Updates

Evie is on a 'Mama' spree. The child must say some form it it thousands of times a day. Sometimes it's cute, sometimes its funny (when she sings it!), and sometimes it drives me crazy. I think she must just like the way it rolls off her tongue. Wait, nope, that's not it. She's just a huge mama's girl. I guess I can't complain.

She's also very LOUD. One of her favorite things to do right now is 'whistle'. She makes this high pitched, short screaming sound. ALL THE TIME. From the minute she wakes up, to the time she goes to bed, and often in bed. It's usually paired with running or jumping. She's happy! But hopefully the screaming will continue to be replaced by her absolutely amazing vocabulary. She can say anything these days. But she has yet to call Marea 'Marea', even when I ask. I wonder how long 'yea-ya' will last. I would be happy if it stuck around for a long time, it's a pretty cute nickname.

Marea is blossoming into quite the little girl. She's starting to understand empathy, and helping out, and that is really nice. She will occasionally walk up to me when I'm busy and start giving me a back rub. It's like she knows that I need it. She also had a pretty awesome experience at preschool the other day, involving two of her friends who didn't want to include another little girl (Bella) in their play. Marea stuck by Bella and decided that she wanted to play with her, even when her friends said they wouldn't play with her if she played with a 'baby'. Marea said that she knew it wasn't nice and that it made Bella feel bad. So she played with Bella for a few minutes and then preschoolers being who they are, well they all moved on within 5 minutes and everything was okay. But I was so happy that she was able to stand up for what she thought was right, and what she wanted, and didn't give into the peer pressure (which sounds so ridiculous when talking about 4 year olds). I hope she stays that way. And I was so happy with the way the teachers handled it. They talked with Marea about how it made her feel, instead of correcting the girls who were being 'mean'. The made the learning experience for Marea, who was open to it, instead of the other girls. Awesome.

Marea's obsession with 'Mama Mia' continues. While her class was sitting around talking about which songs they wanted to sing for music class the next day, Marea often mentions Mama Mia songs. So funny. Hey I don't blame her. 'Take me out to the ball game' (for the 20th time), is lame!!!

Marea also hosted a very fancy tea party at our house last week. She was SET on inviting Grethe (and boys) over for this tea party and bugged me every day for a week to call her and set it up. She spent about a week and a half prepping. We had real tea cups (purchased from an estate sale we went to), fancy serving dishes, and we made cupcakes and cookies and drank apple cinnamon tea. Then we both had to put on super fancy dresses (at noon on a friday) and make-up and heels. It was so cute I videotaped it.

Now she's getting ready for her first weekend away. She'll be heading up to Santa Maria with jackie and em to visit their grandpa, and spend time on their ranch riding the horses, the tractor, playing in the dirt and having fun. She is so excited she can't stop talking about it or packing. We got out the calendar today so I could show her she would be away for two nights, and she's all good to go....her eyes got so big with excitement. She's got her own suitcase now, and we had to pack two days early because she just could not wait. It's only two nights, but I will miss her SO much!!!!

A Visit with Santa

A tale to remember.....

On the morning I was taking the girls to see Santa, Marea and I started asking Evie "What are you going to ask Santa for for Christmas?" and Evie's response was, over and over again in her sassy big voice "A BIG ONE!" Of course Marea and I laughed and laughed.

And then we get there...and wait in line for almost an hour....and when we get up there, Evie was 'a little bit scared' (as she will now say when we talk about it). She barely grinned for the camera, gave me her 'help me mommy' face, and feverishly picked her nails until the photo shoot was over (which lasted about 10 seconds, I wouldn't torture them that long!) And then, Santa turned to Evie and asked her..."What would you like for Christmas?" And Evie, in a very quiet, small voice said, "a little one".

Marea asked for an 'art spin'. I hope she's been good!

Holiday Time!

A list of all the things we're doing to celebrate the season....some will hopefully become family traditions:

-Decorated a gingerbread house. Evie just wanted to eat the candy. Marea was pretty excited to make it 'exactly right'. (We did our best, it turned out good!)

-Setting up the santa's village. Marea really enjoys playing with all the little figurines around the village.

-Christmas shows. Marea's favorite one this year is 'Silly Elf' (which is just elf). Thank goodness, cuz Gary and I really like this one too! But other favorites are the Grinch and Charlie Brown Christmas. They both think snoopy is really funny.

-Decorating the tree. Marea loves all the special ornaments (not the balls, although she likes the sparkly balls) and Evie loves to break the balls. And Ick loves climbing the tree and batting at the balls to knock them off.

-Cookie baking and decorating. This isn't going so well this year. Evie just likes to eat the toppings as she makes a huge mess, and Marea has now become an expert at over-topping the cookies. This will be more fun when they get a little bigger.

-Boat Parade. We are heading down tomorrow to watch the boat parade. I remember how much I loved doing this as a kid, and now I hope we will be doing it with our kids for many years to come.

Utah-Fall edition

Monsters Vs. Aliens and the new Tinkerbell movie; water balloon fights; marea's solo dance performance followed by one with grandpa; our night hike, the froggie pool and big slide with auntie sam (and a doodie!); carving a pumpkin with grandpa and using veggies to garnish it; making caramel apple chunks. And making memories without a camera ever coming out.

Boogers and such

Marea: Eew, i'm not eating this booger, it's bloody.

Me: Marea, do you normally eat your boogers?

Marea: Yes

Me: That's gross.

Marea: But they're so slobbery and sweet!

Me, to Evie: Come on Honey!

Evie: I not honey, I wee-wee!

Ha!!!

Evie is also going through a "my tooth is loose" thing. She loves the little bear episode where he loses a tooth, and now tells us every day, that her tooth is loose.

Happy Birthday Miss E!

Today we celebrate you, Little Miss E, on your second birthday!

My heart still melts each day when I see you and we cuddle for some nail picking closeness. You still smell so sweet and baby-like to me. All your little parts, curled up on me-you still fit perfectly. Except now, you can get away-and run, and JUMP (a new favorite), and talk ('daddy smells!!" Ha!) . You can play with your sister, too. You will sit and play so nicely by yourself, always exploring a toy to the fullest. You know your colors already, you can count, and you LOVE to sing (CAW!). You make the coolest artwork, using the whole paper and all the colors. And you are still free of the complications that come with older toddlers who need more independence and power struggles. For now :)

You are perfect.

XOXO,

Mommy

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!!!!!