Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Sprinkler

We never water our lawn.  It's just not something we feel the need to do.  That said, we did happen upon an extremely hot and dry period of weeks during the dog days of summer, and the lawn was getting a little crispy.  Ray decided to haul our our single, lonely little sprinkler.

This was intriguing to Maia.  Her last run in with the sprinkler (at about 10 months old) she wasn't really a fan. Times change. She looked at that sprinkler for a few minutes, and ran to get her swim suit.


Is there anything better than being a kid, running through the sprinkler on a hot summer day?
Parker was happy to watch Maia play and to be outdoors.  He wandered from side to side of the steps, holding on the railing... trying to figure out his way down so he could climb back up.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Art o' the Months (part 2)

Oh, I told you it was MANY months' worth of projects.
C is for Corn (Maia)
Water color drop art
A pig!
Parker's colors.
Parker's kite
Maia's 

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Art o' Many Months

I am months and months behind with school art projects.  And now, with two kids... there are more!
Parker's 4th of July flag.
and rocket
Maia's "H is for Hearts" collage
Camping week: Maia's flashlight
Maia's. I love the colors of this one.
Maia's watercolor
Maia's Handprint Sun.



Parker's spring flowers.  This may have been done with limbs and abdomen rather than hands, if I'm identifying the texture correctly.
Maia's Easter Egg.
D is for Dinosaur
"Maia painted eggs hatching" (looks like they hatched a little violently!)
Goldfish
Tissue paper/water color fish.
A is for abstract?
"A person and her Mama"
Parker's handprint butterflies

Maia's fireworks: Chalk on construction paper.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Trinkle, trinkle...

Maia would like to show you what a rock n' roll star she is.  We call this "Trinkle, Trinkle Little Green Star"

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Park

A quiet Saturday morning hanging out, reading books and playing with toys.  It's all good. 
But hooray for township and city parks.   Hooray for an hour or two of getting out some wiggles which does us all some good.

Parker LOVES stairs. Especially when he can go up or down them on his feet (instead of crawling)... 
...but he'll take them any way he can!
As such, it was back and forth....
... up and down...


... in and out of this piece of play equipment.

Unfortunately, that 256980th time he went down those stairs, he missed...
... resulting in his first goose egg.   He was not deterred.

Maia, for her part, wanted to ride her scooter.  She would do so for a few moments, but then it was back to the playground. Climbing.
Being followed by Parker  (ya-ya?  ya-ya?)



Daddy helped Maia see the world from a different perspective...
And Maia's favorite part of any playground... the Tire Swing.  

This was the only video I took in which she was not playing her broken record:  Faster, mommy! Faster!  I fear this refrain will follow her into adolescence, which makes me a little panicky.

So let's just smile about today, shall we?

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Box

When Parker got too heavy to carry in his bucket seat, it was time to get a new convertible car seat.   I got a a great recommendation on this (highly rated, but totally affordable one), which is much smaller than the ones we have in Ray's car.

But the REAL bargain? The box. Almost three months of JOY and playing together on evenings and weekend mornings.  Lots of giggles and laughs. I could have gotten hours of similar video.  We held onto it far longer than we probably should have. It was creased and crumpled, flattened and misshapen by the time it finally found itself curbside.
Should we do a "priceless" Visa commercial?

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Maia's Stats

A few days after her birthday, we went to the pediatrician's for her 3 year exam.  We did all the usual, and about the only developmental thing she wasn't doing was drawing people with 2 or 3 identifiable features (head, arms, eyes, etc.)  See previous post about that...

Her primary doc had a resident with her that day, and Maia charmed him.  She started out "being shy to him" but warmed up quickly.

She is 30 lbs even, which is the 44th percentile (highest percentile since 4 months old).
She is 36 3/4 inches, which is also the 44th percentile (she usually ranges between 40-60%).
Her BMI is now in the 48th percentile, it was 3% a year ago, so they're not keeping a close eye on that anymore.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Forever

Today, Maia and I were discussing the construction vehicles demolishing the road; Why momma?
S: the road is broken and it needs to be fixed.
M: why is the road broken?
S: They just wear out, honey. Roads don't last forever... You know what does last forever?
M: what?
S: My love for you!
M: uh huh. And also Milk.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Turning 3

Three. Is it possible, she's already Three?  
I demand of Dr. Seuss: Maia is three? How can that be? 
So who is 3-year-old Maia? She's got a ridiculous vocabulary for her age. Little surprises daily, for example one day recently she used "neither" correctly 3 times in one day, and at least once with a "nor". She is doing a great job learning her letter sounds.  She can identify some of the letters that might be in a word by listening to it (e.g.; Grandma has a G and an M, and if we work on it slowly, and if it's just that sort of day and she wants to, she can come up with most the letter sounds she is hearing).  However, she has zero interest in learning how to write her letters or draw; she cannot be tied down that long.  On one hand, she seems pretty mature and responsible for her age, but she routinely reminds us: She's still three, with all the age-appropriate boundary pushing and poor decision making and whining.  Screaming happily or not happily, jumping/skipping/dancing everywhere, everything to do with princesses (especially Disney ones, even though she's only ever seen Tangled and Snow White up to this point) and pretending are dominating her activity now.  Along with nonsense words (making up her own language?  She's mastered this one, time to move on?) and naming all her dolls and animals... Although most of them seem to be named Min-AW!  (No. I have no idea.)  She loves to hide in her closet and under her bed, but immediately gives herself away by giggling or saying "Can you find me, mommy?"

She wears 2T/3T sizes (as usual: length fits before circumference, so we're all about the saggy britches and plumbers crack unless we haul out our dapper snappers and clippos to cinch them together.) She is potty trained except for overnights (sometimes she'll wear a pull up for naps, but if she doesn't, she'll get up to use the bathroom. If she does wear the pull-up, she figures its an excuse to use it).  She is between a size 6 and 7 shoe.  She still sucks on her fingers. She loves to pick out her own clothes and dress herself.  She doesn't need much help.  Weight and height will be updated after the doctor's visit.

She is a bundle of joy and energy and excitement about everything! ... except maybe sitting down and being quiet. That she doesn't do so much, unless she's watching Yo Gabba Gabba, Ni-hao Kai-Lan, Dino Dan, Blue's Clues or one of the aforementioned princess movies.

So. In keeping with her princessy wishes, it was a princess themed party!
Lydia, Maia and Gracie all played together and had a lot of fun!
Aunt Kathleen read Maia one of her cards.
She wore her princess button, and waived her princess wand (do they have wands? Perhaps it's a scepter...)



And Adrian brought a Spider Man playing the violin. Because what birthday party would be complete without that?

Parker sat contentedly with Papa.
And finally, after dinner and presents, it was time for the cake! 
Maia thought the cake was beautiful, and was really "excited about that."  And, as she had demonstrated to Nana, Grandpa and Aunt Tara on skype the night before... singing "Happy Birthday" to her makes her cry. A lot.
Usually for the kids' birthdays, I try to put together a photo slide show.  Unfortunately, I ran out of time and so I did a Kitchen Cabinet Art Gallery instead.