Christmas 2009 with the Lawsons

The cards always make Gran cry...

Maya loved the present from Uncle B and Aunt K:

Aunt K is a librarian and knows the BEST books to get:

Love that smile!

The girls LOVE their cousins!

Do I look as tired as I felt that night?

Calli and Lexi...

Maria's favorite gift of all time ... Rudolph!

Maya's 4K Christmas Program at FBS - Dec 2009

I love this kid! She was the star of the show, and she and Maria are the stars of my world.

Wow. Long time no see...

I can't believe I haven't blogged since early December, and now January is almost over. Where to start ....

Well, I guess the reason I've been away so long is a good place to start... my job had gotten really, really, REALLY hectic. There was no way to keep up. And while they kept adding on to the managerial duties, my one vacant position was not going to be filled any time soon, if ever. I was working long nights, often all night (more the once a week), working all day, missing out on all the fun in life, or so it seemed. Christmas was a whirlwind ... my nephew graduated from Clemson on the 17th, I had to work on the 18th (my birthday, and I hate working on my birthday!), and then the 19th we headed to Hilton Head with my family, where we would do our family Christmas thing. Well, the 2nd day there, one person ruined the entire trip for the rest of us ... she's a piece of work. So then we spend 2 more awkward days there, and the kids all exchanged Christmas gifts. My girls had a blast, I'm happy to say. My brother Roger and his wife and two daughters were able to come from Nebraska, and I had a GREAT time with all of them. Then, on the way back home on the 22nd, we spent one night in Columbia with Roger and family again. My girls got to swim in the indoor pool at the hotel, and again, they had a great time. I had to work again on the 24th, but we did all get to leave at 3:00, thank goodness. Then back home to rush to get all the presents together and get Santa's visit organized. Up until 3:30 or so doing that, then Miss Maya woke up at 6:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. That is, she woke me up at 6:00 exclaiming "Mommy! There's presents downstairs!" She was so excited, and that made it all worth every minute of planning and shopping and putting things together. We did remember to put out cookies and milk for Santa, and some carrots for his reindeer, which was all eaten. :-)

Christmas Day just flew by ... we had our usual breakfast casserole and Honey Bun Cake, with plans to go to E's brother's house for our Christmas with his family around 4:30. Then it was time for the girls to take their naps. That's where I made my big mistake. I layed down with the girls to get them to go to sleep. When I finally woke up, I thought we had only been asleep for just a few minutes and was trying to convince Maya to go back to sleep when she asked if it was time to get up. I finally look at the clock, and HOLY MOLY it was 4:15!!! Up I jumped, ran to the kitchen to make my last dish to take to the family dinner, rushed to get the girls dressed and told E he had to take them on and for them to go ahead without me and I would try to get there by 6:30. I still hadn't fixed my hair or makeup and hadn't wrapped the first gift for this event. ugh. That convinced me that the beach trip had not been the best idea timing-wise. Missed too much of my usual pre-Christmas prep-time. Anyway, they started calling me around 5:30 and I didn't come downstairs to get the phone. When I had the last gift wrapped and just had to get dressed, I finally answered the phone and found out they were waiting for me! double-ugh. So then I flew out the door with everything and put my makup on in the car driving down I-26 about 80 mph. Got there and explained everything, and I really, really wished they had started without me so I wouldn't have felt so stressed. But it all turned out great, and my girls were loving having everyone there. Mom didn't come down to spend Christmas with us this year because the beach trip, I think, just wore her out and she was tired.

Not sure how mnay pictures I even got of all of it, as I did download them but haven't really had time to do anything with them.

So that leads me back to my job ... the stress just got to be too much, and I went to speak to my boss about getting out of management. She was very nice about it and told me to think about it. She asked another director within Revenue Cycle about his open position, told him about my decision, and he was receptive to me applying for his job. But then again, got so busy I didn't have time to even think about it for a couple of weeks, so my boss called me and asked if I was still interested in that position. I said yes, I was, and she said I would still have to apply for it if I wanted it, so I did that immediately. We are all in the process of moving our offices, so when that director talked to me about the position on a Wednesday, he said they were moving that Friday and he thought that would be the best time for me to make the switch. Good grief they can move fast when they want to! Anyway, life is soooooooo much better now, but we're just a whole lot poorer. It was quite a pay cut to go from management to non-management at the hospital, but less expensive than losing my mind from the stress! So that brings me up to now, when I finally have a weekend to actually do what I want to do and not work! woohoo! I'll have to post pictures soon when I can find them. We're having a snow/ice event this weekend. We were supposed to get 3-5 inches, but it didn't even cover all the grass. But there is enough ice out there to keep us inside and off the roads today. We do have good pics of the girls playing outside, so I'll have to post those, too.

Well, supper time. I'm sure I'll have time to be better about posting now. Yay!

What I'm thankful for....

Turkey cupcakes! I made these for Maya and Maria's classes at daycare.

My mother visiting for Thanksgiving.
My 2 mothers, and having the best MIL in the world.

Daughters and Nieces

Playing at the park with Gran

Taaa-daaa (Maria's phrase when she sees a lit Christmas tree)

Handmade ornaments that I wouldn't trade for a treeful of Waterford ornaments!

Uncle Konrad

Need to talk about my German relatives for a minute.... my mom had many brothers and sisters, but I only knew 4 of them personally ... Viktor, Marie, Lucie and Konrad. I think that's in order .... not sure if Viktor or Maria was older, but then Lucie was next and then my mom and then Konrad was the baby. I visited Germany once with mom when I was 12. I was scared to death that I was going to get lost there and I didn't understand what anyone was saying. I have many times wished we had gone back again one day when I was older and could appreciate the culture (and FOOD!) more. But we never did. Several of my relatives have come to visit us over the years, and I have enjoyed getting to see them. Especially Uncle Konrad. He was cool.

We got an email from my cousin last week that Uncle Konrad had passed away. He was in a nursing home, and evidently had Alzheimers or something similar and was not recognizing family anymore. My mom said the last time she spoke with him, he did not know who she was. But it's just sad to me that he's gone now and mom is the last of her generation.

My dad called Uncle Konrad "you old Kraut". Dad was not known for his tact .... he really didn't mean any harm, but just didn't know better most times. Picture Archie Bunker ... well, maybe not QUITE that obvious, but he was on that spectrum. Anyway, Uncle Konrad was known for being, how shall we say ... cheap! We would laugh because he did not have a phone, and he wouldn't pay for a newspaper. He would just go sit in the park until someone left their paper and he would read it. He could afford those things, but just didn't want to spend the money. I think that's one huge reason why he never married. But when he came to visit us, close to the end of his visit you would see him over in a corner somewhere counting out his money, and he would always hand some to me and my brothers. And he would always eat every single scrap of food on his plate ... never left a drop of anything on it. I suppose that happens when live through a world war and not get enough to eat at times ... you really appreciate what you do have. My mom is very similar ... she won't spend more than $10 or $15 bucks for anything for herself, but if I need something, out comes the $50 or $100 or whatever she thinks I need.

Uncle Konrad was able to come to our wedding! I think he had already planned a visit when we got engaged in October, 1992, and then he cut that trip short so that he could come back for the wedding in April, 1993. He gave us a beautiful set of silverware as a wedding gift, but I was just happy to have him there.

Those are some good Krauts....

And just for the record, I think mom said she had 2 older brothers who died young ... one was injured at school and had to walk all the way home afterwards, and he didn't survive long after that. The other was either blind or deaf, I believe, and he was sent off to a special school that could help him with living skills, but he died while at school. I don't think mom ever knew how exactly. Then there was Agnes, who died when I was young. All I remember of that time was mom sitting in a chair with her arm over her eyes while dad was herding us kids out of the house to give her some time to herself. Anytime Agnes' name came up, mom would say "the good always die young." Viktor died several years ago. Then Marie died in 2007, I believe ... the year my Maria was born. by the way, Maria is technically named for my mom, who has many, many names ... Martha Monika Maria Magdelena Veronica Wiesner Rainwater. But I like to say she is partly named for her Tante Marie also, since the year of her birth coincided with the year Marie died. Then after dad died, when mom was still living alone in her house, she got a call from my cousin Gisela (married to Achim, who is Lucie's son) saying Lucie had died the week before. Lucie had also gotten ill and was not coherent, from what I understand, towards the end of her life. I don't talk about them much, i guess since they were just so far away and we didn't get to see them much, but I do wish mom could see my at least cousins one more time. She loves her family very much.

Maya and Water

fade in....

scene:
mommy is sitting in her armchair. the girls are upstairs playing
sounds from upstairs:

Act 1:
Two girls come downstairs into living room, laughing and giggling.

Maya: "my sleeve is all wet"
Mommy: "why is your sleeve wet?"
Maya: "the water leaked"
Mommy: "why did the water leak?"
Maya: "because"
Mommy: "because why?"
Maya: "because I put my arm in it."
Mommy: "ah."

I love my life! You just can't buy this kind of entertainment.....

The Flight of the Bumblebees (and Tigger?)

Maya and Maria were supposed to both be bumblebees. Maya is the one who came up with the whole idea, as a matter of fact. She announced early, when costumes were just beginning to appear in stores, that she wanted to be a bee for Halloween. So off we went in search of bee costumes, and found really cute ones at the first place we went. So we bought bee costumes. Case closed, right? Not so much ..... fast forward several weeks, and the mom of one of Maya's school friends told me "in case you didn't know it already, Maya wants to be a tiger for Halloween." whaaaaaat? Of course, I've heard of those kids that change their minds all the time when it comes to their costumes. But I've always said (and I was such a perfect parent before I had kids) that MY kids would have to stick to whatever costume we bought first ... I'm not going to have those spoiled rotten kids who always get their way. HA! double-HA!

So I happened to be in Toys R Us a couple weeks ago and saw that they had their Tigger costumes 1/2 price already. And really, isn't $9.99 a STEAL for a Disney costume of any sort? Even if we don't use them, the girls could play dress up with them later, right? RIGHT?? So that's not really spoiling them, is it? I didn't even tell the girls I had the costumes, since I was sure Maya would revert to wanting her bee costume again. But when the neighbor stopped by on Oct. 29th and asked Maya what she was going to be for Halloween, of course she exclaimed "A Tiger!" So I packed up both outfits and took them all with me when we went to C, where we were going to visit with my mom and go to a friend's Halloween party and the kids would all trick-or-treat from there. Sure enough, here's my little Tiger/Tigger and my bee. Maria did not seem to like the Tigger costume at all, and really wasn't that fond of the bee outfit either, but that was easier to convince her to wear since she was able to slip it off every now and then and run around in her black pants and top.

So then we went to spend the night at another friend's house, and I found out her daughter was a bumblebee this year! So on go all the costumes again (it was soooo hot in C this year that I let my girls take their costumes off early, and they actually did a round of trick-or-treating in regular clothes at the end!) so we can do the photo shoot:

And a good one of my mom and my girls!

God love 'em ...

Maya is in that stage where she likes to point out things that match. Especially when it involves something between me and her. Like, "mommy! my shirt matches you!" if we're both wearing pink shirts. Or when her crayon matches my socks. Or whatever..... anything that matches is worth noticing and mentioning in Maya's world. So here's what Maya said today ... it started with her black crayon ... "Mommy, look ... my crayon matches my hair!" But she really wanted to include me somehow, so then she tried to say it matched my hair too. I said, "no, honey, mommy's hair isn't black."

Maya's response: "Yeah, it's gray."

Gotta love the 4 year olds.

And pictures....

So of course I spend my evening looking through pictures of my babies. There were a few (few?) that really made me stop and stare at them. Some were just cute, some made me miss those smiles (after all, I haven't seen those smiles in over 12 hours now!), and some I really thought were just good photographs. But then, with this subject matter, how can you go wrong? :-p

Peace and Quiet ... wayyyyy overrated!

Ever think you would like to have just one night of peace and quiet? One night to do whatever you wish? I've got it. Both girls are spending the night at Gran and Poppi's house. I can do whatever I want tonight! woohoo!

But what I really want to do is to drive over to Gran and Poppi's house ... it's too quiet over here. All the fun is at Gran's tonight!

Well, I guess I could do laundry, which was my plan for this entire evening. But then I remembered the old blog, which hasn't been updated in forever!

Maria is sounding sooo grown up these days. Talking much more clearly, saying whole sentences on a regular basis now, and playing lots and lots of make believe with Maya. Maya alternates between appearing so very grown up, and then acting like a baby so that mommy or daddy will hold her and rock her like a baby. And then she acts like a cat and wants to put her food on the floor and eat it like Marlowe does. Ugh.

Maya has had her first official gymnastics class! Yay! She really seems to enjoy it. Mommy didn't enjoy it so much when she didn't think they were paying enough attention to her. Maya was obviously the new kid in the class, and I didn't like them not taking time to explain things to her, or even introduce themselves or other kids to her! She just fell in line with everyone else as they went from station to station doing different exercises and routines. But I remained calm ... somehow ... and I noticed that even though she spent some time just twirling around in circles by herself, she really appeared to be ok with it all. And when she came out she was smiling. I asked if she had a good time and she said "yes!" I asked if she wanted to come back next week for another class and she said "yes!" So we'll do it again Wednesday night. She looked so adorable in her little leotard! She looks like such a big girl at home, but she was by far the smallest child in the gymnastics class. It's nine little 4- and 5- year olds. I picked Wednesday night class because they said it was only 1/2 full, whereas the Monday night class was almost full. But by Wednesday night, it appears they were full, and again, my child appeared to be the only one who had not done this at all before. What she really seems to love the most about this class is being able to say to Maria "when your big sister comes home from gymnastics class, we'll ---- ". It's so cute! The one big mistake was buying a leotard for Maya and not bringing one home for Maria. Oh, the tears when Maria couldn't put on Maya's leotard, NOR the sweatsuit I got for her to wear over it since it's getting cool outside now. So of course we have rectified that this week. But I can't believe I didn't get pictures! argh! Mommy is losing it these days. You better believe we'll have pictures this Wednesday night!

Just can't get enough ... Maria!

At Gran's earlier in the summer. It took Maria a LONG time to get used to swimming pools and being in water, but she's there now ... she LOVES swimming. She had to chase the Nemo ball here. I think Maya actually threw the ball out of the pool, but at 2, it's very easy to convince Maria to fetch things, and Maya appears to have figured that out! Don't you just want to pinch these little legs, though? Sooooo cute....

And at Hatcher Garden with E and Gran last weekend. My girls just adore their Gran. But then, everyone adores Gran! You can't not love her .... she's too sweet!

And back to Gran's house....

Just can't get enough ... Maya

Have I mentioned lately how much I adore these girls of mine? I think all day long of things I need to blog, but when I'm sitting here, I can't think of a thing. So I'm just going to keep posting pictures, and hopefully they will tell the story of their childhood.

This was taken at Gran's house earlier in the summer. I can hear Maya's laugh by just looking at this picture.

And this was at Hatcher Garden. Gran spent all week with Poppi when he was in the hospital with pneumonia, and she was having some serious Maya and Maria withdrawals! So she came by and picked up E and the girls so they could all go out and mommy could clean!

This is still Maya's BFF, Elysia. We went to Elysia's house weekend before last and Maya had a great time! Not that you could tell that by any of her pictures of course. :-p

Elysia's dad concocted this monstrocity! High enough to give a mom heart palpitations, but of course Maya just HAD to try it. She did very well, and put up extremely well with mommy constantly yelling out "hold on tight, don't let go, sit still!, hold on!!!" I don't think I got any pictures at all of her actually sitting in the seat. Not sure if I was even holding the camera at the time ... I think E had the camera. It's all a blur to me (no pun intended ... camera .. blur ... get it? ... hehehe)

Random Pics

My scooter-bug:
One happy girl with her new big-girl bike. ;-)

She actually let her little sister sit on her bike! Now that's true love....

Could this be any cuter?!? (and yes, I know the helmet was not on correctly....)

And this is a cake I made for a baby shower at work. Of course I used Maya's birthday cake as my inspiration. Seems the baby boy's room is decorated with sailboats, and I love doing the ocean cakes, sooooo....

Maya is FOUR! How did THAT happen?

Stop the roller coaster!!! It's going too fast!!! How can precious little Maya, sweet tiny baby Maya, the 9-month old baby wearing 6-month sized clothes and a size 2 shoe, be FOUR already?? Crazy. I'm afraid if I blink she'll be married when I open my eyes.

On the other hand, I am so enjoying this stage of my baby's life. Watching her fills me with awe whenever she learns something new and watches with that wide-eyed, open-mouth stare of hers. I was telling a friend yesterday that last year at this time, when she was starting 3K at FBS, she seemed to be very much a follower of the kids around her. But now she seems like such a leader of the pack. Ok, so the fact that she can't sit still for more than 30 seconds at a time just might have something to do with that. But I watch her with her friends and she's always giving orders and telling them what to do. And for some reason they seem to do it.. But she also has geniune compassion for her family and friends. If someone is hurt, she is the first to go and try to comfort them. And she has this squeal-type laugh when she is really, really excited about something that I just love to hear. And the talking. Oh, my, goodness. She can talk non-stop. No wonder Maria is so quiet ... when does she get a chance to talk?!

Anyway, Maya turned 4 years old on July 26. I'm a little late posting, of course, but then I'm a little late doing everything these days. I still have not caught up on sending out the thank-you notes for the presents her family and friends gave her. I think I'm about 1/2 way done. Maybe I can finish by Christmas ... just in time to write those thank=you notes!

This is Maya's cake. Her birthday theme was Nemo. Yes, you may recall we just had THREE Nemo parties when she turned 2, but it seemed appropriate since she does love the movie, and since she is quite the fish. That girl loves nothing more than spending time in the water. I had the best time ever making her birthday cake this year. I used fondant, which I rarely use, and have learned not to use again for a child's party. Maya loved her cake, but honestly, fondant is not the best-tasting icing, to put it mildly. I do like this particular recipe ok, but it is not even close to being as good as regular buttercream or the white chocolate cream cheese icing I love to make. But it turned out really cute anyway.... I made the candy molds, but the 'rocks' are just yogurt-covered raisins. The Nemo on top is a bubbles container, and I took the top off and stuck the candle in there during the party.
She was so anxious to open her presents! This was from Sammie, Val and Jennifer, my BFFs from C. One of Maya's favorite gifts was her "Hannah Batana" guitars. LOL! That's how she pronounced Hannah Montana. I had no idea she even knew her name. No idea where she heard it or if she has ever seen the show, but she seems to like her.

And these were the guests ... I never did get a great shot of all of them. Do you know how hard it is to corral that many 4-year-olds and get them all to look at you and smile? Impossible, I say....

And this is Evan, one of her friends from preschool. He couldn't come to her party, so he came over to our house to swim and play the next week. And this was just too cute ... holding hands as they jumped off the diving board!

Since we were having a swimming party, I had collected a few things for the kids to do in case of bad weather, including decorating these visors. Since her birthday was bright and sunny, I sent the visors and materials to preschool the next week so her class could use them. Christen, Maya's BFF's mom, works at FBS and she sent me this picture that day.

Maya, I can't believe how fast you are growing up. I miss the baby, but I look forward to each new step you take. You are so independent now, and each day you amaze me with something new that you can do. Well, maybe 'amazed' isn't the correct word for what you taught me today when you said "dammit" in the tub. I immediately scolded you and stressed you are never to say that again. Then you looked at me and said "just mommy can say it." Oy. So I said no, not even mommy can say that word .. it's a bad word. So you now know that if you hear mommy say it, mommy gets a spanking on her hand, and she does not get any gum if she says it.

And just when I think you can't get any more precious, you surprise me again. I knew you would not like all the shots you get at your 4-year-old checkup, and I wimped out and asked Gran to take you. She did it, and told me you were quite a trooper. You did cry (and who could blame you ... why in the world do they put a child through THREE shots in one day??!!), but Gran said you cheered up rather quickly once it was over, and then you were so proud of your bandaids the rest of the day. You showed them to Maria when you were in the tub that night, and proudly relayed the events at the doctor's office for her. It was the cutest thing ever when Maria bent over and went "awwwww".

I love to hear you sing. You and Maria love to sing in the car, and with the tv, any time you can. You come home from school singing the cutest songs ever. And when you were bent over your coloring book earlier tonight, you were just singing your heart out.

I am so proud of the little girl you are becoming, but I do miss the baby. I like to hold your face in my hands and just stare at your face looking for the baby. I still see a small glimpse or two every now and then, but the baby is rapidly disappearing. You stayed so tiny for so long, and now you seem to be shooting up every time I turn around. Each time I think I am stocking up for the next size clothes, you are in them and I have to stock up again! Luckily for me, sometimes you like to pretend you are a baby and I get to hold you and cuddle you for a few moments. You and Maria are the best things that have ever happened to us, and we love you so very, very much!! Happy 4th birthday, baby girl.