Just call me sticker face and other stuff

Maggie LOVES Jack. Tonight she demonstrated her love by putting stickers all over his face. Later when I was putting Maggie to bed, Jack was snuggled next to her (a nightly tradition) when he demonstrated his love for her by grabbing a handful of hair yanking. As he started pulling he started laughing, and the longer it took me to get the hair from his hand and as Maggie's panic grew, he started laughing harder. You would have thought that he knew exactly what he was doing, and I had a vision of him as a 2 year old, then as a 5 year old, then as a 16 year old still yanking on Maggie's hair and laughing. And he looks so innocent.

It's okay though--I kinda laughed too.

It wasn't more than a couple days ago when I snapped these pictures (below) and all of a sudden Maggie was biting Jack's finger. In her defense (not that I am defending her but . . .), she is usually NOT a biter and she felt really bad when she realized what she had done. She has totally been teething (who knew 2.5 year old's did that?). She has been biting EVERYTHING, (including her own fingers). She has also been cranky and waking up at night. Drooling a little. Yep, snotty nose too. Slobbery fingers in her mouth ALL THE TIME. This teething phase can end anytime. The rest of it? Please slow down!

Little stinker. This was the last picture that I got.

Maggie is always telling me that she needs to do her "work" or that she is going to school. Wonder where she gets that from? I don't do any work :)

The toe grabbing phase is one of my favorites. I find those chubby little legs irresistible.

Ceiling fan. 

In case you were wondering, we still like each other. I needed to find a picture of Joe and I together from the last year and I couldn't find one. NOT ONE. This is seriously the best I could do, and I am blurry. He is kinda cute though, right? Anyway, our love doesn't need to be rekindled but our my taking photos of anything but the kids does need some work. So does my writing about anything else. I'll work on that next year :)

Here are a couple more things to remember (about the kids, of course).

Maggie has a few dyslexic phrases that she uses:

• "all for my blessings" when praying instead of "for all my blessings"
• she recently called a cowboy a "boy-cow" I thought she had actually figured out gender and was talking about a cow. Oh no, she was talking about the boy-cow.
• Finally, (this one I hear a lot). "I can do it all my byself!

Jack has a couple funny little quirks that I love.

• When he is excited, he smiles with his whole body. His face lights up, his mouth smiles, and his arms and legs spasm. This especially happens when I walk back into a room and say hi to him. Talk about a heart warmer! 
• He spits up a lot (don't love that) but it often comes in three's. Weird. This is how it goes. He spits up and you start wiping. Just then he spits up again, all over your hand and the cloth you were using to wipe. You scramble to stop the flow from his mouth when number 3 hits you. I wash lots of laundry. 
• Finally, he has lately been fighting sleep big time. When he is finally to the point that the battle is lost, he starts making this noise. It is kind of talking, whining, moaning, sighing all while sucking on his binky. It can go on for 10 minutes at a time before he really gives up and goes to sleep. Funny. But when I hear the noise, I know that I, and sleep, have won.

Fall Farms = Fun + pumpkins + apples + squash = Sad to see winter coming

The lovely and rainy fall weather has past us by leaving behind a very cold wind, but I really enjoyed the harvest season and the beautiful autumn leaves.  I remember autumn always having been my favorite season. These activities are long past, but to recap, we (meaning myself, the kids, and some friends while Joe toiled his life away at school) made visits to a couple of farms. We picked apples, walked around pumpkin patches and corn mazes, fed farm animals, waded through mud, played on toys, blah blah blah. Even though I often miss Santa Monica, I actually love Ithaca's rural setting. I love driving and running on country roads--which are rather easy to find around here. Anyway, even though upstate NY looks nothing like Idaho, the rural, peaceful setting sometimes reminds me of home. 

Grismore Farms

This place is BEAUtiful! Just for the record, I did not touch up these pictures at all, but even I almost can't believe the colors when I look at them. BUT, it had just rained so everything was fresh and vibrant. And for some reason I can't take an in focus picture to save my life. Some day.

Maggie was in apple picking heaven! While the other kids ate a few bites from apples here and there, she ate 5 whole apples (or at least that is how many I counted). She would have continued chowing down, but I made her stop. Then she ate one more.

Apple orchard

Notice, she is eating an apple

Another apple 

Sweet boy along for the ride

Iron Kettle Farms

We made two trips to Iron Kettle Farms. The first time the place was deserted. Almost spooky. The second time the place was crawling with kids, mostly from schools. Both times Maggie LOVED driving this bus. During our second visit, she also claimed this driver's seat. The bus was FULL (standing room only) of school age kids (i.e. a lot BIGGER than Maggie). Several of them (wanting a turn to drive the bus) blocked Maggie into the seat. She WOULD NOT give up her seat. After watching for awhile I started to worry that they were going to eat her, so I pulled her out the window on the opposite side because I could't even get into the bus (too full of kids!). I was rather impressed with Maggie's courage though. That girl knows what she wants. 

Maggie is a little scared of the idea of Santa Claus. If ever he comes up, she says, "Santa Claus is not coming."  This farm had a fake Santa (with a pumpkin for a head, little weird) and reindeer on the roof of a barn. When I showed Maggie, she froze, said nothing, and made this face in response. She held this pose long enough for me to laugh, wait, laugh again, pull out my camera and snap a picture. I am thinking that after Santa comes this year she might have a little bit warmer feelings towards him.

Pumpkins!! Maggie is partial to the little ones that she can carry around. 

Happy Halloween

Maggie somehow lucked into two costumes this year. Okay, it wasn't luck; it is because her mom is horribly indecisive--a fault which I think I may never overcome. Nevertheless, Maggie asked to be a princess (she is a true girl), so I refashioned an old leotard that I found at Salvation Army into this little princess dress, and I am proud of my efforts so that I must share it with you. She looked ADORABLE! She wore the dress to all of the pre-holiday parties and our trunk-or-treat. Also I picked up a little spider webb (ha ha) costume because I couldn't resist. Then, when Halloween night was freezing cold and wet (in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and also we live in upstate NY so of course it was freezing) she had a nice toasty spider suit. It turns out that Halloween pretty much rocks with a two year old. Trick-or-treating is SO MUCH FUN. Maggie was ready to quit long before I was. Also, she likes suckers and smarties and leaves all the good candy for us. Or me. Jack also had two costumes. He served as her prince charming (you can check out his highness in the blue and white laying next to his little buddy), but he donned a much more weather appropriate monkey suit lent to us by some friends for the Halloween night festivities. 

Do you think they are related?

I find it rather odd that these two look exactly like each other and not a bit like either of their parents. When I took this picture I was for a moment, overwhelmed with a feeling of great blessing to have two such cute, healthy kids sitting happily on my (messy) bed while I folded a mountain of laundry. 

Maggie pretty much thinks she owns Jack. I think this is probably the blessing you get when you have a girl first. Maggie calls him "my baby" or "my Jackie boy." She is very possessive and sweet when it comes to her Jackie boy. She pushes him in the baby swing (I think shooting for an underdog--luckily she can't quite make that happen) and shouts in his face, "I am rocking you to sleep, Jack! I am rocking you to sleep, Jack!" She has yet to get him to sleep with her method, but she gets lots of smiles and laughs. I think the affection is mutual.

Looking at that picture I see one half of my two year old. It is the half that is sweeter than sweet, fun, silly, and happy, and it melts my heart. The other half is independent, bossy, and super stubborn, and is making me want to pull my hair out. It is hard to believe that the second half can peacefully co-exist with the first in such a tiny person. Still, she makes me smile. Except when she doesn't. Jack on the other hand, pretty much just smiles. I like these two.

A moment that made it (potty training that is) worth it and why being a mom is great

Well, I have a lot of catching up to do on this blog. But, it is so much more enjoyable to write about my life right now so all the catching up will just have to wait.

In my life right now we are potty training. This is a phase that I have been dreading. I don't want my baby to grow up (bad reason I know). Also, I like freedom (I just need to focus on the liberation that being potty trained gives Maggie). Also I don't like scrubbing up messes. But I have put it off long enough. Yesterday we embarked on the potty training journey with an intensive "training in one day" sort of method. As much as Maggie has been ready to be potty trained for awhile, the whole process is just not going super well.

Maggie is SUCH a sweet girl. She has been trying so hard. Over the last two days she has literally been sitting on the potty for 30-45 minutes at a time as I read her books and sing songs with her (luckily activities that she loves). When I suggest that she takes a break (she has been very determined) she would stand up, run around, and pee within 2 minutes. This has happened over and over with no evidence of progression. Maggie would tell me that she needed to go potty and sit down and wait and wait and wait. Nothing. We have tried running water, letting her play with her little hands in warm water, nothing. Tonight Maggie went to bed in a total fit because she was so exhausted; an hour later I hear her sweet little voice. "Mommy, I need to go potty." With a sigh (deep down I was sort of wishing she would have just used her pull-up) I brought her from her crib and set her on her Minnie Mouse potty. We waited, ran some water, and waited. I was debating how long to sit there (since I fully expected her NOT to go potty) when all of a sudden, success!! Wow, who knew that a little trickle could be so relieving. Pun intended. ha ha.

Anyway, after we celebrated a good deal, the best part of the night happened. I settled in a rocking chair with her to help her calm down before going back to bed. As I was snuggling with her and looking down at her, some of my hair (not in the best shape after these last two days!) fell into my face. She brushed it out of my face and said "There. Now I can see you. I love you so much!" Then she snuggled closer to me. What sweet words to hear. All of a sudden the last two days seemed practically painless. We stopped in to say goodnight to Joe on her way back to bed. When he scooped her up to hug her she said, "Can I keep you as my Daddy? Can I keep you as my family? I love you so much!"  Anyway, being a parent is amazing because two such frustrating days can suddenly feel worthwhile after a moment like that. I feel so blessed to be the mommy of two sweet little children. We are certainly going to have some more frustrating times before this whole potty training thing is done, but all of a sudden, I think that I could do it for a year. Okay... not a year. Definitely not a year. Let's hope it doesn't take that long.

Some stuff we have been doing

Well, it turns out that it is really hard to get out of the house when you have a two-year old and a newborn. It seems like by the time I finish feeding Jack and getting us all ready to go it is time to start all over again. Luckily we have been able to sneak in a couple of fun trips lately.

The first was to a place called Flat Rock. Maggie has been (regularly) asking to go the beach. Sad, I know. She just doesn't understand that there is actually no beach here. So, we decided that she needed to at least have a chance to play in the water. Flat Rock is a portion of the river where the water is very shallow and passes over large slabs of slate. It is the perfect little swimming spot and only about 10 minutes from our house! Maggie had a blast wading in the water, throwing rocks, and standing on her hands while letting the current tug at her feet. Every now and then she would lose her balance and roll under the water. She would stick her hand up for help, stand up, wipe the water from her face and go right back for more. She really is a little fish!

Next we went swimming at Treman State Park. There is a swimming hole carved out by a waterfall. Even though it is very improved and you have to jump from a diving board instead of from the rocks, the water was cold and refreshing and the setting was beautiful! One of the highlights for me was  doing something marginally active (sad that I am that desperate to work out). Even though I only jumped  a few times it felt great to sneak in a little tiny bit of exercise. I am counting down the days (only 3 more) until my exercise ban is lifted.

Maggie'isms

I have started emailing myself (so that I won't forget) when Maggie says or does funny things, or things that just melt my heart. Here are a couple that I came across in my inbox recently:

While hustling around the living room and moving random things from here to there: "I need to clean this for daddy. It is so yucky in here." (No comment on whether this reflects my behavior or the general state of my house)

"Hi Jackie boy. You okay? I just playing soccer ball with Daddy. When you get bigger you play with me, okay?" (And yes, this did make me very happy).

I think she is a beautiful little girl.

2 Year Old Snapshot

Maggie Age 2
LOVES
playing in the water
blueberries
singing and dancing
Curious George
ice cream
talking on the phone to Grandma
counting
doing things "all my by-self!"
rocking with mommy

We are here.

We made it! Of course, we've been here almost two weeks now. I don't have any pictures yet, but we are starting to get settled in; there are still boxes yet to unpack and many things yet to do before little Jack comes to join us. I should be working on all those things instead of typing. Oh well.

Here are a few first impressions:
1. Very nice people. We have been VERY warmly welcomed. I am so grateful for all the people who have been so nice and friendly!
2. Tree lined streets and farms. Very green. Beautiful. Rural.
3. I am never going to learn my way around. All streets looks the same. . . two-lane, tree-lined, winding, and headed where? I don't know. That is the point.
4. Deer are EVERYWHERE. One day I counted 11.
5. Fireflies make me feel like a little kid.
6. Intolerably hot. Santa Monica spoiled me BIG TIME. Also, I am 38 weeks pregnant. That doesn't help.
7. Shopping . . . not so much.
8. No traffic. That is nice.
9. Very hilly. Running with a stroller is going to be a challenge. Plus, there are no sidewalks.
10. I have to walk down two flights of stairs, outside, down a hill, to the back of the building to do laundry. When it snows and I have a newborn and a toddler who likes to run away this is not going to be very fun.
11. The hospital where I am going to deliver is tiny. I know size is not a reflection on quality, but having come from working at Ronald Reagan UCLA which is regularly ranked as one of the best hospitals in the country, this hospital feels a little small. I mean, does it still count as a NICU is there are no babies in it? I shouldn't be nervous. Can't help it.
12. On Monday I picked 4 pounds of blueberries. Yummy! They are already half gone. If Jack doesn't show up soon, I am going to go pick some more.
13. An ice cream shop with 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream . I don't know if Maggie, myself, or Joe was most in heaven.

Maggie is adjusting somewhere between pretty well and not great. I don't know if she just happened to have a sudden onset of terrible two's coincidentally upon our arrival or if her behavior is really move related, but I am sure having a very pregnant (i.e. grumpy, hot) mom who is unpacking boxes instead of taking her to the beach doesn't help. Also, we accidentally set the fire alarm off in her room when resetting the fuse box while she was sleeping. It scared the poor little thing half to death, so she doesn't really care for her new room very much. I am hoping that she starts feeling more comfortable pretty soon. I am nervous about bringing a new baby into her world that already feels like it is sitting on it's head. But, she loves babies (and not much we can do about it now anyway). I am sure that it is just a matter of time before this place starts feeling like home to all of us. In the meantime, I am going to eat blueberries. Lots and lots of blueberries.

Party like you're three!

Many afternoons and evenings have been well spent playing in the courtyard with these cute kiddos. Maggie learned Lucy's name before even her own. Thanks to great neighbors and friends! They will be missed.

Happy Birthday to you!

Little Maggie-pie,

I can't believe that you are two years old! The last two years have gone by so fast.

You are such a sweet and happy little girl! You have an almost constant smile on your face, and you generously give hugs and kisses to your Daddy and I. Today we were talking about how baby Jack is in my belly. You gave my belly a pat, tried to look down my shirt to see the baby, and then you leaned down and kissed my belly. I think your little brother is going to be very lucky to have such a sweet older sister. You show the same consideration for your baby doll and your stuffed animal "friends." You are often changing their diapers, giving them food and drink (real and imagined), placing them for naps (even sharing your special blanky for nap time), rocking them in your arms, and giving them hugs and kisses. There are a few bikes stored behind a fence that we pass each time we walk from our car to our apartment. You always want to go see the bikes. Today, while we were looking at the bikes, you said, "oh, cute bikes!" (these are adult size, rusty, missing seats and tires). Then, you patted the tires, and when I tried to encourage you to move on, you had to give the bikes a parting hug (I cringed because you were wearing your new birthday outfit and we had just come from church and also, but it was "sweet" as you so often say).

You are also a super energetic little girl. When we went car shopping until 1:00 a.m. one morning, you literally ran in circles around the dealership until we left. One of the workers told us that they had taken bets about when you would eventually crash. Around 11:30 p.m. he told us they had all lost the bet. The next morning when I tried to wake you up for church, you batted my hands away, closed your eyes and made fake snoring sounds. I tried to pick you up, and you batted at my hands again, and continued with the snoring sounds. You love to run, jump, and spin in circles.

You LOVE to sing and dance. When we drive around in the car, you sing any lyrics that you can pick up, and it is impressive how quickly you pick them up. I think your favorite song is "here comes the dinosaurs." We sing and march around the house to this song usually multiple times a day, but you also know the lyrics to many of the songs that your Daddy and I like to listen to.

You are a really good little talker--almost making complete sentences, and you are pretty patient when I can't understand what you are saying. Instead of getting frustrated, you repeat yourself over and over or try to act out whatever you are trying to get me to understand. The other day when your Daddy couldn't figure out what you were saying even after repeated effort on your part, instead of getting frustrated, you just started laughing at him. You are still learning to use pronouns; if you want me to hold you you say "hold you?!" or "sit by your?!" It is so cute, that I haven't tried too hard to correct you. I know that you will figure it out in good time. You can say all your numbers in order to 10, although you skip 5. You also know that the teens come next, and will jump randomly from one teen to another when trying to count until you start back over at 1. You are still working on your colors, and will almost always say that something is blue when asked its color. You also use blue as an adjective to describe a particular thing (e.g. "blue one binky"you might say to try to get me to understand that you want your favorite binky which is actually red and clear).


I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be your mother. You are so sweet, energetic, loving, smart, kind, cute, cuddly, beautiful, fun, and funny. Even though you are teaching me patience (I think that is sort of what motherhood is for), you bring so much light and joy to my life every day. I want to freeze you in the moment so that you will never grow any older, so that you will always be my squishy cheeks, little sweetie. Yet, still, every day I am so excited to watch you learn, grow, try new things, and make new steps.

I love you!
Mommy

Your cake is supposed to be a beach (your favorite place for the best I can tell). The bears are lounging on beach towels and floating in inner-tubes.

Ready, Go!

Here is a conversation that has been had on many days in our home.

Me--"Maggie, can you tell Daddy what we did today?"

Maggie--(after looking at me for a minute), "Beach!"

Joe--"You went to the beach today?!" (I shake my head).

Maggie --"water! cold!" . . . "Bye beach."

I am sad to say that we don't actually go to the beach on most days. Instead, after the above conversation, I proceed to help Maggie tell Joe about what we actually did that day, (usually much less fun than going to the beach).

At least Maggie has the right idea about what we should be doing every day, and she certainly makes the most of our time there.

The other day, though, I had the bright idea to have a beach picnic. We were on our way home, and only had a few free minutes but I had packed sandwiches, so I thought, "why not eat them while watching doggies and runners (another of Maggie's well loved activities) down on the beach path." Well, I am sad to say that our picnic ended with me dragging a screaming, flailing toddler away from the water. In my defense, I usually do let her play in the water (or maybe that's the problem), but now I have learned my lesson. We only head to the beach when the ocean (and not just the sand) is an okay.

In case you missed it, Maggie is yelling "Ready, gooooooooooo." It is her own derivative of "ready, set, go" which I think she used in the beginning to get her courage to run into the freezing cold water. Now, I think she just likes to yell.

Belly Full

By way of announcement, sort of (it is a little overdue) . . .

Yesterday, Maggie was sitting on my lap and tried to lean back into me and cuddle. When she was blocked by my growing belly, she patted it with her little hand, and said "belly full." Then, she jumped down to go play.

Yes, my belly is rather full of a growing baby. A little boy due Aug 7. Yay! (I am kind of scared, actually, but super happy too).

I am 26 1/2 weeks. I guess this picture was taken a few weeks ago (23 weeks I think), but it is the only belly shot I really have to document it. My belly is certainly much fuller now.

Thoughts and Easter festivities

• Coloring eggs with two toddlers is super fun
• Most of the eggs will be broken and/or half shelled by the time you are finished
• Maggie calls the plastic eggs "bunny eggs" and hard boiled eggs "yummy eggs"
• She ate 1/2 of 3 yummy eggs while completing her egg hunt (that is not to say that she preferred the contents of the yummy eggs to the bunny eggs. She ate plenty bunny egg loot too.)

Maybe we celebrate with silly things like Easter bunnies and yummy eggs, but I am so grateful that we have something to really celebrate at this time of year and even the Easter bunny to help us remember.

Okay. One More.

As I was typing up that last story, Maggie was happily playing with a big box of play food. Then, she asked to play with her puzzles. Usually, I try to get her to pick up something like play food scattered across our entire living room before moving on to, say her puzzles, but I was already feeling bad that I was taking the time to type up that previous post, rather than playing with her, so I was all ready just to let it go. I put her puzzles within her reach, then sat back down to finish typing.

Suddenly, I hear a little voice singing "clean-up, clean-up..." I look over and Maggie is putting the play food back in its box. Of course, I jumped from my seat to sing and clean with her (want to do everything possible to encourage that behavior). She kept cleaning until all of her play food was back in its box. I was so proud. I was smiling and cheering and starting to regain some of my broken self-esteem (see below for that explanation.) Maggie had remembered to clean up one toy first, before moving on the the next. This was a major break-through!

Then, I sat back down to try to quickly finish up typing. In about two minutes, Maggie dumped all the pieces out of her two puzzles (with no attempt to put them back) and quickly moved to the book shelf that houses most of her toys. She proceeded to dump every basket on the floor, swiped all the books from the shelf, and continued in her rampage until almost every toy was out of its rightful place. There is one lone basket and a couple of stragglers remaining on the shelves. Our living room looks like a battlefield.

One step at a time, right? At least she picked up the food.

Dark circles and how a 1-year old can dent your self-esteem

Okay, more Maggie stories, because lets face it, that is pretty much what's going on in my life right now, or at least what is worth writing about.

So, the last couple days I decided to have a make-up holiday. Usually I am a make-up everyday kind of a girl. I don't necessarily go all-out, but usually the bare minimum consists of some concealer under my eyes, a little powder, and some mascara at least. Lately, I have been feeling tired of spending time in the morning putting it on just to spend time at night taking it off and have been doing an experiment to see if it is really worth the time every single day--hence the holiday.

Anyway, yesterday, Maggie pointed to the place under my eye (where that concealer would normally go) and said "owie." I thought perhaps I had smeared something on my face and tried to wipe it off. "Better?" I asked. Then, she pointed under my other eye, and said "owie" I took a look in the mirror, and thought, "Maybe I have darker than normal circles under my eyes today?" Could that possibly have been what she was pointing to? I figured it was near the end of the day and our apartment is kind of dark at night... Plus she is only 1. I shrugged it off as a mystery and mostly forgot about it.

But then, today, day 3 of my make-up holiday, just before Maggie's nap, she pointed under my eye and said "owie" again. Then, she repeated herself AGAIN, while pointing to my face. I looked in the mirror, just to make sure I didn't have some mysterious black eye, but sadly, I only saw myself. No black eyes. No smeared dirt. Apparently my face, to my one-year old, looks like one big owie.

I think someone (perhaps that one year old?) may be giving me those circles under my eyes, but I think also, just perhaps, my make-up holidays may need to be hidden with some concealer.

Nap

Tonight I after dinner I said to Maggie, "Okay, Maggie. It is time for your bath."

Then I paused, sighed, and said, "Mommy is tired, sweetie." (hey, I am allowed--Joe is out of town, and I was tired).

Maggie looked me straight in the eyes, walked over to me, patted my leg, and said, "Nap."

"Do I need to take a nap?" I asked her trying to hold back my giggle.

"Uh-huh." Then, she walked into my bedroom and pointed to my bed.

I guess I could learn a thing or two from my toddler. But I did follow her instructions, or at least I pulled her into my bed with me and proceeded to "take a nap" while she jumped around on the bed and made monkey noises and played with the window blinds. She did stop to give me a kiss and a hug and then another kiss and a hug (which I loved). Then she took a big dive into my piled up comforter and shrieked, "Fun!" Perhaps if I had taken a nap this afternoon then I would have been jumping around making monkey noises at my bedtime. Maybe I will give it a try tomorrow.

Not Proud

Okay, I admit it, sometimes I feed my toddler mac n' cheese for dinner. No, I never feel good about it, but sometimes, it just has to be. For some reason, though, I don't think she minds.

Is she looking a little too grown up to anyone else?