Life in the Pack

As you know, Payson enjoys spending part of her weekends in her backpack. Last Sunday (3-16) we snowshoed with the Smiths near home to a spot on the Presumpscot River I had never been before called Devil's Den. Apparently the River is quite deep in this spot, allowing for an amazing rope swing system I hope to make use of this summer! If you follow a nearby tributary upstream a little ways, there's a really cool gorge... amazing that all of this is about a mile from home.

The Presumpscot River at Devil's Den

The gang, minus me and Milo

Trekking up the trib to the gorge

Payson is helping to keep Matt's back nice and strong

The gorge

We had a busy week! No theme days at Daycare, but we all attended my work's Annual Meeting at work on Thursday. Now that Payson's walking well, she can finally wear dresses (it was a challenge with crawling as she'd get stuck on the hem). This was a great one for the first day of spring! She did pretty well at the Meeting, except for once when she let out a really loud screech during the presentation of awards. Matt took her outside for awhile until that portion ended. Oops!

Matt's responsible for this silly 'do on bath night. Pretty cute! It's really becoming a challenge to take good pictures of little miss P. She's all over the place, all the time, and is not interested in sitting/standing still and smiling!

As for eating, Payson is still pretty messy. We don't really care; it's all part of her learning. I care a lot less than I thought I would, which is great (& a relief - things can get pretty wild & sticky!). She's been weilding a spoon for awhile now, and just started with a fork a couple weeks ago. This pic is from this morning. I am totally fixated on protein for breakfast, so I was happy she was going hog wild with this cottage cheese. I am also fixated on fruit for breakfast. Well, to be honest, I would like Payson to eat a grain, fruit/veggie, and protein at every meal. Who knows if this is right? I think I need to take a class on nutrition. All I know is that when she eats a ton of cheese, she needs to eat some prunes, too. I have found I really enjoy prunes! Who knew they'd be so tasty?
We called my friend Jami and headed to the Libby Hill Trails in Gray for a nice spring walk (in winter weather). Payson was thrilled to be back in the pack after a nice protein-rich breakfast. The doggies loved it. Jami's 8 month old son, Braydon, seemed to enjoy it too - his first venture in his pack!

I went on a 40 min. run during Payson's nap today, which I was pretty pleased about. It was great weather for a run. We went to Shirley & Ray's for a pre-Easter dinner and I have some cute pictures from that, but I'm pretty tired so I'll try to post them tomorrow or Monday. We are looking forward to joining Vern & Jane for Maine Maple Sunday tomorrow at Merrifield Farms, and then we're going to Christine & TJ's for an Easter Dinner! A busy but really fun weekend!