I just went in to see if she was asleep and laid my eyes on this. I couldn't believe my eyes. I literally died. I'm dead. She always sucks on his ears or tail before she falls asleep, but never has she fallen asleep with it still in her mouth! What a sweet little angel.
So, this one time Maeve and I were doing our weekly grocery shopping run to Kroger and she was probably around 6 months old at the time. As per usual, I was minding my own business as I accumulated items in the cart and Maeve was flashing her huge smile at anyone and everyone that would look at her. The next thing I know this lady says something along the lines of, "I'm sorry, I just have to ask... would you want free pictures of your baby taken? I do marketing with Picture People and we are looking for models and she would just be perfect." I smiled and a little hesitantly said "oh yeah, maybe" not completely sure what this was all about. I've always been skeptical of modeling and am not the type of person that really sees it as a good thing/fun. I myself most certainly would not be caught dead as a model, even if someone ever thought I was perfect for the job ... spotlight, no thank you! Especially in front of photographers I don't know! So even with all of the countless strangers that all day long from the minute she could smile have told Maeve how cute and happy she is, her doing any sort of modeling was not even on my radar. The lady continued to explain a little bit about it and told me I could email some lady if I was interested and then a couple more times before we parted said again "she'd just be perfect!!"
I told Adam about it later that night and his response was "Cool! Free pictures! Why not!" but still didn't do anything about it for awhile. The thought that her pictures could maybe potentially be used in any negative way just scared me away from it a little bit. After Christmas, I decided to just casually mention it to my mom and she warmed up to the idea and basically did agree that Maeve was perfect and that it could be a fun thing to do that could potentially segue into getting real gigs that maybe would pay something. As long as she was still little and had fun with it, why not? So, I decided to email the lady, then had my bro-in-law who is a lawyer read the release form I'd have to sign for her pictures to make sure nothing seemed bad about it. Eventually we signed up for a time slot, and at the beginning of March went and had the pictures taken.
Let's just say that it quickly became clear that modeling is NOT for Maeve, and it was a pretty uncomfortable experience for both of us. Girlfriend would not crack a smile for the longest time and just wanted to mess with all the props they wanted to so nicely be positioned around her. That's when I started to wish I had emailed the lady sooner before she became mobile! That would have been way better. Nonetheless, I'm pretty sure the photographer and Marketing lady were questioning why in the world I would have thought she was fit for the job and also questioning that she was even a happy baby! I felt all this pressure to keep her still, constantly staging the props again that she was messing with, trying to get her to smile and NOTHING. Poor girl just wanted to do what she wanted to do!
Here are all the shots that they sent to me (with the exception of one, because when they got desperate they decided to put me in a couple of the shots and I was not expecting to be photographed and hadn't done my hair completely so it's pretty bad and I will spare you):
Of course I decided to match her... how could I not?
I was laughing to myself when I was looking through these because seriously out of 57 pictures total taken, 29 of which they sent to me, and the 28 that you see here, she is literally only smiling for real in 1 stinking picture. With a whole lot of unamused straight faces and even sad faces mixed in. Ha! Doesn't exactly represent my girl very well, but luckily some of them are still cute. Others I don't like as much for different reasons, especially almost all the guitar ones, those are a little cheesy in my opinion. The silhouette one is pretty cool though. Anyway, although I'm doubtful, you just may see Maeve in some advertising and if you're reading this, you'll have to let me know if you do!
Maeve hit her 10 month mark a week ago on March 7th. As of today, she weighs 21 lbs. 10 oz. I actually got that number from her pediatrician today, who we saw because I was worried she had an ear infection. Luckily we're in the clear. Well, I wasn't able to snap some pictures until Thursday, and that's when it hit Maeve how life shattering it is to be 10 months old. This is how she feels at 10 months old.
And next, we have how she feels at 10 months old with a phone in her hand.
Suddenly the world makes sense again. Interesting. So, as you can see, the phone is pictured in every single photo thereafter. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.
Trying really hard to make a phone call
Holding that prized phone close to her heart
Those crossed feet!!
I seriously cannot stop laughing at this picture now that I'm looking at it again. That double chin and serious face!!
Raised eyebrows! It's cracking me up how big her one foot looks compared to her other foot in this pic, just because of the perspective. So weird.
Love how she looks like she's playing a game on it in this one
Can we just talk about how big she is for a minute?? It's literally killing me. She's losing her some of her chub, getting longer, and looking less like a baby! All before my eyes! It's hard to believe she's getting close to turning 1. I better stop myself before I turn into a puddle of tears. Here's the latest and greatest on this little diva this month in no particular order:
1. She's pulling herself up onto everything (even the wall...ha) and walking along anything she can hold onto steadily (the couch, the tub, our bed, etc.) - we've had a handful of times she's bonked her head on something or got her fingers caught in something, but I'm happy to say it's happened fewer times than I expected. Thank heavens. And when it does she's happier to cuddle with me, so I'll take it.
2. One of her favorite things to do is to unload the dishwasher as I'm loading it. Anything I put in, she's immediately there to take it right back out. So thoughtful of her. She also loves attempting to take things out of the fridge when I open it and is always messing with the books on the bottom shelves of our bookshelves. And speaking of taking things out, the other day she was standing over one of her toy baskets and without even really looking at each item, she was just grabbing one item after another and dropping it on the floor. Like ten things in a row. For some reason, it was so funny to me. It was as if she didn't even care to play with the toys, she just wanted them all out of the basket! Just call her pro mess maker!
3. She's off purees and working on table food. She's eating cooked peas, cooked carrots, refried beans, kiwi, banana, avocado, peaches, pears, mandarin oranges, bread, potatoes, and cheerios. She's also been able to eat some of the meals we've made for ourselves for dinner, sometimes I just have to cut it up smaller, but that's been so nice! For the most part, she has liked it all, but has been full of funny faces trying each new texture. Sometimes she spits the peas out (more to be funny I think), but eventually they make it down. Girl LOVES her cheerios and puffs. She would literally munch on them all day long if I let her.
4. Girlfriend has been unlike any other baby for the longest time in that once she learned how to pick things up with her hands, she wasn't really into putting stuff straight into her mouth. This was actually kind of a nice thing for awhile because I didn't have to worry about her putting any gross inedible stuff into her mouth should she happen upon something in all the places she crawls around. However, it was not such a nice thing when it came time for her to eat foods like cheerios and bread that in theory she should have been able to feed herself. She would gladly open her mouth for these foods, but if I put them in her hand she'd just hold them and look at them or drop them on the floor. Everyday I tried to teach her how to do it and for so long, she just wasn't getting it. Finally, a day shy of turning 10 months while we were sitting in church all the sudden it just hit her and she just started putting one cheerio after another into her mouth. So funny! I couldn't believe my eyes. Something finally clicked I guess. This video of her feeding herself bread kills me. Cutest little eater on the face of the planet.
5. She started taking the sacrament at church that same Sunday she learned how to feed herself her cheerios. I figured since she knew how to eat bread, why not!
6. She is way good at giving open mouthed kisses on command. What's really funny though is afterward, we'll go "awww" and she gets it confused with the similar sound we make if she's hurt herself. So after the "awww" she proceeds to do the lip quiver and start crying. Ha! Despite our attempts to backtrack and let her know she's okay and we're all happy, she still keeps crying. Poor girl just doesn't get it!
7. She HATES diaper changes with a passion and is STRONG and WILL get away despite my best efforts. Girl does NOT like to stay still. If I'm unlucky, a lot of times half way through after I've gotten a fresh diaper on her, but before I've gotten her jammies on in preparation for bedtime she will bolt and crawl away from me so fast. I'll call after her and she will start laughing and move faster! She's got a mind of her own! On my luckier days, I manage to get the jammies on before she does this and then it's more of a win for me instead of her. Boom! On a similar note, her new favorite game is to be chased by us. She LOVES it. We will crawl behind her saying "I'm gonna get you" and she just laughs her little heart out and moves as fast as she can. So stinking cute.
8. She's waking up closer to 7am than 8am these days which gets a big BOO from me, but what can you do. We've started taking morning walks because of this to help me get through that first part of the morning and boost my energy. When she wakes up she's always always always standing up in her crib now ready for me to come get her. I love it. Speaking of sleep, most of the time she enjoys playing in her crib for a while before she goes to sleep. She'll cry at first when I lay her down and then she gets quiet quickly, so I start thinking maybe she's already asleep, but then I start hearing her squealing and all her exaggerated breathing she does. She gets quiet again and then I'll hear her messing with the blinds or smacking the side of her crib. She stays happy through all of it though and then maybe 20-30 minutes later decides she's ready to go to sleep. Even if I add more time inbetween her naps to get her good and tired, she still does this. I think it's just her jam before she goes to sleep. Hey, if it works for her, it works for me! Happy baby, happy mom.
9. Her favorite toy of ALL time now which is actually not even a toy at all, and shouldn't come by any surprise given the pictures above, is my phone. She will zone in on it a few times each day and once her eyes are on it, she will fuss until I give in and give it to her. As it enters her hand, she gets the biggest grin on her face like she won. Little stinker.
10. She says "dada! dada! dadadada!" all day long as of a couple days ago. I tell her to say "mama" and she says "dada". Girlfriend is letting me down! At least she sounds really cute saying it and it makes her daddy's day.
11. She's got her two bottom teeth now. Her first one came just around the 9 month mark and the second one probably came a week or two later. They are so puny still for some reason, which seems weird, but at least she hasn't been able to bite me yet! Biggest victory right there.
12. She LOVES to wave (especially while she eats, not exactly sure why on that one) and give high fives! We've seen her clap a couple of times but it's not a regular thing yet.
I'm probably forgetting some things knowing my mom brain, but I think I hit the major developments. We love her sweet little self and the funny, energetic personality she's developing! She's something else and we'd be so bored without our happy, cute Maevie lady to love on and entertain us. Our happiest 10 months yet!
If I'm being honest, many of our weekends aren't ultra exciting as of late with trying to save money and having a baby on a nap and bedtime schedule. Like, to the point of getting a redbox being the extent of our "date nights" - which works for us but every now and then it is nice to shake things up. Thanks to one of my visiting teachers, we finally got to leave Maeve and go to the Dallas temple to do a session a couple weekends ago. Only took us almost 10 months. Paranoid mom over here hesitant to leave her baby with someone else for more than an hour! Anyway, it was so nice to go and I had no idea how unique the Dallas temple looked. It looks more gray than white and has a very interesting shape. Unfortunately there was construction going on around the temple, so I didn't even try and get a shot of the whole temple but of course had to get a selfie of Adam and I to document the experience.
After we left the session, I had a text from Heidi saying that Maeve's nap lasted two hours and she woke up happy with no tears or stranger danger! What a relief for me. And she sent this picture in the text of her youngest daughter with Maevie baby.
Melt my mama heart! What a sweet picture. Avery later told her mom she wanted us to leave Maeve at their house for a few days sometime, ha! Another funny fact about Avery is that awhile back right after I got called as Primary Secretary and was handing out cookies to all the kids after their Primary program practice, she snuck a second cookie from me and later told her mom that she wished that her mom was her aunt and that I was her mom instead! Ha! Hilarious little 6 year old. Anyway, we are so grateful that Heidi and Avery were able to help with Maeve so we could get to the temple. It was much needed!
To really make ourselves party animals, we used the vouchers I gave to Adam for his birthday to go to downtown Dallas and see the city from Reunion Tower last weekend! After Maeve's first nap, we ended up making a day out of it and first ate lunch at Pecan Lodge, the #1 BBQ restaurant in Dallas, found a nearby Park to walk to and relax for a bit, and then made our way to Reunion Tower to see the city before the sun went down as well as after sundown. We hoped little girlfriend would nap on our walk or during some of our driving around, but of course that didn't happen even though on any other day it would have. Luckily she still stayed happy throughout the evening! What a champ of a baby. If only she could pound it. And for the best part that we all know really matters the most, here are some pictures from the day.
Don't ask me what this is or why it was there, but had to snap a pic when we saw it
So hot right now. We rarely get cute shots of just the two of us these days so this is a new favorite. Did I mention the weather was amazing?
Leave it to her to truly relax. Her feet are almost always up on that bar anytime she's in this stroller. Kills me.
I love how she's looking at her Daddy in this one!
And of course how could we not snap a bunch of pictures of her like we always do? Heaven forbid any photo opps are missed.
Her faces crack me up!
She will do just about anything for a cheerio!
That moment when you don't want to ask someone to take a picture because everyone else is already trying to get their own pictures. Classy attempt.
Then later someone asked us if we wanted our picture taken. Awesome right? Except that my shirt is not working for me and Adam would say the camera is adding a few pounds for him so it's up for debate if this is better than the classy selfie.
She was completely mesmerized by this lit up wall inside the tower. The rays of light on her face in this shot kill me. Favorite picture of the day for sure!
That little body. I could eat her.
I kinda sorta like that this one is blurry.
Adam got some better pictures of the city on his phone while I stayed inside with Maeve since it got a little chilly. Here are his below.
I love how you can see the progression of it getting darker in all of these pictures. Which is what we were going for!
Well, that concludes our exciting out of the ordinary weekend shenanigans. Now excuse me while we go watch a redbox this Friday evening!
