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!

With Mike

 

They all love Mike so much. I know that other moms have told me about their kids favoring one over the other, but we haven't had that yet. Is it because I stay at home? And because Mike comes home every day? I don't know, but it's nice.

Mona Lisa

 

Right?

Hobo

 
Headed out with Mike, this morning. They went to Costco. She slept a little bit in the car there and on the way back, but we put her down shortly after they got back and she slept again for three hours. Does this mean we can keep her up later than 6:30 tonight? And that maybe she'll sleep past 5:00? Ugh. Who knows.

thursday

 
We went to Open Gym today, we haven't been there in forever. The girl that takes the money said to Veronica, "it seems like your sister was just this age!" and I said that's because she was, just last year! Ha! Maria had a pretty good day, she took a very early nap so we could go to Open Gym and then slept a little in the car on the way to get Anthony. We have our make up class for Toddler and Me tomorrow, God knows how it will go. I want to see if the teacher really isn't going to tell me about the next session - invited or not, we're going! Ha!

Outside? Outside? Outside? Outside?

 
 

P-tart? P-tart? P-tart? P-tart? She likes to be outside and eat Pop Tarts. :)

Matilda Jane

 
 
So there are these crazily expensive clothes called Matilda Jane, they are sold in trunk sales and at home parties and I have never been invited to one, probably because I am always going on and on about how ridiculously expensive they are. But these are a pair of MJ pants on Maria, handed down from Mike's friend Candie. They are cute, right?

I was looking at Boden for kids' clothes, some sale notice came up on my mail or something. My LORD they are expensive too. A little knit dress for Veronica was $48. $48! I didn't spend that on their Baptism dress! Another friend of mine told me what good quality they were, but really, who cares? They can't really wear through clothes at this age. I put these clothes on Maria approximately 15 minutes ago, though, and they are already filthy with ketchup ("dip it! DIP IT!") and yogurt. It would hurt me deeply to spend $50 on this fool just to have her spill food all over it.

Story

Poor Maria. This morning I was nursing the baby and Maria came into the kitchen. A few minutes later I could hear her crying, but this is not alarming. THEN she started to sob, really sob, and I thought 'hmmmm', maybe something was wrong? I finally finished up with the babe and came in and poor Maria was standing in the refrigerator, with both her hands closed in the cheese drawer. Like really slammed in there. She couldn't do anything about it because BOTH hands were in there.

It is so weird to me. How about a little heads up, Maria, that there's really something wrong? That you're in PAIN? How about saying "Help!" She says "help" a lot. Well, she says 'help-EEE', but only when she wants to get up on the damned countertop. I took her up and put her down for a nap and while I was changing her diaper, she kept looking at her fingers and looking (accusingly!) at me. Piss off, I told her, it's not like *I* slammed her fingers in the drawer. It's not like *I* woke her up at 2:00 for some screaming and then again at 5:00 for the day.

It feels like we will never get through this, this time of early waking and one nap a day, a nap that takes place at like 10:00 or something. But I know we will, I know she will get older and ... older. Ha, kidding, better, I know she'll get better. I just hope it happens soon!

Breakfast Video

She had already had breakfast, hours ago, with Mike, but she wanted more yogurt. She eats a lot of yogurt here recently. She also just bit the HELL out of my arm while I was uploading the video. The charm just keeps coming with Maria - early wakeups, bad attitude, short naps, and now biting. Awesome.

Oooh!

 

Anthony is sleeping! Oooh! Maria is intrigued, as she has never fallen asleep on the couch in her life. It's her crib or carseat or NOTHING. ;)

One Year Ago

One year ago, today. She is up taking a nap, so I figured I'd get the post up. I like that I can just go back in my files and find a year ago so easily. I guess she is drinking milk here, so I must have just weaned her a year ago. It's hard to believe she'll be two in less than two months. She's funny, I have been meaning to record this - when she asks me for something, which she does ALL DAY, she'll ask me, "Juice?" and if I don't answer right away, she'll say, "Just a second?" I must say that a lot. It is funny to have my words parroted back to me. I have got to start watching my language!

Thursday

 

What a day this has been. Doesn't Veronica look over it? Maria is high spirited today, which I suppose is a nice way of saying she is driving me MAD. She takes a word, and repeats is so many times that it starts to not sound like the word (or any word) anymore. Cracker? Cracker? Cracker? Cracker? Xrackex? Xralpcer? See? See how it happens?

Veterans Day

 

Hoo boy. Cute, right? She was going out to the garage with Mike to get some garlic toast from the freezer out there. LORD she gets excited to go out. She feels a little warm, to me. I hope and pray she's not getting sick. I was looking at pics from last year and this was when they both started getting sick, on and off, for like months. I am not ready.