Sickness and Snow

In a typical week, I take anywhere from 100-1000 pictures, depending on what fun activities we have going on.  This past week, I'm pretty sure I took about 5.  We had an amazingly terrible stomach virus hit all 4 of us ~ Charlotte on Sunday followed by Michael and Maya on Tuesday.  I didn't have it nearly as bad but was definitely not feeling 100% for several days in a row, and I'm pretty our whole family survived on Gatorade and crackers!  We have been washing and washing and washing laundry ~ Charlotte doesn't have very good aim, so Sunday was the worst, when we literally washed 2 down comforters, a duvet, 2 sets of sheets, a mattress covering, and 3 quilts (all in addition to clothing that...um...needed washed).  In case you were curious, this is what half of that looks like:

Charlotte spent a whole lot of time like this for 2 days, poor thing:

But now we are all back to healthy!  I tried to make up for the lack of picture taking today, but it's just so gross outside and I am feeling very unmotivated.  Tonight after dinner, I finally pulled out the camera.  Michael and the girls were playing "hide from mommy" and just as I was about to get some silly pictures of the game, Charlotte bashed her head into Maya's nose, causing much drama!  I did take some pictures of the whole scene, but Maya looks so distraught in most of them that I feel too guilty to post many!

Charlotte immediately after the incident.  You can tell she is really upset by what has just happened.

Maya feeling sad.  You can't tell but her lip is sticking out so far I'm surprised it didn't fall off!

Maya has decided that "smile" means "stick out your tongue."  Tonight I actually asked her if she could please smile without her tongue hanging out, and she said, "no."  Silly girl :)

 

Wouldn't it be awesome if this was how bedtime actually went?

 

 In reality, shortly after that scene Charlotte jumped off the bed and headed into the bathroom to play with soap (her new favorite activity).  She is still awake (at 10:47pm)

"Charlotte, can you show me your eyes?"

She *almost* fell asleep doing this puzzle...but apparently got a second wind.  Then Michael and I had ice cream which she insisted on sharing, so that probably didn't help with the whole bedtime thing!  Good thing we don't care much about a schedule!

 

Maya the Fashionista, and An Interesting Conversation

My friends and I often joke about how often our kiddos change outfits, so I've definitely recognized that Maya changes several times per day.  But, until today I think I didn't really grasp just how often it *really* is.  Because I somehow convinced Maya to help me clean the house today ("Maya!  Let's play 'Mary Poppins' and put on aprons and march around and clean the house!!!!! :D :D :D"), I had to come up with jobs that she could actually do all by herself.  Laundry didn't *really* need done, but I had her go ahead and do it anyway ~ from ONE day's worth of ONLY MAYA'S laundry (I'm not exaggerating here), I folded:

1 pair of pajamas

3 skirts

3 pairs of pants

4.5 pairs of socks (the other .5 pair of socks was in her drawer, clean...not sure how that happened)

2 pairs of tights

3 pairs of underwear

3 t-shirts

3 sweaters

1 dress

Missing from this was one outfit that I caught her in the act of changing and made her refold and put back in her drawer.  Also missing are the countless "dress-up" outfits that she wears but don't get put in with the laundry.  And I wonder why I always have piles and piles of laundry to wash!

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On a pretty much daily basis, Maya has a conversation with me about the baby she has in her belly (I think it started when Sierra was pregnant with Isaac).  Often the baby is 3 years old and named "Jillian"...which is a little bit strange because the only Jillian she knows IRL is actually 4...but I digress.  Today's conversation was extra fun so I thought I'd share it!

Maya ~ Mommy, did you know I have a baby in my belly?

Me ~ Yes, Maya, actually I did know that!

Maya ~ Mommy, can you say "what's your baby's name?"?

Me ~ What's your baby's name?

Maya ~ Well my baby is a husband.

Me ~ ???

Maya ~ My baby is a baby and a husband and can you say, "what's your husband's name?"?

Me ~ What's your husband's name.

Maya ~ I have a baby in my belly and his name is Baby Jesus.  And there is a manger for him because he's a baby and he is my husband.

Um, ya.  That one *might* be shared with her first serious boyfriend (I kid, I kid ;)).

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Pictures!

Sunny Day

Yesterday was awesome and sunny (though still cold :P), so it was a great opportunity to get some up-close pictures of the girlies!  I tried to do a photo shoot, too, but as usual it didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped! :)

(making a Daddy face!)

I kept trying to explain to Maya that she couldn't put her arms around Charlotte's neck...so Maya moved her arms to under Charlotte's arms, but put her *hands* under Charlotte's neck :P  Apparently I needed to be more clear in my explanation!

Best shot of the day.  Turns out Charlotte can't (won't?) smile on command :)  

How most of the day went

How Charlotte told me she was D-O-N-E-done

Cleaning up toys is serious business!

If you're wondering how I magically got her to clean up...let's just say that I'm not above bribery! :)

Snow, Painting, Popcorn

I suppose I only have myself to blame for this, but I *hate* the snow and the cold.  I know, I know, it's what you get when you live in NE Ohio.  But truly, I could live the rest of my life with no snow and be no sadder for it.  Unfortunately for my girlies, this means we don't get out much in the winter.  I mean, we go from house to garage to get in the car, and then run from the car to our destination...but we don't really go out to play.  I just hate being cold, really.  But, the other day Michael left before the bulk of the snow hit, and I knew that I had to shovel the driveway before I'd be able to leave for preschool drop-off (and believe me, I contemplated taking a day off from preschool! :)).  So I bundled the kiddos and we trekked outside.  You will notice that Maya is wearing a fancy coat and rain boots.  This is because her snowboots and ski coat were in Michael's car ~ 10 parenting points for me!

Turns out Maya did not get my hate of snow!  She played and played and would have stayed out there for WAY longer than the *maybe* 15 minutes it took for Charlotte to go from "Mommy I really don't like the snow" to complete-meltdown-I-will-fall-over-and-not-get-back-up.  So turns out Charlotte and I share the same distastes :P

The following picture pretty much sums up how they each felt about the whole situation:

Fortunately after preschool that day, we got to hang out with Sierra, Isaac, and "I love the snow more than life itself" Isabella.  Maya and Isabella gladly tromped through the waist deep snow, ate lots of snow, went down the snowy slide into a snowdrift, and basically stayed outside until Sierra and I forced them in!

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If you've been reading my blog for very long, you'll know that I'm, well, a bit of a freak when it comes to being messy.  Maya is very...um...artistic.  Do you remember this:

Or this?

Or this?

Maybe even this:

So you can understand my trepidation when it came time to paint the balloons we paper mached *before* Christmas.  But, I got tired of seeing them sitting there all alone and not colorful on the counter, so last night Michael and I took the plunge and set up the paints (which are stored high, high up) for the girlies.  Maya did surprisingly well!  I really was impressed with her!  Charlotte, too, was very into the whole painting thing.  Might have to do that more often!

Finally, Maya and Charlotte had their first experience making popcorn in the Whirly Popper for movie night on Saturday!  They both thought it was pretty fantastic (even though Charlotte didn't get to eat any!) and Maya has already requested to do it again.

Two more pictures.  Maya "on my way to ballet" :)

Charlotte being cute, trying to figure out the nesting barrels:

The Last Christmas Post (for 2010, anyway! :))

Ya, ya, I know it's 2011.  But *Christmas* was in 2010.  Our final trip for the holidays was to my dad's house, and we had a great time!  The girlies were spoiled with love, attention and gifts, and Michael and I were, too!  My dad and stepmom surprised me with an external flash for my camera which I am LOVING.  And my sister gave me a book about photography, which is awesome ~ and while I will admit that I haven't *read* a lot of the book, I am loving looking at the pictures (and will certainly get around to reading it at some point :D).  Fun times were had by all :D

Photo credit goes to Michael.  I think this picture could easily be featured in "Meat" magazine ;)

Maya was as excited for Charlotte's gifts as she was for her own! :)

I cannot easily explain the level of excitement Mary had upon receiving "The Shark".  FINALLY she will have clean bathroom floors.  Phew! 

As you can see, Eric was *thrilled* with his brand new Swim & Splash Mermaid Dora

Michael's favorite gift, though he is a little worried that the giraffe is going to come alive in the middle of the night like that creepy clown in the USPS commercial.

More dress-up clothes!  She wears this dress for several hours each day.

You can't tell easily here, but Maya is attempting to dress Charlotte like a princess, as well.

Fortunately Charlotte escaped.  That was a close one! :)