points with the family. This clip is a pretty good example of what the weekend was like.

But as you will see, she's made up for it since then.

Mavis at 18 months

Mavis had her 18-month doctor appointment today. She is 34.5 inches tall (100th%), 25# (60th%) & her head circumfrence is 19 inches (90th%). She is growing crazy fast & is a lot of fun. She's old enough now that she remembered the doctor's office, & started crying as we walked back to the room. Since she got shots this time, I'm sure the next visit will be oodles of fun too.
Here she enjoys sitting on the dog who is enjoying sitting on daddy.











Then she & daddy read a book. She was puzzled by the picture on this page, because she knows the word yo-yo to mean yogurt. It's her absolute favorite food & we had to give her a word to use to ask for it, since she was using the same word for applesauce & yogurt. She grabbed right on to calling it yo-yo. We could brag about how many words she knows & how she routinely says 2-3 word sentences, & the other day even a 5 word sentence, but we won't.




Here, a very sleepy girl hugs the present her grandma sent her for valentine's day. She immediately liked it, just as she immediately liked the babydoll her grandpa gave her for Christmas. Funny that, perhaps there is some genetic predisposition for a girl to love a babydoll. But then, many a boy does too, if only for a short time. 

Mavis was sick

Mavis was sick for the first time last week. She had a double ear infection, and probably a cold as well. For a couple of nights, she slept only briefly and restlessly. In this pic, mom is making up for a few moments of lost sleep, and Mavis is probably resting her vocal cords so she can start screaming again.

Imagine playing the video below over and over again, all day and night, for 3 or 4 days. That's close to what it was like. Thankfully, she's all better now. 



Oh, I almost forgot...when Mavis did sleep, she snored A LOT! This might seem pretty cute at first, but when you haven't slept much for two nights and she finally cuddles up to you and goes to sleep, the last thing you want is loud snoring in your ear, even if it is from a very cute baby.

Mavis doesn't know to catch herself when she falls

 
The good thing about not catching yourself when you fall, is that you can't sprain your wrist. The bad thing is you get mud all over your face & could break your cute nose, if it weren't so small & close to her face still. She was just so excited about going over to these cool trikes in the grassy mud. But she handled it like a trooper. 

 
Woe is me. 

Alice came to dinner

 
Mavis' friend Alice came to dinner the other night. Alice enjoyed sitting in Mavy's chair & eating real food too. Is there anything cuter than babies with food all over their faces? Plus Alice has the best smile ever seen on a baby. 

Blue eyes loves blueberries