Saturday in East Lansing

From October 18 in EL

Eager for a change in scenery, Maia and I traveled to E.L. today to spend the day with my parents. Nana Dawn graciously arranged for Maia's very first professional haircut (just a trim of the bangs, actually) at the Douglas J Salon in Okemos. Very nice! :) Maia was really agreeable throughout the whole process, which was a bit of a surprise to me--she's not been particularly happy when I've trimmed her bangs at home. The newness of the whole experience was probably what soothed the savage beast. :)

After the haircut, we headed over to my parents' tailgate party just outside the football stadium. Maia got a big kick out of running through the mostly-empty tailgate lot before the latecomers arrived. She met a ton of new people, ate cookies and doughnuts and some very tasty soup, and basically charmed the pants off of everyone.

After tailgating for a bit, the four of us wandered over to the marching band's practice field, where the band gathers to begin their game-day routine every home game Saturday. Maia's arrival on the field made it official: we've had four generations of Spartan marching band enthusiasts in my family now that Maia's joined us. I remember going to band practice as a child, covering my ears when the drums played too close and climbing up the low-hanging tree branches behind the bleachers.

After walking with the band a bit as they made their way to the stadium, Maia, Nana Dawn and I headed off towards the car and wrapped up our busy day. We came home to Ann Arbor, Maia had a bath, and she went to bed about an hour earlier than usual due to the fact that she didn't really nap all day.

My favorite quote today: random drunken student guy whom we passed on the sidewalk, who stopped to give Maia a high-five and said "I'm drunk, yeah, but I still know that that baby has PRETTY EYES!"

As always, there are photos on the website.