Like Mother, Like Daughter?

Look at that smart little girl! Already enjoying Twilight! I'm trying to get Jay to read the book (it's a slow process, he doesn't seem too interested, which is driving me nuts!), so today he read some of it to Mara. She may have been more interested in getting her hands on the book than in what he was actually reading, but I can dream, right?

Maybe someday ONE of them will finally read it!!

Mara's First Thanksgiving

We spent Mara's first Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's house. Despite her sober looks in most of these pictures, Mara had a good time, smiling and babbling most of the day! I had picked out a '1st Thanksgiving' outfit of her, and couldn't resist the little socks to go with it.

We didn't give her any of the food from our plates (although she stuck her hand in some of it a few times), but she did enjoy some baby food squash, to help celebrate! She had fun playing with her aunts and uncles, cousins, and Grandpa and Grandma. We are thankful to have such a great baby!

Sneak Peek...

I took some pictures of Mara for our Christmas cards today. I don't want to give too much away, so I'm just posting a couple of the 'reject' photos that didn't make the cut. I took quite a few, in a variety of outfits, and suffice it to say - if you think these are cute, you'll enjoy the Christmas card!

On a side note...yes, she has some cat toys in her hands in the first picture. She seemed pretty interested in them. I tried to get a photo of her with Oliver and Picasso, but Picasso bolted every time he was put near her, as usual.

An experiment

Mara's a good eater, and she's getting used to all the different fruits and vegetables that we've offered her. She always watches what we eat, so I wondered if she might be ready to try some 'finger food' herself. I figured we'd start with something easy and just see if she had any interest in it. So...banana puffs it was.

As you can tell...she really wanted the container. But, that's about it! I tried to get her to grab the puff out of my hand, but she didn't want it, or couldn't figure it out. So I put it in her mouth for her. And she wasn't too thrilled about THAT! She spit it out a couple times (notice it stuck to her chin in the second picture?), but I kept trying. She wanted nothing to do with it. I'm not sure if a different flavor would have helped or not, but I'm not worried. She's growing up too fast anyway, I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be THAT grown-up yet! I'm content to wait as long as she wants to!

Visitors

We had several people stop by today. After I ran some errands this morning, my parents came over to hang out and watch some of the Vikings game with us. Mostly to play with Mara I guess! She had a fun time keeping them entertained. After they left, she took a nice long afternoon nap (usually she takes a shorter nap in the afternoon, but they must have worn her out!). After she got up, my sister Jenna and her fiance Derek came over for a bit. Mara was a big fan of Jenna's fun and shiny purse. My baby girl, already wanting a purse. I don't know if I can handle it! She also enjoyed Derek's hat, and sat happily with them the whole time they were here.

Now that Mara's asleep for the night, I'm staring at my book, but thinking about my stocking....and wondering which will win out! Hopefully I'll get a little bit of each of them done!

Lazy Saturday

It was a lazy Saturday at our house yesterday. For the first time in several weeks, I was home on a Saturday, so I took full advantage...and stayed in my PJs all day! Mara has a cold, but had fun playing, and took a couple good naps. I cleaned up a bit, made some food, and read for awhile (ok, I finished another book).

Mara played some video games with Daddy, and played with Oliver (I can't believe he just let her yank on his tail, he has surprised us a lot with how much he likes Mara!). After Mara went to bed, Jay and I watched a movie.

It was nice to have a lazy day! Today will probably be more of the same (although I think I'll actually change clothes today!), and I'm looking forward to a short work week!!

Twilight, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight!!

In case you've been living under a rock (or maybe just completely ignorning me), I have a small obsession with a little book called Twilight. Ok...FOUR books. And now a movie!

The movie opened today. I was planning to go on Monday (to avoid the crowds of teenage girls), but realized that they were having matinees today, since the movie technically opened last night at midnight. So, I decided I couldn't wait - so, we went this afternoon! I had no idea if it was going to be busy or not, so I bought tickets ahead of time, and we got there early. And....it was empty. haha. A few other people came in before it started, but it was a pretty small crowd, so that was kind of nice!

I enjoyed the movie! They changed a lot of things from the book, and moved a few things around. Some of the effects were a little...weird. The movie was made with a pretty small budget, but I think they did a pretty good job. A couple scenes were kind of weird (there were a few moments when I wanted to laugh, and it wasn't because it was a funny scene!), but it all pulled together. I was hoping for a bit more story and character development, but since I had read the book, I at least knew the additional pieces that weren't shown. I was a little nervous about a couple of the people that were cast in certain roles, but overall I was pleased. Some of them seemed perfect! And Robert Pattinson as Edward turned out to be great, for the most part! Some definite eye candy there!!

It went so fast...I already feel like I need to see it again!

Oh and yes...Jay thought it was pretty good too. I explained a few things to him a little further afterwards so they made a bit more sense. I'm going to try to persuade him to read the book...we'll see how that goes! And maybe I can drag him to the movie with me again at some point too! ;)