Looks like Maggie had a ball today. What could be more fun than pouring out your sippy cup? Splashing around in the puddles, I guess.

I nearly killed Graham last night. Literally, not figuratively.

As most of you know, he is severely allergic to milk and has been for a long long time. When he asked me to fix him a bowl of cereal after seeing that I was making one for myself, I went into auto-pilot: cereal for me, cereal for Graham, milk for me, milk for Graham. The poor guy, of course, was expecting soy milk and downed nearly half the bowl before setting his spoon down and stating "this isn't soy milk". My heart sank.

What followed was some panic, a very sick Graham, and the ultimate decision to go to the ER when he started having trouble breathing. I can't tell you how awkward it was to relay the scenario to the nurses and doctors. They were all very confused and asked too many questions to get (what I think is a simple story) straight. The funniest part was that they had to confirm over and over that this was NOT intentional and I was reminded of the hospitals practice to flag incidents of domestic abuse. I suppose this should qualify.

Maggie boosted our spirits this morning, though, when she said her very first intentional word: da-da. She may not know what it means but after Graham pointed to himself to say it, Maggie paused, thought for a moment, and out came the most carefully crafted mimic. It was adorable.

Bad news on the home front... Graham lost his job, yesterday. Sad sad.

We can't say that this was a total shock because his office had already had a round of lay-offs several weeks ago, but it's very surreal to have our life re-arranged in one afternoon. We're trying to stay positive and we're weighing our options, knowing full well that the likelihood of Graham finding a job in Architecture, right now, is very low. The good news is that my office is willing to take me back full-time. The other good news is that Graham would be a fabulous stay-at-home dad. Right now, that's the best we have to work with.

P.S. This photo has very little to do with Graham losing his job but everything to do with how strangely massive Maggie looks.

We've been trying to introduce Maggie to some "table" foods and transition her away from the super smooth Gerber purees. I got a little crazy last night and didn't realize how absurd her dinner was until I started to clean it up.

On the menu: mashed avocado, wild rice that I ran through a food mill, and Gerber green beans. Despite my ambitious efforts, the green beans were the only thing that she ate with gusto. And she certainly wasn't fooled when I tried to mix the rice directly with it.

The whole baby food thing is very mysterious, to me. I wish I could find a great resource for suitable foods and ideas for mixing. I also wonder about the no-no's. For example, I heard that you should avoid tomatoes and strawberries? And cheese is okay for the first year but cow's milk is not? None of this makes sense to me. Any ideas for us?

We just had a perfect pool day. The weather was beautiful, the water was warm, and the pool was all ours thanks to the start of school. My mom came by and the three of us went to lunch before heading over.

Maggie loved it. She scooted around the baby pool in her little float-y and then I took her for a dip in the big pool where she kicked and splashed to her heart's content. It's days like today that make me so grateful to only work part-time... and sorry for Graham that he wasn't there with us.

As you can see, Maggie crashed as soon as we got home. She had quite a work out.

Even though Maggie was not fully recovered, she and I headed out to Ocean City for a long weekend with my family. By day two the spots were just about gone and she was back to her usual self, so we were able to enjoy ourselves. This weekend was the tail-end of my sister's trip home from Barcelona. It was great to see her and I'm going miss her after she flies out tomorrow.

I feel terrible.

Since our return from Kansas City Maggie has been all out of sorts; fussy, no appetite, and hardly sleeping. I kept shrugging it off and insisting that she was just out of whack from travel but then my parents called me at work today to tell me that she's covered – head to toe – in little red spots. They told me about something called roseola which is a virus, usually accompanied by a fever, that's followed by a rash just as the fever breaks. Sure enough, all of the symptoms fit and it appears that she experienced a mild case.

Poor baby. She's been sick for a week and I've been this insensitive mom, attempting to give marching orders on eating and sleeping. My only insight was thinking that she felt warm but when her temperature didn't show a fever, I let it go. Now I just feel guilty.

P.S. This photo is not from this week. I just felt we needed an angry baby pic.

Two more:

1. Enjoying the lake
2. Catnap on the boat

Finally have some vacation pics to share. From top to bottom:

1. Brandon, Darby, Sadie
2. Making breakfast
3. Fireworks
4. Loose Park
5. Loved baby

Thank you everyone for a great vacation. We loved seeing you.