I haven't lost my Marbles...

Or perhaps I have!!!

Mara, where are you? Oh there you are!

Yes, she climbs in there all by herself. And then gets out and offers for me to have a turn, patting where she just sat. I tell her Mommy's booty is too big to fit in there. She says "Daddy?" Daddy's booty is definitely too big to fit in there, although I chuckle at the though of us trying to squeeze into this cabinet.

Here's Mara's boo boo cover that she allowed to stay on for most of the day! She's a champ. (Skinned bloody knee). She's so awesome she needs to wear those sunglasses indoors.

And most of you have already witnessed the spots/bumps from last week, but I had a few more cute photos to share:

We sent her to daycare today and all seems well, although she may be getting her 2 year molars. She has been GRUMPPPYYYY!!! And gnawing on that finger or toy!

She does have some killer gorgeous eyes, though.

And if you're eating something and she wants it, here's the sign (note: not official American Sign Language - this is Mara sign)

Looks like she's screaming. She's not. She pulls the baby bird face until something tasty is inserted in the pie hole. Zack carried her down from a nap the other day and she immediately zoned in on my lunch (pasta noodles) sitting on the side table. Before Z walked across the room, Mara swiveled her head to keep sight on the bowl and said "BITE!" She finished my lunch for me.

She's 20 months old now! Such a big girl, and very excited to go back to school. She asked to go to school almost every day she was sick. Poor kid. I did all I could to keep her entertained.

Time for bed! Thanks for reading.

Because I'm lazy

All you get are some videos.

She and I had a great time together this weekend. We went to the Butlers on Friday (hence the video of her getting high five's from Max), Saturday, she and I enjoyed mexican food... although she wasn't eating my burrito but instead opted for eating the salsa with a spoon, we stopped by the auto parts store to get replacement bulbs for the truck lights and she discovered several treasures! FOG! (a green frog figure sitting on a register), and a rubberband from the floor which became a bracelet. We then hit up a local petstore to see the cat, dogs, birds, hamsters, ferrets, bunnies, guinea pigs, rats, fish, etc. She enjoyed that very much! We also got ice cream at a place called Skinny Dip, although she refused to eat the frozen yogurt and was only interested in my STUH-BERRIES. I played with her outside and let her walk holding my hands on a concrete wall and got her saying AHHSUHH (Awesome), SEEET (Sweet), and DUDE. She was making passerby's laugh. Sunday, we went shopping at Target and she surprised me by knowing the Wolfpack sign when I said GO WOLFPACK as we passed some bright red State shirts. She made a mouthy hand sign (without the ears, but we'll work on that). I think one of her daycare teachers is a State fan. I'm not complaining!

She's just been so much fun. I want to cuddle her to bits, she gives great wet sloppy kisses, and I'm trying to expand her movie horizons so we don't continue to memorize Shrek (SHEK!) 1, 2, or 3. She likes Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron, and will scream NO NO, OH NO when the mountain lion jumps on Spirit's back. We tried Ratatouille (she calls TOOIE) and we got a semi-positive response. She can put her shapes in her shapeball pretty much completely by herself and I caught her saying "STAW" (star) as she held the star and searched for the right hole. She also yells out a color sometimes (not always correct, but she'd good with blue).  As you saw in the video, she figured out how to pump the bike pump. Today, when we were calling the dogs in the house, she made kissing noises and slapped her hand deliberately over and over on her thigh, bending over to do so. I cracked up.

She likes to make things right, fix them - Zack broke a kitchen cabinet door off while he was mouse-proofing the kitchen and she discovered it this evening. I hear in the kitchen "NO!" and Zack comes back saying she pushed him out of the kitchen while she was attempting to carry the door over to the gaping hole in the cabinet.

We also went to Target on Sunday and I treated her to a cinnamon pretzel in the snack area. I've been wanting to do that for awhile! But as you can see, she got more of a kick out of the chair that I helped twirl.

That's about it for now!

Dirty Dirty Mara

Since it's getting late, this is going to be a quick post... but I had some great pictures I wanted to share from the weekend. Mara got a present in the mail and enjoyed opening her new Teddy! Thank you, Great Grahampa and Great-grandmother Shirley!

Mara also helped us weed outside during and after a rain... which was quite entertaining. And MESSY!

 Mara still loves this pink car, and climbs over all the CRAP in our garage to get to it. She tries to delay our departure to school/work in the morning by loading up in it... but since this was a Saturday, she got to do some cruising.

She does know the song "The Wheels on the Bus" and will make the hand motions for the mommies that say SHH SHH SHH, the horn BEEP BEEP BEEP, and the babies WAH WAH WAH. I'll try to get it on video.

Right now, she's obsessed with buckles. She will buckle her booster seat over and over again, as long as you're willing to unbuckle it for her to start over. Her booster seat has buckles on 2 sides that attach to the middle crotch strap, and she's really good at it.

She doesn't really have any qualms about getting dirty. :) That's my girl.

 Before I ran in to get my camera, she had a giant chunk of dirt on her forehead. You can see the remains here, but it was enormous. Sorry I missed it!

She loves to push her own car around and you can see how tall she's getting. She can reach our door knobs... she just can't turn them (thank goodness).

And phase 1 of clean up was this:

 

 

Phase 2: strip her down to her diaper.

Phase 3: shower!

Hope you all had a great weekend.

Beach Babe

Note: bold indicates words I've heard Mara repeat or say on her own accord. Keep in mind they may not always be strewn together, but her vocabulary is growing! And there are plenty that I haven't incorporated, have forgotten, or just haven't spoken to her yet to repeat. (She can repeat almost any 2 syllable word).

In preparation for our beach trip, Mommy picked up an awesome hat. What makes it so awesome? See for yourself! Mainly, it isn't BLUE.

 Mommy, it's giving me hat hair! I could use a brush.

 That's okay. I'm cute anyway! Look at my teeth! Brushing them makes me so happy! I love my tooth paste and ask for more all the time. Say cheese!

 We enjoy taking the dogs for a walk in the sun.

 Arson is big and Endo is a good girl.

We took our car to the beach. Daddy packed it really well, Mommy read me lots of books and I juggled binkies the whole time. I sat in my big girl car seat. It was a long drive, but we sang songs and Mommy made happy and silly faces (a few sad faces when I was sad). We went with Uncle Ian, Aunt Derica (Durka), Uncle Hunt (or Uncle Dustin), and Aunt Kirby. Aunt Kirby had a funny name but nobody else laughs at it, so I changed it to Aunt PeePee. Everyone laughed with me then!

I got to know Uncle Ian and Aunt Derica's dog really well. Maggie is my new best friend. I said her name over and over and over our whole trip, and I took her for a walk around the house with her leash, and I could pet her because she was more my height. I asked for her first thing in the morning, I worried about her when we went to the beach and saw the ocean, I asked to go bye bye so we could check on her. Sometimes the grown ups call her Mags so I did sometimes, too. I made sure to put on my hat, my bathing suit, my shoes (no socks, just sandals), and my sunscreen before we went to the beach each time! Here I am, walking to the beach, without my shirt.

 Come on you guys!

 I'm thinking about all the fun things I'm going to do when I get to the beach.

 Sometimes I get distracted by other dogs, bikes, cars, boats, trucks, or babies. The grown ups really should stop and check out the scenery more often.

 In case you're wondering, I still have my dimples! Thank you, Daddy!

 I don't have my sunglasses on in these pictures, but Mommy thought I looked like a punk baby with my backwards hat and my sunglasses. What can I say, I have awesome style!

 This sand stuff got everywhere! It got in my diaper, my mouth, my ears, eyes, and everywhere else you can imagine.

Maybe that's because I put it there... but that's beside the point!

We built a sand castle every day! I didn't like shells on my sand castle so I threw them away (like trash). I loved sitting in the hot tide pools and splashing in the water. We also saw a helicopter fly overhead, and a plane! I saw seagulls, and pelicans, and fish, a crab, and several bugs. Daddy and Uncle Ian brought me a sand dollar. It took me awhile to get used to the waves, but towards the end of our visit, I let Mommy or Daddy hold me up in the water. I did get a nice tan, even though I helped Mommy slather sunscreen EVERYWHERE! We made such a mess!

I stayed up late most of the evenings and convinced the grown ups to put on Shrek or other TV channels (we didn't bring Elmo). I drank lots of milk, sat (sit) in my booster seat, danced to music on the patio of the Provision Company, and tickled all my family and friends. I slept with my baby doll, snuggled in my blanket, and was just GO GO the whole time. We ate dinner at Captain Pete's and I spent most of the time going in and out the front door to walk on the ramp by the dock outside, wave HI to people, and eat 3 lemon wedges and 1 lime wedge. I tried the bar food nuts and didn't die, so I don't seem to be allergic!

I gave Mommy huge hugs in the morning and leaned around her to give her a fishy face smooch on her lips. When I hug, I cling and make an "MMMMMMMM" sound as I squeeze. This is Mommy's favorite picture:

We did have a small incident involving my head and a fan. It was unintentional and I am okay, so no worries! My watermelon of a noggin won, but check out my battle scar!

 

I was sad to say bye bye to the beach. Every circle I saw I knew was going to become a happy face. When Mommy rolled the pizza dough into a circle, I screamed HAPPY and she drew a happy face with pizza sauce. We drew smiley faces in the sand, and I tried to draw them as well, but wasn't happy with the results and wiped them away. I also ate a LOT of pizza dough... and still a piece of pizza.

When can we go back? I MISS MAGGIE! 

 

Mommy didn't get a picture here of my new bathing suit, but she will soon! I was excited to return to school and see my friends. I love my frog and flower pajamas. Mommy and Daddy make sure I say please and thank you and I can put on a buckle which I practice using my booster seat. I admire Mommy's necklace and earrings, and like to wear a plastic bracelet. Every day, I help Daddy get the mail from the mailbox and let the dogs outside to go pee pee and poopy. I love to give them cookies. My parents and Uncle Ian think that I asked "Where are you?" when I didn't see Maggie. It came out "Wayahou" so close enough, right? I was so brave and climbed the beach house stairs all by myself and liked being helped up and down the dock ramp. I played in the kiddie pool and used buckets and shovels to splash! If I don't like where someone is sitting, I will push their leg or under their leg and tell them to get up. Aunt Derica took my seat while I was running around at Pete's and I made sure she got up and gave it back! (Mommy gave her a new seat and told me I had to be nice.) I ate pancakes almost every day and am a syrup addict. I will dip just my fingers or fork into the syrup and suck on them. Yes, they get sticky and yucky, but it's worth it!

(Well - that's about all I can think of to put for now. Bed time for me! Love you guys - Chrissy)