Our Newest girl...

Maeve turned two!

A week ago! Yup, I am a blog slacker, but I will say, at least I get the photos up regularly :)

Maeve was very excited for her birthday, for at least the week leading up to it, if you asked who was having a birthday she would say "Maevey". She talked a lot about "my birthday" and when we asked her how old she was, she proudly says "two". And when the day came for her little party, and she saw the beautiful purple cow cake, she loudly exclaimed "my birthday cake!", and proclaimed that they were "my cows". The cake was made by an old friend from high school who happens to live fairly close, and has a cake business on the side. https://jeanniecakes.webs.com

Maeve is most definitely two and it shows in the attitude. While she is still the happy little girl she's always been, she's very opinionated and dramatic. She will often throw herself down on the floor in a fury over being told no or having something taken away. There aren't usually any real tears, but we occasionally see her checking us out from the corner of her eye while she puts on her act. It's very cute, if not also very frustrating, and difficult not to laugh when a two year old is trying her best for an Oscar (while checking to make sure her audience is watching). There are times that involve a lot of screeching, little brawls at daycare, and her telling the dogs any variation of "no", "stop it", or "go away".

She also talks all.day.long! I sometimes wonder if she ever gets tired, but somehow I doubt it, and we love it (for the most part ;). She's pretty much repeating whatever she hears and is talking in small sentences and has a cute list of little catchphrases which include, "I did it" (anytime she accomplishes something by herself), "Oh no, what happened" (when something goes wrong), and "Wow, amazing" (at something she likes), among others.

And best of all, she goes pee pee on the potty. She's pretty much in big girl underwear all the time with the exception of naptime and bedtime. She has a lot of anxiety around the subject of pooping, so we're following her lead on that, but she hasn't had any accidents with peeing, and we're so proud of her. I suspect she's also very proud of herself!

And check out October's photos! Maeve went to Florida and met Shamu! Actually she met Mommy and Baby Shamu since a calf had been born right before we got there. She also got to spend lots of time with her Uncle Brian who she managed to wrap very tightly around her finger. I think they both loved it. Grandma, Bop, and Uncle Brian showed us a great time, and we both loved every minute of it!

Maeve also went as a cow for Halloween. Maevey loves cows, and I do mean LOVES. We have watched endless random cow videos on Youtube. Cows walking in a Swiss Festival, cows out to pasture, whatever, she loves them. She's also into dinosaurs right now, but cows are her main love.

The News

So if you haven't heard yet (Facebook and all), Maeve is going to be a big sister...in January, and we will be the parents to two little girls. That will make four grandchildren on the Morris side and all of them girls!

It's hard to believe that in two short months Maeve will be turning two. We're watching our baby turn into a spirited, dancing, jumping little girl (who is really a bit of a spaz). And she really does do all those things...she asks us to turn the music on so she can dance, and climbs up on our bed and announces gleefully, "I bouncing, I bouncing" even when we tell her it's not safe. She is into doing things herself these days, announcing when we try to help her, "No, myself" and when she accomplishes something says, "Yay, I did it". Of course there is the added bonus of her calling Mommy and Daddy "naughty", but she has yet to put us in time-out, so for now we are safe.

She loves to test her boundaries with us, and gives us the silliest littlest faces when she is trying to convince us to say yes to something she knows she shouldn't do, which only makes it difficult to say no instead of laugh. She loves to wear "tutu dresses" everyday, but is a sucker for a nice pair of boots (she loves 'em), so we have obliged with a pair of rain boots and already have hidden away a pair of winter boots.

We're also taking the first steps towards potty training, which is all I have to say about that..for now.

Really! We haven't disappeared...promise.

We've just been slacking off, in posting and in taking pictures. We seem to always leave the camera behind when we take Maeve to do fun things and are so busy at home being ordered and directed around the house, that we don't take as many as we used to.

Maeve is so busy now it's hard to keep up with her. She does something funny or cute, and we go to get the camera and by the time we get back to her, she's on to something else. Or we try to take a picture of her and asked her to look at us and she either scowls at us or covers her face so we can't. The kid loves being the center of attention and is quite the ham, but is camera shy. Who knew?

She's talking so much these days and occasionally making up her own words for things. She talks to us from the moment she wakes up until she goes to bed. She is also increasingly independent and wants to do things by herself. Of course, sometimes she'll get frustrated when she can't do it, but when we offer to help, she says "Nooo Mommy"! When she's not busy trying to do things all by herself, she's ordering us around the house, playing with her, carrying specific toys that she needs right at that moment, or walking around the house in her mommy's shoes.

She's opinionated and frustrated and also a complete delight. She is affectionate towards us and the dogs, she loves to share snacks with us and other kids too! Still as happy as ever, still a great sleeper, and most of the time, a good eater.

We promise that we will do our best to do better, at least with pictures. Some of the other web albums have a few updates, and you'll see a few pictures for June an July, and I hope to add more.

Road Warrior

Snow and Sand

It's been awhile since a new post, but before that, for anyone still reading this blog, head over to http://www.alitak.blogspot.com/, to meet Maeve's new cousin, Mira!

March was a busy month for Maeve (and her parents). It started with sledding after a major blizzard hit the area (just not us, everywhere but us, seriously, 4-6 feet all around us) and ended on the beach in Florida. Maeve wasn't really sure about either one.

Yes, we went down to Florida to visit Maeve's Grandma and Grandpa. While her parents are reconsidering their anti-Benadryl stance, Maeve had a great time. She went to the zoo, where she got nibbled on by Lorikeets, saw a baby monkey, pet a goat, and rode a camel. She didn't seem all that impressed with the actual camel ride or the fact that she was on top of a giant animal, but she amused herself by alternating pounding on the camel's hump and yanking on its hair (fur?). Good times! She also looooved the part of the zoo that had sprinklers for the kids to run through. Forget about the animals, she would have stayed there all day if we let her. As it was, we had to hightail it out of there after we dried her off.

And then there was the beach (see Video). It was all going well until the actual water got involved. She's been soured on the beach. Luckily, next time we go she won't remember wiping out in the shallow surf. Again, see Video for humiliating evidence (it's a keeper!).

Just this past weekend we took a trip to the Walkway over the Hudson, http://www.walkway.org/, an old railway bridge crossing the Hudson in Poughkeepsie that was transitioned into a walkway. We went with friends, whose son, Mason, is just 4 days younger than Maeve. Trying to get two almost 18 month olds to go in the same direction at the same time or to sit still at the same time is kind of like herding cats; very active, opinionated cats.

In other news, Maeve is talking up a storm, she's just not saying much. Most of what she says doesn't even qualify as language, and we have dubbed it Maeveish. Although to be fair, she does seem to add a new real word every few days and has finally started to mimic us and repeat some of the things we say. She's also delightfully polite: she'll "sign" for please, and says thank you after getting what she wants. But then again, she'll offer her snacks to us and just before we take them, pull her hand away and start laughing, sooooo, she's also got a sense of humor, or so she thinks.

First impressions are important...

...and the Ocean did not make a good one on Maeve!

16 Months!

Wow, time flies when you're busy chasing a rather speedy toddler around. While we were busy cleaning up and chasing after her, she somehow turned 16 months old.

Some things are still true: Maeve is a very happy and very friendly little girl. She is sometimes hesitant around new people, but warms up quickly and is cheeky and quite the ham. And then, some things have changed: we occasionally have these knock-down, drag out tantrums over what seem to be minor things, like not being allowed on the stairs or not being allowed to feed herself yogurt. Tantrums include screaming, throwing herself down on the floor and occasionally hitting. She's independent and wants to do what she wants to do. She definitely has that "redhead temper". She's also a boundary tester, at least when it comes to her mother. She seems to like to do exactly what she has just been told not to do and gives us this look while doing it that seems to say "Do you see me doing what you just told me not to do? And look how cute I am doing it."

She still has only a few words, but does seem to speak in some language known only to her which seems fairly intricate. It's like twin-speak without the twin. She understands everything we say and is pretty good at following directions (when in her favor, of course). She's learning to help us clean up after playing and go to get things if we ask her to. She lets us know when she wants more of something or when she has had enough. It's also meant that we have to start spelling certain things in front of her, especially things she likes, like the B-A-T-H.

She's still a very busy girl and is constantly on the move, whether playing with her toys and pretending to feed her baby doll or eat the strawberries on the pages of her books, or scatter the recycling all over the kitchen. She still loves her books and is always bringing us books to read to her. We've also had a pleasant surprise in that at daycare she has shown interest in using the potty and has successfully peed and pooped several times on the potty in the last week! (we've never been this excited about poop before).

She's completing exhausting for us right now, and completely exciting and loads of fun!

Also, recently her Nana and Opa visited. Maeve had lots of fun with them, even if she did give Nana her cold. While they were in D.C. before visiting ua, there was a second blizzard dumping another 2 feet of snow after 2 feet was already on the ground. And while they were here, there was a blizzard all around us, just not on us. An hour south of us? 2-4 ft. A half hour northwest of us? 4-5 ft. Us? Maybe a couple of inches? So this past weekend, after a significant warm up, we drove an hour to Cousin Debbie's house, we played in the 2 feet of snow that was left (2 feet already melted), in 60 degrees on a sunny day. And took lots of pictures!

New Pics/New Videos

I just posted some new pictures on Maeve's web album and some new videos at the YouTube site.

New Videos

So recently, Maeve and Henry have become good friends. Maeve loves it when Henry gets really hyper and runs full speed back and forth upstairs in the house. She even loves when she gets knocked down in the process. Maeve and Henry like to play with a stuffed raccoon she was given for Christmas. Henry is very gentle with Maeve and likes to play with her just as much. I've tried quite a few times to get the video up here but blogger won't let me do it. So I created a link on the sidebar to our YouTube page and the videos are there.

14.5 months and an apology for slacking off.

Yes, so now that Maeve is over a year, it's highly doubtful that I will posting monthly updates. But I will do my best to regularly update her pictures and to add videos now and again. The last time I posted a real post was in November so what have we missed?

Christmas: Maeve was not too terribly impressed. Hopefull next year, she will tear into her gifts with the single-mindedness that only a child can have. This year, she wasn't too interested in opening her gifts, but once they were opened, wanted to play with all the toys at once...at least untils he was distracted by the next gift. Some of the gifts have been put away and will make an appearance in the future. Her favorite toys seem to be the drum set from Grandma and Grandpa and the Play Clay from Cousin Alita. She likes to bang the drum sticks on just about every and any surface. I've taught her how to smell the Play Clay and she will mimic me, so cute! Unfortunately, Maeve was not a fan of Santa, so much, in fact, that I had to sit on Santa's lap with her.

Maeve is still happy as ever, but she's got quite a little temper that is starting to peek through. She will throw herself down on the floor when told no or dramatically cower with her face hidden. If she gets really mad, she'll throw things, shake, or occasionally hit as she's yelling at us. I'm sure that public tantrums are only a few short months away. She's also steadily testing boundaries. She seems to think that if she smiles at us or looks innocent while doing something we've already said no to that it will make a difference, but no, it doesn't. Her Grandma calls her an imp and the description fits. Of course most of the time, she is giggling and moving non-stop and smiling and happy, but she's also a bit of a drama queen.

She's starting to talk more and more too. Most of what she says is in her own little language and we can tell she is getting frustrated that we don't uderstand what she's saying all the time. She will sometimes look at us like we're just not smart enough to get it. But she does say a bunch of words that are recognizable, and her little voice is adorable.

She's now eating whatever we eat most of the time. And she's eating a lot of it! The kid will eat until she looks like she's ready to pop. Plus she's drinking goat's milk now instead of cow's milk. We're also lucky in that she is now sleeping from 8 at night to 7 or 8 in the morning.