Photo catch up

So another place that exhibits my lack of baby step discipline is the frequency and bursts of posts here.  This is a catch up in pictures post from the last 2 months.  Many of these are from Mara's persepective as she has been using our point and shoot camera a lot.

 

Christmas

New Year's Eve (AK's wedding)

A whole lot of these

Great picture Mara (man I miss those colorful walls)

Love that smile

 

We got to have a second Christmas enjoying our new toys as we unpacked in February

Tour of the new house courtesy of Mara:

  

  

Alligator lizard seen outside our house when we arrived home from a hike.

And one last video thought for you.  This was our Friday evening after make your own pizza. 

 

Baby Steps

I have a Lenten resolution that I am working on and I failed at it miserably this weekend; but, I put my finger on something about myself today and I'm not giving up.  You see, I like changes to be quick and easy.  Painless, or at least a short lived effort with lasting results; but that isn't how life works, that's not how toddlers and preschoolers learn and grow.  Really all of us require baby steps and perseverance (I didn't I just write that about 15 times in the Valentines I just sent you all, guess that message was for me).

In my head this post started about a picture book, The Listening Walk.  We have been attempting to get out in nature more and have thus joined a local hiking group for preschoolers.  The first week we had fun for most of it until we HAD to leave.  Last week our outings were less successful with a whiny "hungry" kiddo.  I even contemplated throwing in the towel.  Last Friday after naps and right before closing time we stopped by the library and picked up a big stack of books we had on hold and a few more besides.  One such book was The Listening Walk about a girl who goes for a silent walk and notices the noises around her. Well Mara has gotten into this book and asked to go for a listening walk.  Now are walk today was far from silent but we had ourselves a great time.  We looked at flowers and took photos and looked under some rocks and used our magnifying glass and saw some birds and ate a snack (one we would usually turn our nose up at).  But not once did I hear "I'm hungry" or even an "XYZ hurts (insert meltdown)", and when we got back she even had an honest to goodness scrape on her arm that she calmly told me about.  This folks feels like a gigantic leap but I am choosing to see it as a baby step because our next hike may go great and it may not, but if we can string a few together (hopefully with more positive experiences than negative) then we will be making real change that can last and that is the attitude that I need to cultivate.  Anyway, I highly recommend the book.  I think it could be good no matter where your kid falls on the nature walk continuum.  It can take a whiny like mine and get them excited to get out there or a loud adventurer and hopefully get them to quiet down and use a new sense to explore nature (maybe we can try that lesson with the book next year).

So from picture book recommendation to spiritual and parenting lesson I am recommitting to looking at life as baby steps to help me make progress towards my goals.  Attitudes and boxes here I come.

Gratuitous cute kid pictures:

 

Serving Dinner

(I know 2 posts in one day wow!)

This is a story about the ironies of motherhood. 

I made beef stroganoff for dinner.  I served Mara some baby tomatoes and stroganoff, Audra had a sliver of red pepper, some meat, mushrooms and plain noodles.  Tom and I had our stroganoff and salad. Everyone had a slice of bread and something to drink.  Pretty normal, not much different than your house or any other night at ours.

Halfway through dinner, Mara has already declared her doneness with most of her meal still in front of her (minus the tomatoes and mushrooms) and Audra keeps reaching for me (unusual for her).  In desperation I was about to remove Audra from her chair when I finally realize . . . I had given her one of my stroganoff covered noodles and she was desperate for more! 

Audra proceeded to clean Mara's plate and Mara ate the few remaining plain noodles on Audra's plate.  And that is the essence of our Mara.

Wave!

Just a quick hello to let you all know were still here and doing well.  We are in our new house (and selling the old one is going great).  Our stuff arrived this week so we are busy checking out new people and sights and digging out of boxes.  My cell phone died so I am not ignoring you I just don't know you tried to reach me.  Drop me a line if you need contact info quickly, otherwise, we'll get it to you eventually in some more formal form.

The girls are great.  Audra claps now and gets into EVERYTHING.  The toilet lid must be closed at all times and all cupboard arrangements have to have her little hands and mouth in mind.  Mara LOVES (I can't stress this enough) the ocean.

We miss you!

Almost Wordless Wednesday- She Drew People!

Left to Right: Audra, Mommy, Daddy, Mara

Reading

For my birthday I received the book A Picture Perfect Childhood.  I have received, read and browsed several other books and sites with lists of great books for kids, but this one either hit me at the right time or was especially accessible to me and I am doing it.  This is the second month that I requested a bunch of the books from the library and purposefully selected numerous others off the shelves to bring home and read to Mara.  Some she likes, some she doesn't (or doesn't give a chance), and some are way over her head (the grammar ones are especially funny).  But today I wanted to tell you about one book and experience in particular, Cranberry Thanksgiving.  The first time we read it Mara couldn't have cared less, but I was very excited to see a recipe at the end.  When we first started it I had remembered I had just purchased a bag of cranberries at the store to try so I got a few out.  Eww, they're sour by themselves and we didn't really enjoy them but hey we tried them.  I patiently waited a few days to have the ingredients on hand, her to be well enough to care and have a chance sans baby to bake.  So today after lunch Mara and I whipped up a batch of cranberry bread.  Her favorite cooking step by the way is leveling the measuring cup, which she is way better at than pouring so I'll take it.  Now I just took 3 small loaves out of the oven, we'll enjoy one for dinner and the others will go in the freezer for impromptu tea party treats (and not Mom's naptime snack) I think.  But even more exciting was then we read the story again before naptime and she was delighted by the story because she had a connection to it.  And that is preschool by Mom for this week.

Ladybugs!

We had a fantastic Halloween at our friends party. Mara was set with the perfect 2 year old costume that would still work if she refused to wear part of it. We were in the clear until the night before when she learned her friend was going to be a princess, but mom saved the cute costume she worked so hard on with the promise of ladybug spots on her cheeks. Thank you make-up! Mara even warmed up to "Trick or Treating" after a very icy start at Dad's office on Friday afternoon; however, you still won't hear a "Trick or Treat," you'll have to be happy with "Happy Halloween." As for pictures, I have no good ones of Audra and the Jack-o-Lantern rotted before Halloween. But without further ado here is a mighty cute ladybug.

 

 

 

Forgot to add the costume was further enhanced at the last minute to have glasses like daddy's costume.   And she made mama proud when she got to choose one last treat before we changed into pajamas to head home from the party and she picked the teddy grahams.  (And both kids were asleep (in their pjs and carseats) before we made it to the highway on the way home).