Makena-ism

Today in the pool

Makena: Mama. Mama! Push me in.

Me: Okay. (gently pushes her off the step & into the pool)

Makena: (swimming back to the step) That was so not cool, Mom! (in her best 13-year-old accent)

Sigh... I guess it starts young.

Above - a couple of pictures from, last month, I think - we drove to the lake for the day, hiked around a bit, threw the stick for Lola, & had a picnic lunch. All in all a fun Sunday!

So long!

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have written here.  I have had a hard time finding the time.  Well, let's see - the girls are good.  Michael and I are good.  Lola's good.  

Makena:  We had our last day of the Parent/Child program at Sac Waldorf.  We were so sad to say goodbye to Teacher Marie.  It was great to have that special time with just Makena and I each week.  I am pretty sure she looked forward to it and I know I did.  Thanks to Auntie Debi to watching Tayler on Tuesdays so we could have that.  Makena starts preschool in the Fall.  How is that possible?  My kid is going into preschool...   She is loving the pool so far this summer.  Not as daring as she was last year, but still getting braver each day.  I think after we go through swim lessons again then she will be swimming the length of the pool again.  I am hoping to put her in soccer in the fall as well.  The girl can kick a ball!

Tayler:  She had her last "Tayler Tot Tuesday" with Auntie Debi.  I know she LOVED having that time with her auntie.  Even for the last couple of months when she had to share Auntie with Baby Declan every other week.    Tay and I will be doing the Parent/Child class next year with Teacher Marie and also a dance class once a week.  It will be fun to have some one on one time with her.   Tay is enjoying the pool this year too.  She is getting braver on the big step & even trying to practice her "kickers" while her Daddy or I float her around the pool.  

Lola:  Our sweet Pitbull.  Not much new with her.  She is still the non-barking, food-loving, girl. A dog park is opened just down the street & she is definitely a fan.

Michael:  Is working hard - both on MKM Customs (on ebay) and with Wakeair.  

Me:  Having tons of fun, and staying busy staying home with the girls.  Although "staying home" is a relative term.  We are BUSY!  There are days I'd like to tear my hair out - but I think that's normal.  We have a lot of fun though.  The girls crack me up every day.  The things they say, the things they do... 

I'm going to say as I always do - I am hoping to keep this updated more often.

A couple pics...

And for whatever reason - they post to the top!

   

Updates

My baby girl is 3...  Three!  

I posted some pics on my facebook page.  Check them out there.  I still have not mastered posting them here.

Girls are good.  Michael and I are good.

Need to finish cleaning my kitchen after the party yesterday.  I'll post some more tomorrow.

I'll leave you with a Makena-ism.

When she has to poop on the potty she likes privacy - no one in there with her.

What she asks for:

"Mama, please leave, I need private seat."

I LOVE that kid!

Half marathon

I figure the more people I tell - then I cannot flake out.  That and doing early registration.   Christina and I are going to run a half marathon in May.  She ran it last year, but only trained four times....  Her feet paid the price, so she wanted to do it right this year.  And she roped me into it.  

No really, I do love running, but haven't done it in YEARS.  So - carrying around a little extra baby weight - I am excited to have started training with Chrissy and getting back in shape.  It feels so great to be back into it.  We are starting slow, but boy am I still feeling it.  Lola is LOVING it!  

So I'll keep everyone updated on our progress.  I am looking forward to it!

We have a new dog park close to our house.  Lola loves it.  So far we have not met other dogs there that actually want to play with her.  They have all been ball dogs - but we are hoping.  She really is a dog's dog and misses her Bear.  We are considering rescuing an middle-aged Rottie.  It will be awhile yet, but I think she would love it.   The girls like the walk to the dog park and enjoy watching Lola run around like a crazy pup.

Here are a few other pics just for fun.   Kena wanted me to take a picture of our feet one day... Silly girl.  We went to playgroup today and she & Tay had a great time.  Ken & Kandice's house remodel is gorgeous.  For the first time in forever all the girls & kids were there.  They all actually played nicely together.  

Okay - still having issues with the pictures...  Will update tomorrow.

Hey - two times in one week!  Pretty good...

Time to play catch up

A New Year's resolution for me:   update this blog at least once a week!

We have been up to a lot since my last post:

Makena is potty-trained, day & night!  It happened one weekend a few months ago and we haven't looked back.  Of course there has been an accident here or there, but for the most part she is doing excellent.  We are so proud of her & mama is happy to only be washing diapers for one.  

Tayler turned one on November 16.  Wow - the year has flown by.   She took her first step the Tuesday before her birthday, but neither Michael or I saw it. She was with Auntie Debi while Kena and I were at our once a week Parent/Child class at the Waldorf school.  Darn it!   She is walking and practically running now, way past the early monkey walk.   She still doesn't have many words, but the girl knows how to get her point across.  She is signing more, all-done and we are working on please, thank you, milk, and eat.  Speaking of milk, we are still nursing about 4 to 5 times a day & unfortunately, 2-3 times during the night...   I keep telling myself she will be sleeping through the night soon.   Makena was well on the way to weaning by this time, but I think it will be some time before Tay is ready.  

Christina & Dan got married on Oct 25 - in Reno at the courthouse.   We were halfway there & running late when we realized we left our garmet bag & toiletry bag at home...  But hey, at least the girls look cute!  It was a sweet & simple ceremony and we are so excited to have Daniel as an official member of the family.  Poor guy!  

Declan Harty Leonard was born on December 16, 2008.  Welcome little cousin!  He is as cute as can be.  In the picture is the first time that the girls and I got to see him.    For those that don't know the other gal in the picture is Jan (or Granjan) Declan's other grandma, Kali's mom.    

We had a wonderful Christmas with family.  Of course we missed all of our family that could not be with us.   This was our first Christmas with out Bear and that was a bit weird.  We found some old photos of him the other night and then the next morning Michael was making me an espresso drink and there was a Bear hair in my cup!  We always said that we would be finding his hair for the next 20 years.  We miss you Buddy!  

I especially missed him the other night.  We have always closed the girls doors at night.  We have monitors in their rooms, but you don't always hear everything.  Tayler woke up and I went in to get her and noticed that Kena's door was open.  First thing I did was look at the alarm panel - still red.  With my heart in my chest I walk in and she's still sound asleep.  Whew!    If Bear was still with us I would not have even looked at the alarm because he was such an amazing guard dog.    He was the kind of dog that didn't bark, just to bark - only when he thought there was danger.  He was one of a kind.  Lola, while I love her to bits - so not a guard dog.  While some are intimidated just because she is a pitt bull, she just as soon love you to death than anything else.    Turns out that Makena woke up and didn't want her door closed, so she opened it and went back to bed.  That happened a couple nights in a row, so now we leave her door open.  

We took the girls to the snow last weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  There was not much interest in sledding - but playing in it was a big hit.  Michael would stick Tay down in the drifts and she thought it was the funniest thing.  We threw snowballs, ate snow, and enjoyed the beauty of it.  Tayler was tired & hungry so she and I headed back to the truck for awhile, but Daddy & Kena stayed out for another hour or so.  They even built a snowman! We took Lola, but it was a bit hectic with two kids,  two sleds, so she got out for a bit, but had to hang out in the SUV for most of it.  Poor girl - but she did enjoy the car ride.  

Okay - and not sure what the deal is with the pictures...   I am trying to figure out how to move them around.  I did have them in order of how things came up in the blog, but I don't know what happened.  So hopefully future posts will be a bit more organized!  

Things to remember

I have been terrible about keeping this up to date.  But here are a few things I want to remember. 

From Makena:

When she wants to do something again she'll say :  "One last more.  Just one last more."  so cute. 

 Every thing is five.  She can count higher (in English & Spanish) but when we see a ton of birds in the sky and I ask how many she says "Five!  There are five mama!"  Also when she wants something (like M&Ms) she wants five.   

Tayler:

Yesterday she was standing holding onto a toy- let go - and stayed standing by herself!  She did it twice - not too long before she's walking I bet.   She says doll.  When she picks up a dolly she will look at me and say doll over & over.   So her words so far:  Bath, Dada, Mama, Doll and she says something for Kena, but haven't been able to make it out yet.  

In other things, we are still at a stand still with potty training.  She goes every night before bed, & sporadically throughout the day.  Tayler is still up once a night, but getting closer to sleeping through the night.  We went away last weekend to a friend's wedding & stayed overnight without the girls.  We had a great time, but I forgot a part to my pump - my boobs were a bit painful...   Aunt Debi & Uncle Dave took the girls for us and they did great!   I should be getting some pics emailed to me soon - so I'll show you what we look like all dressed up.

Once I figure out how to post pics easier here I'll get some new ones up!

Way too long

I know it has been way too long since the last time I posted...  A lot has happened, my baby girl Makena has become a  big girl over night it seems.  She can swim half the length of the pool - UNDERWATER!!   She is still not potty trained, sigh, but what can I do.  We started her Parent/Child Program at the Waldorf school and I LOVE it.  She had so much fun and so did I. The two hours flew by.  We had free play, painting, circle time, lunch and a very fun walk to the river & the farm.  She got to see a llama, sheep, a cow, a pig, chickens (& feed them), a goose, & a cat.

Tayler, meanwhile, had a ton of fun with Auntie Debi during school time for Makena.  Thank you Auntie Debi for all that you do for us!  Tayler is almost sleeping through the night, most nights.  She sleeps from about 8/8:30 until about 6am, then comes to bed with Daddy & Mama until about 7am when sister wakes up.  She is babbling a ton.  Still only talks about the bath, but I would swear she's saying Dada some days.  She waved unprompted to Daddy as he was leaving today.  We do walk him out each day.  

We have figured out why Makena is no longer sleeping until 7am... The train...  The other morning Mike went in her room and she said "Daddy, the choo, choo wake me up - it LOUD."  And then there is the Dish Network dish that is not in use, but they apparently do not take down the old ones.  It is mounted outside her closet & is super loud squeaking when it is windy. Mike is working on getting th

at down this week.  As for the train... we tried putting the humidifier in her room on high and even it wasn't loud enough to drown out the whistle when Makena is in the light time of sleep.  

Michael is back in the Real Estate profession.  So any referrals send his way.  He is really excited about this new endeavor.  

I will leave you with a couple pics, with more to come!

Tay's first popsicle