First Day of School

Today was Maizie's first day of preschool! She'll go every Tuesday and Friday from 10-2. I am feeling a bit like an oddball because you could tell all the other mothers were feeling anxious and sad leaving their children in this setting for the first time. I couldn't stop smiling. I think it's going to be great for both of us. She loves playing with other kids (and other kids' toys) and I love getting things done! I pictured myself frolicking in a field celebrating my freedom, but alas, I have a deadline I'm trying to meet so we can go to Abilene this weekend.

Anyway, here is the happy girl on her first day of school!


Waltzing Maizie with a knapsack on her back.

Putting her lunch in her cubby.

The day starts off with time at the park. Perfect.

It did kind of hurt my feelings that when I dropped her off, she did not look back. Not once. Not one little tear. Ok, I'm over it now. I'm glad she was so excited that she didn't even realize her dear old Mom was off to frolick...

New Things

A quick update on all things Maizie....


Daddy spent an evening replacing all the worn out batteries in Maizie's toys. We thought Maizie would be happy with her newly working favorites, but instead she spent the rest of the time mimicing Daddy's hard work. I guess she's breaking the stereotype in the 1950s book about manners we have that reads: "Boys like to fix things like bikes and cars. Girls like to fix hurt feelings."

Here's another new thing. By the end of the day Saturday, I was thinking, "Did someone announce 'National Throw a Temper Tantrum Day' and nobody told me?" She throws fits. Mainly because she wants to do things all by herself and she can't figure it out and gets frustrated. Life can be rough when you're almost 2 going on 16.

Another result of her independent streak, Maizie wants to dress herself. I put this shirt on her the right way and she struggled to get it off and then struggled to get it back on. Here is the result. It was actually quite an accomplishment that she got it on herself (especially since her head is bigger than the head hole). We were heading to the grocery store, so I left it alone. Who knows, maybe inside-out-and-backwards is the cool new thing in toddler fashion. Such a trendsetter.

Here's yet another new thing. She LOVES her friend Mia and asks to see her everyday. This week, when she saw her, she immediately grabbed her hand and led her to the playground. So adorable. I'm not sure what Mia thinks about all of this, but I'm sure she'll come around!

Rockin' the Diaper

And here is our little future American Idol. She's highly distractable, but I think you'll recognize musical genius when you see it...

By Special Request

Here are some of Maizie's latest adventures as a 21-month-old. She turns 22 months tomorrow, so now is as good a time as any to finally post some pics! There are also some things that I am not able to catch on camera that I don't want to forget about this age.

• Her vehicle-spotting repretoire has improved to included busses, tractors, cranes, po-po trucks (fire engines), bikes (motorcycles and bicycles), and car trucks (trucks hauling cars).
• She loves to sing and has learned her first full tune. It's the tune to Frère Jacques and the words change each time. My favorite was yesterday when she sang, "Daddy's car-ar, Daddy's car-ar, Ding ding dong." We think she learned this tune at church since I don't sing it very often, so yea church!
• Speaking of church, she has started sitting with us until kid's church lets out. She's not the quietest, but it's so cool to see her really get into the singing and praying. She claps and yells "Yea!" after every song and does prayer hands and says Amen after the prayers. It's so cool to see how God made us to worship. I hope she never loses her excitement for singing to God.
• Speaking of God, she's also started to "say" her own prayers. We say them and she repeats. She sometimes gets sidetracked, especially when we pray for Mia, Ry-Ry and Mo-Mo (I think she would rather be playing with them then getting ready for bed), but it's pretty much the sweetest thing ever.
• She loves to count to 3 on her fingers (her Nana taught her that) and jump. This game goes on for quite a bit. I think this is her way of mimicing the gymnastics we've been watching on TV.

Here are some pics!

Riding Ry-Ry's toy horse (NEEEEEE!)

Firefighter George saves the day.

Story time with Myra, Mo-Mo and Ry-Ry.

A final duet. Maizie has been spending lots of time with Morgandy this week as she gets ready to fly off into the sunset to Canada tomorrow (tear). She's such a sweet girl and we're going to miss her (and Myra and Patrick, too) SOOOOO much.

The Big One

Yesterday was my big 3-0. Let's just say, some gifts were more thoughtful than others.

Jason brought home flowers, wrote a very sweet note, took me to dinner and researched and bought a new camera to replace the one I broke last week (hence no piccies on the blog recently).

My girlfriends treated me to a really nice dinner at Bess Bistro last week and Amanda took me to L'Madeleine and treated me to lunch. Yummy girl food!

My parents, in-laws and faraway friends sent cards and electronic greetings.

Maizie gave me honor of changing the worst diapers ever known to man. Nuclear.

Flipper made me lose both my lunch and dinner.

Thanks, kids!

Really, in spite of being sick and both Jason and I working on some pretty rough deadlines, I had a good day. I feel like this year (and this decade) is going to be a great one. We have so many blessings coming up in the next four months alone. I'm so thankful to be 30 and to have confidence that I am right where I am supposed to be doing exactly what I'm suppposed to be doing. I certainly didn't have that confidence when I turned 29!

105

It's 105 degrees today. Isn't that the temperature of a dangerous fever? Shouldn't we all be seeing a doctor right now? No wonder my ankles are starting to balloon...