A friend painted a picture of Maggie

Birds

The birds in the neighborhood are conspiring against me. Somehow they figure out the nights that I am restless, the nights I have woken up many times for no reason. Even the nights when I have zombie dreams of my old high school. Then, around 4:30 am, they have a karaoke party in the tree in front of my house. I can still hear them even after I close the window. One of the very few houses on the block with a tree in the front yard, the birds congregate in there. I envision them saying to each other, where do you want to meet up just before sunrise? How about 778. You know, the house with the tulalips growing in the front, where the kids drop crackers and shiz. We had to stop providing bird seed for them. It didn't even seem to help. But what do you do, when you are a lone house, with a lone tree? Ask Maggie! She knows. Our morning conversation went something like this:

Maggie climbs into our bed to wake us at 6:30am.
"Morning, mom and dad" - Maggie
"Morning sugarbee. I've got to do something about those birds. Either a bee bee gun, or bird poison." - Me
"A bee bee gun mom. Then sneak out there at night, and SHOOT 'em in the NECK!" - Maggie

Jeremy and I burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"ITS NOT FUNNY!" - The Psycho little three year old girl that wants a bee bee gun

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day was a wealth of emotions this year as I battled the stomach flu on my special day. While I did enjoy the luxury of lying in bed all day, it was punctuated with bouts of vomiting and a wicked headache. All of this occurred as Jeremy was recovering from his stomach bug. He was the healthiest of the two of us at the time,and thus took over home duty, while I holed up in the bedroom with a garbage can and a glass of diluted water. I guess in some ways I got everything a mother hopes for on Mother's Day. The seclusion of my room, not bothered by anyone. However, I would have preferred being bugged all day by the small ones, followed up with dinner that was tasty, no sips of watered down sprite. I am feeling better today, but now that three of us have endured the attack, we are waiting it out to see if Miles gets it, or avoids it. Say a prayer for us, as we finish up the last rounds of this virus.

In other news, I am demanding a re-schedule of Mother's Day. I refuse to accept the dress rehearsal that was yesterday, and luckily for me, I have a loving husband who agrees.

Behind the times

I admit, I have once again been MIA on the family blog front. Life is busier, and I enjoy life more than I enjoy the computer. Only at times though!

A few updates:

-Maggie had her physical for preschool

-She is in the 70th percentile for height

-She is in the 60th for weight

She is tall and skinny. The doctor asked me if she gets that from her dad. While she obviously does, I wasn't sure how to take that. . .thanks Dr. Love.

-Miles is babbling up a storm and seems to be trying to learn words all the time. He's always trying to mimic what we say. He gets the inflection but not the sound.

-He likes to put things in the toilet, which you will see proof of below.

-He likes to play with the cans on the pantry shelf, and also cars.

-He and his sister love to dance together and play in boxes.

Mom has been busy with her 3 jobs that she is doing lately and leading a small group for church. She is tired but fulfilled.

Dad is currently working on finishing his newest musical endeavor, and hopes to have them ready for sale by the end of this summer.

Learn How to Drive

Today we were on our way to the Y.M.C.A to do our usual Thursday routine. While on the way, for no apparent reason, my dear daughter says, "Learn how to drive people." She paused, and then said, "I know I'm not the boss mom, but I just had to tell those people that. They should know how to drive already."

Also, we toured a preschool today that we are considering for our rambunctious girl. She thought it was nifty and now we just need to pray about it and make sure we are making a wise decision, but it was a very nice school, and a Christian one at that. Its run by 2 very nice ladies that I know through church. Other than that, not a ton going on around our front.

Hope all is well across the world.

The Heart of a Child

I had a sweet discussion with my girl today. It went a little something like this.

Enter Sam attempting to put on a pair of boots.

Maggie says,"Mommy are those rain boots."
Sam, "No, just regular boots. It would be nice to have some rain boots, but I don't need them. Did you know there are some people that don't have any shoes at all?"
Maggie, "We have lots of shoes. Maybe we should get them some!"
Sam,"Yeah, we have a lot of shoes we don't wear anymore or don't fit. Maybe we could get all those shoes together and give them to help people that don't have shoes."
Maggie, "Mommy that is a GREAT idea!"

Children have the best hearts. They maybe be selfish and not like to share. They may want their brother or sister to go far away, but when they see someone in need, they want to act. My Maggie is no different, and I am proud of her tender heart. I love that girl.

My babies

My babies are getting quite big. There is nothing like them in the whole entire world.

Miles' newest adventures include the following:
-Running everywhere
-Rolling over the dog and cuddling her on her bed while drinking his bottle
-Drinking a bottle (even though he should be over this by now)
-Saying a couple of words Mama, Dada, Dog, Nigh Night, Yeah, Baba, and my very most favorite Gigi, its what he calls Maggie, and it may be what I start calling her
-He's figured out how to turn the crank on the Jack in the Box and gets endless amusment from it
-Giving and blowing many kisses, he is a lover
-Hiding behind Mama's legs, he is a total Mama's boy
-He is forever sniffling and coughing, and I am beginning to worry that he has some real allergies going on. It would be a shame for him if it was the dog, but a joy for me.
-Sticking his fingers up his nose
-Torturing his sister by always trying to get ahold of her favorite things, but he waits to grab them until he knows she is looking

Maggie's Newest Adventures:
-Rambling a mile a minute about everything under the sun
-Playing with friends
-Dancing to all kinds of music (her favorites are Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Lady Antebellum)
-Holding hands with her best friend while driving through the carwash that she is usually afraid of. J was supposed to be brave and hold her hand. He did, but then he ended up getting "just a little scared of the brushes."
-Crafts, the girl LOVES anything crafty
-Playing outside, now that the sun is finally making small infrequent appearances
-Begging for sweets, a new favorite REDVINES! She is my daughter surely and truly
-Snuggling while watching a movie
-Telling me she loves me more than the whole entire world

Yikes

I am very behind on the family blog. Rest assured I will be posting some tasty story nuggets for your pleasure soon. In the mean time, enjoy these beautiful family photos by Stephen Signa.

Young Love

Maggie has a boyfriend. At least that's what she tells us. That's also what her boyfriend tells us. My friend has five year old twin boys. Maggie and one of them are smitten with each other. Its quite cute. They talk about each other all the time, and when they see each other its like the world lights up. Today when they saw each other, they ran, yelling each other's names into an embrace. She doesn't hug her other friends. So it was cute. But even cuter, Maggie has a boo boo in the middle of her face. And this sweet boy says to her, "Maggie you still look beautiful with that cut on your face." She promptly yelled at him that it was not a cut, it was a booboo. He quickly ran back to his mom to get help taking off his jacket, and as she did so I over heard this, "Maggie still IS beautiful. She is so beautiful. But a little piece of my heart is missing since she got hurt." Maggie and this boy frequently talk about how they miss each other when they are apart, and have already said the L word.

So, sorry boys, Maggie is taken. We're figuring out which colleges they will be going to and where to do the wedding.

What's blood got to do, got to do with it?

So far in Maggie's short life, all of her major booboos have happened in mommy's company. Yesterday, however, was a change of pace. While I was at work, Maggie got a decent boo boo in daddy's presence, and it involved blood, which I know to be Jeremy's kryptonite. However, they both handled it like pros.

Silly, fairly novice parents that we are, we hung our stockings on a shelf in the living room using heavy, metal, pointy, decorative stocking hooks. This year they hung within reach of our adventurous 3 year old. Yesterday she managed to pull one down onto her face. Of course the corner hit her smack in the middle of her forehead. Her initial reaction was apparently to cry. She seemed alright. There was a minor mark on her forehead. Her next response was to touch it, which prompted a steady flow of blood from her face. When she looked at her hands, she apparently panicked and began running in circles screaming, "I've got red on me. I've got red on me." At which point Jeremy bravely chased her and scooped her up, hoping to keep the blood from getting all over our beige furniture and carpet. I didn't see any when I got home, so he succeeded, at least to my knowledge. Hopefully he didn't just flip over the couch cushions or something. He called me at work to inform me of the incident, and said that "The stupid stocking holder fell off the shelf and hit Maggie." I could hear Maggie, still whimpering in the background chastise Jeremy with a firm, "Stupid is not nice Daddy." I swung home to check on her, as I'm five minutes away. When I walked in the door, what to my wondering eyes did appear? Maggie with a bandaid across her forehead and one across her nose. Jeremy quickly reassured me that the nose bandaid was merely to stop the crying. It was Dora and she makes everything all better. I insisted on peeling back the bandaid to inspect the booboo, only to find that it was attached to her eyebrows. Thus the hysterics began again. It was a minor booboo, but as we know all head wounds bleed ALOT. Everything was quelled with a candy cane and mommy ran back to work. Life is NEVER dull with our lovely children in tow.