More miscellaneous photos

We have two cameras right now and so here are some older photos that have been sitting on the lesser-used one.
First is Maggie with Mimi (my mom) at Mediteranean Cuisine. Maggie has a few moments of picky eating every now and then but in general is a very good eater. She'll eat almost anything - Mediteranean food, Japanese, Chinese, most vegetables, and even hummus, as you can see from this photo below.

Here is a photo of Maggie, Grant, and our good friend Brandon Baker with his adorable and brilliant daughter Emma. They live in Maryland and visited us in the midst of a whirlwind trip to West TN. Brandon keeps a very witty blog at http://www.theshallowwater.blogspot.com/
And finally, here is the photo I wrote about several weeks ago when Maggie was sick with the stomach bug. Remember when she fell asleep on the floor and slept through a diaper change? Well, this is the photo. If this isn't totally wimpy, I don't know what is!

Grandma and Grandpa Come to Nashville!

A few weeks ago, for Carol's Spring Break, Rusty and Carol came to Nashville to visit Maggie (oh yeah...and Grant, Blake, Jenny and me). We had a great time. We went to the zoo where Maggie walked around the entire time, only sitting in her stroller for five minutes, and was so worn out that she almost fell asleep in the swing. We saw giraffes, elephants, gibbon monkeys, and almost as interesting to Maggie, lots of big kids. Also, thanks to Rusty, Maggie learned a new word that week: mustache.

Here are some pictures of our trip to the zoo:
With the lorikeets

Where are the elephants? Over there!And here's where she almost fell asleep in the swing.
Maggie, Grant and I in front of the tigers (I think).

The next day we went to the Parthenon and Centennial Park. For those of you not from Nashville, the Parthenon here is the only full-scale reproduction in the world. Centennial Park has a pond with ducks and both I and my mother came here as children to feed the ducks. Now Maggie does, too!
Here are all the Howards by the pond:
And then we went to the playgroudnd. Here is a photo story entitled "The Slide: O Greatest Joy"

Who do you think is having more fun in the following photo?
And in non-Howard photos, here's one showing how much Maggie loves her Aunt Erin! And I think Maggie knows she has a good thing going: when we ask her if she wants a cousin or if she wants Erin to have a baby, she ALWAYS says no. Boy, is she in for a surprise come September when baby Landers is here and gives her a little competition in the attention department.

I don't have a photo for this one, but I think Maggie had one of her first dreams last week. She woke up crying around 10:30 and didn't stop after 30 seconds like she usually does, so I went in to get her. She was laying in her crib, crying out and saying "Daddy...dog...yucky, yucky, yucky" I can only imagine what she was dreaming about. I was just lucky to be the one who got to hold her and comfort her. She's awfully sweet when she cuddles up into your shoulder.

Time for some cute Maggie photos!

I took this photo one morning after breakfast. She's always extra sweet in the mornings and on this morning she was being especially cute. I just like the way she looks with all of her toys surrounding her (and my foot in its slipper - oh well!). Molly - I keep forgetting to tell you that Ben left his car over here. I'll return it when all of our germs are gone!
The dress Maggie is wearing in this photo was bought for her by Grandma Howard in Laguna Beach, CA, before she was even born. It finally fits her! I was trying on a bunch of spring clothes so I would know what fits her and when I put this dress on she said "Pretty!" and ran around excitedly. After I let her play for a few minutes and saw that it fit her, I wanted to try on the next thing. She cried and cried and was so upset. She didn't want to take this dress off! She kept crying until I put it back on her. Little princess:) Sorry the photo is blurry; I'm trying to figure out Grant's new camera.
I just like this photo b/c she looks like she's up to something.
In this photo I think she looks a little more like me than she usually does. But maybe it's just my imagination.
Grant and I were working in our little fenced-in courtyard a few weekends ago and Maggie was playing happily with us. All of a sudden we heard her saying "HEY! HEY!" so we turned towards the gate and there she was on the other side! I thought she had just opened it and walked through but as we quickly found out, she actually crawled through, commando-style. What a funny girl!
We like to go outside to wave goodbye to Grant in the mornings, and this morning I was wearing Grant's jacket so I just zipped Maggie up in there with me. We were both toasty!
This is Maggie's closest friend, Ben Griggs. Ben's mom, Molly, and I are good friends and we love to take the kids on walks and play together. Usually they kind of ignore each other and do their own thing but every now and then they interact and it's SO CUTE when they do. Molly and I think Ben and Maggie could almost pass for brother and sister with their similar coloring and little turned-up noses. Ben is really smart, too, and specializes in making a very realistic pig snorting sound.

I don't have any photos to go along with this story but that's probably for the best. Maggie and I are both sick this week! Maggie has some sort of stomach bug and I'll let you use your imagination for what her symptoms are. I've had really bad allergies. Somehow I feel that doesn't convey the discomfort I've been in. Let's just say I can't breathe, I've had a headache for three days, I've gone through a box of Kleenex, and I've lost my sense of smell so badly that I haven't tasted anything for three days. I'm really not exaggerating. Anyway, I don't believe that everything happens for a reason, but I'm definitely glad that my loss of smell has coincided with Maggie's stomach bug. Great timing, allergies!
Poor Maggie has just been really wimpy and wants to be held constantly. She's fallen asleep in my arms three times today and once on the floor. She even slept through me changing her diaper and pants and taking her temperature. Poor thing!