Tuesday like a Saturday

Today was a Tuesday like a Saturday in the Parker household. Since I am working 3 days a week, I generally have Tuesdays and Fridays to be at home with Lizzie. Ryan's schedule is very flexible and since he often works on the weekend, today we had a Tuesday like a Saturday. We went to Belfast in the morning (Reny's, Chases, etc) and then went to Maine-ly Apples in Dixmont to do some apple picking. Lizzie wore her pumpkin hat for the occasion.

In other good news, thanks to tropical storm Kyle, Ryan was home and inside for most of the weekend. As a result, my closet in the master bedroom is now complete! It is beautiful! I have only moved over enough clothes for this week so that I can enjoy the spaciousness. I hope it won't be full anytime soon.
When I was picking out pictures to post here, I was struck by how little our baby girl was a few short months ago. This was taken in Louisiana in our hotel - she was less than 5 days old:

5 months

Today is the first day of fall and Lizzie's 5-month birthday! Here are some pictures from the last week or so:

Lizzie and Jonas at book club - they are exactly 1 week apart (little Nora also joined us at book club, but we missed getting her picture):
Uncle Dan came home this weekend and got some good Lizzie time - she loves her Uncle Dan!
Mimi also came up to visit and I hear that Mimi had a nice visit while I was at work:
We had a few spare minutes before we celebrated Aunt Kate's birthday, so we took the opportunity to wash Lizzie in Mom and Dad's kitchen sink - her Lizzie is in her birthday suit for the occasion:
Last night I was finally ready to give Lizzie some rice cereal. It was a big step for me (Lizzie was probably ready weeks ago) - after a few false starts she did well. This picture is from tonight, where she seems to have learned a lot from yesterdays practice:

Also, congratulations to Aunt Kate and Uncle John on their engagement!

Computer fixed!

I am happy to report that the amazing Ryan (with the help of some people from Dell over the phone) was able to fix our computer. We are both very glad to be back online from home! So here is what has been going on:

Ryan has started up his farm stand - here he is with his nice stand. Our nice neighbors let us put it on their lawn which is right on route 1a. He has been having fun with it and we have had people stop by every day.
Last week, Kate and I took a canning class from the local cooperative extension. We have canned lots of jam before, but now we know how to use a pressure canner as well. It was a late night for us, but it was nice to feel safe about canning lower acid foods. Also, Happy Birthday Kate!
Lizzie is doing very well these days - here we are reading. She has started reaching for the book when we are reading and definitely looking at the pictures. She is full of talk these days - and giggles and raspberries. She has continued to do fairly well with the sleeping - but doesn't do a lot of long napping during the day. She has been reaching for our faces and likes putting her fingers in my mouth for me to fake chew on and playing with Ryan's winter beard (which he started a little early this year, I think). She also seems to be getting bored in the car - I am hoping to find some good entertainment for her in the back seat.
The Doctor gave us the OK for a little johnny jumpup - Lizzie doesn't quite understand the jump part, but does seem to like being in it for short stints (look at those cute legs!). Another thing about Lizzie these days is that she puts her mouth on everything! Our house feels like it is covered in Lizzie spit :)
One of Lizzie's two favorite places to sleep:
Now I think we are caught up from the last few weeks :)

4 month appointment

We have had a major computer malfunction, so no pictures today (and very slow reply to emails unless I am in my office). Lizzie had her checkup today - she is 14 pounds and 25+ inches long. This means that she is tall and somewhat slender for her height (but right on target). She is doing well with her development milestones (one of these, is that she can focus on a raisin from a certain distance - very scientific). She had a few of her immunizations today (second round) and we will go back in a few weeks for the rest. We are looking forward to the long weekend - we have one of our social worker visits next week, so I think we may spend a chunk of it cleaning and "putting away" :)

Hopefully we will get our computer back up and running soon!

4 Months

Here are some pics of Lizzie's first weekend as a four month old:
She seems to be enjoying tummy time a little more these days (look at those "cut" arm muscles).
She is getting really long! We will go back to the doctor this week and will get her official height and weight update.
We went to the folk festival on Saturday and were able to catch some of the zydeco group (this is very popular music in the part of Louisiana where Lizzie was born). We always enjoy the food vendors (greek baklava and lemonade, indian chana masala, and maine lobster rolls). Yummy!

Basil & Blackberries

Lizzie, Ryan and I have been very busy these days - in addition to our work, we have been making jam and making pesto for freezing. Ryan and I are working to have more food from the garden stocked for the winter (frozen zuchinni, here we come!). I am pretty sure canning Meg's salsa will be next! Here we are making multiple batches of pesto to freeze (don't you just love the teal and pink cupboards? While fun, I am ready to upgrade)
We noticed this sunset while we were working through the basil and had to go outside to capture it:
Lizzie is doing really well - lots of laughing and smiling! She is sleeping on more of a schedule at night which has really been nice!

Weekend

Here are some pics of blueberry raking this weekend. It was finally a sunny day, and though Lizzie was a little fussy in the heat, a good time was had by all: Mimi, Grandpa & Lizzie:
Angi, Ryan and Lizzie:
When we got home from raking, Ryan mowed the lawn and I put Lizzie in the front pack and spent some time outside. You can see her cute hand reaching out to grab the flowers. She is really getting much better use out of her arms and hands!

Now to put the blueberries to use! I think we may have blueberry beer and blueberry pie in our futures.