Random pics

So here's a normal scenario in our house. (ok, the cupcakes are not a "normal" snack, but it was the day I sent cupcakes to Maya's class for her birthday celebration with her classmates, so we had a special cupcake that evening, too, so Maria could be included ... but the general theme of the snack is true to form.)

Maya smells her food and takes a bite.

Then Maria takes a bite of hers.


Final scene: Maria polishes off her snack and Maya is nowhere to be seen, having taken a bite or two, and now can't sit still long enough to even finish eating her beloved chocolate.

And actually, there is a scene missing here ... the one where Maria then gets up, walks around to the other side of the table, and polishes off Maya's food, too! And the epilogue, where Maya comes back 15 minutes later wanting her cupcake.

Completely NORMAL scene in our house. I love it.

Maya is THREE!!

Maya's birthday party was yesterday, ON her 3rd birthday. I don't have extremely high housecleaning standards by any means, but for some reason, I felt compelled to have the entire house cleaned for a bunch of 3 year olds. And it was a pool party, for goodness sakes! They were outside most of the time anyway! But it was all worth it. House was clean, and kids had a good time. And I made this awesome Cinderella cake for my baby girl. I felt bad last year because Maya had 3 parties, and I ordered the same Nemo cake from the grocery store for all 3 parties.... what a cop-out when I know how to decorate cakes. So I was determined to make it this year, even though I just accepted a promotion at work, and even though we had a meeting Friday that I couldn't miss, so I had to work a full day the day before the party. All in all, I was very pleased with the turnout, and Maya had a grand time!!!

Yes, there is a little 'glass' slipper on the bottom step, but it's hard to see:


This was early in the morning, when we let her open our gift (a kid-friendly digital camera ... she LOVES to take pics with my digital camera), and she was pretty grumpy in the morning. But I managed to get a smile out of her anyway...

This was after swimming, when all the kids were good and hungry and ready for ice cream and cake:
Back to the morning hours, when she opened her camera. She was mesmerized:
A good friend of mine came to the party and I assigned to her the role of official party photographer, as I learned the last 2 years that I just don't have time to take pictures! So I'll post more whenever I receive her copy of pictures.

And to all of my blogger friends, I apologize most sincerely for not reading and posting comments on your blogs lately .... I truly have not had an hour to myself for several weeks now. I don't think I went to bed before midnight in the last 2 weeks, and I honestly fell asleep just now waiting for my pics to load! This is one tired mama, and I'm heading to bed as soon as I finish here. But it was worth every single second of effort. I made my baby smile with her cake, and she had a very good time at her party. I don't care a fig if she knows how much effort I put into her party or not, but I do care that she enjoys her birthday parties and remembers the excitement and joy she had that day. I have a December birthday, and so I can count on one hand the number of birthday parties I actually remember. Far more often, I had birthday gifts wrapped up in Christmas wrapping paper. So when I found out my first baby was to have a summer birthday, I jumped for joy, and knew we would have a blast each and every summer!

Maya has already grown so fast, and I keep staring at her little face trying to memorize how she looks at 3 years old. I know time is going to fly faster and faster, and I just want to enjoy her as she is. She is at such a sweet age, all cuddles and hugs and wanting her mommy one minute, and then fiercely independent with her "I can do it!" attitude the next. Throw in her jealous-of-her-sister moments, and her remaining 'terrible-twos' tantrums, and she is just a mix of sweet and sour, and altogether 100% precious. I can't wait to see where this next year takes her.

Good Grief! Tired, but happy ...

How in the world does time creep by so slowly when you're 10 waiting for Christmas to come, yet fly by so fast when you're (um, let's say 40-something) and trying to get ready for a 3-year old birthday party?!?!

I was seriously shocked when I saw that my last post was June 9. I know the laptop has been in the shop for about 3 weeks now, but geez, that's almost a month and a half! So much to post about, and so little time to do it....
Maria's day in Family Court was June 9, and I finally have the pictures downloaded from my camera. The judges were great and came all the way down from the bench for the picture I requested. So the final 't' is crossed and the final 'i' is dotted! Isn't my little American beautiful?!

Next update: Maria is officially WALKING! She's been taking a step here and there for several weeks, and just like Maya did, she finally let go and just took off across the room and there was no going back! She can even stop and almost fall, but catch her balance and get upright again and keep on going. Such a smartie! I tried to upload the video, but can't seem to get it to work. The video is cute, because you get to see the jealous sister Maya when Maria gets the attention and applause so deserving of those who begin to walk. hehehe. Plus you get to see our real-life Tuesday evening mess in the living room after the girls have been playing in there for a couple of hours.

And finally (for today anyway): Maya appears to be potty-trained!! BIG WOOHOO!! We were getting nervous, since her preschool will not allow the 2K kids to move on to 3K in late August unless they are completely, and I mean COMPLETELY potty-trained! But she seems to have gotten it now, and has been in big girl panties since Tuesday. We still have some issues with, um, poops. There's just no nice way to say that, is there? But now that I've seen her accident free on the pee-pee side for almost a whole week now, I'm confident we can beat the poop problem in the next month. YAY!

That's it for now. It's 1:00 and I have to get up in another 4 hours for another exciting week at work. More on the birthday plans later .......