Our Family News

Nonsequitors

2011-04-26T21:39:00.004-04:00

Today, I picked Maia up at 6:45. We drove Matthew to Boy Scouts and then had to go to the grocery store since we've been out of town and had NOTHING in the house which was edible. Maia and I had a pleasant evening together with stimulating conversation. It went something like this:

6:45 pm
Me: Hi Maia! How are you sweetie?

Maia: Mommy, go back to work! I want to stay and play with my friends! (Then she ran away and thought she was the funniest thing on earth.)

Me: Come on sweetie, we gotta go! Matthew has boy scouts and we've got to be there in 15 minutes!

Maia: but why? why does he have boy scouts? is there girl scouts? i don't want a snack. i'm not hungry. i don't want to sit in my car seat. mommy, why don't you have a car seat? where are all the cars going? are they all going to boy scouts? are they going to the gym mommy? are they going home? why? mommy- it's light out. is it morning? why is it light? why isn't it dark? it's not night time. mommy it's not night time.

Me: Bye Matthew! We'll be at the grocery store - see you later!

Maia: but why? i don't want to go to the grocery store. i don't want food. i'm hungry and thirsty. mommy, i want water, and milk and chocolate and macaroni and cheese. i don't want to go to the store. i want mickeldonald's. no i not being naughty. i tired. i hungry mommy. i thirsty and tired too. i want water. i want water. i want water.

Me: We have to go to the store first, and then we'll go home and eat.

Maia: but why? why mom? why? i hungry. i want to get a bag too. mom, put the fruit in my bag, ok? next time you get fruit, use my bag. (as she pulls three bags off and opens all of them with great fanfare.) i want apples. i want bananas. i want strawberries. use my bag mommy. i want CHEESE! i want orange cheese. no orange! i want yogurt. i want milk. i thirsty. A cart! mommy, I push this one. (A little cart for those her size. - She only ran in to a few dozen people...) Mommy, put food in my cart. Mommy, why did you put those eggs in YOUR cart? I want them in my cart. Hi - what's your name. but why? is that you daughter? (asked to a little boy in the cart...) i don't have a daughter. i have a baby when i turn five. right mommy? then you be a grandma. ask me my name. i'm diego. lol. lol. lol. i want this barbie doll mommy. (No.) but why? i want these socks. (No.) but why? Hi - what's your name? but why?

Me: OK, time to check out Maia.

Maia: but why? i hungry. i thirsty. Hi - what's your name? i diego. mommy, do you want gum? why not? do you like gum? you chew gum. but why? why do you like gum? why? mommy, can I have gum. (No.) but why? what did you just buy? (Tic tacs - they are mints). Oh. but why? Can i have one? (Maybe.) I love mints. I want a mint. Hi - what's your name? i diego.

Me: Let's go to the car - be careful - hold my hand.

Maia: but why? so i can be safe. i no want to hold your hand. i want to hold your shirt. choo-choo. choo-choo. choo-choo. mommy - it's getting dark. is it nighttime? why isn't it morning? is it going to rain? why is it windy? is matthew at boy scouts? but why? i hungry. are we going to go this way? (No, we are going to turn left.) but why? mommy, is this the way home. this isn't right. this is the wrong way. why are we going this way? i want to go home. i hungry. i thirsty. is this the right way? mommy, this is the wrong way. why are we on this road mommy? are we going home? but why? i hungry. why are you putting that up? (the garage door.) why don't you just leave it closed? why you open it?

Me: OK sweetie - we're here.

Maia: but why? i hungry.

Me: ok - let's eat! (it's 8:30 p.m.) we'll have eggs for dinner.

Maia: but why? i hungry. i thirsty.

she stopped talking while we ate...

Maia: i tired mommy. my eyes are watering. i tired.

Me: ok, let's go to bed.

Maia: but why? i not tired. i tired. night night mommy. i love you.

Me: i love you too, maia! more than you can even imagine...
9:22 p.m.

Planned Long Ago

2011-03-23T19:37:00.009-04:00

Praise God, from whom ALL Blessings Flow!!

Praise Him, all creatures here below!!

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

Can we say it again? Praise God, from whom ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!

You remember last week, right? A wonderful family was finally able to complete their excrutiatingly long adoption process and bring home their twin daughters from Kazakhstan. Oh how sweet that was! (IS!) I was beyond moved to finally see their entire family together, at last!

There was just one thing still missing.

My sister, her husband and their four children were still waiting to bring home their precious one from Africa. Still waiting for the referral photo. Still waiting to hear ANY information that might lead them to believe that this will happen anytime in the future, let alone daring to wish for it to be in the near future. Still waiting... waiting... waiting.

For those of us that have adopted, we all remember the wait, right? Just awful. Plain and simple. It's totally out of your control. You can do nothing! Your part is over. The paperwork is turned in. Now you wait. You can't call anyone and ask 'when' because no one knows. You can't ask why this person got a referral before us when we submitted our stuff first, because no one knows WHY they got a referral out of order. No one knows why NO ONE has gotten a referral in MONTHS when there are so many families ready and waiting and so many children sitting in orpahages getting older. No one knows why this policy has changed again, for the 3rd time in 6 months. You just wait. Tick tock. Tick tock.

But then, one unsuspecting Monday, it all changes!

You get a call.

You get an email!

YOU'VE GOT MAIL! and this email has an ATTACHMENT that will forever change your life!

You gather around the computer and open the attachment, ready to see a picture of your newest wonderful blessing.
And what do you see??

You see the most incredible picture you've EVER seen in your life!!

A picture of a gorgeous little girl AND the cutest little boy you have ever seen!!

Yes - that is right!!

A referral for a BOY and a GIRL!!

Can you believe it??

It is so amazing!

I love them already and I haven't even seen them or touched them yet! I never got a referral photo of Maia - it doesn't work that way in Kazakhstan - so I met her in person first. I didn't understand, to be honest, falling in love with a person through a picture. It's just not possible, I thought. I mean, it's not real until you see them, hold them, touch them. Boy - was I wrong!

Love at first sight! Or, insta-love! No doubt. I fell hook, line and sinker and am ready to spoil my newest niece and nephew! Oh, but now we wait for the court date. We wait for travel dates. More waiting.

But wait, there's more...

If you call right now... you too can get on a plane THIS WEEK and head for Africa to get your children. No need to wait a month or six weeks - you can come NOW. That's right, pack your bags for a life changing trip to Africa.

All you have to do is get three weeks time off for your husband with less than one weeks notice (when there are only two of you in the office and the other one is supposed to be on vacation next week.) Make arrangements for your youngest child to stay with someone while you are away for three weeks. Pack for yourself, your husband, and your three oldest children, who are all going to Africa. Coordinate with you Mom (who is also traveling with you) and make sure you all pack what you need for all SIX of you on the way there and all EIGHT of you on the way home. Make sure there is somewhere, anywhere, set up for the newest blessings to sleep upon arriving at home. Make sure you have a car large enough to transport everyone (since you do not at this point) Buy something for the newest blessingS to wear once they are placed in your care. (Do this by converting centimeter measurements of their feet, and length, etc. and try to compare that to sizes at Target. Take ruler with you, if necessary to see if foot will fit in shoe. Take snacks and toys for three oldest children to keep them entertained on the LONG flight(s) as well as wondering what the new blessings might be wanting to play with for their long flight home.

Let me be the first to say what many are thinking - I do NOT envy my sister this week, at all!! As much as I would love to be the one traveling for additional blessings, this week BEFORE travel is stressful - and that's being kind. It is like the 'labor' part of the pregnancy (without the epidural). Not to be envied in the least. The time of the whole experience no one really talks about to those that haven't yet experienced it, because if you knew ahead of time what went in to this week, you may decide not to go through with it. No - as exciting as the incredible news was to recieve on Monday - and the even more exciting part about leaving THIS WEEK - that brought about its own insanity that wasn't expected.

What keeps you going are the pictures you have! (in this case) What keeps you going is knowing that in less than a week - you will have met your blessings and held them and loved on them. What keeps you going is knowing that the wait is finally coming to an end. Just a few more days of 'pushing' and you are all through!

So push through dear sister. You've almost crossed that finish line! Much like the marathon you once ran - just make it to that finish line!! (Then you can collapse, so to speak.) Then you can snuggle up, as a family of EIGHT and reap the rewards of a race well-run.

What was once Planned Long Ago... we can now:
PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!!

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1.

Update

2011-03-17T22:20:00.002-04:00

In case you visited yesterday when I was unable to attach the video I was mentioning... - it is now attached below. Enjoy!

They are Home Forever!

2011-03-16T19:58:00.015-04:00

I have had many people come in to my life through the wonderful world of adoption. I have met many of these people only online at this point - but that doesn't make them any less my friends than people who live 2 miles away. One common thread linked us all together, but true friendships have been born out of this amazing process and journey. Keep in mind, this particular family was in this process before I traveled and brought Maia home. Two short weeks from now, Maia and I will have been home for three years... so this sweet family has been waiting for their precious girls as long (longer!) than I have even known Maia. That is incomprehensible to me as I feel like Maia has been in my life FOREVER! Their patience and faithfulness in this process is beyond comparison. Let me just say, I would have given up LONG AGO if I had been dealt any ONE of the 'cards' they were dealt. The deck certainly seemed stacked against them at times, but they perservered, and in the end, their faithfulness has truly paid off, they were DOUBLY blessed! Praise the Lord!

Last night, after three and a half years of being 'in process', the Gobble family arrived home with their beautiful twin daughters from Kazakhstan (who are nearly 4 years old) and reunited with their daughters Brooklyn and Bailey that were waiting in the US for them to all arrive back home. This video brought so many emotions to me that I am nearly speechless. (And that is not easy to do... make me speechless.) I had to pause it multiple times just so I could wipe away the tears and actually see the video. Tears of happiness, joy, relief - all of these come to mind - as this family is finally together, forever! I know all of you who have adopted know the feeling you have when you get to the airport. For those of you who are in the adoption process as we speak, or those who haven't been through it - there are many stages in an adoption - each of which is celebrated. However, for me in my personal experience, as well as watching this video of the Gobble's, I have to say that landing at the airport, and coming through those gaits and seeing friends and family come to greet you is by far the most emotional part. It is as if right then the 'birth' has occurred, and the new life begins. Indescribable joy and relief that the process of adoption/the so called pregnancy part is over, and the new life and living with the new additions at home has begun.

Breaking kids out of the baby house is great! But for me, I was still a LONG way from home at that point. We were still in a foreign land, I was tired of being away from home, and had many long flights to get through with a little one before that whole part was over, we had troubles at our own Embassy, and I still didn't have my entire family together. One of us was still back home waiting for us to get there. So for me, the airport, after 2 months of travel (in a part of Siberia, in winter..., unable to understand the language, missing Matthew!, travel (upset) tummy the last two weeks we were there), and 24 hours of travel (and believe me, this is equally as painful as giving birth... if not more so), was the best, the climax of our story, the end! The airport was the birth to our new life.

SO - I know that is why this video of THEIR homecoming brings such raw emotions to me! The last of those that started this process with me has now FINISHED - and we are all home with our babies... FOREVER!! Praise the Lord! MY adoption is now complete since we are ALL home with our children!!

**Now if my sister and her family could finish up with their adoption from Rwanda... that would really top everything off!! New niece/nephew to love on - I can't wait!!

I don't know if this will touch everyone the same way it has touched me - but this video is second only to the one my sister made for me after I got home with Maia. Please know that you can view this even if you don't 'do' facebook as it is a public page. You can also "like" their page on Facebook and when the whole documentary is ready and additional footage in a few days or weeks, you will be able to view that then there as well. (Of course, I'll try to post that as well at that time.)

Ready for tears of happiness, joy and relief? :) Enjoy...

http://www.facebook.com/BlazingRockProductions

(The video should be towards the top of the page - The Gobble Homecoming. It is 3 minutes, 32 seconds long.)

It's Been a While

2010-12-12T18:43:00.011-05:00

Summary in words:

Christmas goodies
Making Christmas cookies (or eating dough??)
Choosing a goodie from Santa
Checking out Santa
Matthew's best Reindeer imitation
Visit from cousins
COLD visit to the pumpkin patch
Gymnastics
Maia turns 4
Matthew turns 15
August vacation at the beach

Summary in pictures:

Maia jumps off the diving board! July 4, 2010

2010-07-06T22:47:00.002-04:00

Memorial Day 2010

2010-06-17T21:15:00.016-04:00

We went to the beach (my parents house) for Memorial Day. It was a full-house, and a really fun time! Mom, Dad, my brother, Bobby, my sister, Regan, and her four children - Marie, Caleb, Kate and Ezra, and me and my kids were all there. The only one missing was Regan's hubby, Joel. A couple of days of perfect beach weather! Since we were all together - we celebrated Father's Day and gave dad his presents. They all made tie-die t-shirts which came out really well! Maia "surfed" in her baby pool - and then added about 25 toys. Donuts. Cupcakes. The fun never ended...

My sister's kids are 8.5, 7 (almost!), 5 and 2.5. Maia is a bit over 3.5. So, Maia and Ezra are 14 months apart, she's older - and they are the same height. So cute together!

Here are some pictures from that weekend - I couldn't narrow it down too much more.

A Trip to the Library

2010-03-17T19:15:00.005-04:00

About six months ago, I took Maia, for what turned out to be the last time for a while, to the library. She was a holy terror and I just couldn't take her there and leave with ANY dignity, so I chose to wait about six months and try again.

That time came this past Monday. This was the night! I waited until a night I could take Matthew with us so I had extra hands. He was going to watch her while I chose a few books, and then I would be with her while he had free time to look for whatever he wanted.

About 10 seconds in... I got worried. I asked Matthew to take Maia to the kids section and either let her read, or read to her, or let her play with the toys, etc. Instead, she ran of, shrieking, as if to say, HA, catch me if you can Matthew. She then threw a fit of sorts that she was wearing a coat. As she stripped it off, she said, No coat, no coat, no coat. I picked up the coat, and told her she didn't have to wear it, and that she should go look at books she would like.

She did run away from me, and Matthew followed. I assumed they were headed to the kids section. About two minutes later, I hear her, in the back of the library, screaming, No books, No books, No books. I kinda groaned to myself and tried to hurry up to find what I was looking for. Then I hear all out shrieking. I decided I'd better head to the back to hush her up. By the time I get back there, she is still running away from poor Matthew, and she is screaming, Where is my mommy? Where is my mommy? At this point, people are looking at her - certainly thinking she is separated from her Mommy. They see me headed for her, but I have no idea if they think I'm her Mommy or not. (We look so much alike, you know.)

So, she ronuds the corner calling out for Mommy and sees me - and says Mommy! So I tell her she has to quiet down and stop running. I tell her we are here to look at books and that she needs to behave. The teenagers at the nearby tables 'studying' are getting quite a kick out of this little production we have going on here. The are most amused. I'm glad somebody was...

She and Matthew headed back to the kids books and I head back to look for something I want to checkout. When I have what I want a couple minutes later, I head to the kid section. She was being pretty good, until she saw me. I told Matthew he could go do whatever, and he said he didn't want to. So, I said, OK, let's go then. Watch her while I go checkout and we'll leave. I go get in line and I start hearing the screaming and shrieking again. Of course, there are issues with my card... so I need assistance. What next?

The screaming gets worse and Matthew gets her to come to me... I ask her what is wrong and finally realize she is saying, I want a lollipop! I want a lollipop!

I explain that this isn't a bank, or a doctor's office... this is a library. You don't get lollipop's here, you get BOOKS! She wasn't buying it. She wanted a lollipop... that was that. She continued with the pleading until I announce I'm ready to roll.

Finally, I'm checked out, and we can go! Yahoo. Guess who doesn't want to leave? Yeah. Her. So, Matthew picked her up while she is calling out, as loud as possible I think, I no go! I no go! I no go! I'm sure people thought we were kidnapping her.

It was fun. Really. It was. I plan to do it again in October after she turns 4. We'll see if it's as much fun then as this experience was! Let's hope NOT.

Also - Maia fits in to our family well. She is definitely my child. No one can question this - ever! She wants to control the situation. No matter what it is it seems. I said in the last post that she picked up on Matthew's "Three more minutes". Well, yesterday, she was in the swing (Matthew was once again pushing her while I was cleaning out my car on the first nice weather in MONTHS!) He said, One more minute Maia. When that minute was up, she said, One more minute? (Her voice goes up in inflection at the end, to octaves I just can't reach.) So he said, ok, ONE more minute. When that one was over, she said it again. He said, No Maia, that WAS your one more minute. Now you've had two one more minutes. She said, I want 10 one more minutes, OK Matthew? (With the inflection going high again the end.) Too funny! I shouldn't laugh at as much as I do, but the girl is trying so hard to get it her way!

At bedtime even though she is totally ready for bed, and doesn't mind sleeping at all, she always has to ask one last time, Maia go night night, later? I now just say, No, Maia go night night now. And that's that. She goes right to bed, but she always has to ask that one last time, just in case I say YES!

One last story. When I asked her what she did in Sunday School she said, "We sang Jesus." (Jesus loves me) I have no idea if they really did - she says that every time, and it's a song we sing every night, so she might just say that?? But, then I said, "Oh that's great! You sang Jesus loves me! What else did you sing?" She thought for a minute and said "Wonder Pets!" Matthew and I had a good belly laugh over that one! Although I'm not sure whether or not they sang Jesus Loves Me this week in Sunday school, I AM certain they did NOT sing the theme to the Wonder Pets... Maybe she sang a solo??

Christmas Pictures - in March...

2010-03-13T18:46:00.012-05:00

Rainy Saturday - Spring?

2010-03-13T17:44:00.007-05:00

Reasons it must be spring now, despite the cool, dreary day.

1. We didn't get two feet of snow today. We got two inches of rain.

2. The time changes tonight - more nighttime hours! Yeah!

3. I did some spring cleaning today - including putting my heavy/winter sweaters away. (Of course, it is still March in Washington, so I had to keep some of the lighter cotton ones out.)

4. Maia and Matthew went outside to play. Maia came in COVERED in mud. A month ago, if she played in the yard, she was buried in snow.

Matthew was supposed to go camping this weekend with the Scouts but it got cancelled due to the rain.

Maia is growing up so much! I can understand 99.9% of what she says now. It's so much easier that way! She is doing well with potty training. Not 99.9%, but doing well. That will make life easier too! Right now the hardest part is being out and about and being able to take her somewhere. One, we don't always get there fast enough - but more importantly, she won't sit on a 'big' potty without a converter seat (for little kid heineys). So, that is hard! I don't always want to put her in a pullup when we go out - but what else am I supposed to do if she won't go potty at a store, for example? She calls her Underwear/panties/underpants = Wear wear. I want to wear my wear wear Mommy.

There are some things I don't let her do/eat. No popcorn. No gum. I tell her when she gets bigger, she can have popcorn. We recently added gum to that list. Sometimes, out of the blue, she just says, "When I get bigger, I have Popcorn. Gum." She must think about it all the time - she says it a lot!

She is really in to books these days! Such a change from when I met her. Her attention span is so improved and she can read and read and read.

She loves to play outside. She loves to play in water, in the sink. She is terrified of FUZZ. So, when she takes a bath, and little sock fuzz (or whatever) is floating in the water, she just goes berzerk! Bathtime isn't always fun anymore - that's for sure. I just thought of an idea though, since the other day when I washed her hair (and the bubbles went in the water) - she then forgot about the fuzz. SO, we're going to have bubble baths going forward so that we forget about the fuzz before the bath even starts!

Whenever she wants to put on make-up (Because she sees mine or sees me putting it on), or do her hair, or wear a dress, she says she wants to be a Princess. She always want to be a Princess!

She sings all the time now. She'll just break out in a song and after a few bars, I'll recognize it. She is QUITE proud when I name the song- the grin on her face is priceless. Very proud of herself for singing something I understand. When I start to 'sing', Maia says, "No Mommy, I sing by myself (or I sing self.)"

Maia likes to play hide and seek. One time she played when we didn't even realize it. It took us a while to find her - she was hiding in her dark room, in the dark closet - waiting for us to find her! Makes me laugh!

The other night I asked Matthew to do something. He replied, three more minutes. Wouldn't you know, a few minutes later, I asked Maia to do something. You want to take ONE guess at her reply? Yup, three more minutes Mommy. I do it in three minutes.

February 12, 2008 - 2010

2010-02-12T22:45:00.021-05:00

Another two year anniversary. This day, two years ago, I got to spend my first hour with Maia at the baby house. I was with her from 11-12 that day. She did a lot of looking at me that day, and feeling my face... I remember that well!

I just re-watched the video that my sister made for me with those first precious pictures, as well as our homecoming in April. I cry every.single.time. i watch it... and I'm not typically a crier! (Although the older I get, the easier it seems to be!) :) It brings back such memories, on so many levels.

Here are a few pictures from that first visit:

She kept staring at me, and had a very tight grip on me, as you can see in this last picture where she is holding my sweater and would not let go.

Now this is Maia today... two years later.

CHEESE:

Opening her Valentine's from school (they made Bee card holders...) She was proud!

Lastly tonight, she didn't want to go to bed... so she pretended to fall asleep in the chair:

And lastly, the video my sister made that I just have to share again... :P Great memories! Just listen to the lyrics to this first song... amazing. So true - so hard.

Lastly, as I watch this again... I am thinking of my sister and her family as they wait for the news to go bring their newest baby(ies) home! Many friends are also in that time of waiting - which is SO SO hard. Years later, this song talking which talks about waiting, and waiting still makes me remember how hard those days and nights were waiting for my Maia!! I thank God for bringing home so many children so far, and pray even harder for those still waiting to meet and bring home their children forever! Hug those home all the harder for those still waiting!

One last video of my sister's family tonight as they got snow in the deep south!! I'm tired of the blizzards here, we'll have snow until April, but look at the pure joy on these precious children's faces and listen to the excitement in their voices! How cool!

Two

2010-02-05T22:27:00.007-05:00

Two years ago today - I left my son, Matthew, (for eight weeks), and my home in Virginia, got on a plane and flew half way around the world, to Kazakhstan, to meet my future daughter, my precious little girl, Maia Caroline.

I am in awe that is has already been two years. Time flies and I am not ready for my baby to be as big as she is.

Today, two years later, we are expecting two feet of snow (or more). Thank goodness this didn't happen two years ago! Instead, I am stuck inside with both my children, and my parents, and can enjoy the family time! At this time we already have 7 inches or so, and the worst is definitely yet to come.

I will post more soon - pictures, perhaps from Christmas!! and definitely more from this historic snow (our second blizzard this season! unprecedented!)

Two is definitely the lucky number today. Two years ago my life was changing forever! And today, two feet of snow are a'comin'!!

Here are just a couple of pictures of the beautiful landscape tonight.

This picture is of the front yard and cars in the driveway. It's already more than I want to shovel!

This is from the front door.

This is of the deck. I didn't use a flash because it's so pretty at night - but I had to hold still for at least 10 seconds... and I failed... twice! This is the best I could do. It is pitch black on the deck, so the camera did pretty well, without a flash, giving it some light.

It's Beginning to Look A LOT Like Christmas!

2009-12-05T16:37:00.010-05:00

Wow - two months since the last update and it's already Christmas time! How time flies!

Today, we went to a show called ICE! at Gaylord National Convention Center at the National Harbor. It is 2 million pounds of carved ice in various winter wonderland scenes. We were late as I got dreadfully lost... so, sadly, we kinda hurried through it trying to catch up to one of Maia's friends we were supposed to meet there. We did see some of the sites and she went down an Ice slide... but the event was actually MUCH shorter than I thought it would be, so that part was dissappointing.

They keep it at 9 degrees - so it was a tad chilly. Reminded me of my time in Kazakhstan. Ice and all! Because it was raining/snowing on our way there today... we had to carry umbrellas to walk from the parking garage to the event. They provided us with parkas inside, which I thought meant they would take our coats (and umbrellas) until we returned their parkas... but that wasn't the case. So, we had to carry our coats, and soaking wet umbrellas, which quite promptly froze in the exihibit with all the rain/snow on them. If I knew then what I know now, I would do things MUCH differently. I'm glad we went, but I likely wouldn't do that part of the show again - the pictures on the internet are almost as good as being there in person!

We never did find her friend in the exhibit, but walked over the the hotel/convention center which was all decked out for Christmas too, and we caught up with them, and one other friend of hers as well. Then we had brunch buffet (which turned out to cost like a weeks grocery money!! Geez!!) Once there, I didn't really feel like I could leave... so we ate, and ate and ate! Great food... and I guess worth the price, but NOT what I expected! I thought we'd get the kids some nuggets or something. Yeah... right! Not that kind of place. So, shrimp coctails and prime rib meals later.. among many other things... we were well fed. At one point he said he was full - I said, I don't care - go get some prime rib! LOL. He didn't - but I did!! I told Matthew no dinner tonight.. or tomorrow... or Monday. :) We'll eat toast and water. (just kidding... but I had not planned on that meal expense.) Luckily, my kids have expensive taste, so I atleast feel like we got what we paid for! The other parents were amazed that Maia sat so well and ATE while their kids squirmed around and ate nothing. Let me tell you, put a plate of shrimp in front of Maia and I don't think you can get her down until she says so!

The bonus to this was the Mr. and Mrs. Claus were there at the restaurant too, so I got Maia to meet the Clauses without a line and I got to take pictures and video of her with them, seated between them, as she wouldn't sit on Santas lap. He also had stopped by our table a few times - so that made up for some of the expense - no line to see Santa! Awesome!

We were going to go get our tree this afternoon, but frankly, by the time we got home, the roads had gotten surprisingly bad and we decided to stay in and not risk it as it was going to get dark (and colder) soon. They called for some snow today, and so far I'd say we have about 3 inches, but it DID stick to the roads, which they didn't think it would... My driveway has a hill and it was not easy to get up by the time we got home. So, home we will stay for the evening - as we enjoy our gourmet dinner of toast and water. :) It is still snowing quite hard now, but since it's almost dark, I won't get to enjoy watching it fall for much longer. We didn't get to PLAY in it today, so hopefully it will remain for at least a little while tomorrow morning so Maia can play a bit in it.

I'm sitting here in my nearly dark living room with a candle burning and a Christmas tree lit (and partially decorated) in a nice quiet house with snow falling outside. Can you say perfect? Of course, it's also great when the kids are running around making noise, but just not quite as peaceful!!

I'll post pictures now from today's fun. If I remember how, I'll even post some short videos. (One video here - others to come in the next post by themselves.)

My baby is THREE today!

2009-10-11T14:48:00.017-04:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Maia! It is truly amazing that you are three years old today. I met you 20 months ago today... and even that is hard to believe!

You have grown up into a beautiful little girl now - no longer a 'baby' or even a toddler. I see big differences in you in the past month or less - and you are a little lady now! Mommy is sad in some ways that her precious little baby girl is growing up so fast - but at the same time - I love that you are such a beautiful and special little girl! I love you Maia Caroline!!

We celebrated your birthday yesterday at home with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Bobby visiting us. It was a great day and you got lots of nice toys and things that you loved. It was really neat to watch you know what to do with the presents, and after each one you were actually excited and wanted each one opened right then so you could play with it. I'm not sure there is a clear cut favorite yet, you really liked everything!! One of your favorites is definitely the Dora couch you got from Grandma and Grandpa which folds out to a little bed with a blanket zipped into it, so it's like a built in sleeping bag. You love it! You also love your Disney 'boom box' with little CD's you can change out to hear different songs. You love your Princess Back-Pack from Grandma B. You loved the pink bathrobe I gave you - and when you put it on over your party dress, and then laid on the new Dora couch... you looked like royalty in your plush robe, kicked back, relaxing... Quite cute!!

We had yummy cake and ice cream for dessert - you really liked the ice cream the best. You didn't really want the cake on your plate, but prefered to dig your hand into a piece that was left in the cake pan instead...

We also celebrated your Grandma's 65th birthday and your Grandpa's 67th birthday. They let you get most (read... *ALL*) of the attention, but we tried to fix them a dinner they would enjoy, rather than serving Mac'roni and Cheese, as you would have preferred. :) Your Aunt Regan has her birthday tomorrow, and we are sorry we couldn't celebrate all together with her too!

You are still a petite little thing... just now going in to any 2T clothing, some of which is still too large! Your shoes are a size 7 (and you love your shoes - and many hand me down pairs from Kake (as you call her... this is your cousin Kate...)).

You love to be a helper and are actually becoming helpful in some things! It used to be that you would unfold things I had just folded, or take things out of drawers that I had just put away. But now, you carry things to your room or throw things in the trash when I ask you too, and you do a great job!!

You bring joy to our lives and laughter to our days. You awake with energy and happiness I only dream of at that hour of the day! You are a good girl even when I keep you up too late, and you behave so well in stores and restaurants (almost always!). This past week, we went to dinner with some friends of mine and as they dimmed the lights right before we were leaving... you exclaimed with much anxiousness in your voice, in a very high pitch for all to hear... "OH NO MOMMY!! It's gark. Oh no! Mommy! It's gark! Night night Mommy, it's gark!! Oh no... " as you looked upwards towards the lights trying to determine what happened to them!! It was simply precious and has brought a smile to my face MANY times the past 4 days.

You love to watch Dora the Explorer and Go Diege Go. You like the movies the Jungle Book, Finding Nemo, and Toy Story. You like to eat Macaroni and Cheese, and that's about all. (*Not really, but that is by FAR your favorite and something I can get you to eat, without doubt, no matter how many times you've eaten it that day, or week, or month.) You love your school and are busy learning your numbers and colors and shapes. You are learning them more and more each day.

I love you Maia, and I am so lucky to be your Mommy!! You are a special little girl and God blessed me for sure when He let me be your Mommy! Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter to me and sister to Matthew! We love you!

Maia enjoying her day as royalty... plush robe, kicked back on her new love seat...

Mommy and her precious Maia!

I love this picture - she doesn't even see the cake and candles yet, and yet the excited on her face is priceless!

I'm not quite sure what she was doing here... but she had gotten so excited - it's like, talk to the hand, I can't catch my breath I'm laughing so hard!

I can NOT wait for you to give me my plate with ice cream... I'm just going to take a taste from here...

Dig in! Two fisted!!

Looks like she's sipping soup! Nice a lady like...

Now I'll use my fork...

I think it might just be easier to use my fingers...

Full fisted - like Winnie the Pooh!

Even that took too long - maybe just put it straight in my mouth!!

I may eat like a puppy dog... but aren't I am ANGEL mom??? :)

I'm pretty cute too, aren't I Mom? (except if he were actually asking, it would be more like, yo, mmmfffgh, hhhffff, gggghhh, huh?) Lots of mumbling at this age, but I still love him! :)

I think the sugar is kicking in!! Or maybe it's because it's 9:30 at night??? We started to get a LITTLE silly now!

Maia-isms

2009-09-12T18:04:00.015-04:00

The truth is - I lost one camera over the summer and the other one wasn't working... so I have few pictures of Maia, (or Matthew) for July and August. At the end of August, I got the one camera working (sort of) so I have some pictures from the end of summer - but they aren't the best. Sometimes they are just with my cell phone - and those tend to be blurry for me. In any case - this gives you a glimpse at Maia this summer and now that I have a working camera and a working router, I should be all set. (Famous last words.)

Maia enjoys playing the piano. Recently, she has taken her stuffed animal 'stack' toy (like the plastic ring kind) and taken the top three rings (this is piglet, eeyore and tigger)... She stacks them on the piano bench, hikes it up there, and then plays. She has very good balance, so the first time I was a little nervous she might fall as she climbed on the bench, and then scaled Mount Pooh. I really don't worry about that anymore, at least not on the piano bench.

Matthew has these boots for scouting/camping, etc. Maia LOVES to wears other people's shoes, including these! As you can see, they go up to her knees... but they are rather light weight, so she was able to walk in them... sort of!

Did I tell you Maia can read?? These two pictures are from Matthew's birthday celebration. She took one of his new hats and starting reading one of her books - I swear, she is a GENIUS!

Now on to what I like to call Maia-isms. Sometimes when Maia does something we say it was just 'so Maia'. She makes us laugh and it really quite funny. Let's see what I can remember! :)

Just today Maia came up to me and said ... ooooo ooooo, aahhh, aahhh... and then she said, MONKEY. I didn't know she could do that. A few times today, she was just walking around saying, ooooo oooooo, aahhh, aahhh. Made me smile.

Recently, she has gotten in to Dora the Explorer and Diego. The way she asks to watch it is so cute. I wahch Dorwah. I wahch Dego. All the while nodding as if to convince me so I won't shake my head no. :)

Now she also likes the movie Finding Nemo. I wahch Nemo. Fishies!

When we are leaving the house and I grab my purse, she says, "My purse". She doesn't ask it like a question, but what she wants is her purse to take with us. Sometimes I know where it is, and sometimes I don't. I try to just leave it in the car now so we have it and if she ever wants it in the house, then I know where to find it! Once we get to the car, she also wants her Gasses. Her sunglasses. Word to the wiser-than-I. Don't buy kids sun glasses at the dollar store (actually, 4 pair for a dollar....) they fall apart when you look at them. Really. I bought some Kids safe glasses at Target and she hasn't broken them yet. I am quite confident she COULD, but she is learning to be a bit more gentle these days and so far they've survived a few months of Maia.

We call Matthew "Chew". Additionally, his middle name is Ryan. Nickname - Chewchi Ryan. Maia now goes around calling him Chewchi Ryan but it sounds more like Chewchi Whyan.

She also wonders where he is when he is gone. Where'd Chew go, she'll ask? Now, what I find so cute about this is... does anyone know the movie Top Gun? When they are lost in a bogie fight and Tom Cruise asks Where'd he go, where'd he go? And Goose says, Where'd WHO go??

Maia says, Where'd CHEW go JUST like Goose says in that scene - I love it! It cracks me up!

She would live on Fruit Snacks if I would let her. Right now, she has Dora Fruit Snacks. She says Fruit snack like this: BOOT SNACK. Dorwah boot snack, while nodding her head to try to convince me again...

She can HOP now. Before it was one footed and sort of like a weird skip. Now both feet leave the ground at the same time. She's JUMPED off things for months... but actual hopping has just occurred. Neat!

She loves to 'help. She says, I helper. Of course what this really means is she 'helps' UNFOLD the laundry and hand it to me, and take it out of drawers, and throw things in the trash can that are NOT trash... There are times she actually does help - but more often than not right now, it's something that really isn't helpful, but it's cute nonetheless. :)

She realizes now when it's getting dark. She'll say, dahk Mommy. It's dahk. Jammies. Night night. Like, she's telling me, it's dark now, get me dressed and put me to bed! And when I ask if that's what she wants, she'll run for her room for her jammies! She's in for a shock when it starts getting dark at school before I ever even pick her up after work!

And one of my all time favorites... we have a pretty standard 'night night' routine. One of the last steps of this routine is me singing Jesus Loves Me to her after we pray. We've sung this since Kazakhstan - so it's really a nightly thing. If she really doesn't want to go to bed... a newer phenomenon... and I start singing Jesus Loves Me, she'll rather violently shake her head while saying... No Jesus, No Jesus.

She has also done this once or twice when I sing it in the daytime - and she thinks it means night night time. (Even though I explain it's not bedtime...) Once or twice she has flat out refused to let me sing it, mid-day, for fear of bedtime.

Update from earlier. :) Last but not least... I just wanted to say - my earlier post today may not have been exactly what I wanted it to be. If I sounded ultra mad, I really wasn't. I hate wasting money on something so silly, but it's really just a day in the life. Life happens, which is why there's never enough money, the house is never clean enough, I never have enough time, my best laid plans may never happen, or take much longer to happen than I anticipate.

Here's an example - I left for the grocery store to buy balloons, etc. for Matthew's birthday. I left Maia home with Matthew, my brother and my dad. No problem. Grocery store - 2 miles away. I realize at some point early in the short trip to the store that my cart was vibrating. I check my phone. 3 missed calls from home. I assume they want me to get some chips or soda or something we hadn't talked about - so I got to the front of the store for reception and called home. Matthew starts off... "OK, I had to call poison control... but she's OK." What??? She had gotten hold of a Silicone Packet, torn it open and eaten it/some before Matthew could get to her. (You know the drill.. Maia put that down! So, she moves faster and popsit in her mouth all the faster.) Matthew had been on the computer in the same room as Maia, and I have no idea where my brother and father were - but it only takes 2 seconds with Maia... she is FAST.

All this to say, today was no different. Just another day in the life of Matthew, Kristen and Maia!! Something new and exciting all the time. I don't like silly mistakes, and I hate money spent like that, but otherwise, it was no big deal. Live and learn - and I think, Matthew now knows what can and can't go in a toilet. LOL.

And lastly, I said Matthew started high school - but didn't mention how well it has gone. I am pleasantly surprised at how great the first week has gone - even the getting up wasn't as hard (YET!) as I thought it would be. Homework is always interesting - but we'll get through that too!

Enjoy football season everyone! GOod fall weather!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

2009-09-12T15:15:00.017-04:00

Wow - it's been a while. Let's try to catch up! We had a great summer - and now fall is in full swing!

Maia and Matthew went to visit my parents last time I blogged, and although I missed them terribly, that week went so quickly. Then August flew by. That's when we went on our vacation for a week to visit my parents all together. It was awesome to have a week off from work. It took me about 3 full days to really, truly relax. But, when I did - I DID. It was great! Matthew and I even went out one night while my parents watched Maia and we had an awesome dinner at our favorite retaurant and a close game of Putt-Putt. It was a great time. It was the first time I've had any kind of tan in years (but compared to Maia's DARK tan, I look like Elmer's glue.) Anyhow - it was a good time had by all and I'm glad we had the opportunity for a whole week to unwind. I needed it!

August also brought Matthew's birthday... now he's 14. Geez, I must be OLD. Here he is at age 12....

Age 13.....

Age 14...

I love to see the changes... it's obvious at age 12... but between 13 and 14 the changes are less obvious. I can tell though by looking at the endo of his sleeve compared with the piano... I know the angle is slightly different, and the shirt is different, but it gives an idea. The obvious change is his desire to let his hair grow at this point rather than keeping it buzzed.

As always, I take a first day of school picture. That was at 6:30. It literally was a pitch black picture, so I re-took it that night when I realized it didn't work out that morning. Here is my boy, on the first day of high school, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 09.

I can not believe he has started high school. Our whole schedule has changed... my alarm now goes off at 4:45 a.m.. Matthew has to leave the house to catch the bus at 6:30 a.m. I figure I might as well be ready too so all I have left to do is get Maia ready to roll after Matthew has left. So far, so good. But we're only 4 days in...

Going back a little bit now - last weekend we went to Matthew's aunt and uncle's house (my sister-in-law) for Labor Day. It is actually the third time we went and visited in a month! They have a pool and we enjoyed keeping cool. Maia is a dare devil and loved jumping in and dunking under the water and seemed to get more and more excited each time we went. Here are pictures of Matthew, with Maia, and Matthew's brother, Evan, and Evan's Mom, Stephanie. You can see, Evan and Maia are a little more timid as Matthew and Stephanie are trying to coax them to jump off the raft here.... As the pictures progress - look at the JOY on their faces as they fall, jump, splash and dunk more and more each time. This went on for some time and it was awesome to watch and take pictures of it all!!

Winding down....

Here is a picture of the birthday boy - up close.

So, today, Maia was a big girl and went potty on the potty... When she was done, I realized the potty wasn't really flushing... so I asked Matthew is he had noticed that it wasn't 100%. He said, yeah, maybe.... So, he went and got the plunger and I started plunging. (This usually works wonders...) I started plunging - and it started overflowing. (Without details, I will just say, gross...) So, I plunged and plunged and plunged, and it kept spilling and spilling... *gross*. At this point, I wasn't happy and realized my Saturday would be spent waiting for a plumber and not having a fun girl day with Maia. Happy, I was not.

I was telling Matthew that next time he thought it might be backing up to tell me BEFORE anyone else used it so maybe the less in there, the better chance of fixing it myself. I told him I'd have to call a plumber and have it snaked out and he asked what that meant. I explained it to him and he said, Does the stuff go further IN or does the snake pull it back out?.... Knowing Matthew as I do, I KNEW RIGHT AWAY he wasn't worried about 'gross stuff' but something that had OBVIOUSLY gone down the toilet that wasn't SUPPOSED to. I said, "WHY? What went in there that wasn't supposed to??" He responded... "A plastic cup... " "A PLASTIC CUP????!?!?!??!" When I asked him why he didn't reach in and get it out before flushing, he said he didn't want to get dirty. I explained that since HE stayed 'clean'... the bathroom FLOOR, etc. was now NOT clean, and it was going to cost me a good bit of money to get it working.. not to mention time on a gorgeous fall day. He was apologetic, and I believe learned a lesson, but, Mamma was NOT happy. (BTW, $263.84....)

As it turned out... the plumber (who is featured in a post last November...) was able to get here in less than an hour. He said he's seen worse - an iPod, cell phones, and the worst DENTURES (that the woman insisted was her best set, and she wanted back... in fact, the snake didn't work, so they REMOVED HER TOILET and she bought a new toilet, etc. to save the dentures.) I won't say another word... but *gross*.

So, now, Mom, Dad and Matthew are in Baltimore until tomorrow... so after that morning, I needed to go do something FUN! What did we do with only and hour before nap time??? We went SHOE SHOPPING. Yup, Maia got some new fall shoes. Buying shoes always makes me feel better - and I just love these for her. I must say, I was tired of pink shoes, so she got these instead:

Her new sneakers... I love the BLUE for a change, but still girly looking...

And her boots - These have sneaker like treads so she can wear them to school and still go outside with them - but give her something other than athletic shoes to wear to school. Spending money, especially on shoes, always makes things better, at least a little bit!!

I wanted to post some pictures since it's been so long and catch up in general. I will post more soon - now that I have a new router that actually ALLOWS me to load pictures without crashing my internet. :) Maia will be up any minute though so I will have to do more soon. I'm sure I have some Maia stories to tell - she does something new and crazy almost every day. :)

In the past three days... Matthew has lost his cell phone, lost his house key, and flushed a plastic cup down the toilet, which resulted in money spent and messes made, as you are well aware.

I love my boy, but I'm glad he's gone with my parents until tomorrow night... :) Gives me a chance (and I mean, CHANCE) to calm down a little. :)

FYI - we did find the cell phone at least... he knows I'm not buying him a new one.

Great videos

2009-07-20T22:17:00.009-04:00

I got to watching some of my favorite videos on YouTube tonight, which of course, always leads to finding even more. As you have time, please watch these if you'd like. Some make me laugh, over and over and over again. Some make me smile. Some make me cry. Some make me think. Some make me do all of the above. Enjoy - let me know your favorite and post a comment with your favorite video link that youc an watch over and over.

(**Also, see below for the update to one of the stories I wrote about yesterday.)

This first video was given to me last year by my sister for my birthday. It means so much to me. Forgetting what I look like after a 24 hour flight with a toddler on a completely packed plane... - enjoy the rest!

This video/song is just so wonderful - watch and I'm sure it will touch you too.

This video is the most watched (supposedly) on You Tube. I laughed and laughed when I saw it. Brings back some memories. Funny!

This video makes me laugh no MATTER what MOOD I might be in... Keep it on hand in case of emergency... :)

Hope you enjoyed them all as much as I do - all for different reasons!!

Tell me your favorite among them - or share one of your own!!

Once Upon a Time

2009-07-19T20:33:00.008-04:00

Alright everyone, it's story time!

My mom and dad have taken both kids for the week to their beach house. (I am home alone, but that's a different story...)

I was just talking to them on the phone and they relayed the following stories that I must share.

Maia is a girl. Maia is potty training. We buy Maia girl pull-ups. They are pink and have princesses on them. Maia doesn't want these. She wants the Cars pull-ups. These are blue. They are for boys. My mom was nice enough to buy the last case at Costco - so we had MANY princess pull-ups to use up before we got to buy another case for her. I felt guilty going and buying the boy ones since my mom had so nicely bought the girl ones for Maia... so I decided we were just going to use them. (This could take a while since her school provides the pull-ups for us, and she really doesn't wet them, so we don't use that many a day. A case could take a while.)

Anyway, my mom tells me tonight on the phone that they bought her Car pull-ups at the store yesterday and now she won't use anything else! (I could have told you THAT!! I wonder why I felt guilty about going to buy more now??) BUT, to make the story more funny - she took her Cabbage Patch Doll down there to play with and now insists that Baby Richard ALSO wears a car pull-up like Maia is. AND, she is putting Baby Richard ON THE TOILET so he can go potty too. I'm not sure how they get a tiny little Cabbage Patch to stay on the toilet seat, but apparently they did. I can just picture this!

**UPDATE: I forgot the best part of the Baby Richard story! Remember, Baby Richard is not a doll with a hole in his body to go potty. My puts Richard on the potty and waits for a few seconds, and then raises her arms over her head, like a touchdown signal, shakes them, and says, "WOO-HOO!!" This, of course, is what I said to her when she was first learning to go on the potty. Too funny that she is saying it about her Baby Richard now!! Also, when she was first learning how to go potty on the potty, she would sit there and do nothing, and raise her arms and ask in a timid voice "Woo-hoo?" I would just laugh and say, no woo-hoo sweetie, you didn't do anything. I love that she is playing this way with her baby doll. Too cute!

Now, on to a different topic, but still a Maia story. Since Maia was adopted, I wanted her to feel comfortable with me and know me as well as if I had given birth to her. So, as we bonded, and she explored a little, she would snuggle on me and sometimes rub my arm, sometimes, rub my face, sometimes rub my 'chest'. This was fine with me for a while as we bonded, and, as I said, she got to know me. Once I knew the bonding thing had happened 100%, I was a little more aware as she got older how much or WHEN she might be doing this. So, at some point, as she pulled open my shirt and poked my chest, I simply started closing my shirt a bit and saying, "No, no sweetie, that's Private." Then she'd go to the other side and we'd play a game, back and forth, with her learning that both, were indeed, private.

As days progressed, she would simply leave my shirt in place, poke one, and say Private. I would agree and she'd go to the other one and say, "Private". She had pretty much learned and it was a game she played, but it lessened as weeks went by.

Tonight, she was getting out of the shower at my mom's house, and Maia was in a towel. Maia dropped her towel and made a B line for one of my mom's bras that she could see. Maia started to put it on. She turned to my mom and said, "I'm putting on my Private." I still can't stop laughing about that one!! The funny thing is, my mom said she new exactly what it was, where it went and how to put it on!! Interesting! I would say I am always dressed before Maia gets up, so I am shocked she has this all figured out already. :)

A story from earlier in the summer. Maia is in the habit of pointing to a part on her body and saying "It hurts". She'll point to her cheek and say, It hurts. She'll point to her elbow and say, My hell-bow, it hurts.

No matter what part is hurting, after I show some concern for her hurting 'part', she'll say, "Matthew did it."

Her eye socket has hurt. Her nose has hurt. Her elbow has hurt. Her tummy has hurt. Her toe has hurt. Her cheek has hurt. You get the idea. And Matthew has done them all.... even when he's no where around - or out of town, or whatever. It is always his fault.

That is, until we went to the beach for the 4th with my sister and her 4 kids. On the ride home, July 6th, Maia was pointing out various aches and pains and I showed some sympathy as I was driving. Then she said, "Eh-shaw did it." I almost drove off the road. "Eh-shaw is my 18 month old nephew, Ezra. Ever since then, poor Eh-shaw has been blamed for everything! Every ache and pain. Every mess Maia has made - everything! It's all Eh-shaw's fault!! Poor Ezra!

As I said, Matthew and Maia left on Friday for a week at my parents house. So far, it has all gone well - hurray!! I've been a little lost, not knowing exactly how to fill all my time. Don't get me wrong - I have PLENTY to do, and to catch up on, but trying to figure out the best use of time to not only accomplish things, but also do things I can't do when they are here - it's a juggling act.

I did enjoy coffee without interruption. I read books without interruption. I went to the bathroom without interruption. I ate when I wanted without worrying about whether the kids would eat it or not. I stayed up later because I knew I wouldn't be woken up in the morning. I went to stores not appropriate for little hands. I went to the Post Office without having to chase Maia around. I changed my sheets without 'help'. (Maia always says, "I helper".) I sorted stacks of old papers without anyone walking through the piles before I was done and messing them up. I watched three movies without Matthew asking when they'd be over. I went to bed without having to get up and check on them just 'one more time' before I fall asleep. I cleaned the kitchen and it stayed clean until I messed it up again!! There are no dirty socks in every room. There aren't shoes in every walkway to trip over. There isn't dirty laundry from 'potty' accidents to do daily (although it's not always daily.)

On the other hand - they aren't here!! I miss them. I miss seeing Maia in action and living her stories first hand! I miss Matthew's stories and trivia. I miss Matthew's hugs!! I miss snuggling with both of them. I just miss it all!!

There are days I need a break - but I'm not sure I need 8 days alone all at one time. :) I know this is making memories for my kids though. I still fondly remember weeks spent with my grandparents in the summer and wouldn't trade those times for anything in the world. I hope this time my kids are spending with my parents are equally special for all! I'll survive, and hopefully I'll be a better Mom when they return. In the meantime - hopefully I'll hear more Maia stories over the phone and make it through the week without too much trouble. I do have a few evenings planned this week, so that'll certainly help fill the evenings.

Stay tuned for the never-ending Maia stories everyone! :) Hopefully I'll find my camera and will have more pictures to post before too long.

50/50

2009-06-21T20:58:00.008-04:00

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?

2009-06-02T21:33:00.003-04:00

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?????)

All pictures, no talking

2009-05-08T21:59:00.007-04:00

That's it, won't post anymore right now - I'll try again later! Hope you enjoy!

HOME SWEET HOME

2009-04-02T21:59:00.011-04:00

Well, one last 'this marks one year' post. Today marks the day Maia, Mom and I came home from Kazakhstan, one year ago! What an incredible, fabulous year it has been!! Mom and I had spent 8 weeks and 1 day in Kazakhstan. Most of the time there was wonderful, overall ... :)

Today was extra special a year ago because Maia got to meet her big brother, Matthew. She also got to meet her wonderful grandpa and she got to meet her aunt Regan, and her cousins, Marie, Caleb, Kate and Ezra. Everyone greeted us at the airport (after they waited hours for us to land, deboard, and get through customs, immigration, luggage claim... ) It was a wonderful reception and so great to see our family after so long away, and to have Maia finally meet a lot of the family on that day. (She got to meet her uncle Bobby that weekend and her other uncle, Joel later that summer.) Getting home was rough - a long couple of flights, with a baby who wanted to walk and not sleep and a mommy who DID want to sleep (and a grandma on the other side of the plane). Landing at Dulles made me want to CRY - for 1,000 reasons. She was now a citizen of the U.S., we were HOME, we were SAFE, and the trip was OVER (both good and bad). The whole 8 weeks was part of my story of how Maia came in to my life, and I wouldn't change a thing, as that's what makes it my story... :) Let's just say, I got what I went for and that's all that matters. She is home with us now and we are a forever family!

Maia is such a wonderful little girl and the most special daughter I could have ever gotten! I'm sure I'm repeating myself, but... it bears repeating. Maia is happy, silly, funny, energetic (to say the LEAST!) loving, caring, snuggly, independent, dependent, *(yes, I know what I just said), she loves to tease, she loves to sing, she loves to climb and jump, she love to run, she loves to swing, she plays with dolls, she reads, she likes to watch Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book, she loves milk, she is learning how to use the potty (I go potty too) she says everytime someone says the word Potty... she loves bars (Nutri-grain bars), she loves her vitamins and doesn't understand why I'll only let her have one a day, she LOVES lipstick (chapstick), she loves powder in her diaper and/or on her belly, she loves to tickle and laugh, she loves shoes and boots (she calls them boops), she loves to take clothes OUT of her dresser, she likes to look at dogs, but if you get within 10 feet, she'll scream and climb UP you if you don't pick her up fast enough, she likes to wear other peoples shoes (grown ups), she likes to go on walks in the woods near our house, she likes to take a bath, she likes to say hello, to anyone and everyone, she likes to give hugs and kisses, she likes to say I Love You (which I LOVE!), she likes to brush her hair, she likes to brush my hair (which I don't love...), she likes to change her clothes, she likes snacks, she likes whatever anyone else is eating or drinking, she loves when Grandma and Grandpa visit, and I'm SURE I could go on and on, but basically, just about anything makes her happy.

Let me think about what she doesn't really like. She doesn't like to be told No. (Who does?) Wow, that's really all I can think of, at least at the moment. She is truly a wonderful kid who just brings such joy to all of us, all the time!

I'm not saying it was easy 100% of the time and I've never had a bad moment or day with her, but surely that was as much about ME as it was about HER. I hate to see her growing 'older' already, and yet it has made some things easier to deal with and handle. Admittedly, I was more tired this time around (and a good bit older!) since I did this with Matthew. Thank God Maia sleeps so well through the night - I've only had to get up during the night with her MAYBE three times in the past year. Not bad! LOL. She is so active and in to EVERYTHING that the first 6 months wore me out just TRYING to stay one step ahead of her. Luckily, I could recoup while she slept. Now, although still active, it's easier to keep up with her and she is still sleeping well. In the beginning, I was lucky if Maia would sit still for 10 seconds to listen to a book... or a sentence. It was CONSTANT from morning until night. As I said, she is still a VERY ACTIVE little girl, but we get some stretches where she'll sit for even 30 minutes sometimes to watch a movie. The times that were hard were especially when I was tired, or dare I say, moody! And/or when she was especially testing me to see what she could get away with. We have a pretty good understanding now, so she doesn't test as much, or as often anymore.

She is strong willed and determined, to be sure! But that makes Maia, Maia, and I wouldn't have it any other way!

Matthew had a meeting tonight for scouts, so I had to kill an hour with her, around bedtime. I decided to take her to Baskin Robins to 'celebrate' our one year home. I got her a cute little kids cup of some colorful (gross) looking ice cream, but she loved it! When she saw the pictures of the cakes on the walls, etc, she started singing "Hap birthday, to you!" SO CUTE!! They sang that one day in day care and she's been singing it ever since. Adorable.

As I'm sitting here wondering what else I can think of to write about Maia... I glanced over at my night stand table... top drawer open... my chapstick inside that i use before bed, cap OFF laying in the drawer. HHMMMM, I wonder what SHE was doing while I was in the restroom for 30 seconds?????? Oh, Maia! I wonder how much of THIS one she ATE?

Thank you to all you wonderful readers, family and friends who have followed us on the whole journey! It's great to have you along for the ride!!

One year and one day...

2009-03-21T22:25:00.005-04:00

Today marks the one year (and one day) mark since I was able to take Maia in my arms forever!! What special memories that I will cherish forever!! It has been a wonderful, special year.

Maia is such a joy. She is full of laughter, and happiness which makes everyone around her smile! Her laughter is contagious. She is incredibly smart, and great at problem solving. If she doesn't know the word for something, believe me, she is able to let us know what she wants... She likes to play and tease, she likes to be chased and will go outside at every chance she gets. She is potty training now and doing so well! I didn't even start her on that, she started herself. :) I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet. She's growing up FAST. :)

She may not know or be able to say all the words to a song, but she's able to carry the tune to the point where I know what she is singing. She can give a one (or so) word answer when I ask her what she wants to sing and chimes in along the way. It is so cute!

I am just so happy Maia is my daughter (for a year now!) and thankful she is part of my wonderful family. There is no doubt she is one of us and meant to be with us. It is so cool. She fits right in. I think she even looks like me a little... dark hair, dark eyes, petite.... we're practically twins! (if you aren't already aware... think davito/schwarzenegger here). but, that makes no difference at all, she is meant to be here, and totally completes us! it's awesome. :)

i thank God for my wonderful daughter and bringing her to me to share life with me and Matthew. I am truly blessed!

Happy Gotcha Day (plus one) Maia!! I LOVE YOU!

It's Nap Time, or is it??

2009-02-22T21:22:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday, I put Maia down for a nap, as usual. Typically, she will go right in her crib and either fall asleep right away, or play quietly for a few minutes and then fall asleep.

Well, after an hour of hearing her singing and playing in her crib through the monitor... I decided it was time to go in and tell her, IT IS TIME TO TAKE YOUR NAP. Well, I went in and was shocked at what I found! Not only was she wide awake, but she was stark naked! I mean, the sweatshirt was gone, the t-shirt was gone, the pants were gone, the socks were gone AND the diaper was gone.... OH GREAT! Now I surely have to change her clean sheets.... I felt around and didn't feel any accidents, so I put her on her changing table and got her some warm clothes - A ONE PIECE BLANKET SLEEPER. I dread the day she can open zippers.... I'm in NO HURRY (for this exact reason) to really show her! She just looked up at me with the great big grin and was happy as a lark. She was playing with her blankies and animals, and just not sleeping... naked.

Anyway, I checked the crib one more time before putting her back in it... I had missed a section, and indeed, her sheets needed to be changed! Changing crib sheets is NOT easy! I wasn't happy. (Am I the only one who has a hard time with this?) Needless to say, I told her it was NAP TIME and she went right to sleep this time. (She had to be tired! It was late, at day care she would have already been getting up at this point.)

Fast forward a week (or less) to know that she can now open zippers. (She could actually already do her coats/jackets, but I wasn't trying to show her how to do jammies!!) SO, I often now find her in her crib after waking in the morning with her pacifier down her jammies, or her jammeis unzipped and her arms out as she is playing in the crib. It actually makes me laugh, but of course I can't let HER know that! Kids!!!

She is growing up SO much these days. She ASKED for applesauce this morning for breakfast. (Not sure where that idea came from, I'd never given her applesauce for breakfast before! LOL.) Anyway, she had asked a little before we were eating, so when it came time to eat, I said, "Maia, do you want applesauce for breakfast" She said, "No." I asked, "Oh, well what do you want?" She said, "I don't know." I DON'T KNOW?!?!? When did she learn that phrase and when did she start speaking it sentences I understand?? It was really cool.

So, we called my parents so she could say it for them. What did she do, she stared at the phone the whole time we were talking to them and wouldn't repeat it for the world. (Any Brady Bunch lovers out there? Think Cindy Brady on the IQ show where she stared at the red light on the TV camera the entire time. That is Maia any time we make a phone call so she can 'talk'. She just stares at the red light on the phone... So we call her Cindy Brady.) I hope SOMEONE out there knows what I'm talking about!

Anyway - it was so cool to hear I don't Know and each day, she seems to say more and more and more. It is really cool. She DEFINITELY has "No" down.

Thanks for all your advice, in comments and emails! Next time I'll atleast offer water and won't feel guilty about it. I had thought about the fact that I don't always like milk after cereal, but she had drunk it 1,000 times after mini-wheats before, so she can't hate it that much! That's why in the past when she says she's done, and the milk isn't gone, that's fine. And then if she asked for milk, I gave it to her. But since she poured it out, I guess that was the difference, and knowing she had drunk it before after that cereal. Anyway - she has since had some cereal and didn't do that again, yet, so hopefully it will be fewer and farther between going forward.

Alright, I'm in the basement and it's chilly, so I'm headed up to get warm now. Have a great start to the week everyone!

Need advice...

2009-02-18T19:44:00.005-05:00

Help! I need input from all you other wonderful parents out there...

Maia has started getting in the habit (sometimes) of pouring out her milk when she is done with her cereal. Sometimes she drinks it all, and wants seconds of both the cereal and the milk. Sometimes, she only wants the cereal and will say, "All done" if she doesn't want the milk that is left over. But SOMETIMES she pours it out and makes a mess.

Tonight, she did just that. (Yes, she had cereal for dinner tonight...) She poured out a lot of left over milk. I put her in timeout. When she was done with timeout, she wanted milk to drink...

What would you do?? Let her have milk (in a cup) because she asked for it and she's thirsty?

Say no way, you poured out your milk, so you obviously weren't thirsty 5 minutes ago or you would have drank that milk.

Or something else?? I did not give her more milk. I figured she got some with her cereal and won't dehydrate overnight (although I'm feeling guilty and afraid I should have given her some... kids don't ask for drinks if they aren't thirsty, right? SO maybe she's dying of thirst and I denied her a drink???)

HELP! I don't know what to do - and she's now in bed and I'm having a terrible time of it because of the guilt and not knowing if I did the right thing...and being so sad that I just did a terrible thing!

This is when parenting stinks and I don't enjoy it at all. The few minutes I got with Maia tonight stunk and the rest of my evening will too because now I won't even see her again until morning. Shoot.

The First Meeting

2009-02-11T20:31:00.004-05:00

So, today marks another one year anniversary - this one since the day I first met Maia! (Beware, over the next two months, there will be a lot of, today marks the one year anniversary... etc. - get used to it!) :)

Today was the day that I went to the MOE in Petro and was granted permission to visit the baby house and view the available children that met my requests. Such a strange, strange set of events that occur when they march various children in and out and then tell you to pick one. I had been told about the process, but when I was there, I seemed to forget all that I was 'told', and just couldn't believe I had to pick a child! They were all God's children and who am I to PICK one? How weird. In the end, of course, God had already picked the child that was to be mine - but when faced with here are some choices, pick one, it seems a little weird and a lot overwhelming!!

Truth be told, for me and my circumstances, the children I was shown, there really was only one choice that I realistically could choose. Not because she was the cutest... (but of course, as her Mommy, I think she is!). Not because God already knew which child would be mine. But because truly, logistically, I had only one real choice. The first child was quite severely disabled, and although adorable, I am not able to care for someone as a single, working parent who would need as much care as she would have needed. The second child had a sibling. Again, as much as I would have LOVED to decide to take home two children - I couldn't make that decision in 5 minutes and what I did think about in those 5 minutes was the fact that I really wasn't prepared to take two children home with me. So, the third child I was shown was Maia. Obviously, we know how this story ended, but I did want to consider them all for at least a brief minute. In the end however, I was able to take one, healthy child - and Maia was the obvious choice for me. I only got to see her that day for maybe 5 minutes - and then after she left I basically had to make my decision. After choosing Maia, I was given two older pictures of her that I was able to take with me. That's all I had for that night to 'think' about, two older pictures, and the 5 minutes I had had with her when I was trying to listen to every detail about her medical history, all the while checking her out and watching her to see if she was 'the one'.

I must admit, it wasn't the euphoric feeling I was kinda hoping it would be. It was weird and surreal to be shown children and have to choose one. Then I chose one - how weird! Of course, it has turned out to be one of the best decisions I've ever made - and although it was kind of a 'non-decision', I still felt like I was making a decision and it was just weird. Again, I COULD have taken any of those children - it was just that Maia was truly the only one I could really care for in my situation.

A year later, I recall that strange day vividly. I remember the next day (tomorrow) when I got to come back and visit with her the first time (but only for an hour!!). How weird to be handed a 16 month old and know she is to be my daughter. Maybe this was because I had also had the joy of having a newborn placed in my arms. A big difference between a newborn I had carried and a 16month old that stared at me like, Who in the WORLD are YOU?? Don't read this wrong, or misunderstand what I am saying. I was full of joy with her and the whole process (well, maybe not the WHOLE process...) but it was just so strange. I don't know if families who haven't had bio kids have this strange feeling as well - but I know I did, I suppose because I did have something to compare the process to? I knew she was my daughter, and I loved visiting with her - it's just different than an experience with a newborn.

Anyway - a great day to remember, but it also comes with the memory of one of the strangest days of my life. How does one really choose a child? They are all worthy, and I so hope and pray that they have all found loving homes!!

After we left the babyhouse and I had chosen my baby... we went to the Iceberg for the second time. Ah - memories. The pathetic memory here was as we came out, still in my dress and hose from MOE, I completely fell down on the ice outside the front door of the Iceberg and landed HARD on my knee(s). OW! Getting up was ANYTHING but graceful, and in a dress no less!! (And ripped hose!) We went to our first apartment and I iced my knee(s) for the rest of the day to reduce the swelling and the pain, as we looked at baby name books for the rest of the day to see what I thought she 'looked' like. I had arrived in Kaz with pretty certain ideas of what I wanted to name her, but she didn't fit ANY of those... so I was on to plan B and was SO glad I had brought my baby name book. It was that day I came across Maia for the first time, although it took me about another week to choose that as her name.

Tomorrow is the day that we visited her for the first 'real' time, and also the day we moved to our apartment #2. It was larger and nicer, but had it's own issues. (remember the rattling chandelier, the noisey neighbors who stayed up all night (every night!, when did they sleep???), the light in the bathroom that had the Poltergeist, as well as my bedside light that also had a Poltergeist in it, and the foul smell of raw sewage in the 'lobby' the would seep through our front door somedays? (the smell seeped, not the sewage) Oh yes, the memories.... :)

As everyone says, I can NOT believe it has been a year since I met her. She has brought us ALL such joy and we are THRILLED she is part of our family. At the same time, I almost can't believe I have ONLY known her for a year. She was meant for our family, that's for sure. She is the HAPPIEST child (PERSON!) I think I have EVER met! She is always happy. Today, she woke up EXTRA happy. She was just SO happy today - it was awesome. I hope she keeps that wonderful spirit she has and the joy she seems to carry with her wherever she goes. She is an amazing little girl and I am SO blessed to be her Mommy. I love you Maia and Thank God for bringing me to you one year ago today!

If this works... here are the two pictures I was given the first day in the baby house.

This one is from the first five minutes or so after I got to visit the next day - she is so LITTLE!! I love this picture! (If this doesn't work... I will load these pictures tomorrow when I can hook it up directly to the internet rather than wirelessly, which is where my problems come in with pictures for some reason.)

Compare these pictures to those below - she's grown up a bit! 16 months old a year ago today. Today, she is 28 months old, and quite a two year old! :)

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2009-02-05T21:07:00.004-05:00

Today marks one year since I boarded a jet plane to Kazakhstan! I can NOT believe it's been a year. It's been a day for reflection, that's for sure. I'm certain over the next two months I'll be remembering each day I spent with Maia and what we did 'first' and 'second'. So many great memories started today, one year ago. The weather here in Northern Virginia even took a bitter turn today to mark the occassion. Made me feel right at home in Kazakhstan! :) Tonight's wind chill is below zero, definitely not typical for No.Va.

My mom (who traveled with me) marked the occassion by traveling to Florida today. A far cry from the length of trip or weather in Kazakhstan, but a flight to mark the occassion, nonetheless.

This might be weird, but today reminded me of the way I get around Matthew's birthday. I remember the day before his birthday and when the labor started, and when I called the doctor and when we left for the hospital, etc.

Well today was kind of like that for Maia. Her birthday came and went in October with little for me to 'remember'. It was more a day of building memories than remembering anything. But today was like my first labor pain. The first memory I have of finally leaving to go get her! It's an awesome memory - and as I said, only the first of many, I'm sure, over the next two months until the day that marks our coming home date, April 2.

I am SO glad I could remember this today and celebrate without having to leave again though - or say goodbye to Matthew again for an indefinite amount of time. That was NOT a good memory last year - saying goodbye to my 'baby' and leaving for who knows how long. Today was much nicer giving him a kiss as I dropped him at school, and saying, "See you later!" That made today all the better - as leaving was the hardest part a year ago - and yet, also the most exciting.

Catching Up!!

2009-01-20T20:14:00.023-05:00

Where does the time go? I'll try to bridge the gap of the last month - but I'm sure I'll only hit some of the points, as I likely forgot events of a month ago! I know I missed the anniversary of the call I got last January telling me it was time to GO!! I can not believe it's been a year since that call - time has truly flown by!!

I'm making up for some lost time, so here are a good number of pictures showing a couple of Christmas celebrations and ending with some every day life...

We all made it to my parents house one weekend before Christmas to celebrate together. Here is my nephew, Caleb, being oh so patient!!!...

Then we started opening presents, so here is a sampling of everyone enjoying time together and our presents!

When we were home - we made some cookies! Here are pictures of Maia making her first cut-outs... but she had me believing she was actually going to make cookies for a minute before she shoved in a wad of dough in her mouth!!

The we frosted the cookies... this time the frosting knife went straight in to her mouth! (It wasn't the same day, I had to give her time to digest the dough...)

Now some photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning....

My brother got me this t-shirt, isn't it great?

Ruby slippers like she had in Kazakhstan, but remember those, they were at least 2 sizes too small for her!! That was so sad.

Glasses from Mr. Potato Head.

Lastly - a few events from the last week or so....

What do you suppose happens when I answer a phone call and talk for 25 minutes? Mind you, I had Maia in my sights at all times, BUT what I saw was the top of her head, knowing she hadn't gone into a forbidden cabinet, or room.... little did I know what she HAD found.... Any guesses? No. Come on, this takes skill to think like Maia! :) She found a brand new, 5 pound bag of flour.... got it off my pantry shelves, AND was able to rip it open... I don't know WHY I am surprised!! I'm definitely thinking like a blogger now though, because instead of cleaning it up right away, I went and got the camera... Here is one of her walking away from the scene of the crime...

And here's one where I made her 'clean it up'...

Lastly, it has been so cold here (at least for here!) that everything I store in the garage has frozen. I don't know why this surprises me either, we were in the single digits folks, but I was surprised, nonetheless.

Here are my dad's diet Root Beers, not faring so well in the garage.

What DOES surprise was tonight when we went in to the refridgerator in my garage - this is what we found:

This is untouched (except for bringing it inside). That is what the end of the can looked like - it was rather amazing. This is what the inside of the fridge looked like:

Lastly, as the diet Root Beer got cleaned up, this was what was formed... it was really kinda cool....

Maia is talking a lot more recently, but that update will have to be for next time - these pictures took forever and I have to get to bed! (And catch up on everyone else's blog! I'm SO far behind...)

Brusha Brusha Brusha, with your new Ipana

2008-12-16T21:59:00.002-05:00

Quick Maia story of the day...

I had just gotten Maia ready for school and we were going to head down the hall to leave the house... I thought I would stop off in the bathroom to grab a tissue. Of course, when I walked in the hall bathroom, Maia followed me. (We have to keep the door closed at all times for obvious reasons...) Anyway, I walked in the bathroom with my back to the hallway as she followed me in. I grabbed a tissue and turned around - and in THAT amount of time, she had gotten Matthew's toothpaste off of the counter (which he leaves TOO close to the edge AND without a lid!) and she had the toothpaste in her mouth and had sucked SO much out of the tube that it was oozing out of her mouth!

I GRABBED A TISSUE! That's it!

This isn't the Taj Mahal of bathrooms... it isn't even a large bathroom - a regular, standard hall bathroom built in the early 80's. I walked in, grabbed a tissue and turned around!

That's my Maia!

Luckily, she was wearing blue and the blue toothpaste was quite a nice accessory with her outfit today. No pictures, use your imaginations!

The Perfect Storm

2008-12-13T21:31:00.000-05:00

well, this title is representative of my perfect christmas tree this year.... the perfect tree - which has led to a perfect storm... i don't always have the best luck with my christmas trees... i've had strands of lights go out in the middle of the tree after it is decorated and impossible to take off a strand of lights (because i wrap the lights around the branches so that the middle of the tree lights up as well) of course, i've had trees die and just look plain terrible before christmas day. i've even had a few trees that have had a stroke, where literally ONE SIDE of the tree dies and the other side looks beautfiful. i've had trees where strands of lights have every OTHER light that works, AFTER i've decorated the rest of the tree. i've had trees that scratch the ceiling when we put it up and left a mark on the ceiling. you get the idea... i've had my issues with my trees!!

but THIS year it's different. THIS year, we picked the perfect tree. so far, it is still gorgeous. the lights look GREAT, the ornaments were perfectly placed, it continues to take up lots of water each day. i sat here wednesday morning in awe of my perfect tree while i ate my mini-wheats. just look at this beauty (before we even had any ornaments on it!)

then i went to get ready for work... and it happened.... my perfect tree, the gorgeous lights and perfectly placed ornaments, the straightest in the stand tree i've ever had... came crashing to the ground in my living room. no... maia was isn't the room! she was still in bed, my parents were still downstairs and matthew was in the kitchen getting his cereal ready.

i didn't really know what i had heard - but it was LOUD and lots of breaking glass... i actually thought it was dishes from the dishwasher that someone was unloading and they fell down. anyway... of course, it wasn't anything but my big beautiful christmas tree. glass was EVERYWHERE! if it had happened in the middle of the night... i would have called 911 as i would have thought someone broke a window to get in the house. anyway - what a shock and what a mess! matthew and i tried to put the tree upright, but couldn't! it is just too big. at this point, mom came running upstairs to help - but she said we needed grandpa. what a rude awakening for him! anyway, it took us like 45 minutes to clean it up, put it up, and then, you ready for this... TIE IT UP? yup, you read it right, it won't stand up on it's own any more. we have no idea why. the stem is perfectly straight. i've used this tree stand for years... it is as tight as possible in the stand - and yet it is now top heavy some how - so we got out the fishing wire so that it would be invisible... well - that wasn't strong enough, so we got out good old fashioned white rope to tie it to my bannister. wow- that really makes it look festive! NOT!! something right out of the beverly hillbillies! my poor, gorgeous, perfect tree, tied up by ugly white rope!

aren't you ENVIOUS?? :-D

i only lost about 15 ornaments though, we think... but we actually keep finding more we've lost, like this one, today!

isn't is beautiful?

to go back in time, here are pictures of us picking out our first tree with maia!

we loved this one... but my house isn't QUITE big enough...

maia didn't quite understand what we were doing, so she enjoyed playing with the rocks...

The only other decoration i have a picture of is my village (or part of it.) i put it up HIGH this year so it wasn't an extra temptation for maia... it's on top of my hutch but i actually love it. it looks great from the living room where the tree is.

my sister regan sent maia's christmas present and said we should open it early, so we did. she enjoyed opening it - it's her first nativity scene! and she can say "JESUS" very clearly!! it's awesome! the one thing we don't understand is the horse that came with the set... check it out at the end of this section of pictures!

can you see it's mowhawk?? what's up with that??

maia sliding.

mom and dad went to a christmas party tonight and looked great! this is the only picture where one of them isn't blinking - 9 out of 10 pictures, dad blinks. the ONE he didn't... mom DID! i almost dies laughing - we have the hardest time in this family getting pictures with EYES OPEN.

lastly, here is the big hole dug near my foundation last saturday to fix the leak around the water main connection (which I had to replace 3 years ago when i moved in...) the people who put it in apparently did a terrible job and i got a new company to come fix it right. they had to re-concrete and re-tar, but we got some torrential rain this week and NO LEAKING... so i suppose it is worth the money. besides, i really didn't have a choice! i'm sick of paying plumbers though - i'd like to keep some of my money for something OTHER than plumbing.

so, that catches you up a bit on the past few weeks around here. pictures will NOT load over a wireless connection for me on blogger, so i took the computer in the basement tonight and hooked it up directly to the internet connection. so, finally i've been able to put some pictures on here. now that i know that works, i'll try to do it more often!

i hope everyone is enjoying this lovely season. enjoying time with family and friends. enjoying time for reflection and quietness amongst all the craziness of the season!

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

holiday fun

2008-12-06T22:58:00.004-05:00

hi everyone. i am playing with the backround for a change of pace... it's hard to reset all the colors though, so hopefully you can read it all without too much problem.

i just added a few holiday polls. answer just for fun. i wish there were write in spots. if there is a way and i'm missing it, let me know!

our tree is finally up, with lights and ornaments. it took a week to get it all done, but it is done and it looks gorgeous! the village is up too. things are starting to look festive around here. i hope it is all done soon so i can sit back and relax - at least regarding the commercial parts of Christmas. i am done shopping, at least 90%, and am 50% wrapped.

got our first dusting of snow today and it is slick on the driveway since it is so cold. i went to the store for milk with no problem, but i did slip in the driveway (with my feet, not the car.) at least i didn't fall down! i've certainly been known to do that before.... how embarrassing!

my parents came today for a week or so here with us. the plumber was here a long time today to fix a leak in the water main line as it comes through the foundation. poor man had to dig a hole in the freezing earth and hang out in the mud all day. he made good money doing it, but i still feel sorry for him, especially today being so cold! now, i feel sorry for me too having to pay so blasted much but i wasn't about to do it myself! he had to re-cement part of the foundation around the water main. the pipe itself was not leaking. now to dry out my carpet in the basement walk-in closet. what a mess! at least it is done, we hope and pray!

maia has surprised me with her LACK of touching the Christmas tree. I really thought by now she'd have scaled the thing, so I'm pleased that she is listening to the "NO touching the ornaments, Maia" commands. Of cousre, I still did my best to put the non-breakable ornaments at her level... so we'll hope this trend continues.

maia has a few new words... Christmas tree is shaw-shaw-shee. and Santa is Aw-Shaw. I know these aren't real words, but she says them consistently, so they are her words for these things. it is adorable.

matthew was at his dad's house last night. they ordered chinese food for dinner. matthew brought home his leftovers. i was famished at lunch today and asked if i could have some of it. it was Peking Duck. It was absolutely delicious. Now, what makes me laugh about this is that matthew told me this was a $24 dinner!! good grief! i must be cheap, i would NEVER spend that on dinner, especially take out. don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but wow. now, it made me laugh because in essence I was eating a dinner matthew's dad and step-mom bought for him, at quite a price, and i was eating the left-overs! there are still some left for matthew, i really just wanted to try them, but i did find this amusing. i'm sure their plan, as nice as they are, was not to buy me a $24 dish for my lunch. LOL. it was good............ i just hope i can go back now and eat my kun pao chicken when i'm the one paying for it! :)

tomorrow is the battle of the beltway... redskins vs. the ravens. it is a night game. tomorrow is going to be a high in the 30's with wind-chills in the teens... and that's mid-day. i can not IMAGINE how cold it will be at the game tomorrow night. wow. i hope they don't freeze, i hope the ravens win. no, i hope the ravens kill the redskins! i hope matthew can get out of bed on monday morning for school.... i'm allowing him to go because he has pulled up three grades in the last two weeks and i think he deserves a reward for his work. there is another game next sunday and he's going to have to continue his good trend to be able to go to that one!

December already??

2008-12-03T20:14:00.005-05:00

wow, i simply can NOT believe that it is already december! this year has flown by. i recenrly looked back at pictures of maia from when i met her... which doesn't seem THAT long ago, and she was this tiny little 'baby'. now she is a true toddler - no longer a baby at all. i can't believe the end of the year is upon us and i get to celebrate Christmas with her!!

we put up our tree on friday. my brother was here for thanksgiving and i needed help getting it in the house and up in the stand since i can't do that alone... so we decided to do it that day rather than wait until this weekend when my parents would be here. it takes so long for me to get the tree up, and put the gazillion lights on that i put on, and then the ornaments that i needed this extra week just to get it all done. as it is, i've only gotten the tree up with the lights... the ornaments will be tomorrow since we've had busy evenings this week so far. matthew didn't want me to do it at a time he isn't here. maia has been good so far with the tree, so we'll see how it goes with shiny ornaments on it!

i took 120 pictures (digital) on sunday just so i could get a good enough picture to put on our Christmas card. there were about 8 decent ones i could choose from - but not the stunner i was hoping for. they are great pictures though and certainly capture their personalities - so i'm happy about that. i've never done a picture card before, so this is all new to me. :)

the mortgage business isn't done being awful yet... two more co-workers from my old company got laid off today. one of them had worked directly with me when i was there. i know from experience that they are better off to be out of there, BUT that doesn't make it any easier to lose your job, when jobs are tough to come by right now, AND during the holidays. it really stinks. i'm not exactly sure what gets in to companies heads regarding this... the mortgage business has stunk for two years now. really bad for over a year... and they can't wait 3 more weeks (until after Christmas) to lay people off? i just don't understand the timing sometimes - but that's what makes me all the happier to be out of that business altogether. life is so much calmer and less dramatic now. work used to be a soap opera. now, i go in, i work and i go home. i have good friends, i love what i do, and there is no constant drama or stress. it is just wonderful and a blessing to be in this new environment. i hope my two friends realize that soon and are able to find new jobs, soon!! good luck guys.

time to try a few pictures - let's hope these upload tonight! :) happy december everyone!! ok, it didn't work, crashed my server again, so i'll upload some on shutterfly that you can check out there... enjoy! www.ourjourneycalledlife.shutterfly.com and see my pictures!

Very Thankful

2008-11-26T19:56:00.003-05:00

wow, sometimes i feel like a real grown up! right now is one of them. tomorrow isn't just another day, it is a profound day of thanks!! and WOW do i have SO MUCH to be thankful for! the list is never ending, but i'm going to highlight some here now.

1. i am grateful that a year ago i was awaiting news that i could go meet and pick up my new daughter! it made last thanksgiving rather bitter sweet and we were not with her then, but NOW we are a forever family and i could not ask for a better son and daughter than the two i have been blessed with.

2. i am grateful for the new job i got this year. a year ago at this time i had been laid off from the mortgage business. the timing was perfect with the upcoming travel, but obviously it was a stressful time of unknown. i absolutely love my new job and the people i work with. wow - what a difference a year makes!

3. i am thankful for my family! they are awesome! especially my parents who are so helpful to me and selfless with their time. they have helped me in so many ways, but most recently when i needed care for maia when i just couldn't miss work - they were here, just in case! they are awesome and it would be SO much harder without them here to help me. i just wish i got to see other family more often - too long in between visits!

4. i am thankful for the wonderful house. what a blessing, (even with the leaks and critters!) so many people have so little and especially now, have lost so much. i am just thankful to have what i have.

5. my friends! i have so many wonderful friends and appreciate each of you. each one is different and perhaps even serves a different 'purpose' in my life, but all serve a purpose and i love you all!! again, some live way too far away and i simply don't see everyone often enough (even those that are local!) but i love and appreciate all my dear friends.

I hope everyone has a wonderful, happy, fulfilling, full of thanks Thanksgiving no matter where you are or who you are celebrating with! ENJOY!!

Cold November Day

2008-11-16T13:11:00.004-05:00

I wanted to post a few pictures from today. First, I dressed her in one of my favorite dresses (it's too small, but we were home today, so it doesn't matter!) It actually fits well except its like a mini-dress. :) Then I put her in some tights and the boots I gave her for her birthday.

My silly connection isn't letting me upload any more (we've just reset it 3 times in a row, so we're giving up!! - so check out Shutterfly site (listed below) to see more pictures from today. The ones in the woods are what backs up to my house and we have a nice walking path. It is very windy today, so I covered Maia up with a blanket in addition to her coat and hat and mittens. There are a couple of white trees against the dark grey sky that are just beautiful. The last shot is the one closest to home where you can see the house through the woods - it's just so pretty! I love it! I get the benefit of the beautiful woods without having to rake ALL those leaves. (We have our share, but not THAT many.) Enjoy the scenery.

9 months and counting

2008-11-12T19:24:00.008-05:00

I have now known Maia for 9 months! I find that unreal. I'll say what I say every month though - it seems like I've known her forever, while at the same time seeming like it was just yesterday that I was there and 9 months have now passed. Amazing.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. It is quite cold here for November, so Maia was bundled up more like winter even though it is fall (looking) outside. She loves her swing!!

Getting ready to go out together and play in the swing.

Maia - my little cutie pie.

She was so cute all bundled up! (If I do say so myself!)

Matthew being so helpful and playing with her while I get a few things done inside. (Or in this case, while I take lots of pictures!)

The cutest thing just happened as I put Maia to bed... she started pointing out all the Winnie-the-Poohs in her bed (on her sheets and bumper pads) as if it is the first time she's ever seen them... And I think it is!! She just noticed them and SAW them for the first time- how cool!! She pointed to many of them, 'saying "Pooh" over and over and the pots of honey, quite excitedly. What a little cutie!

Five Friday Fun Facts - Slightly Updated!

2008-11-09T18:46:00.006-05:00

Oops, I forgot about this - so here is it, on Sunday... I'll do better going forward!

1. Maia can say the following words... most of which have the SH or CH sounds... Cheese, Outside, (outshide), Shoes, Socks (shocks), Ashes (ashes, we all fall down), please, (peash), Matthew (Chew, which is one of his nicknames), juice (juish), datch (we have NO idea what this is, but she says it all the time), glasses, (glashes), eyes (eyesh), Maia (I-ya), fish (fishies), sha-sha (doggy... ) sha-sha (birdie), sha-sha (gentle...) Obviously we have to put the last one in context. Ein (said as a question... Ein?) is another frequently used word, I just wish we knew what it meant. And of course, she says Da-da which means Mommy. Go figure!! **I forgot some (thanks for the reminder, Kim!!) Maia also says Thank you (dah-du while also doing the sign for that, or should I say her version of the sign), Bye-Bye (a very loud and enthusiastic Byyyyeeeee while waving), Yes (Yesh), No (Noooooooooooooo while violently shaking her head!), grandma and grandpa, but I'm not sure 'how' she says them - but she has a word for each of them.

2. Maia loves the hair drier and having it blow in her face.

3. She loves watching Charlie Brown Christmas. Yes, we've already started watching it. I broke out the Christmas Music tonight too.... At least it's after Halloween!

4. Maia loves to laugh. It is so genuine. You can really tell one something touches her funny bone. She also loves to laugh when others are laughing.

5. Maia loves to put things on her head. Clothes, hats, purses, anything that will stay if she puts it there.

The Gingerbread Man

2008-11-08T22:13:00.002-05:00

Maia has been at her new school for four full weeks. It is going well. I actually had a parent/teacher conference today - since they truly treat this like a school and have the knowledge and ability to actually evaulate our children since they are trained in early childhood education. Maia is still catching up in some areas, like language, and some gross motor skill 'achievements'. I must admit, I find this one funny since she is a monkey and climbs on everything. But, for example, she doesn't really hop yet. I'm going to 'test' that tomorrow. Admittedly, it's not something I go around doing, so I don't know if she can or not, but they say she can't. These are really the same type milestones that the doctor asked Monday at her two year check up. Does she run? Yes. Does she speak? Sort of. Does she kick a ball? I'm not real sure about that either - so now I have specific milestones to check out on my own and determine if she can or not, and work on them if she can't. (The school gave me their opinions, but there are some things that she must do at home that she doesn't do there since for some our answers differed.) Like they said she never asked to be read to. I said she did at home. However, they meant more that she didn't ASK with words. She makes it known that when she wants to read at home, so maybe I was assessing a different skill. Anyway, four weeks down and it is awesome. We are ALL very happy with her there.

As I said, her 2 year checkup was on Monday. She got a flu shot, a blood test and Hep. A. She is 24 pounds now, which is still low, but at 16% - so MUCH bigger than her 1% when she came home. She is a short little thing, but she is just small all over. She is still wearing her 18 month old clothes, infact - one new pair of 18 month pants was SO BIG and LONG that I had to return them for 12 month pants. She does have other 12 month pants that we still put her in too. Petite. Lucky little girl. :)

Before I forget, thanks to everyone on the input about pictures... it does turn out that something is wrong with my connection - and basically it rears it's ugly head when doing pictures on blogger. I upload them all over the place without problem, so go figure. She post below for new picture information.

Matthew was at Scouts all day today. It is so strange on days he isn't here. Then, as soon as he got home, he went with his dad for the night. I miss him so much! I'm glad he gets to spend time with his dad, step-mom nd brother and sister though - they are family too! He got in 8 service hours today.

After dropping Matthew off at 8:30 this morning, I stopped for Starbucks. YUM!! They seasonal flavors were here, so I had this years version of the Gingerbread Latte. This year they are calling it Gingersnap latte. It was almost the same, but not quite. They sprinkled candied ginger on top which I did not like. Now, to be honest, if one hadn't gone in my mouth, whole, at the bottom of the drink, I might never have really known... But I didn't like this large chunk of ginger at the end of the drink... Now, a gingersnap cookie, maybe... but not candied ginger. I may not get that again, or atleast I'll have them leave the candied ginger off! Next step to the holidays - our gingerbread house!!

Anyway, after a little while at home, Maia and I went to Cracker Barrell to eat breakfast with my friend Judy. I worked with her for years, and since I don't anymore, we have to find some fun, different ways to get together. This was great, and it was a gorgeous day! It was a short visit, but great to see her. I'm actually thinking we might be able to get together again next Friday when I have a parents night out at day care. (Maia can stay at daycare until 9 pm...) I will be doing my Christmas shopping and hope to finish that night! We shall see! We all enjoyed our yummy breakfast. I had waited too long to eat, so I was very hungry by the time we were served. Maia liked eating Judy's food and I found out Maia likes grits. That's not a staple around our house, so I might have to figure out how to make them for her?!?!

I went to a craft fair, that sadly, was quite pathetic. So, we didn't stay long and Maia came home for another LENGTHY Saturday nap. I get torn - I wish I had more time with her, and yet I get more done when she is asleep (during the day - I'm useless at night.) So, I finally had to wake her up after 3.25 hours in her crib (I think she slept 3 of those...) We had to go get Matthew and she had to get up! I cleaned my disasterous room - and made some good progress! One day, my house and room might finally be in order. We're getting there.... One Saturday block of time at a time.

I see it is snowing in Kazakhstan already and in the teens... I can't say I miss that!

Bedtime! Night.

Wanna see some pictures??

2008-11-08T20:28:00.002-05:00

OK, since my set-up makes it impossible for me to really share pictures and no techy person can figure out why - and I'm sick of wasting my time on the phone with them.... please see my new picture site. http://ourjourneycalledlife.shutterfly.com.

If you scroll down a little and click on recent pictures, you'll see various albums which have pictures in them. I can load 60 pictures in the time it took for maybe 2 or 3 in blogger, so until i can really fix my blogger issue, the pictures will be in shutterfly. :) If you can't click on the words recent pictures, then click on one OF the recent pictures... then above the pictures you'll see a directory of 'where you are' and you can click Recent Pictures and get the multiple albums listed. Anyway, I hope this works for everyone, let me know! I want to share more pictures (perhaps too many, because I like to take series of shots of one activity!) I am still learning all the ins and outs of shutterfly - but enjoy the pictures anyway. :)

I'll blog more soon. For now, just enjoy the pictures.

Posting Pictures??

2008-10-30T21:46:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone - quick HELP ME question. I see so many blogs post so many pictures in any given post, it makes me believe I MUST be doing something wrong! If I were to post that many pictures, it would take so long to resize them, pull them all up individually and hit upload. What am I doing wrong?? Do you all resize your pictures and then upload them? Do you just choose the ones to upload and say small, medium or large? Help! I want to post more pics but it is so cumbersome sometimes it just prevents me from taking the time! Any help is APPRECIATED!

DWTS - Update!!

2008-10-27T21:43:00.005-04:00

In case you missed the latest episode of DWTS - this is the newest couple!!

(*Copied directly from my friend Kim's blog... Thanks Kim!!) It made me LAUGH!
**Read first post from today below...

The Twilight Zone

2008-10-27T18:53:00.008-04:00

This weekend was supposed to be relaxing... strike one. It was the end of October, I was dreaming of nice weather... strike two. The World Series is on and they cancelled Sunday Night football... strike three!!

Friday night was fine. Uneventful. Maia went to bed and I had to run out and return movies I had rented last Friday night. (If you have my taste in movies, then I recommend these. The Bucket List - good, sad at times. Definitely, Maybe. Good movie, not a classic for me, but certainly good enough to watch, maybe even again sometime. P.S. I Love You is already/will become one of my Top 10 (or whatever number I'm up to now.) It is excellent, in my opinion and I will watch it over and over and over again. What are some of your favorite movies?? That night ended with me falling asleep before Matthew even came upstairs from the basement while he listened to music... Man, how times are a changin'!!

Saturday, I had the plumber come and fix a few things and install a few things... Maybe he'd be here 2-3 hours, right? He called at 8, would be here by 9. RIGHT?? Wrong. He called at 8, be here at 9. Check. 2-3 hours? HA! Try 7. 7 hours. Now, it was a coldish, rainy, windy, dreary day. I didn't WANT to go anywhere, but because I COULDN'T go anywhere, all of a sudden I felt captive in my own home. As soon as he left, Mom and I went shopping. Dad and Matthew stayed with Maia who was just waking up from her nap. We got some good things accomplished, so that was nice. We had a lovely dinner, Corned Beef and Cabbage, red potatoes. De-lish!! Matthew even ate well, really well! Maia even ate some meat, along with her cabbage and potatoes which she scarfed down.

I started to clean the dishes after dinner and Mom asked if Maia should take a bath. Well, for 1, it was definitely a bath day, so yes, and two, if you're offering AND I don't have to help, by ALL MEANS, give her a bath!! They went in and started the bath water. Matthew came to me and said he felt pukey and could he have a Sprite, he needed to burp. Sure, I said. He came back in (our sodas are in the refridge in the garage) and was drinking way too fast. I said, Matthew, slow down a little bit. Give the bubbles a chance to work - don't drink so much so fast. I told him to go sit down in the living room (our family room on the main level). 10 seconds later I here him say, "I puked". Oh man!! I thought he was conning me into a soda, I thought he wanted an extra sweet that day. I thought he wanted to get out of washing the dishes... I didn't think he was really going to be ill!! And be ill he was... remember how I told you he ate well, really well, at dinner. Well... this was turning out to be quite the evening. He was all upset because he was sitting in MY CHAIR (my brother calls it the Archie Bunker chair since I have to sit there almost 100% of the time and make others move if they happen to sit in it. Of course, they sit in it just ot bug me!!). Matthew was all upset and said, I ruined your chair! Well, he didn't ruin my chair, but perhaps the evening, not that it was his fault! So, he got to take the shower Maia was waiting to take, and when Mom took Maia out of the bathroom (not in the bath yet...) she got hysterical. Why is he cutting in line and taking a shower? Why is she naked in the hallway? Why can't she come out in the living room or even down the hall... (I was cleaning the LR and the path Matthew had taken down the hallway.) Fun, right??

Well, he finished showering and said he felt better. In fact that was it. He didn't get sick again and no one else got it. Wow, if someone has to get sick, that was about as perfect as it gets... with a one time thing and no one else catching it!

Dishes are done. Matthew feels better. Maia has a bath. Maia goes to bed. I found out how to move my iTunes music from one computer (old as the hills) to the newer laptop I use... All is good with the world now. Sleep well, cool night. Excellent. Visions start appearing of Sunday morning and my wonderful coffee with Pumpkin Spice Creamer... mmmmm. I love Sunday mornings. Sunday supplements out of the newspaper. Coffee. No rush to get anywhere early... Sundays are great... relaxing... excellent... football comes on later... Matthew, why are you screaming at Maia?? He comes down the hall, she had my deoderant!! I think she ATE SOME! What?????? I picked her up and low and behold, her breath was as fresh as a man's underarm. Y U C K!!! Gross, disgusting, nasty - now I want to puke! What do I do?? Matthew never put ANYTHING in his mouth - I don't know what to do!! So, for a few minutes, I didn't do much, then I read the label on the deoderant.... If swallowed Seek Medical Attention or call Poison control Immediately. WHAT???? Poison control?? But I'm relaxing. I'm going to pick up my brother and watch football. I want to go buy a pumpkin.... I want, I want, I want... SHOOT.

Mom tried to calm me down and tells me to call my brother-in-law who is a doctor. They are walking out the door to church so he calls me back in a couple of minutes. Admitedly, these were the longest 2-3 minutes I think I've ever endured. I was starting to panic... I told him what happened and does he think I should call Poison Control... YES??? Really, I have to call them? CRAP! Now I'm really a good bit panicked. And Joel is so nice and trying to tell me he thinks he's sure they'll say it's OK and blah blah blah (I tuned out) I was panicked and not really listening... but I didn't want to be rude and cut him off!! He was being so nice and I just wanted to hang up on him... Poor guy. So, I didn't hear the last bit he said and when he stopped talking I said, OK, thanks... have a nice day and THEN I hung up.

I called Poison Control and after saying my two year old daughter ate my son's deoderant, she said, can you hold please? Sure... tick, tock, tick, tock, tick - HEY, I'm on HOLD HERE! Who puts someone on hold for 2-3 MORE minutes when my world is ending?? HELLO, are you coming back?!!?!?!?!

Ah, there you are. She asked how long ago this happened - somewhere between 15-30 minutes at this point. I've lost track. I'm in another dimension... (**about the Title of the Blog... "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone.")

Moving on... she asks what her symptoms are. I said she has none. She said, well, the worst we would expect is she might spit up a little and if she hasn't done that yet, then she probably won't. Go ahead and give her a big glass of water or milk to dillute anything that might be in her tummy, but otherwise, don't worry about it. I did clarify that she kept calling it deoderant, but it was actually Anti-persperant. (I had said Anti-Perspirant on the phone, even though that's not what I wrote earlier...) Anywho, she said that didn't make any difference (I thought it might have other ingredients..) and that we were good to go. I couldn't believe, all that stress - and nothing was wrong. THANK GOD!! But, wow, I started to really freak out.

So, I've known Maia 8+ months, she's been home for ALMOST 7 months and she's had to go to the ER already AND I've had to call Poison Control already. Matthew is 13 - haven't had to do this with him, yet!!

So, if anyone is still reading, I called my BIL back and let him know what they said (partially so he would know and not be worried and partially because I wanted to say goodbye properly and not be like, OK BYE and hang up on him again.)

So much for a relaxing Sunday morning... The rest of the coffee got thrown away - I didn't need the caffeine at that point - I was AWAKE, au natural. Legal stimulants became unecessary that day. (And no, I never did get to look at the Sunday Supplements (ads from the paper for sales I never do attend...)

Before I go any farther, I will let you know that I do NOT have pictures of these weekend events. You're welcome.

Matthew, Mom and Dad left for the football game as soon as they knew Maia wasn't going to die... Poor Matthew had broken in to a sweat he was so nervous, and blaming himself for her getting in to his deoderant. I mean, we have to be careful, but can't help that she ate his deoderant. Have I said how gross that is? Her breath was 'fresh' all day. Ick. Now all of you know - if kids eat the deoderant, no worries. They may throw up a little, but aren't going to die.

My brother came and watched football with me and Maia took a 3.5 hour nap while we watched! How nice of her!

Now on to today. Today was supposed to be sunny and 65 degrees. It was cloudy, if not raining, all day and hit a high of 45, yes 45 degrees today. Maia wore a lightweight gingham jacket. Man, she was probably freezing outside, it was windy, so our windchill was in the 30's!! Tomorrow was supposed to be in the 60's too, but now they're saying high of 50 at most. Not my kind of weather - but I'll be working so who cares. So, we were all cold and the house is chilly. We want some good winter comfort food. Grilled cheese and tomato soup! Matthew loves it, and man, I hope Maia does.. we eat this at least once a week during the winter months. So, I make her a grilled cheese and give her some soup. Hey Mikey, she likes it!

Fast forward to the end of the meal... she had enough of using the spoon to eat her soup and/or dipping her sandwich in the soup to eat it. So, she picked up the bowl and started to drink her soup. The FUNNY part was that she was GULPING it so loud, she sounded like a cartoon!! You could hear her slurp it which was 'cute', but more importantly is that you could hear it gulping down her throat as she chugged it. We thought it was so funny. (Crude and no mannered, but funny!!) Let me tell you - she drank every last drop of her portion of soup! Yup, she belongs in this family. She loved that meal and surely will eat it again when we do! Yeah!!

She also has figured out how great OREOS are. I've never seen someone take so long to eat one single cookie, but even funnier is how chocalately and messy she gets from eating this one single cookie.

So, that's our doings from tonight. I wanted to tape her soup chugging, but didn't get the video in time. (And even so, still can't find that blasted cable!) So, perhaps pictures soon - wanted to catch you up on out life, at least these last 3 days. I certainly can NOT claim to be bored - right?? :)

Two weeks...

2008-10-24T21:34:00.004-04:00

We made it through two weeks in Maia's new day care! Yeah Maia!! This is longer than the other place lasted with her in her new classroom. This new school is so far superior - but I won't go all in to that again... suffice it to say, we are very happy here. The teachers are working with her and she has learned many new things (apparent already!!) She knows how to use 'gentle hands'. The next step, however, is having her know she doesn't have to pummell something BEFORE showing she knows how to use gentle hands... Just use the gentle hands to begin with, little Maia!

She did have one incident - she bit a teacher. Uh...oh. She was frustrated about something she didn't want to do... They told me they told her NO BITING (not, no thank you Maia!) and read her a book about what teeth/mouths are for. She does seem better (so far...) and we have some NO BITING books at home too, and she likes to read them, over and over. I'm teaching her to kiss (my hand, or whatever...) rather than biting. The book also shows that teeth are for eating food, etc. We've gone two days since then without another incident. BUT the most exciting thing is that they gave me a sheet of paper with the guidelines etc... They consider this 'normal, albeit, inappropriate behavior' until the age of THREE. Now, she can't bite every day, but I'm just saying they are not worried about her and certainly not about to kick her out. Yeah!! They are a good school who knows how to work with kids her age and what's appropriate for teaching her about changing her behavior. Not some fluffy stupid Maia No Thank You response when she has no idea what you are talking about! ok... I'll stop.

I've had a week of no sleep. It's getting old. I want to SLEEP. Let's hope it's tonight... my eyes are burning they are so tired.

Tomorrow I have the plumber coming to install some new toilets, a new faucet and fix a leaky faucet in the kids bathroom. I look forward to having this work behind me. It'll be nice.

I hope to take some new pictures this weekend and get some posted. I am still looking for the blasted cord to download some video.... Stay tuned!

Tag, I'm it.

2008-10-18T23:57:00.006-04:00

My friend Kim tagged me, so here goes!!

A) Four places I go over and over
1. Work
2. Giant
3. Target
4. The Bathroom

B) Four people who e-mail me regularly
1. Judy
2. Kristy
3. spammers
4. Matthew's teachers (i don't look forward to these...)

C) Four of my favorite places to eat
1. The Melting Pot
2. Rudee's on the Inlet
3. PF Changs or Sakura
4. Anywhere I don't have to cook

D) Four places you'd rather be
1. At my parents beach house
2. South Carolina
3. New England (seeing even more beautiful fall foliage than we have here)
4. In bed

E) Four TV shows I could (and DO!) watch over and over
1. Friends
2. Seinfeld
3. Everybody Loves Raymond
4. House Hunters and/or Designed to Sell

F) Four people I'm tagging
1. I don't know - anyone who wants to play along!! Jen, Michele, Kami, Christine, Jocelyn, Renee, Judy, Catalina, Sandi, Christy, Sam, Sara - and all the rest of you!

Friday night

2008-10-17T22:31:00.004-04:00

I'm getting tired, so I'm going to hit some bullet points.

1. I can't find the right cable to download some video... why can I find the other 1,052 power cords, download cables except the one I'm ever looking for?? you know murphy, right?? he's my cousin. I call this kristen's law.

2. matthew has gone camping. i've been sleeping with my windows cracked at night and still been too warm at times. tonight, i have the windows closed and i'm still cold inside. i'm wearing long pants, long sleeves and slippers and still have a chill. matthew is outside camping! he claims to love it - more power to him. better him than me.

3. i rented a movie tonight. the bucket list. good movie.

4. maia has finished her first week at the new school. it is awesome and we had a wonderful week. follow your heart and gut everyone! if a situation doesn't seem right (which it didn't before the whole "disinvited to attend" fiasco) trust your instincts and move on. i even ran in to one of maia's teachers last night from the first place and she too has left the daycare - and confirmed the idiocy and incompentancy i thought i was seeing too.

5. it was a crazy busy week at work. our fiscal year has ended and not only are we wrapping things up and getting out financial reports, but we are preparing for the audtiors. oh joy!!

6. maia and i are obviously alone all weekend, and i don't have much planned. so we will have to find some entertainment to fill part of the day. the weather is supposed to be pleasant fall weather. it was in the 80's here all week until today. tomorrow, maybe high 50's... nice, but big changes.

7. my poor parents have caught the cough i had for 3.5 LONG weeks. i am finally over it but it started 4 weeks ago today. mom is like, when will it end?? they've had it about 3 days... I hate to tell them, they've only just begun!

8. i'm going to TRY to go back to titling my posts by movie titles like i did while in kaz. i am going to add in some song titles though, and perhaps an occassional TV show. i'll have to think of a few again to get me going. i probably still have the list of movies mom and i came up with in kaz.

9. I miss Matthew when he's not here, especially when he's gone all weekend! I miss my snuggle time with my 'little guy'.

10. i saw this somewhere else and thought i'd give it a try too.... i am going to do Five Friday Fun Facts.... I will list 5 facts of the day each Friday. So, I'll start the renumbering now for this one:

Fun Facts:
1. I need to buy two toilets, a bathroom faucet and a couple of light fixtures.

2. One of Matthew's nicknames is 'Chew'. Maia says it crystal clear and after he left tonight, she was going around calling "Chew".... "Chew". So cute! She gets sad when he leaves! (Like me!)

3. We bought food for 4 meals for 8 boys for $73.99 (The budget is $10 per boy..) We did OK!! (Of course, I'm not sure how GREAT the food will be, but Matthew assures me that those Cup O Noodles are DELICIOUS when you are camping. Ok.....

4. I filed my 2007 taxes this week... Bring on the refund!

5. I had cocoa puffs for dinner. (sshhh, don't tell the kids!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAIA!!!

2008-10-11T20:50:00.003-04:00

Maia is two today!! Happy Birthday, precious, sweet child!! I am so glad I get to be your Mommy and celebrate with you on your second birthday! In the 8 months (243 days to be exact) since I've met you - you've already grown up more than I'd like. You're getting big - FAST! I look back at pictures from 8 months ago and realize how much of a baby you were then, and how big a girl you've become!! Amazing. I've known you for exactly 1/3 of your wonderful life... and I cherish every single day I get to spend with you! I look forward to the next 8 months as much as I've loved the last 8 months with you. I am so glad I got to spend this birthday with you - I love you, little Maia.

We had a busy day today! We visited her new school for about 2 hours. She loved it! She played with lots of toys, met lots of teachers, got acclimated to her new room. They even had crafts set up at different tables in different rooms... while doing various crafts, she proceeded to eat playdough and suck on markers without the lids on. She ended up with a purple mouth... She eats everything! And puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. I've never seen anything like it. So we took her to another room where they were serving cupcakes... but do you think she would eat a cupcake... Nope, not really!! She was too full from the playdough... We went outside on the playground too and when it was time to leave, Maia was having no part of that. I literally had to drag her to the car, kicking and screaming. I think she's going to be just fine on Monday... :)

We came home and had lunch and a nap. (Yes, I had a nap too!) Then we headed to our friend Kayleigh's 5th birthday party. There were lots of friends there, for all of us. It was a gorgeous fall day and they had a big bouncy tent in the backyard. It was fun for me too to be able to chat and reconnect with some friends I haven't gotten to see in a long time, in some cases. I found out one is expecting, one is adopting, one had a baby in July I hadn't gotten to see yet... Really exciting times!! We had a great time!!

Tonight was relatively quiet at home except for the call from my sister and her kids. They had sent Maia a package that arrived today. We were going to open it after dinner, but they called right at the end of our dinner, so we opened it while they were on the phone. It was full of really awesome stuff! They sent LOTS of dress up outfits, and hats, and shoes, and leotards, and ballet shoes, etc. Also, they sent If You Give a Pig a Party and a Cabbage Patch Doll! How neat - an adoptable baby doll!! :) She was overwhelmed with it all, and will have fun going through it all for days and days!! It was great to talk to Regan and all the kids. They are getting so big now, that we can have great, real conversations with them. Maia on the other hand... still doesn't chat much, which dissappoints the kids I think, but one day, she'll be chatting up a storm with the rest of them!

Tomorrow we have Evan's party to go in the morning. That should be a lot of fun too!!

Mom left yesterday and went on a retreat. Dad left the house this morning before the rest of us got out of bed. (Although Maia woke up right when he was leaving, so we were up shortly afterwards.) So, it was different around here today without Mom and Dad, but we weren't home that much either, so tomorrow will seem even stranger. It's always quiet around here with two less people in the house.

Tomorrow is football day - yeah! Gotta love Sundays in the fall - especially when our teams win and the ones we don't like lose.

Happy Birthday, Maia! We love you!!

It's Been a Long Time...

2008-10-10T20:50:00.019-04:00

It may not seem like long to you all, but it feels like forever to me since I, not only wrote a blog, but downloaded any pictures, and even read many blogs. There just isn't time, and when there is, no matter how much I love blogging and following other blogs, I just don't feel like being on the computer! But, I feel like Maia changes daily, and I'll try to capture some events and changes as I write now.

The past month has been interesting trying to line up day care for Maia until the new school is able to take her. Well, Monday is the day! Maia will start at her new school - and I am so excited! Tomorrow there is an open house that we can attend. Perfect timing! I can take her in, and get her used to the room and the teachers, all while I am there. That will make Monday morning less stressful. (Frankly, I'm sure she will be fine, it's me I am more worried about!) Right now, I would say I'm not worried at all, and I'm NOT! BUT, come time to drop her off, worry isn't the right word, but something comes over me where I get sad to leave them at a new place. Like I said, SHE will be FINE!!

The first week of this month, my friend Julie watched Maia. Then my parents took Maia to their house for a week. The Friday of that week, my brother, Matthew and I went to the beach house for the weekend and brought Maia home with us on Sunday.

The third week, my friend Julie watched her again. However, Julie had an illness that just wouldn't go away, so I ended up having to stay home with her that Tuesday. Then, Julie still didn't feel well, and I had someone lined up for Wednesday, but that got mis-communicated, so my back-up fell through for Wednesday! At 8:30 pm Tuesday night I found out this wonderful news, SO, I had to find someone, at 8:30 at night to watch Maia starting about 7:30 the next morning. As it turns out, my friend Julie had a neighbor with a little girl who is just a bit older than Maia, and they had played together when Julie had been watching Maia, SO, we asked her Mom to watch Maia for me that day! Yes, a stranger to me, but a friend to my friend, and at that moment I had to trust her judgment! It turned out to be wonderful, and I hope I've found a friend for me (the mom) and a friend for Maia, the daughter as well. Julie was better that Thursday and Friday. Yeah!!

Then, the fourth and final week, my parents came up to my house and stayed her to watch her. Today ended this long stretch of people stepping up and helping me out!! Obviously I couldn't take all this time off from work to do it myself, so luckily I have great family and friends willing to assist!! Thank you ALL!!

We had a great weekend at the beach two weeks ago. My grandma was visiting from Florida, so it was awesome to see her, and have her meet Maia!! It had been too long since I'd gotten to see her (this past year has not been a typical one - obviously.) She religiously wrote to my mom and I though while we were in Kazakhstan living in Siberia in the winter... and we loved her frequent emails!! So, althought I hadn't seen her in about 1.5 years, it didn't seem quite that long as she stayed so close to us via email and kept us up on all the news stateside!

This weekend is going to be very busy. Tomorrow is the open house at Maia's new school. Then, at 3 pm we have a birthday party to go to. I can't wait to go see some of the Mom's I'm friends with that I haven't gotten to see in a while!! Sunday, there is a party for Matthew's brother, Evan. They invited both Matthew and Maia, so we will all be attending this party on Sunday.

Maia's birthday is tomorrow!! She will be two! The first celebration (I assume) for her birthday.) We have had a couple of little family celebrations already. Last night we celebrated with Mom and Dad. She got some presents and I made cupcakes (actually I frosted cupcakes, Mom made them for me!). It wasn't really what I wanted, celebrating on a weeknight. It was more stressful knowing I had to go to work the next day for some reason, but she didn't know any different. I did do presents before dinner though, and that was likely a mistake. After presents, while trying to seat her for dinner, she had a major meltdown. This has never happened before, but honestly, I think she was just hungry and thirsty!! She was much better after I gave her a juice box (as a treat, but also knowing she'd drink it really fast if she were that thirsty and I wanted some quick relief!) It worked, and then she ate some dinner and then a cupcake. I'll post some various pictures, not only fromt he borthday, but also other events I've been missing.

This week, Maia climbed out of her crib for the first time!! Mom went down the hall to check on her about the time she thought she would get up from a nap. She stood outside her door and listened and heard nothing. Then a few seconds later, she heard knocking. Maia was standing on the other side of the door, knocking to get out of her room. Her room, by the way, looked like a tornado went through it... so she had been up a little while, emptying her laundry basket, and diaper container, and dresser drawers.... it was quite a site. Mom left it 'as is' until I got home from work. The mattress is as low as it will go, and the sides are HIGH. She is just a monkey. She stacked up her stuffed animals, and blankets and bumper pad and made it high enough to get out. Maybe it's time to take the bumper pad out.... ?? That gave her some leverage (we could tell because it was crushed!) She hasn't done it since though - so ??? Who knows when she will strike again!

Maia got a baby doll stroller for her birthday. (Actually, she got too.) We decided one will be for inside and one for outside play. Anyway, Maia insisted that were for HER and she wanted to sit in it! I'll post a picture of Maia in the tiny baby doll stroller. Silly Maia.

Then today, she decided the stroller belonged on a chair and she climbed in the chair too. Mom took a picture of this.

I'm getting tired, and still have pictures to post, so I'll stop rambling and post some pictures. I'll be back sooner rather than later to talk some more and post some more pictures...

Quiet Tuesday

2008-09-23T21:21:00.003-04:00

Wow, I am home ALONE. No Matthew. No Maia. How strange!!

My parents have taken Maia to their house for the week since I don't have daycare set up for these 30 days... Last week my friend Julie watched her. This week it's my parents - but they needed to take her to their house rather than staying here with us and watching her. Needless to say, it is much quieter around here than normal, and we miss her!!

Of course, I had a list of things a mile long to accomplish while she was gone, but I'm certainly not getting as much done as I would have liked!!

This weekend, Matthew, my brother and I are going to my parents house for the weekend. My grandma will be there too!! It'll be a short trip, but I'm excited to see my grandma! It'll be great to all be together for a couple of days and to see Maia after a week away! The weather will be awful this week for Maia at the beach, but I'm sure she'll enjoy the time with grandma and grandpa anyway.

we'll see what the rest of the week brings - so far - all is good (even though we miss Maia!)

I'm exhausted!

2008-09-14T19:29:00.002-04:00

Today has been a very busy day! I started off by cleaning my bathroom. I won't dicuss all the details, but suffice it to say, it had been entirely too long and was well overdue! This took about an hour.

I was on a roll, so then I went outside to trim the second of three shrubs in my front yard (with thorns) that has overtaken the front flower bed. I did one last weekend, but the thorns hurt so badly I couldn't do more than one that day. So today my goal was to do the last two. Well, as it turns out, the heat index was over 100 today (when I found this out, I realized why I was so HOT and exhausted.) Anyhow, rather than doing the third thorny bush, I decided to trim back the butterfly bush that had REALLY taken over my front bed. This of course led to other items in the flower bed that needed trimming, etc. The 3rd thorny bush remains - most likely a job for next weekend. Things are looking better - but we're not there yet.

While I was busy doing the (careful!) trimming - Matthew mowed the yard. It looks so good!! It had been at least two weeks since we last mowed, with a tropical storm in between, so it too was long overdue. If feels so good to get things done around the house - even though the whole house and yard is never done at the same time! It's great to have some of these big jobs done.

Maia took a great nap - 1 to 4 today to allow us to get a lot of this completed. (Of course, this was also the heat of the day.)

We ordered pizza for dinner - something we do very rarely - and boy was it good!! Maia even ate a whole piece! She's never shown much interest in pizza, let alone an entire piece. Well, she devoured it and then continued with other items. Raisins are one of her favorite things at the moment. She's eaten like a champ the past couple of days - she must be having a growth spurt! With all her eating, if she doesn't grow UP, she'll definitely grow AROUND.

Right now she is watching Winnie the Pooh before bed. Frankly, I needed some extra down time - the heat really did me in. I wasn't expecting it to be that hot!

The cool thing this week is that Maia's new school has BACK-TO-SCHOOL night on Tuesday! How cute is that?? It is only 30 minutes, so I will attend while Matthew hangs with Maia in the car or if it's nice, then he'll stroll her around the center while I'm inside. Then, we'll take him to scouts from there. He's going to run for a leadership position again on Tuesday, so that should be an exciting night. I can't wait to go to back to school night - I think that is AWESOME for a daycare. Never had that at the other one....

Just a side note 0 I can tell Maia has a little more attention span these days. She can actually watch one whole video without tuning out, or freaking out. Of course, just as I typed that, she has had ENOUGH and wants to stop now! Too funny. It's still better than it used to be. Not that I WANT her engrossed in the TV, but it does give me down time sometimes when I need it and I'm glad she can focus long enough to 'enjoy' the show - which she couldn't before. Progress.

Everyone have a great week!! I'm certainly hoping for less drama than last week - of course, only time will tell!

What a difference a DAY makes....

2008-09-13T20:47:00.005-04:00

Man - was I mad last night or was I mad last night?? Yup, I was MAD last night. (Could you tell??) But, do you realize it was over the daycares lack of ability to deal with children? All children are different. Some need different methods for Matthew, some need different methods for discipline. Thank God the public schools understand this and allow Matthew to learn his way!! (By the way, he scored a perfect score on a standardized test... here here to learning HIS way!!) I just wish a daycare that is in business and has many different kids from many different backgrounds and personalities would understand the uniqueness of each child and I wish THEY would learn how to react differently to different kids. Since they aren't able to do that, I am not at ALL mad that she got kicked out. I am convinced it is a blessing and had already signed her up for a new daycare before the 'last straw' anyway... but to go through this whole routine in 3 days - with two previous warnings is simply absurd. The idiocy of it all and their lack of competance at this point, amazes me.

Example: I took Maia to Sunday school tonight. I asked, was she good?? They said, Oh she was wonderful - she is so sweet! Now, I know Maia, and she CAN be perfect for 2 hours, but chances are at some point, she wanted the same toy as someone else, or something like that. Day care kicks her out, Sunday school said she was sweet... Thank goodness not everyone runs a center as the last daycare did and their are choices for me to now turn to. For that, I am grateful.

I am also grateful that I have some of the next 30 days lined up for coverage. A friend of mine, Julie is going to watch Maia this week! YEAH JULIE! Thank you, thank you, thank you. I had been focused on which of my friends have children around Maia's age that I could either ask to watch her, or for suggestions of home day cares for the next 30 days. That's when Julie's name flashed in front of my eyes (on the IM screen) and I had an idea!!! Julie was in the same awful mortgage industry I was in, and is looking for just the right job to fill the one left behind in that sinking industry. She was a nanny before working in mortgage. She comes from a LARGE family with 35 nieces and nephews... Wow, she's perfect! So, I called her up hoping and praying she'd say yes. She did!! She took on this first week for me - yippee!!!!!!

Now, the HUGE prayer request is that the new school takes Maia on Oct. 1 (since she turns 2 that month, there is a chance they can admit her on Oct. 1 and still be OK...) PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let this be the case. That saves me 1.5 weeks of finding other people to fill in. I do have some leads as to some who stay home and do daycare though, so with any luck - I won't have a problem regardless of her start date.

A wonderful surprise tonight - not only did we finally go to church. (It's been entirely too long for me! We do go to our 'internet campus' which broadcasts the entire thing... and saves a good bit of gas money and toll money, but... it's still nice to GO to the church!!) Anyway, we went for the first time in ages, and ran in to friends we hadn't seen in years. In fact, their 2 year old son was there, and I hadn't seen him yet! The neat this is, they don't regularly attend this church so it was a total fluke that they were there tonight, and us!! And of course, Maia and their little guy were in the same class. Cool!! How awesome was that coincidence. Hopefully we'll get together soon - I miss them!!

Our football game has been cancelled for tomorrow - good old Hurricane Ike!! We were to play in Houston - and it was postponed until Monday night, and then damage actually occurred at the stadium, so Monday night was postponed now too.

Mom and Dad had a great week in SC with the kids. Regan and Joel have made it home safely and Mom and Dad are on their way home tomorrow... Probably just in time to watch Maia next week! Lucky them - all this grandchild love - I bet they are glad they retired.... LOL. :)

What a difference a week makes...

2008-09-12T21:29:00.007-04:00

Well, Tuesday everything was fine. How quickly things change. Wednesday, I got a call from daycare about 4:00 p.m. Maia had pushed another kid in her class, and when the teacher told her no, she bit the teacher. Rather than a time-out in the room, they sent her to the office to take her time out. Then she returned to class. When I got there, not too long after this (maybe 10 minutes after she was back in her classroom) I walked in to her swatting at her teacher a little for something or other. I walked across the classroom watching her every move and by the time she saw me, giving her a stern glare, she bowed her head in shame and for what I had just witnessed, I spoke to her, told her not to hit her teachers and made her sit in a time out. Her teacher told me she had already done a timeout, but that was for the other incident and since when is the limit one time out anyway if she is still acting out?

So, I'll forwarn you all. I'm mad. This will get detailed and frankly, I won't be overly nice. The above was the tame version of what I'm about to tell you. And I'll say upfront that Matthew went to this same daycare for 10 years. It was awesome. I loved it. It suited him well. As I have quickly learned, each child is different and responds differently to the same situation. There, there is the only nice thing I have to say about this day care anymore. 10 years good. 3 months, crapola.

So, this daycare is very against anything negative. Meaning, of course, they can't spank a child, (wouldn't want them to!!) and are very positive in their approach to discipline. Their idea of discipline is when a child 'chooses' to shove a child, they say, "Maia, no thank you." No reference to what they are saying no too, and it is said in the same tone as "Would you like some candy?" would be said. This is the extent. So, although since she has been there since the end of June they had said "Maia, no thank you" for various things... this was the first time (Wednesday) she was sent to the office and got a Beahvior Note. Remember this. Day 1 - Wednesday this week. The note said, "Maia chose to push a child and when the teacher said, "Maia, no thank you", Maia chose to bite her teachers arm. So, we invited her to come take a break in the office." What the @)*(&@(*#&%. You INVITED her to come take a BREAK in the office. I'm sorry, I'm 39 years old, can you speak to me like an adult and tell me she was sent to the office for a timeout?? Invited to take a break... please. Side note - what toddler would ENJOY a field trip to the office - to them, that's a field trip!! To this daycare, it is 'punishment'. (Which I MIGHT understand if they are 4 or 5... Maia is still ONE, mind you.)

Call it mother's intuition... I knew right then. We were in trouble.

Thursday, about 4:00 p.m.... I get yet another call/voice mail at work (my new job of 3 months, remember??) "Maia has chosen to shove a few of her friends today." (I witnessed this a couple of times when I picked her up, she is 22 pounds, in the 2% of her age... so the smallest in the class, and her 'pushing' might move their shoulders two inches from the starting point. I am not advocating violence, but a one year old pushing someones shoulder for 2 inches is not violence. She was "invited to take another break" in the office. When I called back after receiving this voice mail, I was told that after they had spoken to the Owner of the School (the same one that was their when Matthew started there at age two!!) it had been decided that "I was going to be invited to contact a Behaviour Coach". What????? She is ONE (ok, almost two) and this is the second SHOVE. WHAT????????? When I got to the school and asked about the coach, she told me it was free (good thing!!) and that they would help set up a plan for me to follow at home so that she could get better. I looked at her, getting a little pissy at this point, if the truth be told and I said, "I have to be honest here... I don't have these problems at home. Is this coach going to talk to you all too about what further steps could be taken HERE as a little extra boost to the No thank you routine?" She said that the coach would coincide the plan set up for home with school... Somehow, I doubt a coach they are employing is going to do things my way, rather than their way, which, have you noticed, isn't working??

Before I made it to the center on Thursday, after Wednesday and the voice mail about the Behaviour Coach on Thursday.... I KNEW where this was going - and I stopped at a different center on my way there. I LOVED IT and although the money is materially more - I was highly considering this option - but they didn't have room until she turns two - 30 days from then. I thought about this option all night, and just really tried to determine if the additional cost was a possibility. It is, but not an easy one!! It won't come easy....

This morning, I was sure I wanted to move her. If I could get two weeks from now, I would give two weeks notice, get my deposit back and make it through the next 30 days at this daycare center with no toddler abilities at all. (It worked for Matthew because he was the easiest kid I've ever met!! Say no once, done deal.)

Maia was in an orphanage, where it was survival of the fittest for 16 months, until she was 18 months old. Maia has a stubborn streak. Maia wants what she wants, and is used to pulling it out of the other kids hands around her to get it. If they take it from her, she is accustomed to taking it back. That's the way the orphanage was. The workers there couldn't and didn't mettle in every 'fight' the kids had. 16 months, this is what she knows. Maia has been in this center for 3 months, this particular class room for a grand total of 9 days. Maia doesn't have kids her age at home to share with - it's all hers. Matthew doesn't want her toys. (However she does want some of Matthew's.... his computer, his cell phone, etc...) Her interaction with other kids occurs at daycare. I've had to discipline Maia in ways I never had to with Matthew. Sometimes it takes more than I think it will to get her to feel 'remorse' for her actions. She's used to putting up a wall with her feelings, no one came to her aid before in the orphanage - so her emotions are harder to break than kids who have been in a loving, happy home for the same 18 months.

So, Behaviour Coach. Day 2. Yesterday.

Today, 3:50... do you see a pattern?? I get a call from daycare. My boss is with me at the time so I don't get it. I can hear about her pushing incident in a minute. SO, I call them back and "After speaking with the owner, we'd like to INVITE YOU to a Parent University class that the owner is holding on Wednesday night from 7-9 p.m. to go over behaviour techniques you can try with your children". (Side note - for the 11 years we have now been affiliated with this center (Matthew stopped going a year ago) these Parent University classes are marketed for parents at their wits end with unruly kids at home. How to help. Ideas on potty training. (I went to this ONE for Matthew years ago - it was a JOKE and their techniques would NEVER have worked for Matthew. Mind you when I potty trainned Matthew my way, he had NO ACCIDENTS. EVER. NOT ONE. and I was a working parent then too so it's not like I was home with him all day and sat him there for 8 hours or something to be able to say this. My way for Matthew, no accidents.) Anyway, I never went to any other classes because Matthew beat to his own drummer too, and was EASY. So, my thoughts on having to attend this (AND TALK TO A BEHAVIOUR COACH) is starting to really tick me off!! SHE'S FINE AT HOME PEOPLE. Do you think perhaps some kids need to know a little more who is in authority, to be give a stern look and a solid NO and perhaps even holding her hand if she is going to 'swat' or 'shove' someone, and look her in the eye to say no. That's not mean, that's not spanking, that's not yelling, that's authority and discipline. "Maia, no thank you." PUH-LEEZE.

Ok, so after being offended and wanting laugh that I am the one they are trying to change her (what have I done wrong?? She is 'acting up' in your class with your teachers - not with me. She knows better with me!! Anyway, so I'm already getting mad, and she adds on the phone this afternoon, "And also, if there is ANY more aggressive behaviours, Maia will be DISINVITED TO ATTEND the school for 30 days." She'll be suspended for 30 days, no notice. That day, that's it. So, I asked, "what behaviours?" Shoving, pushing, biting... OK, let me get this straight. To date, she has bitten ONCE. ONCE. and on the SECOND time, at age 1, she will be suspended. I understand this for older children, MAYBE, even then I would give more chances and stricter immediate consequences to the child. This would only hurt the parents. I'm a single mother of two. Next offense could happen in an hour, or 3 weeks from now - and with no notice she'll be gone. Ridiculous. She isn't violent. A teacher in the class told me yesterday (day 2) that they ALL push each other - and for some reason - she's the one getting in 'trouble'. Yes, a teacher told me this. Could I say something and get her in trouble for telling me that. Probably. Do I want her to stay at this center? LORD NO. I just want to make it though 30 days. At the end of today's 4 pm call, I asked how she was being today. They came back on and said "SHe's had a WONDERFUL day." Great.

On the way home, I stop on the school I visited yesterday and signed up. I pleaded to try to be admitted early if possible - no such luck, but Oct. 13 it is! Now, how many days can I get out of the old center before she 'sneezes' and is out on her butt??

I get to the old center at 6:10. Guess where Maia is - two hours after my phone call. Sitting up front at the office. That's it. She's been disinvited to attend the center. Can you speak like grown ups to grown ups please? Ok, you've suspended her for 30 days, I am giving my two week notice. (They aren't sure yet if I'll get my deposit back.... they've never seen the OTHER side of me, I'd better get EVERY PENNY. I'm stupid enough to pay more to get it back to make a point than to let them keep it.)

So, Tuesday. ALL IS GOOD. Friday, she's been disinvited to attend the center. (What a crock!! I don't even want her there now because I truly can not hear them talk without being disgusted or wanting to burst out laughing. Disinvited to attend.... UGH!!!)

I now have 30 days, 4 full weeks of no day care coverage to fill - beginning Monday. No real ideas yet. A day or two, yeah. 4 weeks - wow. that'll be different. Any volunteers?? :)

The new school is well aware of what I'm dealing with. They've already said, first of all, she's one/two. Second of all, she is still non-verbal and this often seen in kids who are still non-verbal. I asked very pointedly today if they've dealt with shoving and pushing, and maybe even biting and they said yes. No one has ever been kicked out, and if it ever came to that, it would be after MONTHS of trying different things (for different kids) etc.

I thanked her profusely for saying that no one had ever been KICKED OUT rather than saying that no one had never been disinvited to attend the school... and am POSITIVE they have the knowledge and skills needed to see that different children are different, there is no 100% formula for all kids, and certainly not one that doesn't show your authority over them, no matter how nice you try to be. I'm all for being nice and trying things the calm cool and collected way, I'm not in to violence, but I also am not in to kids walking over me or being disrespectful. But if they don't respond to NO,or redirection, or books on the subject, or timeouts, or spanking if necessary, THEN MAYBE you'd have no choice but to suspend them. (LIke I'm going to find day care for 30 days and then bring her back?? PLEASE!) The new school already has books on hitting and biting, etc. and one thing they do if it's a problem is SPEAK about the specific offense, and read the book, and lend them to parents to do at home too. This is one example. The old school. "Maia, no thank you." Yeah, that works really well - HA! In my family we use no thank you to say we don't care for any more carrots. Or as an answer to the question, "Do you want to play a game"? Answer: "No, thank you." If Maia hit her brother - She would start with a definite NO and then have to hug and kiss him if she repeated it would be a definite time out with many references to what she did wrong and stern looks.

Anyway - you all get it. I'm sure of it. I'm not asking them to spank her. I'm not asking them to SCREAM at her. I'm asking for common sense in dealing with a toddler (in this case from a different background, but I don't think this has much at all to do with this!!) and I'm asking for more than her SECOND BITE or third shove/offense to not result in a suspension. Yeah, she'll learn a LOT from that at this age. Brilliant philosophy.

Colds stink!! or do they??...

2008-09-08T20:42:00.006-04:00

well, i think maia has a cold. i thought it was allergies, but i don't think so anymore. today was the first time she was actually cranky since i've known her!! but the sad thing is, when i realized that she was cranky, i was overly sugary sweet (more than my usual sweet self!! ha ha) why did it take an illness to be SO nice?? anyway, despite her crankiness, she became the happiest little thing. i'm guessing the meds helped a little too.... but it does go to show that a little extra attention and a softer voice goes a long way too.

she was snuggly and is SO in to reading now that we had some lovely moments before bedtime. i was going to put her to bed early, but she fussed (VERY unlike her!!) when i made the move to put her to bed. so i caved in, and dragged out the goodnights tonight, for about 30-45 minutes!! we said our prayers, i sang (yes, I sang!) and then we read a couple of books. she had no problem going to bed after that and that was the BEST yet snuggling - awesome. she was more than ready for bed by the time i decided to put her there, but at that point i could have sat with her for a lot longer and snuggled!

i'm glad she's so interested in reading now. she liked flipping through books before, and turning pages, but now she actually SEES the pictures and points and says... something... LOL.

In fact, one of the books we're reading is from Kazakhstan and it is in Russian, so we just look at those pictures and make up our own story. It's her favorite book right now, and we have no idea what it's saying! oh well. it's still fun! :)

school continues to go well, so far! week two begins. let's hope it continues as well as it's started.

that's all for tonight, i have a kitchen to clean and then i need to watch some football, and then i need to get some sleep before that stinkin' 4:50 a.m. alarm!!

School has begun

2008-09-04T20:20:00.007-04:00

well, like it or not, the school year has started. so far, so good. no real stress yet. :) matthew has certainly enjoyed himself so far which is good. just a little homework thus far... i'm assuming more is to come... yuck.

football started tonight! yeah. gotta love football. gotta love it even more when the redskins look miserable! :) double yeah!!

maia is doing more and more. wow, she seems to be getting 'old' already! i guess knowing her 7 months would bring about a few changes... :) we have a single step in our living room, and she can now go down it easily, in the past 24 hours. before then, she was sitting to go down. then she learned to go to the edge and use the (middle) of the railing to help her get up. then recently, she'd sort of get a running start and kind of run off of the step and her momentum would take her feet away from it before she regained control. well, last night, she took a step, and that was that. just decided to try it and she did. she always goes down with her right leg first so far, but i'm guessing she'll branch out eventually and use her left leg too.

she LOVES raisins. two boxes for a snack are nothing for her. she would eat many more if i let her.

she LOVES cheese. any cheese!! she would eat it all day long if i let her. i don't. depending on other protein she's eaten, i don't serve her any. but since she eats so little other protein (atleast meat...) i often will give cheese if nothing else is cutting it. i do give her other proteins though too to make up for the lack of meat... eggs, cheese, yogurt, cheese, milk, cheese, fish, cheese, shrimp, cheese, lobster, cheese, cheese, milk, cheese, milk, cheese. :) did i tell you, she is just like matthew used to be! she'll gobble down fish, and shrimp and lobster, but turn her nose up at regular kid food. i hate to tell her, but i can't afford lobster every week. (my parents bought the special treat when we visited their house for matthew's birthday!) it was awesome! anyway, there are definitely things she likes, and definitely things she does NOT.

i'm tired after three mornings of the alarm going off at 4:50... i don't have to get up that early, but that gives me quiet time in the morning to myself that i don't get any other time. all summer, that went by the wayside, but i missed the quiet in the house and time to be alone, so with the start of the new year, i started it again. truthfully, i couldn't get up this morning because i stayed up too late watching the RNC, but otherwise, we haven't watched TV the other evenings so that we could wind down more easily. it really helps to be quiet and get more tired, faster, if you turn off the tv, and get off the computer!! of course, tonight i'm online at the moment and watching football, but i can tell i won't last too much longer!!

my parents will be coming up here on saturday. since football season has begun, they will be attending all the ravens home games... with matthew. therefore, at least 8 weekends this fall they will be visiting. on monday, however they are headed to my sisters house to watch her 4 children while they (my sister and her hubby) go out of the country for a week... Good timing, regan!! There are two hurricanes on the way and you are leaving mom and dad with your four kids on you live on the coast of SC! i can just imagine my parents having to evacuate with 4 kids.... it makes me laugh, actually, but not really.

in reality. they have a plan all figured out, so all should be ok. let's just hope, for everyones sake that these hurricanes turn out to sea or fizzle out with no need for evacuation! pray for safe weather and travels for everyone!!

ok, i need to go eat something for dinner. last night i realized i hadn't eaten at about 11 pm, so i had to grab a quick snack to get me through the night. crazy! i don't forget to eat breakfast, i don't forget to eat lunch, but i do often forget to eat dinner. ???? i don't know how or why!!!

Is it possible? Time flies!

2008-09-01T20:28:00.003-04:00

I can't believe the 3 day weekend is over! I can't believe SUMMER is over!! It flew by for us! Can you believe tomorrow marks the FIFTH MONTH since I arrived home with Maia for good?? FIVE MONTHS?? No wonder she is changing so much - she's growing up FAST. Good grief! I have now known her almost almost seven months. That's a LONG time, especially for little ones and their development. Amazing. I can't think about how much time has passed too much, or I get sad. But we're having such a wonderful time, I can' truly say these months have been amazing.

I'm sad summer is over, it's such a carefree time. However, I'm ready for more structure and routine for a while. I can't believe Matthew is starting 8th grade tomorrow. 8th grade!! How is that possible? He is all set with his supplies and schedule and gear for tomorrow. He did it almost all himself. He's growing up. It only took occassional prompting...

Today was a glorious day with the kids and getting a few things accomplished around the house. We did go to the pool and enjoyed that a lot!! I wish it were open a few more weekends. It was PACKED today.

Well, with so much to ponder and wonder about, I'm headed to bed. The coffee pot is set to brew at 5:15, so I'd best try to get some sleep, NOW. (I'll be lucky if I'm actually asleep by 11:00.)

I love long weekends

2008-08-31T20:37:00.005-04:00

Yeah, it's Sunday night but I'm not sad - I have one day left! :)

This weekend has been great so far. Yesterday, I had 'spring cleaning' on my mind - (which I always do again in the fall.) So, I woke up wanting to start in my kitchen. It had really gotten out of hand. So, I got up to clean it up and put away groceries that never made it to the pantry, and mail that never got sorted, etc... But then I saw them. The ANTS. These are a recurring problem in this house. I love my house, but the ants kill me. I had an any problem only once in my old house in 10 years... and once I got rid of them, that was it! Here, I get rid of them and they find another crack in the grout between tiles to come through. It is ANNOYING. The tiniest of crumbs can attract them - and by them, I mean LOTS OF THEM. So, I removed everything from my counters and sprayed every crack in the grout. Then I decided, I needed to go buy some caulk and cover up and of the openings where they could get in, at least around the counters.

Side note - someone who owned this house before me installed tiled counters and backsplash. I can tell they never sealed it because the grout is stained and you can also tell they weren't pros because a lot of the grout is falling apart. A kitchen remodel was pretty high priority when I bought this house, it is a hideous kitchen. However, the adoption changed my plans so the kitchen is on a very long hold. I have to deal with the ugly kitchen - the cupboards still hold my dishes afterall...

Anyway, we went and bought caulk and I caulked most of the kitchen, there are a few parts that I couldn't get to yet, but I will. I'm gonna do my part to get rid of these suckers. I do pay for a pest service, but I swear, the home remedy ant killer works better - and longer, than the stuff they spray.

It's also heading towards fall, and the next on the pest agenda... MICE. Gotta love living near the woods... I get all sorts of things in here. Ants, mice, SNAKES. Yes, I've had a snake in my house before. Gotta love it!

I got out the old Play Hut that Matthew used to play with for Maia. She LOVES it. She played it in all day - and at one point, took her Dora chair in there to make a comfy home! She put the chair in the corner. then she took part of the paper in there and read it! It was classic. I was too busy watching her to go get a camera, but maybe next time! It was great! So cute!!

Tomorrow we plan to go to the pool one last time for the season. It is supposed to be nice weather. Maybe I'll get some pictures there.

Any difference in a year??

2008-08-30T17:03:00.015-04:00

Here is Matthew on his 12th birthday....

Here is Matthew on his 13th birthday....

Wow - he's growing up!! I wonder what he'll look like at 14!! (I'm certainly not rushing him though... 13 is old enough for me!) I'm sure the next year will be full of even more changes for him.

He's still my little boy though. :)
Sorry Matthew... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATTHEW!!

2008-08-29T21:24:00.003-04:00

happy 13th birthday matthew!!

i can't believe you are a teenager!!

you've brought me 13 years of joy and i thank you for that!

here's to a wonderful start to your teenage years.

i love you!

The Invisible Woman

2008-08-27T21:02:00.001-04:00

I saw this on my friend Michelle's blog and loved it, so I wanted to share it as well.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU0aNAHXP0

Sunday night

2008-08-17T21:27:00.012-04:00

I don't know what it is exactly, but I am not a huge fan of Sunday nights. I guess it's because it's the end of the weekend and the start of a new work week, or school week, as the case has been over the years. Now, I understand if I didn't like my job why I wouldn't want to go to work, but I like my job, so is it just because I'd rather be at home in general? Is it because last Monday, although working, I was in Utah attending training, and not in the offfice? Or because next Monday I will be on vacation at the beach and not in the office? Or the Monday after that I Labor Day, so I will get a holiday and not be in the office?? Is it because I just don't want to work tomorrow because I don't have to work so many Mondays in a row? I have no idea... I just get so sad when the weekends are over!

I got home from Utah on Tuesday just fine. It was a simple, easy flight and I read the entire way home. I don't get to, or take the chance to, do that very often, so it was great. It was so great to see the kids that afternoon. Then, my mom has a hair appointment that night, so she left, and Matthew had Boy Scouts, so my dad took him to scouts, and I was home all alone with Maia. We had a wonderful evening playing outside and enjoying the cooler (80's) less humid weather. It was so much fun watching her play!

The thing that has occupied the majority of my time the past week, however, has been the Olympics. I swear, I go in stages weather I watch or not over the years, but this year, I can't turn them off!! I watched Michael Phelps make history last night, and Matthew enjoyed watching every race and watching him win!! Some handily, some not so easily! In any case, we watched history being made and it was awesome!! Now, this has meant that for over a week I have gotten very little sleep and this weekend, finally got to make some of that up!! Believe it or not, all THREE of us slept in until 10 a.m. on Saturday!! Then, today, we got up at 9:15 a.m. This morning, I think Maia had been up for a few minutes, at least, before I got up, but she didn't make a sound.

This morning, we went to a Civil War Reenactment weekend/day. We went to a WWII one in July and the Civil War this weekend. It's not my favorite thing, I'm not that good with history, nor do I care too much... But, Matthew loves it, and I actually learn a little from going as it is different from learning it out of a text book, which I am no good at regarding history. It was a pleasant day and we enjoyed it. Maia was great in her stroller the whole time! (A little less than 2 hours.)

I wanted to grill out tonight, but never did make it to the grocery store this weekend - so we ate a frozen pizza... it was fine - but I wanted some good, grilled, summer food! Maybe next weekend at the beach!

OK, I'm going to post a few pictures and go read some more and go to bed. Hope you all have a great week!!

View from room in Utah... Awesome!

Maia has started sleeping with her bottom up in the air - I think that is so cute!!

At night, Maia falls asleep with her foot hanging out of the crib. Sometimes like this, against the wall, and sometimes the other way, hanging out in the open!!

Maia sharing her bubbles with me...

Maia and Matthew. We had gone to a birthday party for one of Maia's friends and she was in a party dress... Of course, by the time I got home and took a picture, her hair was all in her face, her socks and shoes were gone, but I still wanted a picture!! :)

Maia enjoying her (self-fed) yogurt! Yes, she did actually get SOME in her mouth!! :)

182 days, 6 months, Half a year

2008-08-11T18:48:00.007-04:00

Is anyone as amazed as I am that I met precious Maia 182 days ago today? She was 16 months old then, and is 22 months old today. I am away in Utah on business, so I don't have any pictures to post today - but I am thinking about her and how the past six months have been nonetheless!! I have called home a few times and everyone seems to be doing well. I think Mom and Dad took the kids to the pool today - they love that!!

It is amazing how much life can change in 6 months, isn't it?? Of course, this can go for good things and bad, but the last six months of my life have been so great. Matthew and I were a very happy family just the two of us, but we are thrilled to have Maia as part of our family now to share our love with her and have her bring us joy as well! What a blessing!

I've been gone since Friday, so I am ready to get home and see the kids!! I enjoy some free time and a new city, but I miss the kids and can't wait to get home and see them both.

Six months - WOW! Cha-cha-cha-changes!!

Oh... kids!

2008-08-06T22:50:00.006-04:00

I have to share this story. It may be TMI, but when we're talking about a one year old, I don't think so... now if it were about an adult. then it would be!! Enjoy it for what it is... a cute story about Maia that made me laugh!

Tonight, Matthew was at his dad's house, so Maia and I were solo for the evening. We got home and were both hungry, so we ate dinner first. She ate like a champ! After the main meal, I gave her some yogurt (which she loves) and some couscous.... not the easiest thing to eat for a little one. Well, first picture that Maia often eats yogurt like Winnie the Pooh. While she holds a spoon in one of her hands, she dips her fingers, up to the second knuckle in to her yogurt. She then puts her hand/fingers in her mouth, as if they were one, up to atleast the second knuckle, or beyond. Anyway, add the couscous to this and MAN did we have a mess tonight. Usually, I don't like her to make a mess with her food, and I probably don't let her make enough mess on most occassions, but tonight, I thought it was cute! I also knew my plans of watering the flowers and letting her take a 'bath' in the water/hose outside. So, make a mess Maia! When it was time, we headed on the deck to water the droopy flowers.

After lifting her leg like a puppy dog to get it wet initially, she decided she was more brave tonight, so she walked full body in to the streaming water. Cute enough, but there's more! Then, although she resists water in her face come bath time, she was walking FACE FIRST in to the streaming water and standing there, smiling and loving it. When I would try to redirect the water off her face and say on her hair, she would raise her head higher so her face would get the stream again. But wait, there's MORE!

So, a while later, the flowers were watered and it was getting late... especially since she took a full 30 minute nap tonight... 3o minutes!! She was getting tired... SO, I got the shampoo and a towel and did indeed give her her 'shower' on the deck. I took off the onesie and diaper she had been wearing up until this point, and started to spray her chest again so the water would stream down over the lower parts of her body... For the first time ever, she took hold and control of the hose/nozzle and directed the water flow to her newly exposed diaper area, and just smiled and laughed!! It was like a Jacuzzi for little kids! She was just holding the hose and laughing her little head off - getting herself quite clean! LOL.

So, I decided to have her turn around so I could get some water on her backside as well. Well, at first, she ran away as I was spraying her back... Then she realized what I was doing, and like a Mack truck beeping as it's in reverse, she backed up with her heiney slightly leading the way - putting it right in the line of the streaming water.... I just couldn't stop laughing after that. I was trying to control myself though, so I covered my mouth with her towel and she new EXACTLY what I was doing. She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Needless to say, this was the easiest 'bath' I've ever given her. I've decided two things.

1. Maybe she should skip straight to showers.

2. Maybe I need to get a Jacuzzi?

Either way, I think she's be perfectly happy during bathtime going forward. LOL. One can hope! Maybe next time we have an outside shower, Matthew will be home and we can actually get some video of this funny stuff. I'll never forget this though - I'm still smiling!

What a lovely day!

2008-08-03T20:15:00.005-04:00

It was just a 'normal' weekend - but what a nice day today was!

First of all, I have to say, I had a bad Saturday - I waited what seemed like forever for Matthew to come home and then when I have both kids home with me, I have to go and get in a bad mood. Why do I squander days off from work and time with my kids in a bad mood? How stupid!! No one did anything wrong, and I don't really know what the problem was, but as the mood continued, I made it worse by feeling guilty. What a dumb day and a waste of a Saturday with my kids! I hate it when I'm like that and really WANTED to stop the MOOD from invading, but it just wasn't budging most of the day. Bah - humbug.

Now, we still did some things - got some school supplies and then went to Target and just looked around a bit. Then it was home for Maia's nap, but after her nap, we went to a local outdoor market. We were hoping she could run through the fountain/sprinkler, but they were having an outdoor concert, so the fountains weren't on. We ate some dinner and then walked over to a store we like. I bought some bird food that the squirrels won't eat! Then we could tell it might rain - it was looking rather ominous - but Matthew really wanted to go to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream. So we walked back over to the other side of the square and stood in line for some delicious ice cream. We were expecting to eat outside, but NO - it started to POUR and was really lightening a lot!! So, we were stuck inside, a bit after the ice cream was gone even. Then we walked back to the car and went home. It was about 8 pm now. This should tell you a little about my day - I FORGOT to wear SHOES when we went to the market. How you ask, I don't know!! But I did. It is an outdoor thing though and for the most part I didn't feel too bad. I will say though, that Matthew shared his VT flipflops with me because I thought it was more appropriate for a child to be barefoot than a grown woman (when her children were both wearing shoes!!) He graciously shared with me! :)

The exciting news yesterday was the Matthew became a big brother, AGAIN. His dad had another baby yesterday, this time a little girl. Matthew got to meet her today and spent some time with his dad and his brother, Evan, too. His new sister is Paige. Here he is meeting her when she was just about 24 hours old.

He really enjoyed meeting her and will go spend a couple days this week with all of them when they get home. Maybe Wednesday and Thursday.

Maia and I had a nice day today too - we ran more errands in the morning and came home for lunch. Then she had her nap and I caught up on some much overdue 'things'. (Embarrassingly, some very belated thank yous... for one.) It was a GORGEOUS day out, I even have a few windows open. It wasn't humid and there was a lovely breeze all day long. It will be really hot again this week, so I enjoyed this respit while I could. There was a hint of fall in the air this morning, and with football on the TV at this moment.... I'd say we are getting close!! School starts in one month for us - so we know we're getting closer!! First, we have to have a teenage birthday party at the end of August! Wow.... I can't talk about that yet!

I'm glad the weekend ended with the better of the two days... I just wish I had enjoyed Saturday more than I did. Next weekend I'll be in Utah (for work) and I think, in a way, that made me sad too, knowing that I wanted this weekend to be perfect (whatever that means!) since Matthew wasn't here last weekend, and he'll be gone some this week, and I'll be gone next weekend - it's a summer of transitions - he's getting a lot older and active, and I try to really enjoy the times I do have and I think I just put too much pressure to make it the perfect day, or whatever, and then I feel bad when it's just a normal day. Anyway, I don't know if this makes sense or not, but I wish I had had two Sundays, and I could forget about Saturday. Moving on....

The laundry is done and the new week is beginning. My parents will arrive Friday to watch the kids for me while I go to Utah. I'll be home Tuesday. I am excited to see those gorgeous mountains in Utah, but as I said, will be sad to leave the kids. I hope the trip is a good one, and an easy flight!

Tonight is the finale of Design Star - can't wait!! Gotta get ready for it - so I'll talk to you all later! :) Have a great week!

Another Word Game!

2008-07-31T21:45:00.004-04:00

Yup - another word game. My friend Kim did this on her blog and so I just have to try hers as well.... This has a few harder categories than the one I did earlier, so let's see what I come up with!!

Ok- I played along. Hope you did too! Please leave me a comment if you play along so I can enjoy your favorites too!

My Favorites Are...........................

Sport: Football

Game: Pictionary (its hilarious when people can't draw and get mad-me included!) (This was Kim's answer, but it fits me too, so I'll copy this one!!)

Color: Orange

Movie: Return to Me

Broadway play I've seen: I haven't seen any!

Broadway musical I've seen: I haven't seen any!

Song: It depends on the day! But these days, the one I posted earlier on my blog called WAITING is my favorite!

American city I've visited: New York City

Foreign city I've visited: Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, but only for obvious reasons!

Book: Typically, it's whatever I am currently reading - right now I'm reading Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series - it's light and funny and easy to read.

Children's book: It's the Bear!

Classic TV show: I Love Lucy or The Brady Bunch

Recent TV show: Design Star on HGTV, or Designed to Sell, or House Hunters

Actor: Harrison Ford, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt

Actress: Julia Roberts,

Perfume: Beautiful by Estee Lauder and/or Dazzling Silver by Estee Lauder too, I think...

Food: Totally depends on the day!

Dessert: If I have to choose just one - ice cream - Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip is my favorite

Chain restaurant: Cheesecake Factory, Applebees, Sakura

Local restaurant: in Va. Beach - Rudee's on the Inlet

Car: my 2002 Camry - it's paid off!!

Condiment: ketchup

Kitchen appliance: microwave or coffee pot!

Home appliance: Curling Iron

Beauty product: Paul Mitchell Hair Spray

Piece of clothing: my new jeans

HGTV show: Design Star, or Designed to Sell, or House Hunters or House Hunters International

Food Network show: I really don't watch any, but saw Rachael Ray when I was in Rhode Island last month, and that was interesting.

Author: James Patterson, Sophie Kinsella, Elizabeth George, Ellie Lofaro, Laura Jensen Walker,

Male songwriter: I don't know who writes them, I only (might) know who sings them!

Female songwriter: Same as above!!

Holiday: Christmas, but Thanksgiving is becoming a close second

Ballet I've seen: Don't think I've seen any.... I guess I'm not very cultured!

Disney character: Toy Story crew

Flower: Roses, Tulips

Alcoholic drink: Margaritas were my favorite when I used to drink in my younger years! LOL

Non-alcoholic drink: milk, diet Dr. Pepper, diet Coke, Propel Fitness water, Coffee (starbucks lattes!)

Magazine: Real Simple or Hallmark Magazine

Animated movie: Toy Story (wow Kim, we have lots of similarities!) my other one would be Shrek

Television mini series: Flambards

Season: As I get older... Spring and Fall are my favorites - around DC, fall is better I think. I used to like summer best, but it's just too darn hot these days and I can't lounge around at the pool and beach all summer like i used too!

Male vocalist: Josh Groban

Female vocalist: not sure... I listen to more 'groups' and can't think of any now!

Day of the week: Saturday, I guess

Household chore: Laundry

Ice-cream: Breyers Mint Chocolate Chip

Candy: M and M's

Artist: my kids

Quotation: "Of all the Charlie Brown's in the world, you're the Charlie Browniest"

Second post - same day!

2008-07-25T21:57:00.005-04:00

You Can Only Type One Word
It's not as easy as you might think. It's really hard to only use one-word answers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Where is your cell phone? table
2. Your significant other? God
3. Your hair? which half...?
4. Your mother? giving
5. Your father? caring
6. Your favorite thing? laughing
7. Your dream last night? can't recall
8. Your favorite drink? milk
9. Your dream/goal? many
10. The room you're in? mysittingroom
11. Your ex? remarried
12. Your fear? illnesses
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? with my children
14. Where were you last night? home
15. What you're not? sad
16. Muffins? sure!
17. One of your wish list items? remodeling
18. Where you grew up? vienna,va
19. The last thing you did? blogged
20. What are you wearing? shorts/tshirt
21. Your TV? on
22. Your pets? don'texist
23. Your computer? laptop
24. Your life? awesome!
25. Your mood? happy!
26. Missing someone? yes!
27. Your car? camry
28. Something you're not wearing? tiara
29 Favorite Store? target
30. Your summer? HOT
31. Like someone? yes
32. Your favorite color? orange
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? July 13
35. Who will/would re-post this? no idea

OK, I cheated a couple of times - but how do you say I'm in the sitting room without saying in the sitting room? i can't just say, sitting. :)

A real conversation!!

2008-07-25T20:57:00.007-04:00

well, i wasn't expecting this so soon, but maia totally communicated with me tonight - like a real conversation.

first, we were in the driveway getting home from work chatting with my neighbor. i was wearing my sunglasses and when maia got antsy, i picked her up (so i could talk longer, of course!!) as i held her, she stared at my (sun)glasses... i could see her out of the corner of my eye as i continued to talk and she watched me. finally, i had to shift her weight a little and i looked straight at her... she tilted her head a little as she looked at me and said, "gasses". i said, yes, they are glasses. we did this about 10 times, then i slid them down a little, and batted my eyes at her and said "eyes" and then put my sunglasses back on. then she studied harder and harder and said "ice", and i said "yes, those are my eyes". one funny part was, she knows i don't let her touch my glasses - it's already a crying shame what i spend on these things, no one best touch them! she has learned that (fairly well) already. so she kept looking hard and not touching. then she hesitantly was using her finger and wanted 'a little touch'. i said, 'no touch' and she pulled her hand away and said "gasses". aw, so cute!!

then she ate dinner and we had a movie night - she watched some winnie the pooh. (i'm so happy i found these on dvd this week - i've been watching matthew's old videos and was ready to find the CLASSIC Pooh's on dvd... All 3 I wanted on one dvd, awesome!) anyway, i digress. after the movie, it was bedtime. she only took a one hour nap and she was falling asleep during dinner in her high chair... so, as i picked her up and said it was time to get ready for bed... she said (You ready for this?!?!) "Bath". I said, "What??" She said "Bath". well, i thought i was making it up in my head, so i put her down and said "show me what you want." so she took my hand and led me to her bathroom and hit the door with her hand (we keep it closed because otherwise she's be in the toilet playing 24/7) and when she hit the door she said "Bath". so, by now i figure i'm right, and i said, "you want to take a bath?" and she smiled SO BIG and got SO EXCITED. i was tired and being lazy and hadn't wanted to give her a bath, but how could i resist THAT?? our first conversation/communication... AWESOME!!

so, she took her bath - and at the end, i said, "ok, all done". she stood up and signed "milk". MAN, does she know what she wants?? so, we got her dried off and in her jammies and had her night-night milk. What a cool night! she told me exactly what she wanted, and i totally understood! so neat!! so tonight, i'd say she used 3 more words, in the right context, and i understood them. eyes, glasses and bath. she has said eyes before, but only once or twice and i wasn't convinced she knew what she was talking about. this time i am sure!!

such a sweet night. i just love when children are learning to talk!! it's so cool.

OH! the other adorable thing (well, not if you had to listen, but...) was she was making all sorts of loud noise when i was getting her in her jammies.... ok, she was yelling (just to hear herself i think).... so i started doing it too... we were both 'screaming' and she thought it was hysterical. so, we did this five or six times and then i was teaching her about LOUD and quiet. She is learning those in a book too... anyway, we've got the LOUD part down just fine, and when i said quiet.... she put her finger to her lips and said, "sshhhhh". oh, melts my heart. so cute.

does anyone have thoughts about journaling?? well, i can't say i'm great at it, in fact this blog is about as close as i get... so hopefully it is here forever... but if ever you are journaling or having thoughts about how hard some things are, or how bad the kids are being one day, be sure you write down the good days, and these wonderful special moments too, because of course, every day with your family and children are good days... but these special ones with special memories make all the normal, every day stuff SO worth it! and to think, this morning i was 'sad' because i had a migraine, and now, the day is ending with such a smile on my face and special memories with maia! yeah!

i spoke with matthew today - he went deep sea fishing with my dad. they had a great day! they caught 30 fish (kept 4) and had such fun! matthew said he cleaned the fish and they cooked it for dinner. he said the fish stunk really bad! what he meant was... the insides, yuck!! i'll need to talk to mom to see how much CLEANING he really did... i'm sure she'll have another story... LOL. he had a good time though - last year they went on the same boat and caught nothing, so today was a real treat!

yesterday was a BIG DAY for my niece marie... she lost her first tooth!!!! she has been waiting and waiting for this tooth to come out - she was SOOOOO excited! here she is:

ok, now to really top things off... i'm going to watch one of my favorite episodes of friends! love that show! i finished the book i was reading last night and haven't started a new one yet, so it'll be a tube night... haven't done that in a long time.

A week in July

2008-07-23T19:08:00.009-04:00

I'm not sure there is anything of major importance to dicsuss, but I'll see what I come up with... I started feeling better the middle of last week - that was great. You know when you are sick and you kinda forget what it's like to feel normal? Or to swallow without grimacing? It was nice when that pain subsided.

My parents arrived on Saturday for a visit. My brother visited on Sunday as well. My mom made 'my request' for a birthday dinner - DELISH! And for dessert, it was so cute! She got little ice cream sandwich type things, (called Skinny Cow's - what a name, makes you really feel good about yourself... LOL.) Anyway, she got three different flavors and arranged them like a pyramid. A great option from a birthday cake that we would never finish up. I love ice cream, so these were perfect. We even all test tasted multiple flavors... as if we didn't know what mint, or chocolate might taste like! LOL. It was fun.

It was rather brutally hot this weekend - not even fun for me. Too hot with too much humidity to go outside and enjoy it whatsoever. Finally, the temps have changed a little today and it's more comfortable now. Of course, we are about to get a HUGE thunderstorm... so I hope I don't lose my power (Again!!) and lose this post... :)

Maia is doing SO WELL. She is really starting to talk and if not really talking, then mimic. This may sound terrible, but I'll tell you anyway (as we say it in love and as a joke... not meanly!!) She tripped the other day and I said, "Klutz!" She mimicked me, intonation and all, and said, "Kutz!" Too cute. (I say that to take her mind OFF the falling... I'm really not being cruel.) :) She says diaper, juice, eyes, bye bye, night night (sort of), she's even saying something for Maia now. It's just so cute!! I love hearing little ones talk - one of my favorite things when they start talking!! She's doing very well in day care. I must say, I don't love her classroom - the teachers are too young and uninvolved, and more in to 'them', but she will only be in this class another month and then she transitions to the 2 year old room - so hopefully that will have a better set of teachers like I was accustomed to with Matthew - those that spoke to the parents and talked about the kids when you got there... I want to know what she really did today - not "She was fine". Anyway - if she were going to be in there longer, I would have to say something, but.... for now, I'll just vent here!

Question for you all.... Does anyone have an iPhone? Does anyone have Verizon's version of the iPhone? (I think it's called the LG Dare.) I would like an iPhone, but have Verizon and would just as soon stick with Verizon, but am not sure I'd like that phone enough to get it. Anyone?? Heard anything about these?

Matthew is with my parents this week. I am not only missing him, but jealous. I wish I were at the beach too!! I'll go for 4 days at the end of August... so at least I have one trip to look forward to this summer! I hope Matthew has a blast. They plan to fish, and go to the aquarium, and the Outer Banks for a day, and just hang out. Oh, so jealous.

Maia likes to escape. She was in her high chair and since she couldn't get out of her chair... we think she was trying to get out of her shirt... take a look:

I call her Houdini....

I also call her a monkey... she climbs on anything and everything. She's pretty good at it too!

There is a whole series of these, but.... I'll spare you for now... :)

If anyone knows anything, good or bad about the phones... let me know! Thanks!