Happy Fourth! Graham's tweets documented most of the highlights but here are some photos from our quick trip to Kansas City. The trip brought lots of playtime, cousins, aunts, uncles, and mosquito bites.

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

Next stop was our first tour on Jen's boat, Hansie, for the summer season. Proud of our little girl for being fearless in the water and happily splashing in the Bay with dad.

We had a really great weekend outdoors. First stop was the "good park" and here Maggie is very intently studying the ducks.

Maggiesville is getting bigger! (Too big?)

Here she is at the beach house, modeling Nana's hat and knock-off Crocs. These were a last minute purchase when I realized I packed everything she could possibly need but shoes. CVS saved us on that one.

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Ours was a full one and we started it off with a day trip to Millwood which made an earlier appearance on the blog.

This visit was under much different circumstances and was a memorial service for Roger who sadly passed away a few months ago. It was such a beautiful way to celebrate his life with many many people gathering on the land and enjoying the sun and the creek and the company.

Maggie enjoyed the great big lawn and really really wanted to hop off that bridge into the creek. It wasn't in the cards for her that day but we made up for it, today, with our first trip down to Solomon's for the summer season. She spent hours splashing in a kiddie pool followed by a dip in the creek with Pop Pop and dad.

So glad to welcome summer.

The new pool was soon followed by the new finger paints! It was great to see how quickly Maggie took to this and the whole paint-to-paper thing seems pretty intuitive. No sticking paint in her mouth and only a few smears on the tummy. I was surprised by how very very seriously she took this process. (The picture of her smiling only came after a prompt.) Surrounding this it was ALL FOCUS.

All sorts of new goodies at Maggie's house! I came home to find her running around this little pool and loving it. It was a bit too chilly to fully submerge but she got her fair share of splashin' out of it.

Bi-lingual baby.

If you've been checking Graham's tweets you may have caught on that we were in New York early in the week. I had a small work thing up there but was able to turn it into a mini-trip for the fam.

Our first day could not have been better. Maggie was as sweet as pie on the train ride up. We checked into an adorable hotel in the West Village and spent the afternoon walking the neighborhood and enjoying perfect weather. The highlight, for me, was picking up sandwiches at a great little shop and taking them over to the playground for lunch and a few hours of play. It was terrific people watching and Maggie got a chance to cut loose. This was followed by a stroll down the high-line and then off to a swanky party.

Our second day, however, took a turn for the worst! We awoke to pouring rain with the looming reality that check-out was at 11:00 and our train was not until 6:00. Sans-Maggie this would have been fine but when you have a kid and a stroller and bags and umbrellas and few indoor options that encourage toddler-dom, you feel a bit stranded.

We saw the MoMA as our salvation and a way to pass several hours. After a long and expensive cab ride up to it, we learned that it is closed on Tuesdays. (Ouch.) Thankfully, Graham had the brilliant idea to try FAO Schwartz and because the rain had turned to a drizzle we decided to walk it. This trek started out fine but quickly turned into chaos when the rain started pouring in sideways and the wind was turning our umbrellas inside-out. At that point we were committed to walking so Graham clutched Maggie to his chest and wrestled the umbrella the rest of the way. I was left to push a stroller of wet bags and gave up on the umbrella altogether. By the time we got to FAO we were a sight to see!

Thank God for that store. It was the perfect refuge. Maggie (who by the way was dry - go figure) had the absolute best time and ran up and down every aisle. We were even able to stay long enough to get to the train station only reasonably early. On the train, Maggie decided to grace her very weary parents with a relaxed ride home by watching Nemo and curling up on dad's lap.

It was an exhausting two days. All three of us had some low points - especially on day two - but I have to say that we were able to hold it together and avoid any major melt downs. For that I am proud of our little crew.

Note: All photos were taken on day one. For obvious reasons.

I know I usually post with a pic, but I'm reaching out to readers to see if anyone has experience with "night terrors".

For the past week or so Maggie has been waking up every night around 1am in absolute, inconsolable hysterics. Graham and I have both tried to calm her but many times it's seemed like she is still in the midst of a bad dream and she will aggressively resist the slightest touch. If we hold her, she will squirm and not necessarily wake up. If we leave her be, she will just stand in her crib and cry terribly. She has even pointed at the door and repeated "eyes, eyes" and "mouth" and I hate to imagine what the poor thing is dreaming about.

Has anyone experienced this before? Is it something she will out grow? Has anyone found a way to help their kiddo through it?

Our biggest adventure of late was buying a baby seat for my old bike. We're hittin' the streets in style (and causing traffic jams in our parking lot).

I'm pretty sure Maggie loves it. And I do too. We went on our first big ride, yesterday, all the way to Nana and Pop Pops house. Truth be told, this is only a mile or two but it still felt like an adventure. The front-mount seat is great; perfect for interacting with her and chipping in when the helmet slips into her eyes.

Looking forward to many many bike rides.

Today was a beach house clean-up day and Graham found Maggie a turtle. To prove it, he was forever Sharpie'd with her name before being released back in to the wild. (Is that wrong?)

Graham and I took a very grown-up trip to Newport, Rhode Island last weekend. I say grown-up because Maggie didn't come and people have made comments like "oooh, a real getaway" and "must have been nice to have the break." We didn't really see it that way, but – the fact that the notion of taking breaks from parent-dom is even relevant – makes me feel old. The fact that the weekend coincided with my birthday also makes me feel old.

Captions, from top-down: Rosecliff, the Tennis Hall of Fame, and Aardvark Antiques.

Newport was great. My favorite parts were the hotel (which was more like a little cottage), a place called Gary's Handy Lunch (where we ate three times), and playing slots on Sunday afternoon (where my $20 lasted 2 hours).

It's unclear if Maggie was happy to see us when we got home. Her new thing is to say "no!" to absolutely everything, including hugs and kisses. Most often her "no's" actually mean "yes" but she hasn't mastered the difference. So, for now, our days are constant "no's". On one hand this is charming but, on the other, it's exhausting! A "yes" here and there would be so refreshing...

Can you believe we forgot charge the camera battery for Easter? She looked so darn cute in her Easter dress, too.

No photos but a few videos, instead. (The yogurt video is a repeat from Graham's Twitter but it cracks me up.)

Here she is, hamming it up for the camera. I asked Graham to take pictures of her last night because I knew I wouldn't get home until after her bedtime but I still wanted to see her. I'm so glad he obliged.

We thought it might be fun to give a run-down of her ever growing vocabulary. And because all I do on this blog is brag on my girl, here is a running list of her words and animal noises:

1. cat
2. duck
3. dada
4. mama
5. pop pop
6. baby
7. shoes
8. socks
9. eyes
10. hi
11. bye
12. cook cook (for cookie)
13. bob bob (for bottle)
14. woof woof
15. quack quack
16. tweet tweet
17. oooh oooh (for monkeys)
18. neigh
19. roar

And my personal favorite: Henri, which is the name of our gray cat. Because he is French and she honors his heritage, she has an excellent pronunciation which sounds something like "awn-ree". Love it.

Here's the cut. It's nice to see her face again.

Super great, wonderful weather today and it's the first weekend in a long long time where we have nothing on the agenda. Perfect day to roam around the neighborhood and chill out on the patio. This was followed by a brave attempt at cutting Maggie's hair with fingernail scissors. (The baby kind with the rounded tips. I'm not advanced enough for the real deal). I think the results are... well... okay.

And, yes, I know I need a tan.

One our first stops was the Natural History museum to check out the dinosaur bones and insect zoo. Maggie was more taken with the running space than anything else but I think it was a success.

Three of Maggie's cousins are visiting along with her aunt and uncle! This one is Sadie... she really has a way with animals.

Showing off.

Another fashion show! The overalls and beret were gifts brought back from Barcelona and Paris. (In case you didn't know, we have a very cultured child.)

Also, I'd like to apologize to any readers that I have left: I'm so sorry that you have had nothing new to greet you when visiting this space. I could round up a lot of excuses why I haven't been posting lately but the truth is that I'm kinda burnt out on blogging. Don't get me wrong. I love having a place to record my musings and ramblings and to detail Maggie's development. The fact that a few of you actually take the time to read this is icing on the cake. Recently, though, my enthusiasm has waned and I think I just need to re-adjust my expectations for myself and accept that this site can shift from primary project to casual hobby.

So, in short, the blog goes on! Probably with fewer updates but I'm hoping that will make for better posts with more to share.

If daily tidbits strike your fancy, please direct your attention to Graham's Twitter Tweets on the sidebar. You can check them, here, or you can follow him on Twitter to hear about all of our momentous events like practicing somersaults and watching Dumbo. I'd definitely recommend watching his most recent videos of their walk... super super cute. (Or, if you're Graham, you'll find them "groundbreaking".)

We had our annual Chocolate & Liqueur Party last night which involves those two things plus a swanky dress code. I was loving Maggie's outfit. The dress was a hand-me-down and the tights and headband were an accidental match. We definitely need to find more occasions for formal wear!

Here he is! Beautiful baby boy. I'm heading out to KC in a few weeks and can't wait to meet him.

I love this photo. Graham and Maggie surprised me with a new jacket for Valentine's Day. Maggie insisted on carrying the bag.

Grandma Susie is in town to help out while my parents are traveling to see my sister in Spain. Together they're doing a quick tour of Paris. (Luckies!) I could really go for a several hour coffee break in a sidewalk cafe right about now...

UPDATE: Grandma Susie left in a hurry on Wednesday morning for the arrival of her new grandson, our new nephew, and Maggie's new cousin! Welcome to the world Baby Liam!