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.

Here we are at the airport, waiting for our flight to Kansas City. Graham downloaded an iPhone app that lets me blog on the go and we're trying it out. How does the photo look?

Maggie re-enacted a Downy commercial. (With black solo cup in hand.)

Here she is with her two favorites: her walker and red solo cup. The walker was my mom's idea and after seeing how much she loved Nana's, we got one for our own house. She flies in it. She is constantly running over my feet, careening into walls, and lunging for the cats at full speed. I must admit that I'm loving it, too. It's nice to have a break from the soldier crawling where she heads straight to the power cords for a good taste.

Wow. Jason just posted a Flickr set and his photos are amazing. These are just a few of my favorites.

We're home and our long weekend at the beach house was wonderful. We feel so lucky to know so many good, kind people and this weekend we added two more to the list (hi Jessica and Marni).

I was pretty lax with the picture-taking but I expect some photo galleries to be popping up soon.

I should add that while the bulk of the weekend was fantastic, we did experience our first parenting trauma. On Saturday night Maggie woke up in hysterics and was entirely inconsolable. It wasn't at all the usual wimper but unbearable, horrible sobbing. We knew something was wrong but it took one full hour of crying to finally figure that the poor girl's tummy must hurt after not having a b.m. for two days. Not knowing how to help, I called my mom and dad who offered the most terrifying advice: a "soap stick". (Yikes!) Without getting too graphic it involved a bar of Ivory Soap from Eric, Ryan's pocket knife, some whittling from Jason, and Graham and I at the helm. I know it sounds crazy but in the middle of the night your options are a bit limited and this certainly was not going to take care of itself. I also must say that as unpleasant as it was, it did produce the desired result. It still took a good bit of time for Maggie to settle but the soap stick combined with a warm bath and lots of tlc finally brought the little girl (and everyone else) some peace.

The whole ordeal was rather dramatic but our friends complimented us for being so "amazingly calm". What they don't know is that after the dust settled and Maggie and I laid down to sleep, I finally let out my own little tears.

Maggie loses it (plus a mood swing at the end).

This blog will be quiet for a bit. We're off to the beach house with friends for four long days. See you next week!

Grandma Susie is in town again and today we went to the National Gallery. Maggie was her characteristic "quiet observer" and stared contentedly at everything that passed her by (paintings, people, whatever... ). My favorite today was the Matisse room with big colorful cutouts.

And, of course, it wouldn't be the fourth without crab feast.

Weekend highlights: a birthday party (where Maggie and Svetlana were perfectly color coordinated), fireworks (where she fell asleep), and time with family at the beach house.

We found a home for the fantastic flash cards that Grandma Susie made and gifted at our baby shower. I'm sure we'll eventually take them down to play with but they just look so charming arranged in a row. I can't decide which I like best; the penguin or the scottie dog. Which is your favorite?

So much is happening with this little girl, right now. It's amazing. I didn't realize that 6 months was such a critical time but suddenly she's hitting several milestones at once. Here in this photo you can see that she's able to hold herself on all fours and we're certain that she's just on the cusp of crawling. Last week she was soldier crawling on her belly (generally backwards) but this week she's lifting herself off the ground with ease and I think it will be just a short time before she's putting it all in motion.

Last week is also when we started to hear more carefully crafted little noises. Her high-pitched "ahhhhhhs" and uhhhhhs" are starting to sound more like soft and low "da-ah-ba-du-uhs". It's not a regular occurrence yet, but several times we've heard things that have stopped us in our tracks.

It melts my heart to watch her discover her voice and find ability in her movements. Every so often she'll lift herself off the ground and look us straight in the eyes with a wide smile almost as if to say, "look guys! Look what I can do!" That combined with her two little teeth poking out of the bottom row are just too much for words.

This was taken on Sunday as Maggie cozied up with Pop Pop. She didn't hold this position for long but I love when I can see glimpses of an older girl. It will be such a treat when she'll be able to throw an arm around someone or hold a hand.

We had a really pleasant day. The weather was great and Jen joined Maggie and I at the baby pool which was fairly crowded with lots of little ones. For some reason, I tend to feel out of place when I'm around so many "mommies". Like they're all "real" moms and I'm just someone pretending to be. (I realize this makes no sense.) Today was a little different, though, and chatting with some of the women around us I finally had a small sense of belonging and a realization that they're just regular people, like me.

I'm not sure what it was, but even after the pool the world was smiling on us. At the grocery store a random person stopped to chat and at the deli counter our sandwich was free because the women working there thought Maggie was cute. Such a funny day.

We have a bad habit of filling our weekends with errands and chores, but this weekend was all play for once. Saturday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium with Jen and Joe, thinking that Maggie would love to gaze into those massive tanks and watch the colors and shapes float by. She seemed pretty content as Graham walked her around in the Baby Bjorn, mesmerized by the fish and people and sounds of other kids and babies. The highlight, for me, was when Maggie handed our tickets to the ticket-taker and he handed them right back to her. It was like she had done it a hundred times!

Today we spent father's day with my parents and brother, playing tennis and lounging around the baby pool. We also had a really good steak dinner with gooey brownies for dessert.

I hope Graham had a good first father's day. He definitely deserves it. I shouldn't be surprised at what a great dad he is because I always knew he would be, but still, he's really got a knack for it. He's so comfortable with Maggie and totally committed to her. He doesn't moan and groan about diaper changes or baths. He's always ready to help and – perhaps more importantly? – always ready to play. Thanks Graham... we love you.

The best part about this video is how much Maggie loves to watch it. Whether she knows that it's her or she thinks it's another baby, she's completely entertained.

Little miss independent.

I love putting Maggie to bed for the night. She's so adorable when she's drifting from drowsiness into sleep, and she's so warm and serene in my arms.

During this ritual, tonight, I was thinking about the pregnancy and how funny it was to have people tell us how much we'll love our baby and how surprised we'll be at how much love we have. Obviously, this came true but it feels strange to define how I feel for Maggie as "love". That seems far too superficial and a bit too close to a Hallmark card (no offense to my mother-in-law!). That said, I really struggle to find the right words for how I feel. I guess, to start, I feel like she is a part of who I am. I feel like I carry her with me every moment of the day - even when I'm not actively thinking of her or I'm focusing on other things. To say I love her is such a small expression for how connected I believe we are. There's not a lot of mush and gush involved... it's more like a sense of belonging to one another that doesn't require hearts and teddy bears for it to be understood.

I guess that's a start? I'm curious to know how other parents might define it. I can't be the only one who finds the word "love" to be inadequate.

P.S. Her hair clips the day of this photo were a choking hazard. I know. I promise that I was watching them like a hawk. It's just that they're so darn cute, I couldn't resist.

This girl can really get around, now. Yesterday we found her under the coffee table, expecting her to be playing on her blanket a few feet away. She's not crawling but she's "maneuvering" and it's starting to sink in how much things will change once she's crawling and walking.

She had a fairly tough weekend, dealing with her tooth. She was not her usual happy self and was shedding more tears and getting less sleep than we're used to. Poor baby. Things turned around a bit last night and she's smiling this morning, so hopefully the worst is over.

More charming family photos. Love the one at the beach... so classic.

Thought you may want to see Maggie's carrot reaction for yourself. This week we are trying squash and we can already tell that she finds it far superior.

In other news, my mom discovered today that Maggie is cutting her first tooth! I still can't get over how quickly things change. Every day is something new and different.