Happy New Year!

This is my favorite picture post of her this year, I think. I take a lot of pictures of them so it's hard to say! I love this picture because I think it's the only time she's let me keep a barrette in. It was also taken right before I went to the hospital to have Veronica, way back when Maria was my little baby girl and not a big sister.

I hope and pray that I can be more patient with Maria in the new year. I also hope that she gets a little quieter, sleeps a little later, and is a little longer with the conversation and shorter with the endless, relentless repeating this year. We'll see.

Car? Car? Car? Car? Car? Car?

 

Two

 
This hardly ever happens. I can't remember exactly, but I would bet that she just clambered up beside him. This picture was probably taken in the three seconds before he beat it.

Take Me To Florida!

 
 
Ha! Maria is NOT loving her time in the snow. She is wearing Anthony's cute hate here, that Mike's mom brought him for Christmas today. It just occurred to me I didn't take one picture when everybody was here for our Christmas celebration, but it's too crazy, I guess. Anyway, she wanted to go out but she just couldn't keep her footing and oooh-weee was she mad! She came in and I put her up on the island to get her boots off and she kept waving her red, cold hands in front of my face, like what the HELL is up with THIS, lady? She gets very indignant and it cracks me up. That's when I like her best, to be honest.

Apple!

 
I want to post a picture of her with her new haircut in her little outfit my mom got her for Christmas, but they are all coming out badly. She moves CONSTANTLY. She was so bad when I was cutting her hair - Mike held her hands but there was no one to hold her head, which she whipped around like crazy. I can never take her to a real place. It came out fine, though, at least it's out of her eyes. She was good at my parent's house, shy with my brother and his family, but just at first. We gave her a Kai Lan doll and she loved it, then my brother gave her a Kai Lan book and she looked at me like HOW IS THIS HAPPENING? She is a funny ducky and although she drives us mad, she is a sweet thing, our Maria, and we hope she has many many more happy Christmases.

Party

 
Maria, at Anthony's party. Oh, she was ca-razy all the time! She wanted to take toys out of the playroom, she got her fingers caught in the bathroom door, waah waah, scream scream.

Early Saturday

 
I know this is early Saturday because later she had to wear a different shirt. She is a slob, to put it mildly.

Caught!

 

Beautiful

 
Pretty Maria. Crazy, pretty, loud, insane Maria.

Friday

 
This is not a great picture and she is pulling a barrette out of her hair, but I wanted to get a shot of this shirt, Candie gave us a bunch of clothes and toys and this shirt is one of them. They are all this cute.

Oh, girl

 



What are we going to do with that hair? I took her to get it cut today but the place we went only had one woman working, and she was barely cutting the hair of the kid in her chair. She was mostly chasing her own two kids out the door because their Daddy was a-coming to git them. Or something. She also scratched the heck out of her nose, see? I took her to Costco with me and, aside from some grabbiness, she was really good. I am always amazed at how good she is in public. I wish we could live there.

Teeny Maria

 
Don't even ask. I took this pic with my phone, but something is weird for me lately, adding pictures to Picasa, so it's tiny. But it's the last day of November and I did it! It went much better, posting every day for a month, this year than last year. Last year I did Anthony's blog and he was sick and it was so depressing! This year is better. I have probably just totally jinxed myself saying that, but I don't care.
Maria and Veronica and I went to a bounce place today in town with some friends and their kids. It was fun but - I have to say it - Maria is crazy! She took off her socks, she wanted to bring her drink in the jump thing with her, she kept going behind the counter at the snack place. I left everything a wreck at the table where we were sitting because once I told her we were going, she hightailed it toward the door. Nut!
She is getting so, so SO talky, though. It's crazy. I can't ever believe that Anthony was this age and talking like he did (which is to say, not) and I didn't know anything to think it was weird. It makes me feel like an idiot, BUT I am too excited to hear it now to get too down about it. What did we know? We were so young, lo those two years ago. Ha!
This is funny - yesterday we were watching football and I'm not going to say who, but SOMEONE said "Suck it!" to a member of the opposing team. "Suck it!", Maria said, laughing. "Suck IT!". I will say that I am a NY Jets fan and their game was not on tv yesterday. :)

Closeup

 

We took a billion pictures of the kids today in an effort to get a shot for our Christmas Card but it was an exercise in futility. Here's one that Mike took of just Maria though. This must have been the ONE second of the day that she wasn't trying to get at that damned DVD player.

Fingerpainting

 

Fingerpainting, yesterday. She had a crazy day, even though she slept all the way til 6:00. She took a short nap and was kind of a wreck all day. Her latest thing is that she is trying to break our $300 dvd player. She's worth more to us than $300, for sure, but we still don't want her to break it. I feel bad smacking her hands away but what else? What else can you do to a girl who is only touching the dvd player because she knows you don't want her to touch it? Sheesh.

Boo hoo!

 

"Boo Hoo, I'm Maria! My parents take me and my siblings for a nice walk! They dress me in cute clothes! They wake up with me at 5:00 every morning of my life! Boo Hoo! Woe! Wurra!"

She is NOT Supposed to Play With Those Curtains!

 

Thanksgiving

 

this morning, in her pajamas and boots. what? doesn't everyone wear that on thanksgiving morning?

I have a new keyboard and it's hard to make caps, hence the e e cummings no caps above, sorry.

I am so thankful for all my family, and my kids, and Mike. I am especially thankful for Maria because she is really teaching me patience. She is teaching me that when you love someone, even if you have an impulse to knock their block off because they are driving you mad, you really shouldn't. That's a good lesson, right? I am madly in love with her, and I'm thankful to know that kind of love.

Almost Forgot

I almost forgot to put a post up today. I didn't take any pics of Maria today, because I figure she wouldn't show up on film. That's witches, right? HA! Kidding, but man. She is ROUGH. Mike and I are going out tonight but we are both so tired. Mike had a half day so he's had extra Maria today and he's beat. She's crazy and napped only from 10-11:30 today and was ca-razy by the end of the day. Oh, but she is funny. She sings every song she hears, and she loves when you sing to her. As soon as you are done and I mean the SECOND you are done, she says 'mo sho', which means More? Sure! Oh she is relentless. Relentlessly annoying and also, thank God, relentlessly CUTE.

Determined

 

She's got a lot of personality

 

.. I'll say that for her.

Oh come on

 

Bad

 

eating a dirty pretend ice cream cone on the neighbor's porch. BAD.

Whooping and Jumping

 
>

Swinging

 

With Veronica.

Table

 
She's sitting on the table here, going after my (empty) cup of coffee, but I liked the way it looked better cropped. It is Monday morning, 8:34, and I swear to God she has said 10 words 5,000 times each. "Signing Time? Signing Time? Signing Time? Signing Time?" "More cake? More cake? More cake? More cake?" "Ah, me!" she cries, like some opera singer, when you say anything to her that she doesn't like. And she doesn't like anything you say if it's not exactly what she just said. "Ah, me!" I always think, no Maria, Ah, ME. :) "Candy? Candy? Candy? Candy? Candy?" "Baby? Baby? Baby? Baby? Baby?" She is exhausting and I am already, unfortunately for her, exhausted.

Mike and I were talking last night about how it's Thanskgiving already, and then it will be Christmas, so fast. I said Maria will be two years old and while it seems like the holidays are coming around fast, I feel like I have known this girl forever and she has been bossing me around for fifty years!

Door

 

Ugh, don't even ask why this is so small. It's off my phone but so are many of these pictures. I am super tired and can't mess with it. This is Maria, in the doorway of these new apartments by us. Thankfully, no one lives there yet! We took a long walk today, but we didn't get far. She is a PAIN - she wants to ride in the stroller, then she wants to stand up and jump out when she feels like it. She wants to go up on the porch of *every* single house we pass. She says "HI!" to passersby about five minutes after they've passed. She's funny. She's also in bed, thank God, so we are going to have dinner and get to bed early, as we will have to start this all over again in less than 12 hours.

Hard at Work

 
Note the Nuk. Ha!