Updates and chicken

This was the little piece that started it all...

This tiny little piece of chicken caused 1.5-2 hours of sanity-testing, wiggling, thrashing, screaming drama. And I AM talking about Mara, not me or Zack.

I simply asked her to try to piece of chicken. She likes chicken. This isn't anything new. If she doesn't want it, I ask her to take a no-thank-you bite and she can be done. But this time, she really threw a fit about it. We sat at the table for a long time. I did the dishes. She cried and thrashed so hard, she threw up all over herself. Zack gave her a quick bath and she had to go to her room/bed (it was like 6:30, so nowhere near the standard 8:00 bed time). I sat at the top of the stairs to monitor. She read some books, she calmed down in her room. Eventually, she heard me outside the door and came to investigate. She snuck out of the room and saw me on the stairs, then snuck back over to her door and investigated the door jam. When I asked if she was ready to try her chicken... she said yes. And we came downstairs, ate a piece of chicken, and the screaming, thrashing, puking, wild child turned into this:

And the parents were greatly relieved.

A night or two later... same ordeal, but with french toast (breakfast for dinner... and she LOVES syrup).

This time, she gave in after 10 minutes, and we never unbuckled her from her seat. Zack simply pushed it out into the middle of the kitchen until she calmed down. (hehe). Anyway, progress.

We have quite the little cook. She can pick up fake hamburgers (which she calls burgers, and it sounds like boogers) with her spatula, and she is always telling one of us to cook with her. She spends a LOT of time in her kitchen.

She did not sit through the Easter pictures at daycare, so there won't be any bunny pictures this year. I had even managed to put together a semi-cute outfit, since I don't buy fancy clothes unless there is a given occasion (weddings, mostly). She looked adorable, so I'm sad she refused to sit with the bunnies at school.

Grandmom Mischinski sent her some cute bunny slippers for Valentine's Day! She got a card from Shirley and Paw-Paw with a cat on it (she liked that), and Cherry brought her some books, oranges, and something else when she came for the circus. I haven't uploaded any circus pictures (they are on my phone as we weren't allowed to bring in an SLR camera), but here's the bunny slippers. Took us a day or two to convince her to put them on... and then, she could feel the insides of them and where I'd missed removing part of the plastic tag. Whoops. Sensitive tootsies.

 

I've been working at this post a little most of the week and can finally hit submit. I'll try to upload, resize and show you the circus pictures soon, as well as some cute park pictures.

Language notes: Mara wanted to go outside this evening to see Daddy in the shed. (He has taught her to make vroom vroom motorcycle noises and fake rev an air throttle...). I told her it was too cold out. She said "Put on my jacket." I said but honey it's dark outside. "Turn on the lights."

Such a problem solver. Her sentences are great, her pronunciation better than I could have thought, and she'll constantly repeat some new word we say. I get a kick out of her saying "Monsters CorpRated" (Monsters Incorporated), and the different songs that she sings.

She loves spotting "MareCan Flags!" everywhere while driving. There are so many more than I've ever noticed! She likes strawberry toaster strudles, muffins, waffles, pancakes, and scrambled eggs for breakfast. She can HOOVER some frozen chicken nuggets. If her waffle is cold, she'll tell me "Put in MikeWave." She's been sleeping in her big girl bed for 3-4 weeks and doing well! Takes a little longer to put her to sleep (and she's having some security issues) but she is very proud of herself and likes her bed/room. She will take a running start and flop on the mattress, which just rests on the floor for now. If she finds one of our phones, she usually asks to call Grahampa. When I call daycare at lunch time to check in on her day, she knows the teachers are talking about her and says "That's my MOMMY!" And blows kisses to the phone. Melts my heart.

We've also been trying big girl underwear yesterday and today after daycare. We haven't had much success, but I hope to report back with a positive outcome soon!

Anyway, happy WEEKEND!

Jan/Feb Videos

I realize it's been awhile, but I have two treats for you.

Here's our darling Mara at the park, enjoying the big girl swing! Her laugh just warms my soul.

And here she is "singing" which she is doing more and more of! Whether it's this song, Row Row Row Your Boat, ABC's, or Itsy Bitsy Spider... she is the sunshine of my life.

 Mara really has stretched Christmas out a long way! She frequently (almost daily) plays with her "home center" kitchen. And her Playmobil from Susie and Mike is upstairs in her big girl room now. But here's the scene when we opened it initially.

We visited Super Gammy after Christmas and had a nice time with her, my dad, Uncle Carl, Uncle Paul, Aunt Eileen, and Kyle.

Mara, as always, is in a snuggly Daddy mood. Today, we were both competing for Daddy's affections... me snuggling on one side, her snuggling on the other, and then she started crawling further and further onto him, and then punched me in the eye with the chapstick. Ooops. I was laughing so hard, while telling her it wasn't nice. I got an apologetic hug, so that made things better.

She remembers who gives her things, or maybe we remind her enough. She mentions Pop-pop Cherry when she plays with her home center. She mentions "Tavis Care!" when she rides (and gets bucked off) Benny the Bull.

That's all I have for now! Happy Sunday!

Merry Late Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! And Happy New Year, etc. etc.

Mara enjoyed decorating the Christmas tree. Look how proud she was of her hanging ornaments:

I also took her 2 year photos since I didn't do that around her birthday.

Santa, family and friends were very generous this year!

 I wasn't able to get all of the presents the Lewisville Dardens and Travis/Claire brought later in the day, but suffice it to say, this room was JAM PACKED.

Mara wanted to open her stocking before she ate or anything. And she woke up extra early to do so (I guess we talked it up too much!)

 She made out with lots of yogurt drops, fruit roll ups, a slinky, a shirt, a hat and gloves set, Finn McMissile from Cars 2, and some other items.

 Zack and I received stockings, too! We made off with our favorite candies, some markers/pens for me, a beer koozie for Zack, Hangover 2 blueray, among other items.

I think Zack made pancakes for breakfast, but it didn't take long before someone wanted to open presents. She got art supplies.

 Breakfast, lunch, and dinner pretend foods.

 Which Mommy helped open. Those Reeses Christmas trees are half gone, btw.

 Daddy helped with the food removal, too.

 We DID take turns, you just can't tell from these photos. Little Mo was so helpful with passing out a present to either Mommy or Daddy and taking turns. She was so patient and sweet.

 She now has another Elmo, to go with "Monster" (Cookie Monster). She was pushing Elmo around in her doll stroller today.

She received this awesome computer from SuperGammy (among other things).

  She got a small train set... that kinda makes her look like she's playing Twister.

 

 A lot of yogurt drops got eaten Christmas day. She put them in her new shopping cart (courtesy of Adam/Marianne/Max) before it was assembled.

 She was happy about it.

 Cheryll, Graham, Travis and Claire came over before lunch and we had another Christmas! Mara's big present was this amazing kitchen, with a kitchen on one side and a grill/outdoor table on the other. She cooks like ALL the time.

 Here was the only shot I took while the Darden's were here... of our amazing dinner. Spreading around the work really makes it easy! We contributed the tenderloin and twice baked potatoes. Claire and Travis brought the green beans, bourdin spread, and a few desserts! Graham and Cheryll brought a salad, pound cake, and homemade rolls. (I'm probably forgetting something we ate).

 All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas! We got to celebrate some more during New Years when we exchanged gifts with friends... but I don't think I took any pictures of that. Sorry!