Birthday Festivities

Maizie's Big 3 was tons of fun. Last October, I was 7 months pregnant, we had just moved into our first house, Jason had gotten laid off and then started a new job, our second car stopped running and I was helping organize the ARTreach festival at our church. Needless to say, Maizie did not have much of a "2" celebration. I promised her (in my heart) we'd make it up to her. I'd say promise fulfilled! Mia's birthday is in November, but with Baby Ro #3 due to arrive right around Mia's 3rd birthday, we decided to do a little joint party at a pumpkin farm. Tanya made some yummy frito pie and wassel (sp?), which was perfect for the brisk weather we got.

Here's the rundown of the fun.

pic1: Her birthday suit for school. She helped me make "M" cookies to share with the class the day before.
pic2: The princess at the pink-and-purple princess pumpkin party
pics3: Pink & Purple decorations for Maizie & Mia's Big 3
pic 4: Maizie and Mia cheesing it up
pic 5: Poor Ryan stuck at a girl's party. Such a good sport.
pic 6: Maizie may have a crush on Luc. She borrowed his jacket and then cuddled up during the hayride.
pic 7: Swingin' in full princess gear.
pics 8,9,10: The motherlode of gifts! We spent all night slowly opening and playing.
pic 11: The birthday sundae at Red Robin. A family tradition. "Do we have a birthday here?"
pic 12: Princess Maizie
pic 13: Prince Anderson
pic 14: I'm this many!!!

pic 15: Mo Mo eating her cupcake. Good times!

Three's a Charm

Thought I'd take a walk down memory lane tonight. Sigh. Here's my baby growing up right before all of our eyes. Maizie had a great day today. She received lots of calls, cards and well-wishes. And it was fun to watch her realize today was special and just for her.

She's Three!

I've had a couple of unexpectantly sappy days anticipating Maizie's third birthday. I can't believe how quickly everything is going by and I'm amazed at the person who is emerging as our beautiful daughter. Between knock-down, drag-out fights over going to sleep and a running list of "I wants", there are moments and looks and touches and grins and laughs and that are too cute to stand.

Without further adieu.

Maiziese as a Second Language - The three-year-old edition

My sick hurts - My belly hurts

My sick feels better - My belly feels better

I'm sweaty. I need a jacket. - Usually it's 100 degrees out when she says this. The girl just loves to accessorize.

I'm going to the O-port to get on the A-plane. - I'm going to the airport to get on the airplane.

Wiiiiissssshhhh! - Any kind of stick or wand (i.e., I need my wiiiisssshhh)

Sleeping Booty - Sleeping Beauty

"I know you, you're a queen and I so boo-fi-ful." The preferred lyrics of "Once Upon a Dream"

"I know" dress - A dress with any kind of twirl capacity.

You can't dance. You're wearing pants! - What she tells me when I try to dance.

Go To Way - Go away

Soappaste- Toothpaste

Cat in the Cat - Cat in the Hat

Cheshire Cat Moon - Crescent moon

Meatball Store - IKEA

Mo Mo and Ca Ca - Simone and Jessica

Gigirella - Gabriella; also, umbrella

Calla and O-sin - Tanya and Wilson

Assisson - Anderson (up until about 2 months ago, thank goodness)

Little Paw - The refugees as a whole (e.g. "I need to go see my Little Paws")

Jesus - Anyone asking for money on street corners. (e.g. "That Jesus is thirsty! She needs she's water!")

Daddy, you stink? You need to change yours diaper? Huh? Anytime there's a smell in the car (whose origin is most often Maizie).

A, B, B, B, LMNOP - The beginning of the alphabet song.

W, X, Why not Z? - The end of the alphabet song.

This much and no matter what - How much we love her.

Barkitecture

So Jason's firm, Negrete & Kolar, decided to enter Barkitecture this year. It's an event where local architecture and design firms design and build dog houses to be auctioned off for charity. Theirs was called the "Bark-elona Paw-villion" (clever clever) and turned out super cool. We met friends at a pumpkin patch Saturday and then headed down to see all the other dog houses and even witnessed a Doggie Costume fashion show. Maizie was in heaven. It was our first at-home, together Saturday in a long time and it was NICE.

 
 
 
 

Nashville

Last week, Anderson and I had a Mommy-Son date to meet his little buddy, Eli, in Nashville. On both plane rides, the flight attendents stole Anderson from me for about a half hour and paraded him up and down the aisles. It was great to have the break (he was literally climbing the plane walls), but still felt odd. Here are some pics from the trip. Note the one of Anderson and Eli laying together. They are 7.5 months apart in age, but only 2 pounds apart in weight. Craziness. Oh, and a trip to see Jodi isn't complete without us dying our hair. Click to see more detail. I may be addicted to these collages for a bit.

 

Bye Bye Fancy Pants

A few weeks ago, we met some friends down in San Marcos at Guadelupe River State Park to say a fond farewell to Grant and Amanda. We plan to visit them alot in San Antonio, but so far the cards have not aligned for us to get down there. We are looking forward to many years of fun adventures with them in the Alamo City. San Antonio is so lucky to have them.

I got a few good shots of the fun and thought I'd try the Picasso collage, so here you go.

 

On a side note, I thought I lost my camera (aka third baby) on this camping trip. I was sad. Really sad. Two weeks went by and we bought a cheap stand-in, but my deepest affections remained for the old one. On the way to Nashville this week, I was going through the "fun" process of airport security with a ten-month-old who (of course) fell asleep 10 minutes before screening time. When the stroller went through, the TSA guy told me that I should be careful unfolding it because a CAMERA was in the middle of it! I literally did a "raise the roof" (wee bit embarrassing in hind sight) and told him he was my best friend and that he made my trip. So anytime you're feeling down about where your tax dollars are going, just think back to my story and do a little "raise the roof" on my behalf.

Perfect 10

Anderson is 10 months old today (and cousin Brooke is 3!) It's been another fun and eventful month. He is clapping up a storm, standing on his own for a few seconds at a time, and "real" crawling! He's also gotten alot more verbal, repeating back tons of sounds. His favorites are "Da, Hi Da!" when he sees Jason, "Wuzzat?" when he points to things, "Uh-uh" when I say "Uh-oh". He's eating like a real person for the most part. I just cut up whatever we're eating into Anderson-sized chunks and he has a ball. He also started "kissing" which means he dive-bombs my face with an open, teethy smile whenever I say "kisses". He's definitely found his voice (aka scream) when he's in the sharing arena with Maizie. That's going to be a long-term battle, I'm afraid. He's so much fun right now I really want to press pause....sigh.

 
 
 
 

Maizie Wonder

This video makes me smile. Hope it does the same for you! I'll continue my series of lessons in Maiziese as a Second Language soon. She's come up with some doozies lately. But I thought this would tide over our biggest fans (hi mom and dad!) until then.