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.