End of Summer Happenings

The calendar tells me it's the end of summer.  But as always, summer weather is here for a while longer.  This year, though, will be different because Marea is starting school soon, and the start of school always coincides with the 'end of summer'.  This is weird for me. It feels like just yesterday, I was in school, enjoying summer vacations.  And now, my baby girl will be starting school and the school year calendar will a big part of our life.  I don't want to think about this anymore!

So here's what's going on around here....

Marea is obsessed with Peter Pan.  When I start singing "I can fly", she takes off in flight wherever we are.  She's very interested in getting big, and will often say 'because i'm getting bigger' or 'when i'm big'.  She loves to crack the eggs when we cook together.  And she loves to do projects, meaning, art projects such as painting or glueing.  I've got lots of fun stuff like that and she really digs in, which is super fun for me because I love to do that stuff with her.  Recently we made a book together.  We've also painted paper surfboards.  I've got to work on teaching her to write letters.  She is really interested in that.  I think we'll start a letter a day thing, where i'll try to teach her one letter every day.  

Evie is crazy as ever.  She loves to climb up on chairs now and jump as if to say, 'look at me!! i'm doing something dangerous!'  and she has no fear.  She will often do a downward facing dog position too, looking between her legs.  She thinks this is hilarious, and it looks pretty funny.  She loves eating the tomatoes off our plants, or the ones that have fallen into the dirt, and she often becomes a filthy mess with tomato juice running all over her face and dirt all over.  She's got her two bottom teeth and the top four are right there, just not poking through yet.  She's been sleeping pretty well....she usually gets up once, around 4 a.m., to nurse, then sleeps till 6:30.  Hopefully the all nighters are coming soon!

Caw!

Evie is our tropical bird.  Her favorite expression seems to be CAW!  Which means ball, but also many other things.  She points at things and says caw.  Things in books, or things she sees on the counter.  Caw, Caw, Caw!

Marea is doing great in the pool.  She loves to jump in with only a swim ring on.  If there were several more months of summer left, she would be swimming soon.  But I don't think it will happen this year.  Swimming lessons this spring I guess.  We're going to miss the long days at grandma's house of playtime and pooltime.  I think it's one of Marea's favorite things about summer.  

FLY BY'S!

I can't believe I haven't written about the FLY BY yet.  I've been meaning to get it on video too.  It's Marea's after shower thing.  Daddy wraps her all up in a towel and then zooms her around the house, through the air.  It's a fly by, of course!  She loves it.  It's part of the routine!  I imagine Gary will be doing this for years to come (until he can't lift her anymore) and then Evie will follow.

The other thing I'm loving about Marea right now is her obsession with the dirt pile in the back yard.  Formerly a giant hole, now filled with dirt, in the corner.  We have this big, beautiful yard with a nice lawn and tons of toys.  What does she like to do?  Play in the dirt area.  Her imagination goes nuts over there.  She usually gets really involved in it when i'm inside working in the kitchen, so I get to watch thru the window.  I can't hear what she's saying but she's definitely playing an elaborate game.  Sometimes it involves roly polys, her new fave bug.  It's such messy play, she gets so dirty.  But she loves it.

Evie is a pizza crust maniac.   Give the kid a hunk of pizza crust and she's happy for hours.  Well, it's probably like this with all food I guess but it sure takes her a long time to suck away at a pizza crust.  It eventually ends up a sticky dough ball mess that I have to take away, which of course prompts lots of tears.  She does not want her crust taken away! 

She NEVER stops moving

Evie has an amazing amount of energy.  She never stops moving unless she's in her high chair eating.  And trust me, we trap here there often and feed her, just to keep her still for a bit.  She walks this house ALL DAY LONG.  Round and round and round.  Wandering.  Picking things up, waving them around, giving them a taste, tossing them on the floor and then it's on to the next thing.  Every day, all day.  It's crazy.  She prefers to be in whatever room i'm in, especially if it's the kitchen, because she wouldn't want to miss out on a scrap of food.  She will come over and tug on my pants (to the point of pulling them down once!) and let out her screams.  Is all of this cute?  Kind of.  Right now it's cute, as i'm talking about it.  But sometimes it drives me nuts!  What is cute is when she brings me books to read to her (Little Bee, Twinkle Twinkle, Bean), or her kitty, or her babies, to kiss.  And she makes that adorable nose when she brings something over....tssss. 

Marea just finished her first summer camp program at Hilltop.  A raging success.  She did GREAT, as I knew she would.  Tomorrow we're having all her friends over for a backyard kiddie pool playdate.  I think it's going to be super fun.  She made her first hopscotch in the backyard.  It was so cute, just a bunch of circles lined up.  One for me, one for her, and a tiny one for evie.  She's getting better at drawing.  She's putting thought into it and controlling the crayons.  She loves to draw Suns.  Perfect.  Me too.

Sumertime continues

We've been spending lots of days at the pool.  Today Marea, on her very own, got out of the pool and jumped in by herself...with her floaties and swim ring on.   She got so happy and excited with herself!  Then we suggested that she try it without the ring, that her floaties would hold her up...and she got out and stood there, then chickened out.  But then, without any encouragement or pushing from us, she just did it.  She went under a bit, but she was fine.  And she was SOOOOOO proud of herself.   It was adorable.  I love watching her conquor fears.  I remember when she was scared of the carousel, and would cry every time I took her on it.  And then one day, she was perfectly fine.  It was such a simple, proud moment, for both of us.  And after watching her today, I know she'll do great at her first day of preschool summer camp tomorrow.  I'm freaked out of course, because I hope my baby girl gets well taken care of and all the attention she needs, and makes new friends.  But she'll do great, because she can!  

Two more Marea words that i'm loving: a-cause (meaning, because) and da-jamas (pajamas).

Evie is busy busy busy.  Her favorite thing to do right now is bring us her little white kitty, which we pretend kiss, and her books.  She gets our attention with an obnoxious scream thing that she does.  It's SO loud and annoying!  Yesterday she entertained us by doing the 'Evie butt dance' in the living room when the music was on.  Thank god I got that one on video, it was too cute.  She is trying to say ball but it sounds more like 'cawl'.  But i know she's saying it because that's what she says when she sees a ball!  I can't  believe she'll be 10 months old tomorrow.  AHHHHH!!!!!

Busy Busy Busy!

That sums it up for us right now.  Busy as can be.  Busy with lots of activities-parties, playdates, pool days-and busy chasing the girls around.  Especially little miss E.  The child is crazy.  She walks the whole house, over and over and over again, screeching with happiness.  She's loud and excited.  And she can be pretty fussy and needy, too!  She doesn't like it when we leave the room.  She requires constant attention.  Which is good, because it makes me stop, and pay attention!  And seeing as though the baby stage is going by way to fast, i'm glad to have her demanding me to sit back and enjoy.  Her faves, right now:  walking everywhere, her baby white kitty, (and homer too!), jumping on giant lamb, eating cat food and shoes,  stealing Marea's pacis in the morning...and Marea just in general.  She loves watching Marea and taking over whatever she is doing.  

Marea has been quite the pleasure lately.  Her vocabulary is expanding, still, and the conversations are even more fun and interesting.  Especially when she talks about things she remembers from the past.  Sometimes she'll recall something that I forgot about, or puts her own little spin on something, and it's just so amusing to me.  I can't remember any of those things right now, but i'll try to think of something!  

We took Marea to Mahe for the first time last week, and she ate her fill of sushi!  The kid has good taste!  I love that she loves food.  Although she has a sweet tooth too...she demands her treat every night after dinner!    We had our first sleepover at our house last week, Harper and Mary came and spent the night, so I guess it was a sleepover for me too!  Marea loves sleepovers.  Hopefully we'll have lots of them in the future.  

My baby girl turns 3

Another year goes by and I sit here wondering, where did the time go?  How come my sweet baby girl is already turning 3 years old?  Why do I LOVE her birthday SO much (well I guess that's obvious...), is there any way that I can freeze time RIGHT NOW, so it can be this day, forever?  I guess my way of dealing with the fact that a birthday 'day' just comes and goes way too fast is to celebrate it for many days, in many different ways.  First, the party planning.  Because there simply must be a party (with the kitty jump, again, of course!).  This year was a bit different...a sign of things to come and a change...this year, we invited Marea's friends.  Maddie, Madison, Jack, Mia and Sean, Bella,  and of course her faves, Jackie and Emily.  So planning the party was like a warm up for the big day.  There was jumping, snow cones, pizza and cake, great presents like hungry hungry hippos, and my special hand made goodie bags with Marea's Mix and a ribbon stick.  I think the best part was that we celebrated it on my birthday, a Saturday.  Marea's birthday landed on Tuesday, so for the few days between the party and her actual birthday, things were still in a celebratory mode.  For me, at least. Because honestly, Marea is still a bit young to understand that one day was the party, and one day was the 'real' birthday.  But I felt the anticipation of the day to come, because I knew that I wanted to make it special.  And I think it was a success!  On Tuesday, we woke up and gave her the present from Mommy and Daddy, Bunny Treehouse.  Which we played with all morning, after we ate chocolate chip pancakes and looked at pictures from when she was born.  Then Grandma Carole came over to give Marea her gift (boogie board!) and play for a while.  Then it was off to Grandma Susan's for swimming.  Daddy came home early and we hit the pool for a swim session with the new boogie board, followed by Jackie and Emily arriving, a popsicle, a bag of cheetos, and to top it off, an ice cream cone.  On the ride home, both girls fell asleep.  Marea must of been wiped out, because she slept for 2 hours on the couch!  And now....a bath, a daddy after bath 'fly by', and finally, a little bit of a movie while cuddling with me on the couch.  But I think the BEST part of the day was cuddling with her on the couch earlier and admiring all those little parts, once again.  The feet, legs, arms, hands, face, that are all still so very tiny, so very soft and kissable, still so very mine to love.  The hand that reaches for a chunk of my hair, her sucking on that damn pacifier which I don't have the heart to take away.  And now it's time to go.  It's movie time and my girl wants to cuddle with her mama.  I get to savor it one more time before bed.  Today, tomorrow, and hopefully for many more days and birthdays.