Sick Week

So far, 2014 hasn't been awesome. Sure, we celebrated Elliana's 5th birthday, which will be a separate post, found T.J.'s donated shoes (long story...) and witnessed T.J. turn another year older. But, in all honesty, those are about the only highlights thus far and we are 15 days in!

In the midst of illness it feels like a virus will never leave your body and allow you to return to normal. Such is also true when a virus enters your house and visits each member of the house , truly an unwanted house guest. Last week, a nasty bug struck our family and seems to want to stick around.

We've spent the last 8 days in quarantine as this yucky bug attacked each of us separately. Fever, cough, body aches, lack of voice and energy... Yep it shows no mercy to even our youngest family members. 

With fevers still in half of our little family I know we still have several days of recovering ahead of us. Until then I'm determined to make the most of our time and enjoy all of these cuddles! Praise the Lord for Nana who gave me a day off yesterday to get some of my mojo back and realize that this too is a phase and that there is life outside of the house that someday we will enjoy together as a family. 

This month, we have enjoyed nearly EVERY new toy, craft and project we received for Christmas and birthdays, consumed several series of children's television, snuggled a LOT and created lots of crafts to survive the wintry bucket of sick that we are currently climbing out of. 

Praise you Lord for healing T.J. and I, for giving me a light at the end of the tunnel and for allowing us the flexibility and freedom to take care of our little girls. 

Maya - 21 Months

I blinked and I no longer have a baby. We removed the baby gates yesterday and donated several bags of baby clothes, as our baby days are no more. Instead of a baby, we have a very curious, climbing, inspecting, creative little girl on our hands.

Climbing on top of Daddy and the Christmas box to suspend herself in air

Maya has always acted older than she actually is, boycotting several naps a day even as an infant. Now as she approaches two, Maya has practically skipped the toddler days too as shs has already given up playing with baby toys, and surrounds herself with tiny Playmobil, Barbie and Lego pieces instead.

Sentences are forming quickly now and she is able to repeat nearly anything we ask her to try. Over the past few months, Maya has slowly become a vegetarian, refusing to try any form of meat. So, she fills up on peanuts (as she refuses peanut butter), almonds and lots of fruit and vegetables. Favorite foods include; blueberries, oranges, almonds, popcorn and of course candy!

 To further prove Maya is no longer a baby, she requests, daily in fact, for a shower. She strips down, and walks into the shower with me where she sits down and plays in the water spray, bubbles and steam for the duration of my shower. If I even mention a shower, Maya starts taking off her clothes and begins yelling, "SHOWER!!!" and leads the way. 

Coloring big kid style...

Maya's favorite color is proving to be pink, as she gets giddy excited whenever she sees the color and yells PINK repeatedly until we acknowledge that she is correct. Good thing we thought ahead and painted her nursery pink all those months ago. :)

 Maya loves to practice her mothering skills and frequently has several babies all lined up, ready to mother. She loves her baby doll and frequently carries her with her wherever she goes.

These little girls are ALWAYS up for an adventure

Just a few of my favorite things you are currently doing:

• LOVE cereal with milk, but refuse to use a spoon. In fact, if there is a spoon in your cereal...you won't eat it. 
• Your language is improving greatly and even is grammatically correct, which I LOVE!
• Will eat almost any vegetable or fruit given
• I can offer you something 1,000 times and have you refuse. If you try it on your own, you tend to like it. Stubborn little booger! 
• Love to play with Barbies, Playmobil and big kid legos. Little pieces have nothing on you as your dexterity is truly amazing as you manipulate the tiny pieces. 
• Will happily color sprawled out on the floor of nearly any environment (home, large parties, you name it)
• Definitely becoming an introvert, preferring small groups or even solitary over large groups. 
• Could be confused with Mommy's shadow, as you are always by my side. 

Boston Getaway

Well, here I sit. Alone on an airplane. I honestly don't remember the last time this happened. A flight where a child wasn't crawling on my lap, pulling on my hair, demanding entertainment and attention. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for each and every flight we've taken our babies on and the opportunity to introduce them to my love for travel and adventure. But, i would be lying if I didn't admit that traveling with youngsters is hard work. So, I'm relishing in the fact that I have no one but myself to entertain this flight. :)

Boston. A long awaited weekend getaway with just me and my love. We knew it would be a short trip for me as I was hitchhiking onto a business trip TJ had to take. And, as much work as the youngsters are... I can't be away from them for too long!! 

So, we had just over 48 hours to tour the city, reconnect as hubby and wifey and find time to eat, sleep and relax in there too. 

What a joy it was to wake up Saturday morning in our hotel, knowing we were on our own agenda and a plethora of options before us. We ate some delicious onion rings at the Parish Cafe; two days later and I still want another order! 

We explored the kiosks and wonder of the intimate grocery store and the basement wine cellar. We shopped, ate some more and even managed to squeeze in a nap! This is my kind of getaway!!!

 

Sunday, we slept in again (awesome to wake at 9am!!!), ventured to HARH VARD as the locals pronounce it, toured the campus of the elite and pretended to be smart and wealthy for a few hours. Upon researching that tuition is $60,000 per year and witnesses students studying stem cell research, I realized even pretending here was a bit out of my league. :) 

We explored the trains, visited the worlds only Curious George store, walked in the park, and ate at the famous Cheers pub. 

And now I'm flying home for some very important cuddles with my little ones. I am so incredibly grateful for this past weekend and to my mom and in laws for making this dream a reality!!! You guys are awesome!

Fun Weekend

What a fun and exhausting weekend this little family had!!! Saturday we ventured to our local favorite toy store where we played until our hearts were content, and began a Christmas list for the girls.

After playing we ventured to lunch, then home for naps. We all napped except Maya who seemed to be having too much fun to nap at all this weekend! After naps we went to a Halloween party at Elliana's school. 

The girls were thrilled to wear their fancy dress up clothes out of the house and out in public. Once Maya realized that opening a bag and smiling, strangers put candy into her bag... Boy, it was a little like heaven on Earth!

We enjoyed games, lots of candy, popcorn, bounce houses and lots of laughter. Both girls even enjoyed their faces painted and were spinning in delight before the night was over. 

Sunday, well we cleaned. Which wasn't much fun but was more than needed. The girls bonded and argued and even played outside by themselves for a while. TJ and I couldn't help but admire them from afar as they played and giggled without adults. :)

To top off the weekend, we had wonderful friends over last night for dinner and pumpkin carving. It was a wonderful blessed weekend!!

SIght Words!!!

We bought a deck of sight word flash cards this summer. Level A seemed appropriate for our four year old who had just learned to read. She absorbed the words quickly and begged to study them often. 

 I admit, like most good intentions, the sight flash cards kind of fell off our radar. We did them on occassion, but with no real discipline or structure to our learning. What a surprise and delight it was to do flash cards this past week and have Elliana know ALL the words!! FRONT AND BACK!!! She has learned 108 sight words at just 4.5 years old!

And so...to mark this very special achievement I took photos!!! So very proud of this little girl and her very smart skills. Keep up the great work Elliana! 

Happy Girl rejoicing in her words

One side of the completed words!!