Mike

I was looking at Mike's pictures on his phone and found this, isn't it cute? You can tell how much she loves him in this picture. I was reading this thing the other day about how you shouldn't, like, tell your husband what to do with the kids because if you get too harpy they might find themselves separating from the kids, because they can't take the criticism, or something. I have to admit, I kind of though, oh boo hoo, poor babies, they can't take any criticism for when they are doing something WRONG and now you have made them ignore their CHILDREN, is the message, right? But anyway this is all to say that Mike is an excellent father to these three and he has more patience than anyone I know and they all love him so much. Look at the way she is looking at him! It kills me, kind of.

Pretty

Isn't she pretty?  I just noticed V's little hand down there on the left, ha!  Poor Maria - I just put her down for a nap, she was up early early again today and then she spends the morning so tired.  And so, so bossy.  She really doesn't like to see you idle, she's all 'time to lean, time to clean'.  We got home at 12:30 last night, which, sure, is late, but it's later still if Veronica is up.  I went in and gave her some water and a hug and put her back and she yelled for quite a while.  Then Maria was up way before 5:00 and I went in and told HER to go back to bed but when Veronica started howling again at 5:00, I guess it was too much so Mike went and got them both at 6:00.  Now they are both napping by 11:30 and they'll be up by 1:30 and then around 4:00 everyone will go insane and all of our heads will pop off.  Fun!

Ooh she is an actor!

Contemplating her Feet

Stairs

She wanted to get her picture taken too, once she saw that I was taking Anthony's on the stairs. She is a funny baby, she did very well at this bounce place we went to. She is afraid of nothing, which I'm sure is no surprise.

Sweet

She is a pain, as ever, but she really is a joy, too. Mike's mom was here today and she said we must have such fun with her and we really do. She is so smart and funny. Lately, she has been doing her 'dancey dance' from Yo Gabba Gabba and it's perfect. I mean, it is line for line memorized and she's so cute and enthusiastic about it.

She used to be so grumpy when she was a baby, remember? And now she is truly the sweetest thing. She's very demanding and she still drives me crazy - she cries, loudly, because she knows it bothers Anthony and that we'll do almost anything to make it stop. But mostly I think that's smart and wiley, as well as annoying. We will all be happier when the weather gets a little bit better, but for now, she's fine. She has school tomorrow and she CAN'T WAIT. SHE LOVES SCHOOOOOL!

Three!

She's been three for two days now and while I'd like to report that we've had a big turnaround with the potty training, I can't. But she is a fun three year old, I have to say. She is smart and she has a crazy big vocabulary. She has some trouble with saying, like, "she" about Veronica. This morning she kept saying "he has it! he haaaaas it!", and Anthony was lying on his bed, so I was like WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?, but she meant Veronica.

We have finally finished her cupcakes. We made 18 of the damned things and she had them morning noon and night and now, thankfully, they are gone. I used this great cupcake icing, which I totally recommend. It's Betty Crocker or something and it comes with a few different tips but I just used the flower one and it made for really good looking cupcakes. Sadly, I don't think I got a picture, because - well, because I was always icing the damned cupcakes and couldn't get the camera too. It's very hard to do anything around here. I wish I could wear a large apron, like ... oh, I picture a welder or something, like a big leather apron, with hooks and pockets. Then I figure I could put my camera, my phones, the clicker, wipes, tissues, like everything I need in it all day. Because I never have what I need. Veronica has had a runny nose for six months or so and I am always running out of tissues.

We are going to open gym today, my friend Emily's tomorrow, and then it will be the weekend. I still hate the weekends, especially in the winter, but these weeks are such a grind and so hard that I'm always grateful for the possibility of rest, even if it doesn't materialize. Maria starts ballet in two weeks and I'm excited. It's such a good deal, from our parks system. She can really find out if she likes something before we sink a billion dollars into it. I don't know if she'll like ballet, but a lot of my friends' kids have done it and it looks super cute. Plus I like the idea of someone telling her to do something and her doing it. God knows that doesn't happen much around here.

Sweet

She read that whole book to Veronica. She wasn't great with the words, but her intent was great! She had her birthday party snack time thing at school today and I think she got a kick out of it. She also peed on the floor today, I'm hoping for a 'last hurrah' type thing. What else. She is doing this cute thing, where she puts her hands in the pocket of her coat, while we're outside. She does it as soon as she goes out and as soon as her hands get through the car seat straps. It's super cute. She has been enjoying Cinderella and Peter Pan a lot, lately. She gets up on a chair, takes out whatever DVD is in there, grabs the one she wants and puts it in the player and hits play. I know that this might seem sort of nothing to others, but it's a big deal to me. Every day I feel like I have a new experience with Maria, like I've never been a parent before. It's interesting - it's great and it's also sort of sad, to me. Anyways, she's three tomorrow!

Haircut

I took the girls to get their hairs cut on Friday.  It was snowy, and we usually go to my friend Emily's house on Fridays and Maria was all pushed (as usual) to go somewhere, so off we went.  It went really well, especially with Maria.  She went first and watched her Dora/Diego video that she had picked out.

I never understand these kid haircut places, though. I suffer through taking them when they are this little but that's it.  I think that the hair girls are kind of clueless about children and I'm not asking them to be an expert in child development or anything, but to be disappointed that Maria couldn't "freeze like a statue" or "look down at Dora!" for a long time is kind of stupid, to me.  I *understand* that they have to look down in order to cut the back of their hair, but here's an idea - bend at the legs!  I sort of stood behind Maria to sort of hold her head and she was fine but I mean really.

Veronica didn't do so great, and it reminded me of how weird expectations are.  Veronica used to be so sweet and compliant and Maria has always been, well, Maria, and I couldn't be more wrong about how I thought they'd behave at a place like this.  One thing that is always true about Maria, though, is that she NEVER wants to leave anywhere.  I do everything, I tell her five minutes, three minutes, etc., before we leave and it never fails.  She ALWAYS yells and cries before we go.

She will be three years old on Tuesday.  Tomorrow at school, she (we) is bringing the snack and I'm going to send in birthday cupcakes.  I'm also thinking of getting her a little birthday crown for school.  I really want to have a fun week of birthday-ness, since we're not doing a big party.  I can't believe she's three, but what I can't believe MORE is that she is still not going to go to school for two and a half years.  That feels so long to me, I think really?  Really just a little less time than her whole LIFE up til now is how long we wait before she's in school?  Maybe once we start ballet and have a little more going on, it will go faster but for right now?  STILL PRETTY SLOW.

The Artist at Work

She was sick today and couldn't go to preschool, after a two week break! Can you imagine? It was horrible, HORRIBLE, but even she knew she couldn't go this morning when she had thrown up twice before 7:00. She got better all day, then worse, then better, and now I think she really is better. She wanted to paint on the easel, which was a gift from Laura, and she stopped and said "I need my hat! Mommy, you know where my hat is?" So I told her it was in the trunk and she went and got it and went right to work. It was a super funny and cute thing during a long-ass day.