3, 5!

Marea recognizes numbers.  She sees them on her kitchen set, and in other various places.  She also understands that when there is more than one of something, that you can count them, like when she wakes up with a bed full of paci's, or sees a bowl full of strawberries.  When she see numbers, or when she wants to count, she happily exclaims, '3, 5'!  

Now I have tried and tried over and over again to get her to understand about 1 and 2.  But she's not having it.  In her world, 3 and 5 are good enough for now.  I promise she won't go to kindergarten only knowing 3 and 5.  

It's pretty cute, sometimes I will start and say, '1, 2,' and then she will happily yell out '3, 5!'.  Hey, we're a team, right?  

Speaking of numbers...7 is such a beautiful number.  Marea has been letting us sleep till about 7 for a few days now.  Funny thing is, I never would of appreciated 7 without being subjected to 5 for so long.  I am going to relish in this grace period before 2 arrives.  

Lots of Big Changes

It's been a busy few months.  We finally have a new house, and we had three back to back colds and we have a NEW BABY ON THE WAY.   Who has time to write with all the boxes to go through, runny noses,  4 canine teeth all at once, major loss of sleep, and the nausea to keep at bay?  Things are settling down a bit, although i'm starting to think my fantasy of a time when we'll just be 'coasting along' will never be a reality.  It seems like life just keeps giving us more and more these days.  Thankfully it's almost always good things.  I think the best thing lately has been a giant backyard, lots of warm sunshine, and some super garage sale finds which has turned our yard into the perfect little playground for the little miss.  She loves it out there, and I do too.  We already started on our garden.  This weekend we planted some seeds, which Marea helped with of course.  Gary and I did the tomatoes and zucchini, and Marea planted all the sunflowers by herself.  Just knowing that she picked up the seeds and pushed them into the dirt makes me that much more excited to watch them grow.  

I think Marea is having a growth spurt.  Is she growing out of her clothes? Not really....but she's been so darn clumsy lately!  It has to be that she's unsteady with her body right now.  She trips and falls and wobbles and crashes.  She's got a black eye, two bruises on her forehead and a skinned knee to prove it.  The fingernail that she's losing is not from the growth spurt though.  That's from a sailboat injury.  She's taking all of it like such a champ.  It hasn't slowed her down one bit.  Maybe that's the reason for all the injuries.  Nothing can slow her down, and she's getting more and more able and willing every day.  She really seems to be loving life and all her new found independence.  And she's putting 4 word sentences together!  Like, "look, daddy, wow poop!" 

Wow

This is not a post about something that Marea did that makes me go 'wow'; or about how Marea will exclaim 'wow', or anything related to the traditional meaning of 'wow'.

This is 'Wow':

She doesn't call him that because the things he does makes her say 'wow'. It's just his name, because that's the noise he makes. Sometimes she'll chase him around the house saying, 'woooooow' or 'woooowowooow'. It's just what she calls the kitty. It's hilarious.

When we drive home in the car, we talk about who will be at home. She says, 'gwa-wa'; 'pa-pa'; daddy, and wow. (and sometimes melmo)

did christmas just happen?

Holiday faves:
-driving around with mom and dad to check out all the lighted up houses.
-baking cookies with grandma carole and great grandma dorothy.
-the over the top decorations at the frost grandparents house-especially the singing snowman and 'rocking around the christmas tree' tree.
-frosty the snowman. i bought her a book about with the frosty song, and then a frosty ornament, and frosty soon became a hit.
-favorite gifts: the baby doll from fran and debbie, and the stroller and bottles from auntie laura and family, were definitely the biggest hits. other favorites are the giant elmo ('hi, melmo!) and the tricycle.

the best part about christmas, now, and hopefully always, was that she was more into the decorations and the seasonal stuff than the gifts. i really hope that those feelings never change. i guess that's another challenge for gary and i as parents. i hope that our family can develop some strong and lasting family traditions that will always make the holidays more than just christmas.

She's Ready for Mt. Everest

Marea's new thing is climbing. She's getting really good at climbing up on chairs and the couch but she enjoys balancing between the barstools and hanging on the coffee table more. It makes me crazy because i'm so scared she's going to fall but I know she needs to climb! The big question is...when will she master the final frontier...making it out of the crib?




The biggest challenge I am facing right now is keeping her busy. She is so busy. And this means that I am busy. Busy trying to keep her busy. If she's interested in something, her attention span is about 20 minutes. If not, it's about 3 seconds. I can see her interests and abilities changing a lot right now. She's definitely able to DO a lot more. This is making it really fun for me to buy stuff for her because I love watching her explore things. Thank goodness Christmas is coming, i'm looking forward to having new toys for her and I to play with!



Sleep has been improving. We rarely get woken up at night and naps are improving. Now if I could just get her to sleep in until at least 6, every day, i'd be a super happy camper. I just struggle with the early wake up, even though it's Gary who usually gets up with her!

Friends

It is so wonderful to see Marea and Jackie becoming such great friends! At the beginning of summer, when we first moved, Jackie wasn't too interested in playing with Marea. But over the course of the past few months, as Marea has grown up a bit, and become more interested in Jackie, the two of them have starting developing a relationship that is sure to become great friendship.


Marea can say Jackie's name, and will often talk about her. When we pull into their neighborhood, or up to grandma and grandpa's house, Marea knows and starts chattering about Jackie. If I mention that we are going to go see Jackie, she will often run for the front door and start pounding on it, like...arn't we going right now, mom?


"C'mon, Baby 'Rea!" That is the adorable way Jackie will entice Marea into playing one of her games. Thankfully, Jackie is mostly interested in running around with Marea, playing some sort of chase game. Marea certainly isn't interested in sitting down and focusing on anything right now. She wants to run around! They will run around, and poke at each other or bump into each other and squeal or let out a dual scream. It's very cute.


In a very short time, Emily will be part of the mix too! Now that is going to be fun...the three of them, this summer, at the beach.

Other fun stuff:
MMMMMMmmmmm-ma! Marea's version of a kiss. The cutest and sweetest kiss! Besides when she blows a kiss. How adorable is that?

Favorite song: She loves to sing "happy and ya know no-no-no-no-it". But she also loves dancing to her new cd from auntie sam. And when listening to her music in the car, she will often declare "dance!" and then gary and i must start groovin!

Could we possibly be close to potty training? For the past few days, Marea has been announcing her poops. Sometimes its before and sometimes it's after, but she definitely is understanding what is going on. It didnt' take long at all her to figure it out. Now Gary and I must get diligent about running her up to the potty! Stay tuned on this one!

Words, Words, and more Words

I can't believe how many words Marea has. Her vocabulary is exploding right now. She will often try to repeat just about anything I say. Pretty soon my little baby will be having a conversation with me. I'm going to miss all the baby babble.

What she doesn't have words for, she communicates in other hilarious ways. Such as, dragging her high chair across the room and running over to the refrigerator, pounding on it, stomping her foot and screeching....hmmm....think she's hungry?

The other monster we've created is her love for 'melmo'. So I let her watch Sesame Street in the mornings....what else am I supposed to do at 5:30 am when I can't even see yet? I let Elmo do the work! I can't believe it but I actually think Elmo is pretty cute. And Marea adores him too. She can spot that little red monster anywhere. It's suprising how much junk is out there in the world with Elmo on it. Right at her eye level. The cutest thing she does is sing the theme song. I hope I can get that on video.