50/50

Thursday June 11 was the 16 month anniversary of meeting my precious baby girl, Maia. She was 16 months old the day I met her, February 11, 2008. That means that every day after June 11, 2009, she has now had me in her life longer than she didn't have me in her life. I don't know why this is so awesome to me, but it is!! I'm now on the positive side of time and I am 'winning'. :) It is great!

She continues to amaze me and just makes me so proud to be her mommy. She is smart, kind, gentle (usually...), snuggly, HAPPY, fun, easy, independent, dependent, (yeah yeah, I know), and not too bad as far as two year olds go!! She has occassional moments of defiance, but they are so short lived, I can't possibly complain.

Her potty training continues to amaze me - she learned so quickly. She goes to sleep without a fuss and never wakes during the night, she plays with lots of different toys and can amuse herself with nothing more than a label or 'sticker' from some trash we might be throwing away, she wakes with a smile (99% of the time).

Tonight, to top it all off, after her bath we sat down to read. She'll usually drink some milk before bed while I'll read her a story. We read her favorite three books and she was done with her milk. I turned her around on my lap and we started singing. After a few songs, she patted my chest and said "Let's snuggle!" I couldn't believe it. A full sentence, that I understood, and that made my heart just MELT. We often DO snuggle, but she's never said it before. How amazing. :)

Matthew finished 8th grade this past Thursday. He'll start high school in the fall. I just can't believe my 'baby' (first baby) is old enough to start high school in two months. I'm not sure where that time went - it's neat to see him growing up but also so sad to lose my little 'baby'. He's maturing so well and for that I am so pleased. He's made so much progress in so many areas and it just makes my heart smile. But I still hate to see him grow up!

He goes away to scout camp a week from today for a week. He'll return on the 4th of July. I'll be at the beach that weekend with Maia, so I won't be here to get him. He'll go with his Dad that weekend until I return. I don't like it when he is gone, I miss him so much (and admittedly, miss all the help he gives me!) But, this is one of those areas where I need to let go and let him GROW. He loves summer camp and gets so much out of it. I am happy that he loves scouts so much. It is an incredible program that has served him very well!!

Here is Matthew on his last day of school:

Here is Maia enjoying our brand new, grand swimming pool!

She loves getting sprayed and spraying herself with the hose!

Here are a few from a few weeks back when we played with sidewalk chalk in the driveway. It was such fun!

This is my neighbors last weekend in their house. I am going to miss living next door to them. They've been great neighbors and friends!

Today is the longest day of the year - in a good way!! (Not like those days at work that you think will never end!) I LOVE SUMMER and the long days of daylight. It's depressing when I think that the days will get shorter and shorter from here on out, but I'm hoping not to dwell on that and just enjoy each summer day to the fullest! ENJOY summer everyone!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Dad, and to all the other wonderful Dad's out there! Hope you enjoyed your day!

How do they learn this?

Maia found many, many, many ponytail holders that I had in a baggie in her room. I was busy on the phone and although I knew it would make a mess, was relieved that she found something to do that wouldn't hurt her, interrupt me, or ruin a piece of furniture. So, I talked as I watched her dump these many, many, many ponytail holders into a rubbermaid container in her room, and then climb in and play with them. (The container needed to be put in a closet, but I hadn't done that yet... and she loves to climb in it, so I had left it out...)

Anyhow, I eventually got off the phone and went in my room to do some chores. Change the sheets, that kind of thing. She dragged that container full of ponytail holders (among a few other toys she had thrown in there) down the hall to my room. She played in it while I cleaned.

I went out to the living room to sit in 'my chair' and take a load off for a few mintues. Wouldn't you know, she dragged that big 'ole container down the hall. to the living room so she could play with it in there.

Fast forward to later in the day, after she had dumped the contents of the large container on the living room floor, and then taken a nap. I went and got her out of the crib from her nap and took her to the living room to snuggle... After a couple of minutes of snuggling, she pushed up from me and looked around. This is the conversation that ensued.

(Maia): It's a mess.

(ME): It IS a mess! Who made the mess?

(Maia): Maia's mess.

(ME): You're right! It IS Maia's mess. Will you go pick up your mess?

(Maia): .... Matthew's mess.

[Mind you Matthew wasn't even home this day!!]

(ME): No, it's not Matthew's mess. It's Maia's mess.

(Maia): .... Mommy's mess.

At this point in the conversation, I am basically laughing so hard, I couldn't carry the conversation much further. I kinda gave up and just said, Maia's mess.

The next morning, the mess was still there (of course!!), and we had a similar conversation. however, this time when she said Mess the first time, and I asked whose mess it was, she immediately said Matthew's mess this time. In the end, she said it was Maia's mess and cleaned up [some] of her ponytail holders. This still makes me laugh and it's been 3 days! How/where/when/why do they LEARN these blame tactics? Truly amazing!

It's really neat being able to have conversations with her these days. She is still learning new words, but the bigger 'story' is the conversations we have. It's so much fun!

Her other big news is that she is doing so well with potty training! Yesterday was a totally dry day AND during dinner she told me she had to go poop (yeah, right! how many times has she cried wolf before?) but I took her anyway. Wouldn't you know, she actually DID go on the potty! What a great night that was! Perfect end to a perfect day (in potty training land!)

She is growing up so much, so fast! It's incredible when I look at her now, although still a little peanut, how much she's grown and how TALL she looks compared to a year ago. I really hadn't noticed a difference until recently and then it was like, all of a sudden - she's 'tall' (for Maia!) But she is still wearing mostly 18 month clothes and she is almost 32 months old! If I buy something new at this point, I buy 24 month or 2T but some of them are simply too big on her.

Matthew will finish school on the 18th this month. That means the end of 8th grade, which means the start of HIGH SCHOOL in the fall. I won't ask, how is it possible... (But how is it possible?????)