Timehop Tuesday

Yesterday we went to a splash pad that happened to come up on my Timehop yesterday too! So I made 2 Timehops out of it.

First, Callie:

Then, Callie/Maya:

They look so different to me, but strangers always comment on how much they look like sisters. 

So here's another one:

Speaking of sisters:

And lastly, some old old pics have popped up occasionally:

Oh baby Kona! And Chris with hair and glasses!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Hola!

It was a hot, sticky, and SUNNY summer weekend.  We took advantage of the weather and spent lots of time outside.

On Friday night we went to a picnic sponsored by Chris' work.  We had a great view of the skyline and the girls didn't really cooperate for pictures, but that seems to be the new normal.

Chris golfed most of the day yesterday (it was SO hot).  The girls and I walked to the park first thing in the morning before the heat was too bad.

Auntie Cat came over for lunch and play time.  I made a delicious meal that I can take no credit for. I credit Blue Apron- a company that sends fresh ingredients and recipes for you to follow.  It was awesome.

There was a lack of clothes happening.

Once Chris got home we did some shopping and went out to dinner.  It is always all of us girls on one side of the booth.

I had to take some videos of Maya last night while we were reading her bedtime story.  She loves the "Llama Llama" books, and especially this one: "Llama Llama Time to Share."  I couldn't decide which one was cutest, so I decided to post all three.


IMG_6073 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.


IMG_6074 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.


IMG_6075 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

I woke up this morning to this:

The sunrays were crazy bright, and it got me up and out the door on a great 5 mile run.  I was thankful.

Later this morning we went to the zoo and had a fun time.

After nap time we headed to G-ma and Pa's house for a BBQ and playtime in the back yard.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

A Picture Update: Summer, Week 2

Happy Friday!

This week Callie had tennis camp.  She finally let me take a couple pictures of her today, on the last day.

She had a really fun time.  I haven't seen her actual skills yet, but we'll have to make it to a tennis court sometime soon.

Let's see, I'll break this week up by days.  Here's Monday:

We brought flowers to Bops and played at the library.

Here's Tuesday:

Playing in our new pink pool, meeting Boom at Centennial Lakes and running into Donald (and Fred!), and watching
the hotly contested Lynx game between two undefeated teams during nap time.  Lynx WON!!

Here's Wednesday:

A trip to Edinborough.  We had the place to ourselves for the first 20 minutes.

A walk to BK for ice cream!

Here's Thursday:

A walk to the park.

Dinner and boat watching at Centennial Lakes with G-ma and Pa and Kona.

Callie spent the night with Boom.  When we picked her up today, they had made a "castle" out of puzzles.

Other things this week...Cal is WAY into doing workbooks from Target.  I got her all of them from K through 3rd grade.

Lastly, sunrays.

Photo Credits:
Top: Me
Bottom Left: Hanna
Bottom Right: Cathleen

We are going to a family picnic put on by Chris' work this afternoon, and I get to go to another Lynx game, where they are playing the same team as Tuesday.  It's gonna be a CRAZY fun game!

Have a fun weekend!

35-Months-Old!!!!

Oh my gosh our baby is almost three.

I thought I'd focus on Maya's most recent QOTDs because she is freaking HILARIOUS.

This girl TALKS.  And talks and talks and talks.  She talks so much and so fast that she stutters a lot.  Her little mind is always working so fast and furious.

Here are some of my favorite things she says regularly:

When going to Jimmy John's (or any other sandwich joint)
Maya; I WANT A SWAM-WICH!!!!!
(she says "sandwich" SO cute)

When going to bed (only at night, not nap time)
Me: Good night.  I love you.
Maya: Mom, can you check me in?
(That means she wants me to come back in a couple minutes and rub her back.  I think it is a combination of "Check on me" and "Tuck me in" and she says it every night and I don't correct her because it is adorable).

And then lately, she has had some great one-liners.

After tooting on one of our kitchen chairs
Maya: Did you hear that noise?  It was like a trumpet in my butt!
Me: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Walking home from getting ice cream (totally out of the blue)
Maya: Do spiders hiccup?

After spinning around and getting dizzy and falling on the floor
Maya: The HOUSE is moving!

My favorite thing by far, though, is when she gets on a storytelling roll.  She is our family narrator (as in, she will say outloud everything that is happening a lot of the time), and lately she has been making up pretty hilarious stories.  Yesterday I decided to write down her entire story as she was saying it so I could share it here.

Maya: I grabbed on to a fish with a swimming pool and I got the fish and I threw it in the water.  And there was a teeny tiny worm in there sitting on a bench and I said 'COME BACK HERE WORM!' and I got him some food in his bowl and he ate his food and he was done and he was wet and he came out the pool he got a swimsuit.
Me: WOW.
Maya: He did.  And he said "hat hat hat hat hat" and he stomped his feet and clomped his paws and he went in the pool and made water in there.

Oh boy, do I love this crazy and creative and adorable little 35-month-old.

Timehop Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

First up, almost preschoolers:

Then, riding on Daddy's shoulders:

Next, us:

Lastly, Callie and toy cell phones:

Weekend Wrap-Up: The Father's Day Edition

First up, Happy Father's Day to Chris, Pa, and Papa!!!  We got to see Pa and Papa today briefly, but unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.  LAME!  But anyway, we are so lucky to have so many wonderful dads/grandpas/papas in our lives.

Speaking of dads, I am missing my dad extra today.  Here is what I posted on Facebook:

I just keep reminding myself: GRATITUDE.  Gratitude gratitude gratitude.

We had a busy weekend!  As I mentioned on Friday, Chris and I went to our friend Rachael's wedding (out in the country!).  We have known her for over 10 years and I used to teach with her at my old school.  It had been a long time since we had seen her, and was fun to be there for her day.  I also saw another old coworker, Jenny, who I hadn't seen in years.

On Saturday morning we celebrated Father's Day early with a brunch at Auntie Cat's house.  There was games and chalk and delicious food.

And two little girls who wouldn't smile for the family picture.

Saturday night was DANCE RECITAL night!!!!  We weren't allowed to take any pictures or video of the actual show, but lucky for you all I took a video of their dress rehearsal to show you.  They slayed it then, and they slayed it for the recital as well.  The crowd LOVED them, and clearly thought they were adorable.  Which they were, of course.  Enjoy her tap dance, "Hard Knock Life!"

IMG_5812 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

So cute, right?

Before the show, my Aunt Mary sent me a picture of my first dance recital.  So, of course, I had to do a side-by-side.

She was nervous for the show, but still allowed herself to be bribed by fruit snacks to take pictures beforehand.  Maya, Chris and Uncle Dan came to watch Callie and then went home.  G-ma, Pa, and Auntie Cat stayed for the whole thing.  Props to them- it didn't get done til almost 10pm!

All the dancers take part in the finale number at the end.  Again, I couldn't film it on show night, but I did on dress rehearsal night.  Since Cal's group is the youngest, they didn't join the dance until the end.  But so cute...again.

IMG_5815 from Baby Goose on Vimeo.

Callie was EXHAUSTED when we picked her up after the show.  She got to bed about 10:30, which is the latest she has ever stayed up by a long shot.  Thankfully she slept until almost 8:30 this morning.  We were worried that she'd wake up at her usual 6:30 and be super crabby all day.  So far, so good.

This morning we went to a fun climbing park before it got too hot out.

Then we went to lunch, had nap/quiet time, went to G-ma and Pa's house, and went to church.  Mari came over after church to have pizza and watch the Lynx game.  Unfortunately it wasn't shown on TV, so we had to stream it on the laptop.

This week Callie has TENNIS camp in the afternoons!  Gross motor coordination has never been her thing, so it should be interesting (and hilarious).

A Picture Update: Summer, Week 1

This has been pretty much an roller coaster week of emotions.  Lots of hard stuff.  But lots of good stuff too.

So much good stuff.

Like this one.  The potty training.  I can't even begin to say how amazing it has been.  She is so much the exact opposite of her sister.  She requests to go potty even when she doesn't really have to go (see her face at Target while I was frantically running across the store to the potty after she said she had to go and then really just wanted to sit on the toilet for a bit and flush...and same story for the flushing picture).  Callie HATED flushing.  She had a conniption every time we were in a public bathroom and wouldn't let me flush it until she was out of the bathroom.  The differences between them in their potty training experiences are hilarious.

And the girls sometimes have potty time together and it is adorable.  And Maya has her "Tinkle Time" (as we call it) on her potty chair and then gets up, dumps her own pee into the toilet, wipes, flushes, rinses the potty chair and gets hand sanitizer...almost all by herself.

We are doing pull-ups for naps and night time, but there have been no daytime accidents since Sunday. I'd call that a major win.  So it has been so much less stressful, so much more pleasant, and just plain easier than the first time around.  And I'm so thankful.

Besides the potty training stuff, Maya and I have had some fun times together this week during the mornings that Callie had VBS.

Her two favorite phrases this week are: "Mommy go away!" and "What is happening?!?" I just take these phrases as signs of burgeoning independence and curiosity.

On Tuesday night, my mom, sisters and I did our monthly Girls Night Out: dinner and the Lynx game!  Mom and Prowl got particularly close at one point.

Since it is summer, and all, we made sure to spend lots of time outside this week.  The girls LOVE going on walks and playing with water and blowing bubbles.

This weekend is Callie's first official DANCE RECITAL!  She had a dress rehearsal on Thursday night and rocked it.  Maya enjoyed running around all over the place, too.  I chased her around while Boom and Callie watched the other dances.

I will share the video with you on Sunday!

As I mentioned earlier, Callie had VBS this week.  The theme was "Cowabunga!" and she LOVED LOVED LOVED it.  Maya and I got to go to their final big group song session today and had a great time watching all the kids sing.

Tonight the girls are sleeping over at G-ma and Pa's house because Chris and I are going to our friend Rachael's wedding.  It will be nice to have an evening out together.

Have a great weekend.

A Hard Day

I'm struggling today.  I have been struggling with all of the news out of Orlando this week.  And then today, I found out that two students from my school, 4th and 6th grade siblings, died tragically in a house fire while on vacation visiting family.

I have spent today with an aching heart.  It aches with sadness and sympathy thinking about all the parents out there who have recently lost children in tragic ways.  It aches with gratitude and guilt watching my girls run and play and live with such innocent joy.

I want to wrap them up in a bubble forever.

But I'm taking this challenging and bittersweet feeling and using it as a reminder to be thankful for every day.  And to continue looking for the light.

Timehop Tuesday

Since it is potty training boot camp around here, I thought one of my Timehops would be going back in time on this blog to August of 2012.  Ironically enough, we "trained" Callie during the last summer Olympics in August of 2012.  Here we are, almost to this year's summer Olympics and "training" Maya.

I am starting to believe that sometimes there should be some gosh darn parenting medals.  Just for getting through things like potty training.

I guess what is why we have wine. And hidden candy stashes.

Anyway.  It was AWFUL with Callie.  To TIMEHOP and read one of my posts about the process with her, CLICK HERE.

Now. I don't want to jinx anything, but so far...Maya is GOLDEN.  Like yesterday and so far today- no accidents, a few good pees, and her second good potty poop. All with a pleasant demeanor and a willing, happy-go-lucky attitude. And no freaking out.

Frankly, I'm a little flabbergasted.

AND I'LL TAKE IT.

On to my other Timehops.

With our first baby, Kona:

Auntie Cat and Cal:

Kisses for Maya:

And my first belly pic with Callie to my two beautiful girls:

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday.

My parents got married 40 years ago today.  June 12th, 1976.

June is a tough month with all the dad-related dates.  Sigh.

My mom, Laura, Craig and I went out to dinner.  It was nice to be together.

Besides that, the other focus of our weekend was...

POTTY TRAINING.

BOOOOOOOO. HISSSSSSSS.

Actually, it hasn't been that bad so far.  There was some initial screaming as the reality sunk in for her, but she has been pretty easy going about going on the potty.  As to be expected, we have gone through lots of undies because of accidents.  But she has gotten a lot of stickers on her potty chart as well.

So yesterday we felt fairly chained to the house, but got out on walks as we could.

We did get out last evening, when we met Auntie Cat, G-ma and Pa for a SUMMER ADVENTURE CHALLENGE.  Auntie Cat sent Cal a letter a few weeks ago inviting her to the challenge, and she set up a bunch of different contests and fun things for us to do!  Including: hill rolling, dancing, trivia, wheel-barrowing, frisbee throwing, food tasting, spelling, water balloon throwing, and more!  It was SO FUN.  And HOT.

Thanks Auntie Cat!  And thanks G-ma and Pa for helping us out.

Today was a morning run, more potty training adventures, outside time as well as brunch at the Held's house.

This afternoon Callie set up a juice box shop and actually had 2 paying customers! It helped that there was an open house going on a couple doors down. Her initial price for a juice box was 4 cents, but the first customer paid her 50 cents, and she was elated.

This week Cal has VBS and we will continue Maya's potty training adventure.

Have a great one!