Saturday, August 30, 2008

Had to write this one down before I forget it!

Let me tell you how smart that little Miss Maria is! I got home from work yesterday and found that Maya had a fever. Then Maria woke us up at 2:30 this morning with a fever. So it's been an inside day nursing our sick babies. Maya's fever broke and has not returned, so E took her to run some errands just to get her out of the house a little. She's such an outdoors-y child that being sick is harder on her simply because she has to remain inside. So, I started looking through a great book I have entitled Toddler Play (by Gymboree). Those of us who are less than imaginative when it comes to child play need a little help now and then. I came up with a few things Maria and I could do while whiling away the hours indoors today. I came up with the old "hide and seek" with a box of yogurt-covered raisins and 3 bowls. Let me set the scene:

We're sitting in front of the couch playing on the floor. I get two yogurt-covered raisins out of the small box and put them under the middle bowl. I then put the box on the couch behind me. I lifted the first bowl to show her there is nothing underneath it. I lifted the middle bowl and showed her the 2 raisins. I lifted the last bowl to show it had nothing underneath. Then I said, "Maria, where are the raisins?" , tapping on the tops of the 3 bowls as I said it. She went directly to the middle bowl and tried to lift it. It was a little large for her hands so she had a little difficulty getting a good grasp on it to lift it up. So my 17 month old prodigy then stood up, walked around me, picked up the box of raisins on the couch, proceeded to sit down, empty them out and eat them! bwahahahahaha!! It was such a brilliant move that I had to let her have them.

I so wish I had my personal laptop with me so that I could have captured the moment in pictures and downloaded them, but alas, I'm using a work laptop right now and not a personal picture in sight on it.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Mommy and Me

I finally copied all the pictures my friend, Mary, so graciously put on discs for me. They were, ahem, gathering dust in their jacket until tonight. So yes, they really do go all the way back to last Christmas, but I'll just post a few of them since it's late and mommy needs to go to bed.

This was from Easter. We had an Easter egg hunt at Gwen's house. Gwen is Holly's mom, and Maya just had her first spend the night event at Holly's house last weekend. Well, the first one that wasn't at Gran's house, of course. I just love this picture:

Here's the Christmas picture. I cannot believe how much Maya has changed since last December! She still looks like a baby here, but she looks so grown up now!

And this was Maria's birthday in March. That Mary is certainly good with a camera! I hope to post more later....

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Saturday Ramblings


My laptop died (again!), and so now I'm stuck sharing the desktop with E until it's fixed. Which means I might be scarce around here for a while. I thought I'd rummage thru the photos on the desktop and see what I could find. I love these ....

I was just thinking this morning that I'd like to capture more of the things my kids are doing and saying now, but once I sit in front of this screen, it all escapes me. My babies are napping now, or at least I THINK Maria finally went to sleep. That little girl sleeps hard, but it's hard to get her down in her crib without her waking up and crying. Maya still wakes up during the night and comes and crawls in bed with us. I know ... I know ... everyone says we need to stop that, but honestly, we do NOT mind it at all. She's only going to be little once, and goodness knows she's growing up so fast, and soon she won't even want to hang out with us at all, much less sleep with us! This morning I was awakened by this scenario: someone laid her cheek on mine and said "are you awake?" I opened my eyes to see the cutest little face ever, and she got the biggest smile on her face when she realized I was awake. Then she proceeds to talk non-stop about anything and everything that comes to her mind. She got a little musical toy piano keyboard and started playing it ...one of those that plays a song whenever you hit a key. Thing is, it has no volume control! (aside to dad: maybe you shouldn't bother changing those batteries next time they die!) So it didn't take long for both of use to wake up for good for the day. When Maya wakes up, she is awake and hits the floor running! Maria, on the other hand, is a grumpy-grump sleepy head for a while.
Maria has suprised us again with the things she has learned! Maya does this butterfly routine where she holds her arms straight out behind her, bends her back a little, and runs forward. She's been doing it for a while ... but Tuesday night we were exclaiming how good of a butterfly she was, and little Miss Maria proceeded to tuck her hands behind her and head off right behind Maya. It was the cutest thing ever, and we were just stunned to see her do it. Then she stopped and turned to us with that ever-cute grin she has, and we just started clapping and woohooing for her, too. And right after that, Maya did her bee imitation where she pokes us with a finger like she's stinging us, and then we're supposed to cry and she consoles us and tells us "it will be okay!" cute, cute, cute. Smarty pants Maria did that, too, right after Maya did! She is simply amazing in how quickly she has learned things. Now, I just wish she would learn to TALK. She still only says "da-da" and "uh-oh". Both of those are very clear, and she did do the little buzzing sound when she did the bee act. But that's it. Seventeen months old, and only 2 words in her vocabulary. Her early interventionist said she really does not qualify for Babynet services anymore, since she met all her goals in just a few short months, but that speech therapy might be the one thing that keeps her in the program. And to be honest, I'm pretty sure the EI wants to keep her in the program simply because she's fallen in love with her ... it's really not hard to do, just ask me or her Gran! Anyway, I think I got a decent video of the butterfly routine on my camera, but I'm going to have to figure out how to download it to the desktop and then upload it here.... my girls are just too cute!


Tuesday, August 5, 2008

I'd like to thank the academy .....

LOL at Sarah!!! Thank you for the honor, Sarah....

And of course I must thank my stars! Who just happen to be the loves of my life, my reason for being, the shine in my sunshine, and oh, yeah, the reason I'm so exhausted that I'm about to collapse. :-P
So, according to Sarah, here's what happens now:
1st I have to answer a little questionnaire, which is pretty much all about ME! Then, I have to choose 7 bloggers who I feel are BRILLIANT (see list below) and I give them the award. They will post their own answers to the questionnaire on their own blog and they will choose 7 more recipients.
Here is the questionnaire (drum roll please...):
A. Attached or single? Attached
B. Best friend? My ya-yas: Jennifer, Sammie, and Val. Oh, and Mary. And Gwen. And Lea. Goodness... you like me! You really like me! (to quote another award winner...)
C. Cake or pie? Can I have both, please? With ice cream on top?
D. Day of choice? Saturday
E. Essential item? My laptop, of course.
F. Favorite color? Purple
G. Gummy bears or worms? Yuck ...neither! Gimme chocolate!
H. Hometown? Born in Columbia, SC. Now live in upstate SC.
I. Indulgence? Shopping, chocolate, shopping, chocolate, and oh, yeah ... shopping for chocolate!
J. January or July? July .... Maya was born in July! It just doesn't get any better. Except March is just as good, of course. ;-)
K. Kids? 2 girls, and a male cat
L. Life isn’t complete without? My babies, family, friends, and did I mention chocolate?
M. Marriage date? April 17, 1993. yikes. I'm old.
N. Number of brothers & sisters? 2 older brothers
O. Oranges or apples? Oranges
P. Phobias? Bugs and heights
Q. Quotes? An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet. It may stretch or tangle, but never break. ~ Chinese proverb.
R. Reasons to smile? Maya and Maria! (and chocolate)
S. Season of choice? Fall
T. Tag seven peeps! (see below)
U. Unknown fact about me? I have a rather high tolerance for pain. I prefer (if possible) to get teeth cavities filled without novacaine, as I can't STAND the numb feeling. And when I had my hysterectomy, I asked the doc to leave one ovary in. He warned me it too would have to come out eventually, but I enjoyed the 6 weeks off of work with pay so much that the pain and discomfort of the surgery was negligible. But alas, he could not do it, so it all came out at one time.
V. Vegetable? Macaroni and Cheese! It counts, right? Does too!! It's listed right THERE in the vegetable section of Lizard's Thicket's menu!!!
W. Worst habits? Chewing my fingers and cuticles.
X. X-ray or ultrasound? X-ray
Y. Your favorite food? Give me a break. Like I can pick just one. Maybe chocolate?
Z. Zodiac sign? Sagittarius ... married to a Capricorn.
Here are 7 other BRILLIANT bloggers Ok, you caught me. It's only 6. Wait! I'll nominate ME again! Lucky # 7 ....




Friday, August 1, 2008

More random pics...

We spend a lot of time sitting around taking pictures of our girls. They're just so darned cute we can't help ourselves!!

This was the collapse of the fire engine tent ....