Take Me Out to the Ballgame

So Greta went to her first game, which also happened to be Reds Opening Day, which is very much a Cincinnati Holiday.



I was very excited to take Greta to her first game. I am sure that next year will be more fun as she'll have some idea that there's a field and people are on it... might not understand baseball yet, but she'll at least know there's a field.



First we had swung by Fountain Square to drop in on the Give Back Cincinnati party, and grab some lunch at Pot Belly's...


Then it was off to the game, after waiting out the rain shower for a little bit... Greta enjoyed the fan zone, and has an uncanny resemblance to Lou Pinella


Greta found baseball to be very relaxing!


She put on the rally cap, but it was to no avail!


And one last family portrait before heading out to go home and take a nap

Roller Baby

Greta just started doing this the other day.. pretty much whenever I hold her or lay on the couch with her, she immediately rolls one way and then the other. Pretty funny so far...we'll see how funny it is in four months when she's still doing it :)

This is Greta's Favorite New Game with Papa

mirror, mirror

saturdays are great fun! greta had a bath, walked to the bagel shop with her papa, ate, and then napped for almost 3 hours! (not greta's typical nap by any means). after she woke up, she ate again and then we played in her room for a while. we played together but then she seemed to be getting bored of me, so i set her in front of this mirror in her room. she played by herself for quite a while. i kept sneaking back in to watch her play. mirrors are quite fun.....

"and so then he said...."

here is greta recapping today's playdate for me. as you can tell, she was giving me an earful, sharing all the gossip she gathered from miles, ella, and gabby. on the way home from the playdate we made an obligatory stop at target. and i picked up some rubberbands for greta. yes, my 5 month old needs rubberbands. check her pigtails out in the photo. between the new hairdo and the way she's talking to me, doesn't it look like she's about to demand the car keys or introduce us to her new boyfriend? they grow up so fast.....

Someone Get Me A Haircut

let's go muskies!!!

so tonight xavier plays west virginia (BOO! bob huggins) in the sweet sixteen. xavier is mommy's alma mater, so of course greta will be rooting the musketeers to victory. thanks to megan for this adorable tshirt so that greta can cheer in style. some of you may be wondering how joe's daughter can be allowed to wear xavier gear, and it's simple. first of all, uc did not even make the tournament this year so we can not with good conscience allow greta to wear the red and black. and second of all, joe is at work which means i can dress greta in whatever i want. let's go x!!

i love my taggie

so i've mentioned before that greta likes to chew on fabric. we assume that all this gumming and chewing is part of the teething process, and have offered her many different "teethers" to help soothe her gums. greta, however, wants no part of these plastic things to chew on. she prefers fabric. and while this sort of grosses me out to think of chewing on fabric, i thought i would buy greta a taggie and see what she thought of it. (taggie = a piece of fabric with ribbon loops around the edges). um....she loves it. she whined at me when i took it from her to change her diaper. in the pictures you can see her going at it like it's a piece of meat.

Easter Sunday

today was greta's first easter. easter is another holiday where i am thankful that both of our families live close so that we can celebrate the holiday with everyone. first we headed to Easter mass. greta was a complete angel (pardon the pun) in church. she slept a bit, looked around, and was held by her papa and her great aunt mary. after mass we went to greta's great grandma katie's house for brunch. there were lots of aunts, uncles and cousins there to hang out with. however, greta didn't feel much like hanging out, as she had slept a mere 15 minutes in church. we stayed long enough to grab some food and take a quick picture of greta trying to grab grandma katie's necklace. wish we would've got more photos!!






next we drove to joe's parents house to celebrate with his family. greta slept all the way there and slept for a while longer after we arrived, so she was definitely ready to play when she woke up. good thing, because the Ford cousins were ready to play too. we played games, had an easter egg hunt, and had some more food. here you can see greta checking out her cousin hannah.











greta also got the chance to be rocked in the rocking chair by cassie. as you can tell by cassie's expression, she takes this task very seriously.













then ellie decided she wanted to join in the fun too. look at the pretty girls in their pretty Easter dresses. at this point greta had ditched her shoes, tights, sweater, and hairbow. at least the dress was cute....












jacob thought about joining hannah, ellie, cassie and greta in the girly fun they were having, but then he thought better of it. all in all, it was a fun Easter and a great day to share with family.....

Happy Easter!

before she got her bath tonight, greta wanted to make sure she wished everyone a happy easter. a big thanks to janet who made the easter onsie....janet also got the hat for greta, so i thought it was pretty appropriate!

speaking of the onsies, you might remember that at my baby shower, each person decorated a onsie for greta to commemorate her "firsts". the onsies were sized appropriately for how old greta would be at each event. however, greta's valentines onsie (made by emily), sxsw onsie (made by meg), and st. paddy's day onsie (made by megan) ended up being a bit too snug for our buddha baby. we are still trying to think of a way to creatively have greta sport them in a photo. stay tuned...

so big....

here are some pictures of greta practicing her new skill of sitting up. she can now sit for lengths of time and can actually play while she is sitting. here she is playing in her playyard (greta loves her playyard), and then there she is just before she topples over. luckily mommy put the camera down quick enough to catch her.

home sweet home

we arrived home this afternoon and greta decided that home was a pretty cool place and that she might want to take a nap to sleep off our long road trip. looks like she remembered her bed and room afterall. and as you can tell from the picture, it seems like greta has decided to welcome herself back to her bed by rolling over to sleep on her belly (a first). looks like we'll be removing the bumper pads as soon as she wakes up. welcome home greta! we hope you had as much fun on the road trip as we did.....

bbq and a good night's sleep

when we got to nashville we headed to Neely's BBQ for some dinner before checking into the hotel. the food was fantastic. joe and i both look pretty tired but as you can see, greta is still all smiles as usual...

after tonight's stay in nashville it's time to head home to newport first thing tomorrow morning. we wonder if greta remembers what her room looks like....

drinking and "driving"

so our drives back from austin were pretty much uneventful. sunday we headed out from austin and made it to arkadelphia. this morning we headed out from arkadelphia and drove to nashville. greta has been FABULOUS on the car rides, but had a tiny meltdown on our way to nashville. after all of the tears and screams that we could take, we decided (read: melanie decided) that something MUST be wrong with her and that we must stop immediately. we stopped at a gas station and got the hysterical greta out of her carseat. this is when she abruptly stopped all tears and began to smile, coo, and babble. i secretly believe she was saying, "fooled you. i just wanted out for a bit". we hung out in the parking lot for a bit where greta played in the front seat and had a bit to eat and we were on our way. besides this tiny snafu, greta handled car rides like a champ!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

From our little german baby... okay, she's about 50% Irish, but here name is Greta Hansbauer.

Day 6 - Last Day in Austin

So we woke up on our last morning in Austin before starting on the road back to Cincy. We went to Brunch with Chuck at Stubb's for the weekly Gospel Brunch. We've gone to this for the last couple years, and it's a staple for our visits to Austin now. It's hard to explain how great this show is. The food is maybe slightly above average, but the bands they get to play are fantastic.

I think Greta really enjoyed it, and she could actually see the band this time, something she didn't really get a chance to do the rest of the week. Will be fun next year when she can stand/dance/clap along!

Day 5 - Austin - Last Day of SXSW

Today was a bit more of a laid back day. It was the end of a long week and our last full day in Austin. We started things off with some food at our last usual South Congress spot - Doc's. It's a great mostly outdoor bar/restaurant, that used to be an old garage.



After that we headed to Jovita's... a little Mexican Restaurant that is also a great spot for live music with a big indoor stage and a great outdoor area (perfect for 5 month olds to hang out at).

Greta is sporting her Bloodshot onsie and basking in the sun... well, the shade at least.

We saw a ton of great bands. The show was put on by a radio station from St. Louis that every summer has an event called Twangfest, and so this was the SXSW Twangfest showcase. Bands included another set by the Waco Brothers, Chuck Prophet, Tommy Womack, and Melanie's new favorite Sarah Borges.




Another highlight of the show was the headline by Cincinnati's own Wussy. Was great to see a nice crowd there and lots of people buying t-shirts and CDs...

We wrapped up the day with another trip to Whole Foods for dinner, and then back to the hotel.

Day 4 in Austin

Today was a big day... Greta's first Bloodshot Records day show... she loved it, and was again the hit for everyone that saw her.

We started off the day at our favorite spot for breakfast - Kerbey Lane. And if you are ever in Austin, be sure you are going to the Original, on Kerbey Lane.. there are several others around town, and while the food is good at all, the original has a much cooler atmosphere as it's in a house.

After Kerbey Lane, we drove around for a bit to visit a couple baby stores and let Greta nap, and then we headed back to Yard Dog for the Bloodshot Records Day show, sponsored by Shiner Bock. This show is a big reason I go to SXSW every year. Always amazing bands and this year was no exception. We were in and out all day giving Greta time to eat/nap, but we saw Bobby Bare Jr, Deadstring Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, and Waco Brothers.

Greta also got to meet Jon Langford, lead singer of the Waco Brothers, and her favorite band, the Wee Hairy Beasties... he was blown away by Greta's cuteness! This is Greta showing off for Jon.

Greta was loving the tunes, and rocking it out in her I Love Indie Rock t-shirt... She was also tryin to figure out what exactly is wrong with Chuck... I'm guessing she won't have much luck though, as none of us have figured it out either!

This is the Waco Brothers rocking out the end of the show...

And then finally it was time for us all to get some dinner at Guero's, a great mexican restaurant right next to Yard Dog, and call it a night! Tomorrow is the last day for music and we hope to catch Cincinnati's own Wussy at Jovita's... then Sunday we head out (after the Gospel Brunch of course!)

dinner at shady grove

it was a long day for greta, and she hung in like a real trooper. our last stop of the day was for dinner at a restaurant on barton springs called shady grove. jesse and holly introduced us to this place several years back, and we love it for it's relaxed atmosphere and cool outdoor dining space. we grabbed a quick meal and headed back to put greta to bed. gotta rest up for tomorrow!

Yard Dog

as you can see in the picture, greta loved her first show at yard dog. mommy and papa love yard dog too. it's a cool art gallery that hosts day shows out behind their shop. there is always a great crowd and cool bands....and again, free beer. greta listened to okkerville river and black joe louis and seemed to like what she heard. greta was a big hit all day....people kept stopping us to take her picture and tell us how cute she is. (duh). our friends beth and karl were supposed to join us for sxsw but weren't able to make it. we miss them and hope to hang out with them when we get back. luckily they gave greta these great earmuffs (we don't know what to call them) so that she can listen to great music and keep her ears protected. thanks beth and karl!

eatin' and sleepin' on soco

in between the shows greta was able to sneak in a quick bottle and a few naps. we took some stroller rides and browsed some of the shops on south congress while she napped. greta also spotted ben harper while she ate....you can kind of see him in the blue jacket in the background. i think he wanted to come ask her for her autograph but was too shy.

greta also really loves papa's friend chuck. you can see his hand in the photo too. greta was big on giving chuck high fives all day....

bird's barbershop

so thursday we headed out early, with a big day ahead of us. we got greta all sunscreened up and headed to whole foods for some lunch. after lunch we headed to bird's barbershop, a hip little joint on south lamar, for our first day show. last year bird's was doing free mohawks during the shows, and this year it was free shoe shines. plus free beer, free sweet leaf tea (yum), and free music. what else could you ask for. we saw two bands, zookeeper and lykke li. greta seemed to enjoy the music as well as all the people watching. we thought about getting greta's first haircut here, but they wouldn't cut her hair since she is so young. i think if they had gotten a glimpse of her hair they would've changed their minds!! after bird's it was off to south congress, our favorite little area in austin.