Sunday

 

Ooh she is a crazy girl. My sister came over today and she stayed for hours but I'm telling you, I wouldn't have blamed her if she left after 10 minutes, solely because of Maria. She is sick, feverish, but has no other symptoms except the ever present BAD ATTITUDE. Holy crap! You can not believe how much crying and how little sleeping she has done today. I took Veronica and her for a walk this morning, yesterday too, and the two of them groused almost the entire way. Yesterday Maria fell asleep sitting up and refused to lie back and be comfortable. I will never understand her. What's the problem, I ask her? Too much good weather? Fresh air getting you down? Riding around in a stroller like the freaking QUEEN of ENGLAND some kind of bummer? Sheesh.

Haircut?

 
I suppose she could use a haircut.

Mid Swing

 
We are really struggling with her sleeping. Last night, she didn't make noise all night but she started to cry to get up at 5:00, which is ridiculous. I have to put her down for a nap this morning, there's no way she can take just one today. I can't believe she is 19.5 months old and we're still doing two naps, even *Anthony* was on one nap by now, for months! Ugh. This picture was taken yesterday, in a dress from my mom that is getting really small on her.

Bags

 
She is crazy about hanging bags around her neck. Every time my sister comes over, she eyes that bag until she can get it, then tries to open it and take everything out. She is a crazy person. We put her to bed early again tonight, we'll see how she does!

Trouble

 
I put Maria to bed earlier last night than normal. We usually take her up at 6:30 and I took her up last night at 6:15. I read in my sleep book that night wakings might be caused by lack of sleep, so I am trying to fix it. She didn't wake up all night and she had been up several times the night before, so that's good. She was awake at 5:50, which STINKS but we'll work on that once we get her bedtime figured out. I also want to get her down to one nap but I also really want her to go away in the mornings, so that's a rough one too. :)

Proof

 
She is difficult! I was saying "smile, Maria!" and she does the exact opposite. Maria = Mean.

Shooooooooe!

 
Sigh. She is a demanding little personality. These shoes!

Mike's Mom

 
...got her this cute and fitting shirt!

This is Cute, too

 
Right? Look, at that face on Maria! It's hard to believe that she's the DEVIL, isn't it?

Sisters

 
Aren't they cute?

Fair

 

We had fun at the Fair, we took all three of them! Maria is a teeny bit too young to appreciate the cows and other animals, I think, but she loves to go places so it was fun for her. She also doesn't understand where she SHOULD have her head in this picture! Ha!

Nineteen Months

 
Oh Maria. At nineteen months, she can say a billion words. Today she put two together, she said "Juice! More!" She is also reading, I guess. How is this possible? Maybe she's not, maybe she's just recognizing words but ... isn't that reading? It is CRAZY, my Mom is always showing her this "Teach Your Baby to Read" dvd and I thought it was nonsense but of course now if you show her a card that says "Cats" she says "Cat! Meow!" and if you show her a card that says "Arms Up" she puts her arms up. If it says "tongue" she sticks hers out and says "tongue". I don't know. It is really blowing my mind. She is as mean as ever, super impatient and will not take "no, no" for an answer. She has a short fuse, to understate it. But she is beautiful. Thank God.

Helping

 

Car Seat

 
Trying to get in the car seat. This is one of my favorite outfits.

Sock!

 
Oh Lord, the socks and shoes that get put on this girl around here. Here she is, in her pajamas, early in the day, with SHOES on and Mike's SOCKS over them. She is insane.

Hat

 
Ooh she was mad at this hat! Almost as mad as she was at the bowl on her head the other day. She is like Scarlett O'Hara, she gets madder faster than anyone I've ever known. And I know ME!

Handy Maria

 
Ha, not really handy. I put this gate back up the other day - well, Mike had to help me - and I guess she was watching. Maybe she was trying to take it back down?

Eat!

 

Poison

 
She loves the poison cabinet. Anthony did too. I'm sure it's just a matter of time for Veronica.

Holy.Crap.

 
That is funny! She was messing around this morning, she slept until 7:20 when Mike finally went up to check on her. That has never happened, but she was as nasty as ever later, demanding to EAT! but then pushing my hand back with everything I offered. She is upstairs now, banging away in her crib.

Lunatics

 
...running the asylum. They LOVE to be up on those damned countertops.

Tired

 
Maria had no nap yesterday, except a brief one in the morning. Then we had to go to my parent's house because our power was out for ten hours. She had a rough afternoon because she would NOT nap there. My dad said, and it's true, she is not very flexible about where she'll sleep. It's very rare that we go anywhere during her nap, though, so I'm not worried about it. She goes down for a nap or bed so well I can't complain. Ha, well as you all know I *can* complain, but I won't about this particular thing!

She always rubs her ear when she's tired. If she has her Nuk in her mouth, she automatically does it, it's super cute. All she's missing is a blanket.

Oven

 
She had just learned how to open and crawl in the oven. She is crazy, up with the birds, she screams at least once in the night and I think, "we know, Maria! We know you're up there!". But she certainly is sunshiney and happy when she is. This morning she was singing Old McDonald and it nearly broke my heart, her sitting there in Anthony's pajamas, singing Old McDonald. It made me think of when he would sing "E, I, E, I....ho?" I try not to compare them, but it's impossible. I think it's impossible with typical children and it's really hard to not do with Anthony and Maria. But I'm trying.

Eat!

 
 
As often as not, when she says "eat" she means babyfood fruit. She eats real food, too, but she enjoys drinking the baby food. I should probably start to make smoothies, but I am a lazybones. :)

Saturday Morning

 
Maria slept all night last night, except one 11:00 hour screamfest. She's tired here, though. I'm trying to get her to go down to one nap a day, but she wakes up so early, it's hard to do.