Timehop Tuesday

Hola! I just have 2 Timehops today, but they are sweet ones.

First up, sisters.

 

And then, family on the bed.

 

42-Months-Old!

The 42nd month of this girl's life has been a challenge in more ways than one.

Notice how good she wrote her name!

 Besides all her health stuff, she is just thick into the threes and at times it seems that Every. Single. Thing. is made 5,000 times more difficult by her theeenager attitude.

Good thing she is cute.

Today she went to a doctor's appointment with my mom and saw her getting an IV. My mom said she was fascinated by it all. Then, tonight, Callie announced that she wanted to be a doctor when she grows up, and Maya said "Yeah and I want to be the blood buster!"

We aren't sure exactly what that meant, but I assume it has something to do with all the medical stuff she saw today.  She clearly doesn't have the Gosselin or Henderson medical heebie jeebies. (Which Callie totally does, so Chris reminded her she was going to be a professional golfer...so he could be her caddy).

Anyway. 

Miss Maya. 42-months-old and what a 42 months it has been.

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

What a weekend!

There were 2 big events. The first one I got to go to was the Women's March in St. Paul! The final estimate was 90,000-100,000 people in attendance. My Facebook feed was filled with tons of other people I know who were there as well, but because of the size of the event, I didn't see any of them! Mari and I went with Bob, Barb, and Jill and some of their friends and family. It was a great group to march with!

 

Here are a few video clips that don't even do justice to the amount of people that were there.

If you pay attention to the news, you have probably seen articles about the amazing signs that people had all over the country. The MN signs were awesome as well. 

 

But my favorite one sums up the reason why I was so glad to be able to march today. For my girls.

 

There is lots of uncertainty right now. And it has been a lot harder than I thought to have the now former president (who was in office when both my girls were born) be done, and someone so fundamentally different take his place. 

Anyway.  Maya and I also went to see Boom play her flute at a different church last night. I snuck a picture.

 

What's special about this other church, is that it bought the piano that was in my mom's old condo. The piano my dad bought for our old house many years ago. It wouldn't have fit in mom's new place, but she sold it to this church, a place where she plays every so often, so we all can still hear our old, special, family piano.

 

And that's pretty cool.

So the other big event we had this weekend was Callie's birthday party today, which happened to fall exactly on her 7-years-one-month birthday. We hosted 10 kids at a Nature center near our house. First, the kids got to meet a real live toad!

 

Then we went out in the snow and they got to play and build forts.

 

But before they could play, they had to sit for a group picture.

 

And then, of course, cake and presents!

 

It was a blast! We didn't do a kid party for Callie last year, so I'm glad we got it figured out for this year. She loved it.

After the party the girls had quiet time. Chris went to the gym. I did not.

 

(Granted, I ran 3.5 miles this morning so I'm not totally lazy.)

Here are a few other random pictures from the weekend. 

 

I caught a sweet moment with both of them that lasted about .25 seconds before they started yelling at each other. And Snapchat. And Maya loves rinsing dishes.

Tonight Callie went to see a volleyball game with G-ma so Maya helped me make Enchiladas.

 

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Enjoy the week ahead! Let's hope the last couple weeks of January are much less...um...hectic than the first few weeks.

A Picture Update

You guys.

I don't even know.

January 2017 has proven to be challenging. And so right now, right here, I'm going to make a gratitude list.

1. Our tribe. Our village. Our amazing and supportive and wonderful people who help us at a moment's notice when our child has a freaking FEVER the night before she is supposed to go to preschool and after 20+ days of other various ailments that have been widely blogged about already. Our tribe shows up with love and care and I'm so thankful.

 

2. Our health- both physical and mental. And our healthcare. Besides this month, we have rarely had to deal with anything other than yearly doctor's appointments and occasional sicknesses here and there. And we don't have to worry about high costs for medical care. Compared to what so many families go through, we are healthy and happy and I'm so thankful.

 

3. Wine. 

 

4. Girls who tell me that they want to eat my nose "gently."

 

5. Swag bags. I won an amazing swag bag this week from a blogger I follow. Lots of cool stuff for me and the girls (and even our future baby niece!).

The day the swag bag came in the mail I was hopeful that January would turn around a bit.
And then I promptly fell down the stairs and got a big bruise on my butt.
But that seems to be the only casualty of my clumsiness, so I'm thankful.

 6. A job that is totally stressful but comes with the opportunity to work with amazing people, and help amazing kids and families in their (often difficult) education journeys.

7. Um...did I mention wine? To be more specific, boxed wine is da bomb.

 

8. Movie nights rock.

I have no idea what is going on in this picture but I'm thankful for it.

9. The opportunity to join with others and march in solidarity of love and kindness and tolerance. I'll be doing that tomorrow morning and I'm grateful.

So.

I hope you have enjoyed my gratitude list. There are so many more things I could add, but it is Friday evening and I'm lucky to be halfway functional enough to spell words.

Oh wait- one more thing!

10. Dance parties!

I invite you, if you are stressed out or burned out or worried or feeling hopeless, to make your own gratitude list. 

And maybe have a dance party. Wine helps too.

With the gratitude.  And the dancing.

Maya QOTD

I had to wake Maya up this morning, which is my favorite because I just get to kiss her sweet cheeks until she groggily opens her eyes.

This morning, right as she was waking up, she said:

"The tomato didn't suck me up! I could barely see his eyes!"

And that's when I learned that Maya remembers her dreams, and apparently dreams about giant live vegetables.

🍅

Timehop Tuesday

Happy Tuesday!

First up, Callie!

 

Then, Maya!

 

Last, family!

 

Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Sunday!

As you could probably guess if you read my last post, we spent the majority of the weekend focused on Maya and how she was healing. It was hit or miss. She was either a super hyper goofball or a crabby clingy mess, and there wasn't much in between. On Saturday morning we stayed home and in our PJs. I brought home a couple donuts from work, so Callie was eating hers and doing a challenge math packet by 7am.  Then, thanks to my new discovery of Amazon music, I was able to play a bunch of songs from my favorite musicals for the girls. Callie was particularly interested in "Phantom of the Opera" and "Wicked." We tried to hold Maya down, but as you can see she escaped on the table for a second while listening to "Defying Gravity." I also went for another cold run and was rewarded by sunrays. We found that Maya was fascinated by Chris' laptop so that helped keep her in one place for awhile.

 

Thankfully Callie already had a sleepover planned at Boom's house for Saturday night. They had a blast, as usual, and she got to see Auntie Yoda too!

 

Maya started crashing and burning in the late afternoon yesterday, but rallied a little to help me make Stromboli. I thought she might like the job of squishing the tomatoes, but she wasn't really a fan.

 

Last night was pretty miserable- from about 8pm to 11pm she tossed, turned and whined pretty much nonstop. I brought her down to bed with me at one point, but then Chris was able to get her back in her own bed at 11. Then at midnight, while I was fast asleep, Chris heard her in the monitor, went up to her room, and found her with the lights on trying on a bunch of her dresses. She informed him that she wasn't at all tired when he told her it was sleepy time. He ended up sleeping on her floor for an hour to make sure she calmed down. Then we had to go up a couple more times in the early morning. Thankfully she slept til almost 9am this morning. Chris did too, but my inability to sleep past 5am is not altered by how much sleep I actually get. Stupid internal clock.

Anyway. Today was better, in general. She was much more pleasant, though still pretty hyper.  Hanna and I took Callie to see a community theater production of "Beauty and the Beast" this afternoon and then we all went over to Uncle Dan and Hanna's house for G-ma's birthday dinner and games!

 

Cal and I have tomorrow off, so that will be nice. Maybe. It will depend on how the little one wakes up in the morning. Once again, wish us luck.

At this point, I'm ready to be DONE with January.