Love Languages

Marea's most important love language is that of gifts. And i'm not saying that she knows she feels loved when we give her gifts-she's the lover, giving the gift. The sweet girl will gather up some of her stuff, when she knows someone is coming over, or she is going over to the house of someone she cares about, to give to the cherished person. Mostly lately it's been seashells; some for Grethe when we had them over for dinner, and some for Grandma Carole when she was having a sleepover (She also included a quarter for Grandma Carole). She's gathered things for Grandma Susan, Jackie, Emily.....seems to be when she's excited about seeing someone or something coming up. She's got a whole 'treasure box' now, filled with seashells, rocks, old jewelry, marbles, beads, etc., and these are most often her gifts to others. She's not especially social or friendly in group situations, but the girl simply ADORES the few that she has chosen as part of her tribe. Another thing Marea loves doing lately is going through Grandma Susan's junk. (Not the junk food...although calling her the "junk lady" regarding the junk food seriously cracks us up!) Marea loves looking at all the stuff I have deemed to be 'crap' that my mom has collected over the years. She thinks it is all so beautiful. After a recent sleepover, she returned home with a flowery cross-stitch circle thingie, an wierd looking old doll, a metal bun holder with pearls, and old seashells that I had collected long ago in Catalina. Today they went through all of her old junk jewelry and beads. Marea was in heaven. And Grandma was too; they spent a few hours just looking through everything. Grandma Susan said she is now going to give Marea all her junk in her will. Sounds good to me, as long as I don't have to go through all of it!

Evie has somehow managed to learn most of her colors. I have no idea how this happened as I was quite discouraged after how long and hard it was to teach them to Marea. Of course, Marea was mature in other ways that Evie isn't yet. Marea was very socially mature and could easily put puzzles together. Evie can't figure out a puzzle at all. But she can count a little and knows the colors. I love how everything just happens when it happens. Evie also has quite the musical ability. Ever since Marea took the Music Together class at Hilltop, we've been listening to that CD a lot in the car. Evie can make all the funny sounds at the right times, and has the melody and tune down. It's pretty amazing. I used to despise those songs, but seeing how can I when she's so joyful and happy when she's singing them? She knows the song after just a few notes, and will belt out the chorus. CAW!!!!!

July 2010 updates

So much to do, so little time. These girls keep me oh so busy in such a great way.

So we've been up to a lot. There have been sleepovers...Marea, Evie, Jackie and Emily all had their first sleepover at Grandma Susan's, complete with night swimming and drumsticks at 9:30 p.m. And Marea had a nice, long 24 hour stay with Grandma Carole and Grandpa Bill at their new house. And we had a sleepover here, our first one having Jackie and Emily over for the night. It went well, up to the point that it was 10 p.m. and Marea and Emily were STILL getting up, asking for water. But I suppose that was easy, compared to the sleepovers to come. I like sleepovers. I remember loving them as a kid and Marea loves them too. She's always talking about them, and who she would invite. Harper is often on the list, and Jackie and Emily are always on the list. She loves having people over. For such a quiet, 'shy' girl, she's surprisingly social. Evie is right there now, running and screaming with the girls.

We also had our first outing to the Aquarium with all the girls. Thankfully I had Lauren to help me. Taking all four of them was a lot of work. They like to scatter in different directions. It was hard to keep track of all of them. But we still had fun. Marea likes feeding the birds now. Evie would also like to feed them, but she's a bit too anxious and they just bite her.

We've had several birthday parties, Lauren's annual going back to college party, and lots of days hanging with our 'baby' friends. Summer is busy as usual and going well. We love taking the wagon for a walk, hanging in the garden, playing in the pool, we went to the fair (first ferris wheel ride for Marea! ), summer concerts in the park (and Evie laying on the dance floor), sun dresses all day every day with several changes, babysitting the turtles, baking from the princess and the frog cookbook, breakfast at the yacht club, watermelon eating parties...we keep busy and we have fun. We haven't done too many beach days since it's been the 'bummer summer', but yesterday we spontaneously drove down there for a sea shell gathering morning. Marea loves that kind of stuff. She is perfectly happy just strolling down the beach, checking out all the different shells. And when we got home, we washed them all off in the back yard and then she picked out the ones she wanted to share with her cousins. She's always doing that...choosing things she wants to give to others. She's one generous girl. She's been so wonderful lately.

Evie is talking SO much. She can put 4 word sentences together. Like the other night, when she was up with her fever, and I took her in Marea's bed to sleep with me, and she said, excitedly, "I sleep yea-ya's room!". It was cute, unfortunately it was at about 3 a.m. Her second birthday is creeping up on us, and I am not happy about that. She would prefer to be a big girl, though. She gets mad about sitting in her car seat or high chair, and demands to sit in "yea-ya's' seat. However, I am enjoying her exactly how she is right now. Running, jumping, playing with her sister...just an all around happy all the time kind of girl that is still a baby, for now. And if something goes wrong, 5 minutes on my lap, with her thumb in her mouth, picking at my fingernails, can fix anything.