Catching up with the Dardens

I'm hoping to make a series of small posts so that it doesn't overwhelm me or my readers... although I don't think you readers would mind.

After being in quarantine for what seems like forever (Mara/Chrissy stomach bug, Chrissy flu, Isaac flu, Isaac ear infection x3 and still going...), I am able to share some photos. The North Carolina weather means we can't pack up our winter clothes just yet. We'll have 70 degree days and then 40 degree days. We try to take advantage of the beautiful weather without the mosquitoes while we can. Mara requested a sprinkler run in March, although she really was wondering when the huge slip and slide at Steven and Liz's would be and where the slide was since she knew they put it in the trash.

We pacified her by setting up a sprinkler in the backyard, digging out her bathing suit, and letting her dodge the dog poops. Fun stuff.

She didn't like the water spraying her after awhile, but Isaac sure was interested in the sprinkler, and in dirt. Eating dirt. Touching dirt. Eating leaves. He's a boy.

We also attended Max's second birthday party, which was "Tangled" themed. I had 180 some pictures from that day... and it took awhile to go through and delete ones I didn't like, so I'm only posting a few of my favorites of our kids. Mara will let me put "pink tails" or "piggy tails" in her hair, which helps tame the wildness. Grandmom also sent her a bunch of dresses for my (yes Chrissy's) birthday, so I think she wore dresses for a solid week. I turned the big 3-0 and was lazier than ever when I asked my Mom to do the ONLINE shopping for me as a birthday gift. Hahaha.

Isaac enjoyed being around all the noise and colors and sounds. He even tried pumping some gasoline with Max's toy gas pump. Check out this grin! He's got 4 teeth on top and 3 on the bottom as I type this.

My little girl hasn't changed since that first birthday party that she went to where she was the lone soul at the table. I think it's precious - she wants to have her snack and parks herself where she needs to for her alone time with her food. Oh and her balloon. Which stayed on her wrist the whole party.

One picture of the birthday boy for ya. He's getting so big and I see so much of both his mom and dad in him.

Mara is learning so much every single day. She can write many letters now (with her right hand) and here's a product of her hard work! She wrote on the outside of Max's birthday card. How AMAZING is that?! (The X was misplaced at first, so I had her draw another one). She knows what her name looks like and that it has 3 A's.

I got Zack to snap a few pictures of me and the kids so that you know I exist.

Zack just returned from a 4 day work trip to Boston and we are thrilled to have him back. The kids, dogs, plants, and my sanity survived for the first single-mom of two kids stint, I'm happy to report. We enjoyed each other's company, played games, did a lot of talking and tried our best to stick to our weekday routine.

Kid Updates:

Isaac (10 months) is now crawling like a mad man and pulling to a stand. He weighed 16 pounds 5 ounces yesterday at a follow-up doctor's visit (still less than 3 percent). We've been to the doctor so many times in this last month and a half, it's unreal. He's had 3 rounds of antibiotics for ear infections, one of which was a 3 day series of shots that we had to take him into the office to get, a burst ear drum, oh and the flu before that (and we did Tamiflu as soon as we could). We have an ENT referral appointment on Monday, so we'll see if he'll be getting tubes or not. We've been monitoring his eating schedule since the little man needed more calories. He's been really iffy on nursing and bottles, so we do our best to get breastmilk and baby food/cereal in him as much as we and daycare can. He still wakes up 2-3x a night, and Mara usually 1x, so we are hoping there is light at the end of the tunnel. When he is healthy, he is happy, interactive, and very well coordinated! He will throw or roll a ball to us, and capture it when we roll it back. He'll even pick up the soccer ball we have for Mara. He picks up very small objects for inspection, and recently makes it very clear he wants to eat or try whatever we're having. His most recent taste testing was tonight at Mexican - he had a whole baby food/cereal, and washed it down with Mexican rice. He enjoys rolling toy cars back and forth, putting objects inside of other objects and removing them, he will throw his arms up when we ask how big he is, and I think he's starting to understand that we're signing some words. He isn't consistently signing anything yet, but takes great joy in saying some very clear "Dah Dah Dahs" and "Ma Ma Ma's". He claps his hands together a lot, which I'm not sure if he is trying the "more" sign? He likes me singing to him, and of course saves the majority of his grins and giggles for his sister. He loves the bathtub and splashes the entire time. He has no fear and I have to watch him closely when we're near the edge of the bed because he would crawl right off the end. Even though he's so little, he seems so strong to us! He will stop his turbo crawl and turn around when I say his name and seems to understand "No" or "No thank you" when I say it from a distance.

Mara (3 years and 3.5 months) continues to astound me with everything she does. I know it's because she's our first child that anything new she does or says seems so out of this world amazing. I still try to jot down the funny things she says - it's more funny in the context that they're in and not silly things. Tonight, Zack was reading the Highlights magazine that she receives (and loves!) and the story was about a Great Great Grandmom. Zack shortened it to "GG Grandmom" as he was reading and Mara said "No, Daddy, it's Good Good Grandmom". I laughed and laughed as Zack informed me that Great Great Grandmom got downgraded. She also told Zack tonight that boys are very hairy but girls aren't because they have fur and their fur is white so you can't see it. HA. And she also informed me that when she coughs, it's because God is tickling her. She told me she likes the taste of her tears. I told her they were salty like the ocean, and she told me she didn't like the taste of the ocean but she liked to lick her tears. I'll dig up some more of her observations and put them in another post.

She's catching up in height to the kids in her class. She's grown an inch in a few months, her wild hair is thickening up (and still curling) and she still loves yogurt drops and has acquired a taste for cinnamon toast. She's in 3T clothes, likes wearing dresses and is more interested in having clips in her hair or her toenails and fingernails painted. She still likes to play in her pretend kitchen but is trying to branch out by pulling out a Mommy or Daddy board game to play. We've stretched some of the rules of Stratego, which she enjoys and she gets the concept of numbers and finding a flag and that bombs blow up other players. When we tell her she has to stop growing up, she responds with "But Mommy, I have to grow up so I can be an adult!" Sniffle. She climbed a little tree this week (the nook was a foot off the ground) but the next day she climbed to the next branch level (a half a foot higher?). She's very brave and usually pretty sure of herself. She will tell me that she's "nervous" or "excited" about something. She'll also tell me if Isaac is "distracted" and that things are "attached." Pretty soon I'm gonna be looking up her words in the dictionary, I think. :) After she got her Easter basket from the Easter bunny, she told me "I didn't hear the Easter bunny come in!" Haha. I told her he was very quiet. She speaks in full sentences, and full paragraphs, and will carry on a conversation the entire car ride home from daycare. She's just a little person and I love having her in my life. She has opinions and makes jokes. She asks me how I'm feeling if she knows I wasn't feeling well the previous day, or how I slept the night before. We pretend we're all kinds of different animals and swap places of who is the mommy and baby animal (so sometimes, I'm a baby monkey and she's a mommy monkey). We'll pretend various games at home that we do in real life (fake driving to the grocery store to buy fake food) and we just have a lot of fun imagining. And I know it's only going to get better.

Here's a 10 month comparison: