Cupcakes and Tea Parties...

1st Dance Class

A friend of mine invited us to a drop-in dance class... it was so fun. Maeve had a great time. We had breakfast with our friends, Courtney, Jenn, and Keegan and invited them along to have fun too.

Maeve and Keegan. Super cute. Its fun watching them form a really nice friendship.

Say it as it is...

"Ewwwwww Gross!!" Another favorite saying at the moment... So funny. Especially when 'gross' is pronounced 'gwoss'.

Valentine's Day...

How much food coloring is okay for a kid to ingest? There was a lot of pink and a lot of hearts going on today. As it should be, right? We had fun embracing the day... eating a lot... and giving away treats.

A minor craft project to make it more festive...

Awaiting Maeve when she woke up. First thing she did was shove a chocolate heart in her mouth. Like mother, like daughter...

There were pink pancakes served...

'Look mom -- the milk is pink!!'

And, then we got all dressed up because....

...we had a tea party with one of our favorite people ever -- Annie! (Note the freshly baked cinnamon rolls with pink icing on them, thank you very much...)

Maeve enjoyed pouring us both tea... Maeve also enjoyed turning our tea party into a water table!

Then there was a valentine's story from one of Maeve's valentine's...

We had fun today delivering a bunch of our valentine treats this afternoon too. We both inhaled way too much sugar. Maeve is comatose and I'm coming down from my sugar high now. Hope everyone had a lovely day :-)

Single Mom Playgroup...

What are the chances that there would be so many of us living in the same city? We've started up a single mom's play group that meets once a month -- and all of our kids were born in Ethiopia. Its so awesome because the mom's are really cool and the kids are really sweet, and cute. We're rotating houses and eating yummy Ethiopian food too... we partied at our house this month. Check it out:

Thankful...

I am thankful for my community of friends and family for all that they do and provide us. We are very fortunate to be the recipients of gifts and hand-me-downs, but what I feel the most thankful for are the relationships we have. As a single mom I want to raise Maeve well -- that includes her emotional well being. Being a girl, I tend to spend a significant amount of time around all my girlfriends, but I am cognizant of the fact that Maeve needs solid male role models in her life. This fact helps guide some of the decisions I need to make for Maeve. This is partly why I choose the preschool room that she is in -- there are 2 male teachers. I want Maeve to have consistent men in her life that are purposeful in investing in her. We have many male friends that are very good at giving Maeve attention... but there are a couple that I've asked specifically if they could spend some purposeful one on one time with Maeve, so that she could get that positive attention from quality men, and feel special and loved. An example of this is Dan.

Dan is the closest man in Maeve's life -- without a doubt they both love each other. Dan met Maeve at her Valentine's craft party at school last week because I had to work. I got a phone call later that day from a friend of mine who saw them together just to tell me how great Dan was with Maeve.... he was so attentive and caring. It just makes you feel so good to know that your child is loved, and have that be obvious to others that don't even know him.

Mike is another handpicked male figure for Maeve. Although we don't live in the same town, whenever we do get to see each other he makes it a point to make Maeve feel special. He loves Maeve, she knows it, and its reciprocated too. Both Dan and Mike are Maeve's godparents and they have proven themselves to be good choices. I wasn't worried :-)

And, of course my brother, Todd. Maeve loves him and I think Todd's loving having a little person around again. I couldn't be happier that we now live so close to each other again... its huge for both Maeve and I to have his whole family here now.

Honestly, we are so lucky to have so many involved friends and family in our lives. I knew they were awesome before I brought Maeve home, but it is remarkable to me how amazing they are with Maeve... which makes me love all of them even more.

She Makes Me Laugh...

Her latest saying makes me laugh, because she says it like she's all grown up and knows she's making a joke... She comes up to something that isn't quite right and says, "wait a second....."

Valentine Yumminess...

We made and decorated cookies this morning...

Showing off our creations. Yes, I know... she's too far off the counter.

Partying Even in Her Sleep...

A Couple of Things...

Here are a few things Maeve has learned this week...

Maeve can now spell her name

Maeve knows her birthday

Maeve is turning into more of a monkey - and climbing doesn't come without a few consequences...

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Heard just yesterday...

Maeve -- "Let's skype Dora"

Me -- "I'm not sure that Dora is on skype, honey"

Maeve -- "Let's skype Boots then"

Snow Time...

I was bitter that I missed out on all the snow fun a few weeks ago, therefore I packed Maeve and I up for a quick sledding trip in the mountains today. The weather has been unbelievable lately, but I heard its supposed to turn back to rain tomorrow, so I wanted to make the most of it...

Fun was had by all...

Another Funny Sleeping Photo...

Annie got her this balloon earlier in the week, which was just hanging out in her room. It would appear that Maeve wanted some Annie loving as she fell asleep.

Ummm. And, don't worry, I moved it away. Glad she didn't strangle herself in the lovefest...

She Has Moves...

...which she proved at the local Farmer's Market today. Check it out:






We had the most beautiful weekend... every single person in the city was out doing something. I even managed to dust off my runners yesterday while Maeve urged me on with, "Go Mommy Go" all around the lake. It felt good....

Hand-me-downs...

Anna provides us with 90% of Maeve's clothing (even though she refuses to wear the really cool outfits most of the time). We got another bag the other night, so Maeve and I had fun seeing what her latest wardrobe would consist of. I so wish I had taken a picture of Maeve going to bed, but I wasn't willing to risk our bedtime routine with a photo session -- she wore 2x too big jammies, size 10 sandals (2 sizes too big), halloween socks, mittens, and a winter hat... it was so funny....

She ditched the hat and mittens in her sleep...

The next night she still wanted to wear the winter hat to bed...

And, this one is just funny.

A Moment in Time...

Well, Maeve is definitely two and half these days.... The days are filled with fun, excitement, dancing, singing, questions, disagreements, arbitration proceedings, snuggles, story time, play time, and to the sheer delight of Maeve, occasional Dora time too. (Oh wow, she is enamoured by that adventurous spanish speaking girl. She likes to tell me stories as to what Dora did and said. Pretty funny). Anywho, I feel like I should document a few of the other things that are heard around the house these days...

"Moooom.... I have a question" -- which is followed by a statement or story, but not, in fact, a question.

"I can do it" -- for everything. Everything.

"Mooooom.... I neeeeeeed you" -- heard whenever she can't see me.

"One time..." -- starts a story about what she or someone else did.

"Okay" -- heard whenever I'm asking her to stop doing what she's doing. "Okay" is almost never followed up with the stopping action. She just keeps her head down, never looks up, and carries on doing what she wants to do, all the while saying, "okay".

"I mean..." -- scattered throughout the stories she's telling.

She can be a wee bit bossy from time to time. She's so busy trying to control her world that she runs around and tries to tell everyone what or what not to do.

She's upped the number of wardrobe changes each day to about 20. She also likes to layer up sweaters 2-3 at a time and insists on all the buttons being done up. Its a good look, I promise you.

She's quite close to being able to operate zippers.

She likes to point out matching colors.

She can be found carrying a step stool all over the house trying to reach anything and everything.

She will scale mountains to get a hold of my iPhone. If she's being particularly quiet and not in my sight, I know that she made a successful snatch.

Potty talk is hysterical to her. She often doesn't follow the rules that potty talk should only happen in the bathroom because she's so busy telling me the words that should only be said in the bathroom. Also, she'll sometimes run into the bathroom and say all the potty words she knows and then run out again, or she'll just put one foot in the bathroom and spout potty talk. She thinks its so so funny. I'm so proud.

Its wild how quickly she's growing up and she's no longer a baby at all... she's a little person with thoughts, ideas, likes, dislikes, and opinions. I love her to death.