Time at the Lake

While daddy enjoyed a guy's weekend, mommy and Maizie went to the lake. Maizlyn had fun with her buckets and shovels in the sand. And...she said "puppy" a few times this weekend! Usually she says "bah-bah" whenever she sees an animal. She is also responding "yeah" to most of my questions. "Maizie, do you want to go down the slide?" "Yeah." "Maizie, do you want something to eat?" "Yeah." "Mommy needs to change your diaper." "No!" Rather than ask about the diaper, I tell her as I quickly realized her response is always "no" and no is not an option in that department. Ha!

Bonnie & Paul's nephews Hugo & Walter were at the cabin this weekend too. Hugo especially liked keeping Maizie company.

I should have put my swim suit on...Maizie loved sitting in her water float. She easily kept herself entertained in it for a half hour. Most of the time, she just chilled with her hands in the water and lightly splashed. So much fun!

Summer Weekend

Godmother and Godchild chilling at the lake. How sweet! We are pretty excited for Maizlyn Reese. Not only is she going to be a SIBLING, she is also going to be a COUSIN late this fall!! We are thrilled, as we only have a niece and nephews on Pat's side of the family.

Maizie's Godfather teaching her how to drive the boat and honk the horn. Today was the perfect day at the lake!

My college roommate's son celebrates his 1st birthday this week. To celebrate the miracle that he is (he had a heart condition--SVT and became very ill at just a few days old and fought hard to become a very healthy boy - www.caringbridge.org/wilkenmiller), Jean & Jon threw him a birthday party Saturday. Above, Maizie had fun driving Jean's daughter's car.

How did Wil enjoy his birthday cake? This picture says it all!

Much to Grandma Felling & Grandma Jennissen's delight, we can finally put "ponytails" in Maizie's hair!

Life is Good

Once again, nearly two months have gone by without an update. It just means life is good at the Jennissen household. Here are some pictures from the past couple months.

Me and my little girl in the conservatory.


































We went to Como Zoo last weekend with Jen, Nick, Cooper, Jolaine & Dan. It was really windy but fun!


















I went to the Dancin' Off Broadway spring show with Melanie & Michelle a couple weeks ago. Patrick stayed home with Maizie and Ezra, her 2nd cousin once removed. Maizie was a bit jealous of the attention Ezra received from Pat and is checking things out before she leaves.



















Playing with my ray of sunshine.

April and early May

Maizie had no fear of climbing up onto the "tractor" and "driving" a couple weeks ago. John Deere...Grandpa Kinzer would be so proud!



















Someone looks really sleepy...one last book before bedtime. How cute is this picture?! I love how she's resting her arm on Patrick's head!

My mom and Maizlyn having fun at the park. Maizlyn loves the park. What toddler doesn't, right? She is pretty brave too. She climbs up the stairs to the slide and goes right down. One night this week she got a bit of air and then landed flat on her butt in the sand. She just giggled!

Maizie loves to "read" books and have us read to her. It is common for me or Pat to sit and read 15 books at a time with her. She just gets up after we finish one, goes to her basket and brings us another. Here she is relaxing while enjoying one of her favorites.

Reading & Dancing Video Clip

Here is a clip of Maizie paging through her books and then deciding it is time to dance.

She started walking a couple steps at a time early this month and is now walking with confidence. It has opened a whole new world for her. Yesterday she pulled out a deck of cards from an end table in the family room, walked through the room and into our bedroom. She returned moments later without the cards. She proceeded to take another deck out of the drawer, again made her way to our bedroom and returned empty handed. She grabbed a third deck and after entering our bedroom, I decided to follow her to see where she thought these cards should be. I spotted her in our bathroom placing the third deck next to the other two on top of the toilet seat. She started giggling when she realized she was "busted."

Earlier that day, she brought me a pair of my warm novelty socks as I sat at the kitchen table. I thanked her and she smiled with pride that she made mommy happy. She turned around and a minute later returned with another pair. Within five minutes, I had four pair of my fuzzy socks at the kitchen table. Such a good-natured girl!

Words she likes to say: Uh-oh, mama, dada, mom, Stacy (her beloved daycare provider), ba-ba (i.e., puppy), Elmo, kna-kna (i.e., knock-knock). She has said "gandpa" too but we're still working on grandma.

March Update

Maizie had her first tooth poke through on 12.11 followed by a second on 1.1. She now has 5 teeth with a 6th coming in.


I captured Maizie dancing to her reggae music. Check out that releve. Perhaps a future dancer?

I have more video to post, but it is not uploading properly so I'll try again sometime this week. Take care of you!

February Pictures

Maizie and I were rolling the basketball and soccer ball back and forth to each other last month. I took this picture for daddy...the sport nut loves it!

Click the clip above if you want to hear a little girl laughing. We can really get her going before bedtime.

It is hard to believe she used to take up just a small portion of her crib space one year ago. We're planning on moving her to a bedroom downstairs early this fall. It will be a hard transition for me. We've started to bring her into her future room to play so that she is somewhat used to it. It should be interesting.

In February, Maizie discovered that she can crawl onto the middle of our whicker table in the sunroom. It has become a fun activity for her to crawl through it again and again. Cheap entertainment!

I still absolutely love watching our angel sleep. Life is so precious; Maizlyn is proof of that.