Hat! I need my haaaaat!

Isn't she so pretty? She had a good time outside, we played basketball and she got to wear her hat (hood) the whole time. HOO BOY, will she be glad to go back to preschool on Monday. She is loving having Mike home but I think she is eager to get back to her schedule. I signed her up for pre-ballet, to start in January! I'm so excited, I think she'll really like it. She's such a go-er, I really admire that about her.

Dress up

Ohhhh this dress up trunk. Today she watched Snow White while wearing her Snow White dress and I thought her head would explode from the happiness of it all. Mike's mom gave it to her, there are shoes and hats and wands and necklaces and boas and it's just great, she really really loves it.

Wee ha!

She's riding on Veronica's gift from Mike's mom, it's super cute but she is too big for it! "Weeee haaa!", she always yells. She's hilarious. Thank God, because she is a big pain too, but boy can she be sweet and wonderful. She loves her grandparents and aunts and uncles. My brother John was in town for Christmas and she really loved him. She had a great Christmas.

Ha, look at her face!

Boxing Day

Maria, with Mike's mom, on the day after Christmas. Maria was very into Christmas this year. She loves to have people come over and she loves presents, so it's a great time of year for her. She opened a big box from Mike's mom and she said "Ohhhh, thank you! I love it!" and she hadn't even opened the box yet, just taken off the paper, ha!

Pretty

I think she is such a pretty thing and I think she looks just like me, ha! I don't mind saying that because I don't think it's braggy. If I still looked like I used to look, it might be braggy but at this point what it is is wistful. And sad. :)

Snatching her hand back

The reindeer sort of moved her head and Maria snatched her hand back so quickly it's almost a blur. She's brave but not stupid, ha!

Reindeer

Ooh she was so proud of herself, so brave!

Cute!

Long time readers might recognize that shirt, it's the one I bought at Costco for Anthony and then realized it was a girls' shirt. I've been waiting for YEARS for someone to wear it! She was completely charming and great at Anthony's party. She was the best of the three. They had these two reindeer there and she LOVED them. They were in a little pen with two handlers and you could line up against this rope to look at them, but if you wanted to pet them, you could go under the rope. Maria felt compelled to pet them, so she was the only one under the rope and she kept looking at the reindeer, and then turning to the crowd of people behind her and making pronouncements about them. "Niiiiice!", she'd say and then turn back. "Cuuuuuute!". People were cracking up, she was really adorable. She is a brave girl, too, just sticking her hand right in the pen.

Evil

That's some look on her face, huh?

Family Portrait

Ha, this is from last week. Anthony fell asleep on the way home from school and I carried him in and he stayed asleep on that couch, with those girls all up in his grill, for like two hours! Maria is seen here drinking his apple juice while he is none the wiser. Apple juice is like CRACK to her.

I took this with my phone, it looks really tiny, God knows why.  It's hard for me to blog anymore because Veronica is a pain in the ass!  I'd love to sugar coat it but that's the truth.  All she wants to do is climb up on the computer table and throw all of my papers to the floor.  Oh, well, the papers and the phone.  And the speakers. And the modem.  You get the picture.  When we moved here, I wanted to put the computer in my bedroom but it was shut down and so here I am, SMACKING hands away and screaming PLEASE JUST GIVE MOMMY A MINUTE!  PLEASE LET MOMMY USE HER HANDS!  It's as much fun as it sounds.

Maria.  Maria is almost three years old.  Mike went to get her last week at preschool and he asked how she was and they went on and on about how good she was and how polite she is and always with the please and the thank you.  She does seem to be thriving there.

Her potty training is going very well, if you don't care about where someone poops.  If you think it's great to pee in pants but poop in them too, then it is going SWIMMINGLY.  Everyone says that at some point she will just GET IT and that's what I am hoping.  I am hoping and praying.  Because it's disgusting.

She is sleeping very well, she is a CHAMPEEN sleeper.  Anthony and Veronica are kind of a mess, in that he stays up late and Veronica wakes in the night like a newborn but Maria has been sleeping great, sleeping in til 7:00, etc.  Lately she wants to take a bath earlier and earlier, so we've started to go up like right after dinner and putting them, all three, in the tub, and then getting pajamas on and coming back downstairs.  Maria really seems to like to be in her pajamas but not in bed yet.

She loves the new house, she seems the most well-settled of all of us.  It's hard to believe that she's going to be three.  She is such a lover lately, she is big with the kisses and hugs.  "Ohhhh, Mommy!", she'll say, and hug me and pat my back.  It's very sweet and so is she.  Except when she isn't and then it makes you want to run away and join the circus.

Cheese!

She is eating Cheetos and saying Cheese here. How meta. :) She's also waving, which is why the blur. She is so funny, she kills me. Lately she's been saying "I want" when she means "I don't want". If she wants something, she says "I want want" it. It's incredibly crazy and frustrating to figure out what in the hell she's talking about. As soon as you leave a place, she starts YELLING from her seat, "I want to go hooooome!" So I say, "we ARE going home and she says "I want to gooooo hooooome!", crying and crying and I'm all, what the hell? We're going home! But then I remember that want doesn't mean want. It means don't want. Oy.

Maria loves the new house. We moved on Tuesday and on Wednesday, she said to me and Mike, "we did it! We are here at the new house!". Ha. She and Veronica are still in together and they are doing about the same as they were before. She loves the new bathroom, the tub is super nice and there is a glass door that she can play with. We are not quite settled in, really, but Maria is. She's loved having MIke home this week and has really been fun this week, outside of that want/don't want thing.

Sorry

 
Sorry I had to cut off her arm here, but she's naked. Potty training isn't going well. I am tempted to just put her back in diapers and start again in January when she's three, but I hate to admit to failure at her preschool.

No Pictures!

That's what she yelled at me when I was taking this. We had a busy day today, we went to a friend's house this morning, then to the museum, then home for a nap and then Amy came over. Still, she is unfulfilled. What can you do?

Ass

Ha ha, that shirt totally says "ASS" right there! Not really, really it says SASSY but come on! That's funny! Maria had a good day today, it's always a good day when she goes to see the teacher. Even though she did poop on the floor, here at home. Win some, lose some!

Pretty Baby

Say Hellooooo!

She loves to 'say hello!'. She and Mike play a game where she peeks out from the holes in the swingset and says, you guessed it, HELLO! She was sick today, she threw up SIX times at school. Her teacher seemed traumatized but she seemed unfazed. She told me she wanted chicken and fries (with ketchup) and juice for lunch and that's what she had, along with some birthday cake (it's Mike's birthday). Then she finally took some Tylenol and took a nap and the first thing she said to me when I went to get her from her nap was "my belly feels fine, Mommy". So. I guess she's okay. She's so determined, I told Mike, that even if she was sick, if she thought we were going to keep her home from school, she'd go holding her head in her hand.

Jungle Cat

Waiting to make her next move. Doesn't her haircut look nice? This picture represents a lot of Maria's favorite things. Her Kai Lan shirt, climing on stuff, and not wearing pants.

Halloween

Oh, she was the cutest little trick or treater.  It was just the two of us, as Veevsy wasn't feeling well and had been up all (damned) night.  But she said hi and trick or treat and thank you! and bzzzzzz when I asked her what a bee sounded like.   She charmed the pants off of our neighbors, and me too.  :)

Haircut

Maria had her first official haircut on Friday. We are always looking for somewhere to go so that we can go out in the caaaaaar, and she needed it cut, so off we went. She did very, very, extreeeemely well. I was shocked at how good she is, although I suppose it is just more proof that she is a Street Angel. It was a different experience for me, because the last time I went to one of those places, I was super pregnant with Maria and I had to HOLD Anthony the whole time he got his hair cut. But Maria watched a Diego and Dora DVD, sat in the car, and had a high old time. She even followed directions well, the woman told her to look down and she did, she kept the clips in her hair, etc. Then we got balloons and home we went. It looks adorable, not too much shorter, just nice and neat.

She had a good week, I guess. Her preschool teacher sent home a sheet that said Maria knows all these colors! and it was a lot of them. She also counted 10 pieces of candy. She is a smart cookie. Not to say too much, but she is doing better with the toilet training. It's not great but we are getting there.

Hi!

Hi! I have no intention of ever pooping in this thing, ever! NEVER! NEEEEEVVVVVEEEER!

Same Dress...

...different day.

So. Maria saw Yo Gabba Gabba this week and then this weekend we started potty training. Big week! All week I've been telling her that we were going to start wearing just underwear, no diapers, starting Saturday. Friday night Veronica woke up - well, like 2:30 Saturday morning and she was up until FIVE, so I slept in Saturday morning but Mike started the training. It's been difficult, she has only had about half success, I'd say. But once we started, there was no going back. So she is going to go to preschool tomorrow in pants and we are going to send two extra outfits, just in case. We went to the park today and she peed through TWO outfits and we had to go home, so clearly we are not great at the going-out-in-the-world part of training. But I have faith in her, she is getting the hang of it. I hope!

Yo Gabba Gabba

On her way to go see her first concert, ever. Mike took her to see Yo Gabba Gabba and she had a really good time. I'm so happy he thought of it and I'm happy he went and not me, ha!

Dip!

Dance?

She loves to make Mike and me dance, and yesterday, she asked me to dance, so I did. Sometimes I think I should practice saying NO to her more often, so that she's used to it for the real things, but I can't see denying her something like a dance, right? It's hard to say. The minute you let her do ONE thing, you have to do it forever.

Pretty Baby

She really is pretty, right? I love this picture of her, I think her hair looks nice and it was a nice time of day for sun and shadows and I love that big face on her shirt to contrast her sweet little visage. Brag much, Joanne? Ha! It's rare that I take a good picture, Mike has a much better eye for photography than I do.

Tomorrow is a fun day, indeed. Mike is home from work and Maria has preschool and Anthony has school. So don't tell Maria, but Mike and I are going to go out to breakfast with just Veronica. Mike probably dreads holidays but I love them, because he's home.

Maria has had a pretty good weekend, but my LORD she never stops with the bossing.

Go car! Go play! Donut! Cookie! Milk! Grilled cheese! Go car! Go play! Go play now! It's exhausting. I told my sister, she drives me crazy with the talking and then she'll say "Mommy? How's your eye?" out of nowhere, and it's super cute and all is forgiven.