It Just Seems Wrong Somehow...

...that I am so ready for a vacation. Most of my life could be called a vacation of sorts.

I guess I should say I need "a change of scene".

That happens for me, and the rest of the family of course, come Friday.

Go-go road trip. :)

Gold Star Day

This space is fast becoming a place to jot down things I just need to remember. If I was a better journal-keeper Maia might have a chance at having an actual baby/childhood memory book, but as it is, I'll just have to print out select pages from this blog.

Pages that cover days like today.

Maia used her potty all on her own today. First time she's gone pee in the potty and I couldn't be happier. We were getting ready for bed and as I was taking off her diaper-with her help-I noticed it was dry. Then Maia asked to go sit on the potty. Sometimes this is a diversionary tactic to avoid putting on pj's and finishing the nightly routine, but I let her go into the bathroom anyway.

She came right out and asked me to go with her. So she sat on her potty and I sat on "my" (closed) potty and all of a sudden, tinkle! There it was. Maia going in the potty.

She looked kind of confused. Almost bewildered. She stood up and said "Uh-oh" but I quickly began cheering and clapping and letting her know what a cool thing she just did. Then she got to use "big girl wipes" (toilet paper) and flush the big potty. And then she smiled.

She did get her two chocolates...and wasn't that interested in eating them. That's alright so close to bed time.

Of course the only wrinkle in all of this is her timing. We're leaving for family road trip vacation at the end of the week and I hadn't planned on working on any potty stuff along the way. But maybe we'll try right before bed. Maybe this was just a fluke, but, it's something I'd like to encourage.

We'll go from here but right now I'm just as tickled as can be with my little big girl.

If John Never Has a Son, at Least He'll Have a Maia

I took Maia to the Dr's office today. She's had a cold/cough/yuckiness for the past couple of weeks that's just not getting better. There is some light construction work going on in the complex that houses our pediatrician's office and as we walk by Maia spies something familiar:



Her eyes light up as she says "Excavator".

I can only imagine the swell of pride that John would have felt, had he been there to hear her.

Maia's Two Cents

I took Maia out shopping with me this morning. I needed pants. In the worst way. My favorite summer/pregnancy capri jeans have developed a bad case of inner thigh wear and needed to be replaced.

I'm at the mall in the maternity store because they have the biggest most comfortable pants. Really. when I was pregnant with Maia I got cheap pants at Target and Old Navy but something has happened in maternity wear and those stores no longer have cute, cheap, comfortable pants. If I have to pay the money, I'm getting the good stuff.

Maia, poor girl, is at the end of her rope. I forgot the stroller and she's been running with me all morning. She really doesn't want to be in the dressing room with me and as the dressing room opening is covered by a curtain and not a door, she keeps making her escape-of course while I have my pants, literally, down. The woman staffing the store was a complete sweetheart and in an effort to distract my little Houdini she strikes up a conversation with her.

She asks Maia "What's in Mommy's tummy?" and Maia answers "Two tiny babies." We all coo for a moment at how cute Maia is, and then the saleswoman asks "Would you like brothers or sisters?"

We've never really talked to Maia about brothers or sisters...I guess we figured "babies" was already a challenging enough topic. After all, we're not going to find out what sex these two babies are, so the whole brother or sister thing seemed like a non-issue.

Maia though, not one to drop a conversational thread with a stranger (a-hem), thinks about this for a moment before answering: "Sisters."

So I guess John will have to add that to his Terry Twin Poll

Maia Speak: Bicycle

Yesterday we finally got around to putting together Maia's birthday tricycle. So cute!

She loves it, is in fact is a little bicycle obsessed.

What kills me is how she pronounces the word "bicycle". Phonetically speaking she says:

bi-skye-yule

Why do they have to learn the "right" way to say things, ever? I still miss "goouy" for yogurt.

Honesty

Maia: Mango juice!
Me: Are you going it drink it or dump it?
Maia: Dump it!

OK. No mango juice.

Happy Birthday...(fill in the blank)

Yesterday was Maia's 2nd birthday. She is loving to sing "Happy Birthday to You" and yesterday she sang it to:

The potty
A cookie
Her friend David
Mommy
Daddy
Auntie Nat
Uncle Kevin

and finally to herself.

Happy two, little one. We all love you.

Nap Time

Maia fell asleep in the car on our way home from the park. She was all snuggled with Moosie when I lifted her from the car seat and over my shoulder into the house. Bed was waiting for her, but first I had to pull her blinds to help darken the room. The noise woke her up a bit and she looked and me and almost sighed "hi" before laying her head back on my shoulder.

I tucked her into bed and she again looked at me for a moment before drifting off to sleep, once again snuggled with her moose.

It's these times when there is no doubt in my mind as to why I love having a child, and this child in particular. She is pure joy.

Rushing Things

Conversation after dinner--

Maia: Maia big girl panties.
Me: You want some big girl panties? Like Mommy?
Maia: Yes. Big girl panties.
Me: OK. We'll get you some, then.
Maia: And then, Maia bra.
Me: ...

I Didn't Think We Needed "That" Talk Yet

Maia has been admiring my ever-growing belly and we've been talking about how mommies' babies live in there.

This morning as I was getting dressed, Maia comes over to me and gently pats my belly and says "Mommies' babies". I thought we'd made a real break through in her understanding of what is going on.

Until we went to get her dressed and as she's laying on the changing table she begins to rub her sweet little belly and say: "Maia's babies".

Um.

Well, at least it's a start. And cute.

Moon Child

(Originally written about four months ago. Stored on my computer...found today.)


Maia likes the moon.

She has to be read "Goodnight Moon" at least seven times a day. She knows where the book is. Sometimes I hide it after the fifth reading because I'm a bed mom. But I always read it to her, twice, before bed.

She finds the moon in the sky at night. She'll track it from her car seat. She thinks street lights are "moon". Right now any light in the sky is "moon".

She finds moons all around her. She found my moon the other night, and I think that gave her a thrill. I was wearing a tank top during bath time and after bath, while I was dressing her for bed, she looks up at me and suddenly her eyes get wide and her face lights up..."Moon" she says as she points to my shoulder.

Now she looks for Mama's moon when we get dressed in the morning. Soon she'll find some stars and then everyone will know she's my daughter for sure.

(And she has. Stars. Moons. My girl.)

Shut the Door!

I was up this morning when Maia woke up and John was (is at this point) still sleeping. So in good mom/ wife fashion I get her up and out of bed. In bad wife fashion I decide that, even though it's the weekend and he was up much later than I was, John should share the morning with us. Plus, I'm angling to go out for breakfast.

Usualy Maia will run into our bedroom yelling "Daddy sleeping! Wake up!" and how nice of an alarm is that? This morning when I opened the door Maia did give her accustomed greeting of "Daddy sleeping" followed very quickly by "Shut the door! Shut the door! Shut the door!"

So we see that Maia is firmly on her fathers side this morning.

Yucky Cookie

Harvey the cat has developed some sort of gastro-intestinal problem and as of late has been throwing up chunks of cat food. All over the house.

While this causes me to swear inwardly, Maia has a different approach. She points at the pile of yellow cat food puke and simply says: "Yucky cookie".

We've Split the Toddler

Lacan was right.

Maia is currently running around the house, jumping on things, and yelling: "Evelyn Terry! No jumping!"

This could be bad. Or it could also be one of the cutest things I've heard all day.

No Dumping

Maia is testing our limits in true almost two-year-old style. I know she knows the few simple rules we ask her to follow, just as I know she needs to test how serious we are about them.

Today in the car I gave her a sippy cup with some water, but left out the gasket that prevents it from spilling all over the place. We had a five minute drive home and I was in a hurry to get there...yeah. So. Of course Maia decides to dump water all over herself in the seat. She tips the cup upside down and **shakes** to get the best effect.

I turn around to see what she's doing and exclaim: "MAIA EVELYN WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

She immeditaly holds the cup out for me to take from her and says "NO DUMPING!"

I had to not look at her the rest of the way home, because I was silently laughing so hard.

Almost Two

Me-(kissing Maia in her car seat) Love you!

Maia-(looking very serious) No "love you".

Count Down...

Alright!

Busy day, as usual for a Saturday. The fun news is that I am getting a haircut which means that I will be dyeing my hair tonight. Purple. I might even post pictures if it comes out as cute as I think it will. :)

From hair chopping to food shopping. We have finalized our Christmas Buffet menu and now cheese must be purchased. It's not a party without cheese.

Wish me luck on my missions of merry.

Some Ideas

Let me toss some ideas around here. It looks like the majority of my family will be here in the late morning...perfect brunch time, although my dad and Susan will have already eaten, it being a family tradition to have cinnamon rolls Christmas morning. (sorry for the long, awkward sentence) With that in mind, I took a peek through my Williams Sonoma Breakfast cookbook. It's a small book with nice brunch ideas and the recipes have always turned out well for me. Some dishes that sound good for our Christmas feast:

Either Chocolate Croissants (purchased frozen then proofed overnight and baked fresh...I don't have time to make my own. Really, I don't.) or a make-ahead Cranberry Chocolate Breakfast Cake. With Streusel!

Cinnamon Rolls. Whole wheat, although with the hard white winter wheat flour, you can hardly tell it's whole wheat. The secret is love.

For eggy-goodness we could have either a wild mushroom quiche with a cheesy pastry crust or a broccoli rabe strata. The small advantage the strata has over the quiche is that it can be layered the night before and left in the fridge over night, as it uses bread cubes as the base as opposed to pastry dough. The quiche pastry and filling could be made ahead and simply assembled and baked the next day, but we have a lot going on in the oven first thing--so maybe the strata would be better, time wise.

Banana bread? I have bananas in the freezer just waiting for the chance to become bread. I could even make it tomorrow and wrap it tight. It keeps up to a week!

And for later in the day food:

Cold cut platter with cheese and sandwich fixings.

Fresh baked rolls for above sandwiches.

Nummy cheese and bread and crackers. Maybe goat cheese fondue? I love me a pot of warm cheese!

Veggie tray and fruit tray. Mostly citrus. And apples and pears. Seasonal fruit. And nuts. This is California, after all, "the land of fruits and nuts". As my Idaho family would say.

Stuffing? Maybe...

All day sweets:

COOKIES! 3-D reindeer cookies. I'm baking some today to see how they work and if I need to tweak them at all for the big day. Plus all the others I'm baking for cookie boxes.

Rocky road candy...at least what ever is left after my gift boxes are made.

Bourbon balls. Ditto on above conditions.

Pretzel sticks? These will be dependent on time constraints. I'd like to get them done for the cookie boxes...but...we'll see how that goes.

Comments? Votes? This is mainly for John, so hon, "Um yeah" doesn't count as a comment. ;) We'll winnow down the list tonight and get a shopping list ready for Saturday morning.

Here we go, ho ho ho!

Quick List

Things Done:

About 10 dozen assorted cookies and coffee and eggnog delivered to John's office today!

Most of my presents secured.

Johns' family presents wrapped and handed off.

Sugar cookies cut and ready to bake. Ditto for gingerbread men.

Rocky Road candy.

Bourbon balls.

Chocolate crinkle cookie dough ready to roll and bake.

Tree trimmed.

House lit.

Things Left to Do:

Yikes. Wrapping. Maia's presents alone will take a good chunk of time.

A menu for Christmas day.

Spritz cookies.

Cookie decorating.

Cookie boxes.

All the other normal day-to-day stuff.

Eegads. I can't wait for New Years with no plans but to relax. And begin house projects...

Wii...

...got one.

And kind of on a whim. Last weekend John and had the chance to play on our friends' console and we became hooked on the Wii. We decided we needed to add one to our household. Now. For Christmas...at least for End of Year Bonus Time. Good enough reason to spend money, right?

Of course, it is only a week to Christmas and we were getting in on the hottest game in town. John spent last week looking for deals and getting to know the delivery schedules of the closest Wii dealers. Target looked good...Costco had a package deal..and there was the game store right around the corner...the breakdown went like this:

Costco gets them in at various times but only puts them out in the morning because of the pandemonium they cause.

Target gets a regular shipment Sunday morning.

Game Stop has a delivery on Friday between 10 AM and 1 PM.

Disadvantages?

Costco bundle is $500 and still has only one controller. Not such a great deal, plus you have to call everyday to see of they might put some out the next morning.

Game Stop wait time is hard on jobs and babies. More on that later.

Target is an early-rise job. And "everyone" knows when they get their shipment. So it can get crazy in line.

Friday I went to Game Stop after John told me they might have gotten their shipment in. I was in the store about 10:30 and a small group had gathered. Numbers were passed around. I was took the #5 spot form a man who was believed to have left the store. The other folks in the store knew what the delivery woman looked like. They had been here before. Apparently this store only gets a handful of units at a time...and they always instantly sell out. I had the Bee with me so I wasn't going to wait past 11 AM. We had a park date to get to. Just as I was getting ready to go, word arrived that the delivery woman was on her way. The store became more and more excited...one woman groaned that she was going to lose her job (she was on a loong lunch) but she couldn't leave--not this close to success. Another woman shared the fact that she had been trying for a Wii since November and still hadn't been able to secure one. She was #1 in line this time and wasn't going anywhere.

The Wii's were counted. Six units. I actually got a bit excited. I was five, after all, and this was our FIRST attempt to get a Wii. John's sussing out of the situation had payed off.

Then, sadness. The original #5 came back into the store. He hadn't really left--he had been pacing in front of the building. I was bumped to #7 and out of the running.

Oh well.

The Costco "deal" wasn't much of one, so John and I decided to skip that madness.

That left Target and Sunday, this, morning. John set the coffee pot last night and the alarm for 5:45 AM. He was up and out and in line by 6:10. He ended up with the #13 spot for a double holiday shipment of Wii's totaling 90! Woo-hoo! Wii-ness had been secured...along with extra controllers and nunchucks and games. Many games. In fact we returned later on in the day and purchased another game.

Check out his experience in line waiting
here.

Live blogging from the iPhone. Aren't we cool? And when I say "we" I mean "John".

So we have a new time sink addiction. And it is fun. But we did manage to get other grown-up things done today as well so we still have balance in our lives. And I might gain more as I learn to use that wii controller...