Jungle Cat

Ha, she looks like a crazed lunatic here, right? She loves that driveway and she is a heck of a runner. What she lacks in ability, she makes up for with sheer ferociousness! Lord, no one has ever driven me so crazy and made me so happy. She didn't take a nap yesterday, we were busy all day and she just never got time, so it was a long day, but she was pretty good about it. Yesterday she slept until like 7:45, which is unheard of, but today (Saturday), she of course was up before 6:30. Soon I am going to get her a clock that shows what time she can get up, and I hope she'll just bum around in her room until maybe 7:00.

She'll start her summer camp a week from Tuesday and I am going to start her in swim lessons next week, too, I hope. Then later in the summer, I am hoping she can take some swim lessons with some friends. I want to talk about what our goals are for this summer for Maria, but I feel like she has had so many goals met here recently, I hate to push it. I guess I'd like to her mind me more. I'd like her to learn to control the volume of her voice, because sometimes I think she is seriously going to shatter my eardrums. She is LOUD. She is screaming her head off right now, out in the driveway and I am in the front of the house and I feel like she is sitting next to me. Mike will get up with her in the morning and take her downstairs and try and keep her quiet and I still feel like she is there on the pillow. I hope she has fun at her camp and I hope she makes some friends, I hope she keeps up with ballet and I hope she learns some swimming. That should be okay, right? But mostly I hope she can do the volume control thing.

Old One Eye

This is a dirty look, with just one eye, can you tell? She was mad today because we couldn't go outside on the deck and go swimming, because there was a tornado watch. I let her go out later, when it was better. She's not really a weather girl, ha. Today she was watching Dora and they interrupted to say the National Weather Service has issued a blah blah blah you know and she kept saying "okay, weather! Thanks, weather! BYE, WEATHER!". Ha!

She just went to bed, which is always my favorite time of day. She is so much of a person. She is like hanging around with Liza Minelli or something. We went to a playgroup today and before we left we had a conversation that went like this:

M: Can we go now?
J: Not yet.
M: Now?
J: Not yet.
M: Now?
J: Not yet.
M: Now?
J: Not yet.
M: Apple juice?

Then we went to the playgroup and she kept coming upstairs and asking "do you want to come play?". I told her no many times but she kept checking, maybe so as not to hurt my feelings? Ha, so considerate! We start at the camp a week from Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to it, I know she'll do great. Two of her good friends from ballet are going away for a while and she'll miss them, I'm glad she's going to be busy with something. She's so gorgeous though, right? My sister Laura pointed out how good her hair looks in this picture. It's the little things, sometimes.

Wednesday

We are almost halfway through Maria's first week with no preschool. We have kept pretty busy, Monday we went to my mom and dad's, Tuesday we went to the museum and today we went to a playgroup. I was telling my sister today, I have to find a way to ... to receive Maria better. I was almost crying to Mike today on the phone, I can't take it, I told him, if she is going to DEMAND to know what we are doing from the time she wakes up until we do the thing. Then we get in the car, I told him, to go to the playgroup, and she demands to know if we are there yet, again every five seconds. It's insane! She is the most relentless person I've ever met, with the best memory of anyone I know. But I can't get mad at her because she's smart! I am happy that she's smart, I'm HAPPY that she talks to me, and I guess I shouldn't be too choosy about how often she says things.

I took this picture Monday, she was THRILLED that she still needed to wear a jacket. She loves to wear jackets, because she doesn't really associate it with the fact that it's still FREEZING in May. She wears those headbands of mine like that, it's very Olivia Newton John/Let's Get Physical, right?

Tomorrow we are going to the Y, after Veronica's speech therapy. I always pray and pray on Wednesday nights that speech therapy goes well, that I'm not too crazed by the end. Then I always march into that Y, ready to explode because it went so badly. But maybe it will go better tomorrow. Some day it's going to go better. Some day. I hope it's before October, because then I really will go nuts.

Happy

She's a happy person, mostly. Of course, I'd be happy to, if I just screamed orders at people all day and they did whatever I said. Not really. I was just telling my Dad, in the last five months, Maria moved houses, moved out of her crib, got toilet trained, and got rid of her pacifier during the day. She does all this with her brother spending a large part of his time at home screaming and yelling and flopping on the floor. Maybe not a LARGE part but a significant part, I should say. She is also, for the most part, incredibly nice and kind to Veoronica. She is super smart and precocious, I think.

She goes to ballet with her two friends Carlotta (Charlie) and Emma. They love each other and get very excited to see one another. Apparently, they are WILD in class, their teacher told me today. I think she likes them though, and I can see why, they are sweet. Even when she is driving me crazy, I can still see it.

This week we opened the pool, which is just a big tin bucket that I fill with water. I have a pool for them but I forget where it is - probably in storage, so this bucket seems to be working for now.

Maria has slept until 7:00 the last three days, which is like a miracle - it's like noon for her, practically. She has also been napping not at all or for a shorter time, so I guess maybe her nap is on it's way out.

I'll miss it, but mostly because I like to have a break sometimes from her talking at me. So maybe I'll get some noise canceling headphones, ha!

Me and Maria

Ugh, pictures. The worst. But I have to have pictures of us, so I am not caring if I have two pens in my hair or I am all pregnant and horrible looking. She is ... it's so weird, she is always with me, ALWAYS. Even when she goes to bed, she shouts out every 15 minutes or so until she goes to sleep. She wakes up in the night and Mike goes into her, and she wants to know if it's time to get up yet. We have those long drives to school, she goes with me to get Anthony, she is part of Veronica's therapy, she is just - she is the most present person ever. I'm lucky that she is so smart and charming and funny, I suppose. Still, on days like today, when she won't take a nap because she fell asleep on the way home from school, I am still sick of her. Ha!

She is wearing her Dora shirt in this picture, she loves it and is obsessed with it. If she could wear that shirt or her Kai Lan shirt every day, she would. I do laundry every day and it's still not enough to keep up with her demands for these two shirts, it's crazy. And it's getting small! She seems to have shot up here lately, she is tall and getting a little leaner.

Today at school she was sent home with a little plant for me for mother's day, but I had to get her teacher to REMIND her that it was for me and not her. She is not really down with the concept yet, ha!