A Moment in Time...

Well... life is certainly full and exciting as ever here in our household.  I think we've turned a corner at the moment, but we had some challenging behavior over the last few weeks which had me buy more wine than normal.  Ha ha.  Thank goodness these little people are so funny and loving most of the time, because they sometimes make you earn it.

Here are some funny things heard around here lately....

I seriously think that I have a tween sometimes.  I am constantly hearing, 'Oh man.....', or 'Seriously....' or 'Oh my Gosh!....' and other dramatic exclamations.

"I told you....." fill-in-the-blank.  Apparently she's psychic.... she knows how everything pans out.

"No boys allowed".  She is super fixated on girls vs boys at the moment.  Fortunately some of her closer boy friends have managed to remain in the inner circle, but everyone else is out.  She has been known to throw toys out of her room and declaring them 'boy toys' because of their particular color scheme, ie, they are not in the pink or purple family, I guess.  Thankfully, she often realizes their fun value eventually and plays with them again -- that is, until the diva returns in her :-)

I love to listen to her dialogue when she's play acting with her dolls.  Its like a little window into her world at daycare.  Apparently, being really good on the monkey bars is a status thing... Her dolls seem to get into conflict easily -- fortunately, they also seem to be able to work it out quickly too.  Ha.

She is focused on the number 100.  When she tells a story, most things tend to be a 100 somethings.  For example, her teacher was on holidays last week, and Maeve said that she was gone for 100 days.  There were 100 people invited to her birthday party this past weekend too, apparently.

Everything is a competition and she needs to come out on the winning side.  This was funny to hear when Amy and I were lugging the kids around on our bikes a couple of days ago.  Maeve kept telling Amy that we were beating them and that we were faster than them etc...  We were also one kid lighter than them too... but the fairness doesn't interest Maeve.  I heard Maeve say to her friend today, who was also born in Ethiopia and has adoptive parents, that her birth dad is bigger than her friend's birth dad.  Ha ha.  There is no limit or line to what she'll ante up.

Maeve is very much fixated on her birthday coming up in a few days.  And, because her birthday party was this past weekend, its a big part of her conversation right now.  If you are in Maeve's good books or she simply just likes you, apparently you are coming to her birthday.  If you fall outside of that, you cannot come to her birthday.  This also applies to fictional characters too.  For example, Fancy Nancy is coming to her birthday, but her little sister, JoJo, is not -- because she is naughty.  There are a couple of technical difficulties to her party plans, but fortunately we don't have to work out the bugs for another whole year... not sure that Maeve is picking up on this concept though.

This phrase came out her mouth recently -- 'I wish I could paint my face and become a circus clown....  Actually, a princess'.  I'm not sure which one is better or worse.  Ha

Maeve has been introduced to Doc McStuffins recently, and is quite enamored by her and she likes to pull out her doctor kit and pretend to take care of me.  When she was 'listening' to my heart through the stethescope, she told me she was 'beating my heart'.  Ha.  I think Doc's a good preschool role model so I'm going with it.  

Me - "So, Maeve, do you want to be a doctor when you grow up?"  

Maeve - "No!  I'm going to be a princess..."

Me - "You could be a doctor and a princess"

Maeve - (she looks at me as if I've lost my mind) "No, I'm just going to be a princess.  I'm not talking to you right now"

And, the best is how loving she always is... such a cuddler.  She can often be heard saying, "I love my mommy.  She is such a cutie.  I love my mommy.  I am never leaving you... I am going to stay with you forever".  Sweet girl.  I'm going to save this phrase and see how she feels about me in about 10 years.  

I'm Stingy...

...with the iPad, and therefore Maeve is in her happy place.  (I've been accused of not sharing very well.  ha)...

Inspection...

Making sure that her 'manicure' and 'pedicure' were still intact... 

Uninhibited...

Baker Extraordinaire

Amy Needed an Adventure...

...so we tagged along for fun too.  :-)  It was a bit of a gong show getting our bikes/wee-hoo/chariot on and off the water taxi to West Seattle, but once we were docked on either side, we were good to go.  There was a little neighborhood festival happening today that we checked out, but really, it was just fun to get out and do something like this...  

So innocent and sweet looking... 

Us?  How could we make a grumpy old man even grumpier by our abundant enthusiasm on the boat?? 

 There was a craft table... Maeve said that she wanted to watch the crafts and focus on eating her snack instead.  Classic...

Waiting for the water taxi...  Cute kids. 

"Oh hey Maeve, let's get our picture taken -- 'smile!'"  

Cue Maeve looking the other way... 

Amy lugging her crew.  How times have changed.  No longer are we doing STP's, but it feels almost as much work.  Ha ha.

Bandaged, but Coping...

We got new bandaids... so Maeve found and "owie" on her lip. 

Thankfully, it didn't keep her from eating popcorn....

First "Real" Sleepover...

To keep the birthday party fun alive, I decided to finally grant Maeve's wish of having a sleepover party.  Maeve has had sleepovers before, but they have all been with relatives, and never for the sole reason of "just because".  I have to say, despite a grumpy child this morning, it was totally worth it.  Both of the girls were SO EXCITED.  They got to watch a movie and then spent the rest of the night giggling and playing -- until 10pm, which is when I told them they HAD to go to sleep (mostly because I was tired and thinking about going to bed soon... ha).  Sadly, they were up at 6:30am...  It is fun to see your child so excited being with her friend... 

Of course they slept together on Maeve's bed... I'm not sure why I set up a bed on the ground for Avery to sleep on.  Cute girls.

4th Birthday Party!

It was Maeve's 4th Birthday party today and she was so excited.  She's been talking about her party for months... so it was fun to see her enjoy herself so much with her friends.  I decided to rent out a room at the local community center and host a dance party/classic preschool games.  It worked out pretty well, I think.  It was pretty chaotic and quick, but that just seems to be the way it goes.

We played dance freeze, musical dots, pin the sunglasses on Maeve, mystery present, and then classic songs etc.  There was a bouncy ball frenzy at the end of it... which was fun and a little scary at the same time.  I sugared up the kids with a bunch of cake and then sent them on their way.  Ha ha.  As you can tell, it was a dress-up party also... and Maeve just acquired two more princess dresses to add to her collection.  She was so excited that she stripped down at her party to become Merida.  Ha ha.  There was a lot of pink, tool, and sparkles in the room.  Sorry boys.  

Happy early birthday, sweet girl.  

She Has a Style All Her Own...

On Mother's Day we ventured to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner and Maeve decided to change her attire for the occasion -- to this.  She likes to make an impression.  She's also in a phase where she has two favorite "fancy" shoes she's wearing these days, and both of them are 2-3 sizes too big.  

She is quite observant of other little girls and likes to point out loudly whether they're fancy or not... and if they're not, she usually states that she doesn't like them (did I mention how loud she talks sometimes?  Not embarrassing at all, obviously).  We are definitely not flying under the radar these days.  This morning she was so frustrated with me and almost threw a fit because I didn't wear the fancy shoes she wanted me to wear.  Sorry Maeve, I wasn't feeling the heels for your gymnastics class.  

I can't wait for what other styles she'll throw together...  

Baby Peyton Came to Visit...

And, Maeve did her best to smother her.  ha.  Oh boy was she so excited to dote on her, and at the same time, poke her cheeks, look in her mouth, try to open her eyes... Sorry Peyton.  Melanie is looking great and doing so well as a new mom... so fun to have another addition to our friend circle :-)

Happy Mother's Day!

Its another year that concretely reminds myself that I am so lucky to be Maeve's mommy.  I honestly can't even fathom life without her... I absolutely love being her mom, even when she's driving me crazy!  Ha.  Maeve gives me such joy, unconditional love, laughter, patience, and purpose.  Its the best.  

I am so thankful for my own mother -- she is always on my side, loves me, and always willing to help.  I'm sure I drive her crazy too, but I have, no doubt, made her more patient in life too.  Ha.

I am also so thankful for Maeve's other mother figures in her life -- her Godmother's - Ann and Annie.  They embrace her with their love, time, and encouragement.  Things that help her grow up feeling secure and wanted.  

I can't help but think of Maeve's birth mom lately.  What a gift that we are in contact and Maeve knows how much her birth mom loves her too.  She is such a selfless, strong, and loving person.  Maeve is lucky to have come from such an amazing person.  

Happy mother's day to everyone... I'm aware this holiday is bittersweet for many people I know.  To you guys out there -- xoxo 

Working on her Mother's day art...  (yeah, they're late in the mail... sorry!)

We had a mother's day party at Maeve's school and all the kids were so excited to host a tea party.  It was pretty darn cute.  Maeve spoke her words of wisdom, and made me this beautiful piece of art we are hanging on our wall.  Adorbs.

We had a great day today... nothing terribly exciting, but we were both in very happy moods.  We ended our day at an Ethiopian restaurant, which we were both excited about.  I love my sweet, sassy, mischievous, little thing...  even though I have a few more gray hairs and drink more these days just to cope sometimes.  ha ha.

ER Visit #2

If you'll recall this incident 2.5 years ago, it brings you up to speed as to why we made an appearance in Children's new ER last week.  Well, it turns out a chunk of glass had been left in her head and her body had finally decided it was done with the intruder and worked itself out... mostly.

I had been watching her incision for the last couple of months because all of a sudden it looked bigger and I could move something around... (yes, hindsight is 20:20, but I didn't know that I was looking for glass!).  I even had my friend check it out and we had essentially decided she had built up some scar tissue/keloid.  It didn't seem to bother Maeve except she started to notice her scar and would sometimes pick at it and make it bleed (yes, yes... its perfectly clear now).  Maeve's 4 year appointment is in a couple of weeks and I was just going to have her doctor peek at it then.

So, turns out she started reflecting in the sunshine at daycare.  Her teacher called me late in the day explaining she thought something was coming out of Maeve's head (that's always an awesome way to start the conversation...)  She was picking woodchips out of Maeve's hair and got scratched by her 'scar' too.  Upon further review, it was clear that something, ie glass was coming out.  

Alrighty then...  we'd best get that taken care of.  So, we had to go to the ER because it was clear they had to cut it out.. and, I didn't want to leave it in as two corners of the glass were poking out and I didn't want her to cut herself... (Although, I bet within a week, it would have been out on its own... something wrong with leaving glass in your kid's head though).

 There was a bit of a wait in the ER, so we took off so I could show her my new work space... we moved our unit into the new building a few weeks ago.

Watching a movie, playing with my iPhone... life was pretty good for Maeve, actually. 

If you look closely, you can see two corners coming out... 

A sleepy, versed-drugged girl...  She remembers nothing -- only the fun parts. 

And, there's the chunk of glass...

It was a very late night/early morning, but at the end of the day, I'll take this kind of ER visit anytime -- especially based on the floor I work on (although I do feel like it should be a free visit since they should've gotten the glass out the first time... minor details.  I'm going to see about that)...

By the way... Maeve likes to tell people that I hit her and put glass in her head.  So, there's that.  ha ha.

A Perfectly Great Weekend...

It was a well rounded weekend, that's for sure.  Maeve spent a couple of nights with her Gran and Pop, which gave me the perfect excuse to loaf around and enjoy a responsibility-free weekend.  Ahhhh.... it felt good.  I haven't had a Maeve-free night since October, I think... I had to force myself to sleep-in.  Unfortunately the body has been trained to wake up throughout the night and get up early... But don't worry -- both mornings I did not arise from bed until close to 9am... so nice.  I wasn't nearly as productive as I had dreamed of being.  Oh well.  The weather was beautiful and I  managed walks and I also pulled the road bike down and gave it a whirl... the weehoo is now attached to that instead of my clunker.  We're ready.  I managed friend time too... with a little Maeve catch-up on Sunday afternoon.  Perfect.

Getting into her Rapunzel dress at Gran's... 

She had a playdate with Ann, Mike, Kaya, and Zane... and she refused to take off the dress.  There is glitter EVERYWHERE.  Apparently Mike looked like he'd been working at a princess factory after Maeve was done with him... ha

While Maeve was playing up north, I was playing here with friends.  Out for dinner with Dan, Annie and kids...  Super fun.

Why were we all out for dinner?  We were celebrating Sofie and her adoption day! Such a great great girl.... how lucky we are that she's in our lives.

 The next night I had dinner out with some of the girls... and then we meandered over for some ice cream for dessert...

I met my mom, picked up Maeve, and then we headed over to Amber, Chris, Avery, and Gerrit's house for a little Cinco de Mayo backyard fun.  I am afraid that every picture of Maeve from here on out will be in some sort of princess dress... 

 Oh wait!  Here she is in one of Avery's regular dresses.  Hallelujah!  The Cinco de Mayo gang.  What a beautiful day... so nice and warm.  And, its supposed to be nice ALL WEEK.  Woot woot.  We Pacific Northwesterners get rather giddy at the prospect of sunshine and warmth.