Maria, Maria - what do you see?

Maria has really gotten into 'reading' lately. Her latest favorite is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" and the other versions including polar bears, panda bears, and mother bears. I'll find her in a corner or on the couch reciting books we've recently read along to the brown bear pattern. I've tried repeatedly to capture this on camera to no avail. But yesterday I began a covert mission to get it on tape! Excuse the blue couch in the shot - it's the only way I could get the video without her knowing!

If you need a translation, let me know!

July - August 2008

Here we are again. A few weeks behind! It was exactly 5 weeks ago that I went back to work, and it's been exactly 5 weeks since I've posted. You get the picture.

Our summer has been fantastic. It has been so much fun to experience everything with Maria this summer, rather than rushing home between the 2 naps of last summer. She has really enjoyed the pool, and I'm hopeful that we'll have an independent swimmer next summer! She wants to follow the big kids wherever we go. She idolizes all kids above the age of 5! She has spent a lot of time with family members this summer, as Nonni and Nickio are constants, and having grandma off for the summer was a blast!

Since I last posted, we visited a fair in downtown St.Charles where Maria rode her first carnival ride (the purple car, of course.) We did lots of swimming at the local pool. We hit the Magic House and Zoo a few more times, and played with many friends.

Thanks to my other blogging friends for leading the way with the Picassa albums! Here is our first one:

Fun in the Kitchen Sink

Maria was up at 5:30 today, so we were looking for some early morning entertainment by about 8:00. So..... let's wash some toys! This impromptu time-killer turned into a fun science experiment, albeit a wet one. She discovered that her nesting cups do not float like the ball from her popper game (no matter how hard she tried), and that certain nesting cups 'dribbled' and others didn't. By the time it was all said and done, we were both soaked (as was poor Daisy who thought she was safe on the island, but didn't move fast enough when Maria whipped around to 'show her' the cups!)

Maria also woke up with a head full of beautiful curls this morning. Indulge me... it's the only thing of mine she has!! (Except maybe my temper!?!)

Daddy-o's Birthday

We had a great time celebrating Daddy's birthday on Thursday. We took him out to eat at his favorite restaurant - Growler's, of course - where he got his free annual birthday dinner. Uncle Nicky-o met us after work, too.

Maria and I made a homemade orange layer cake that afternoon as well. Since Charles got his Wii well before his actual birthday, we got him a Vitale's Bakery t-shirt (love those canolli's!), and a birthday poster made by mommy and Maria (OK, mostly by mommy, but Maria definitely contributed to the effort.) Here is the life-sized poster we made. Note that Maria's right leg is not actually that skinny... it's very hard to trace a 2 year old!

Maria said...

I've been prepping Maria for Charles's birthday tomorrow, and I was trying to get Maria to say "Daddy is 31!" Here's the breakdown:

Mommy: Tomorrow is Daddy's birthday. He's going to be 31!

Maria: No, Daddy 18. He my friend.


Yep, she's a Daddy's girl!

Boy crazy?

Should I be worried that my two year-old has a thing for older men?

Maria has always been a Daddy's girl, but I think the trouble started when Uncle Nicky-o moved to town in January. She immediately preferred him over anyone who entered the room. We'd be playing happily, then Nick would come in.... Immediately the rest of us were chopped liver. Thankfully Nick has endless patience with her, and goes with flow, even when she's bossing him around. He's the only one she actually talks to on the telephone. Everyone else gets the dial-tone. Nicky-o is 'the man' to our Maria.

Our next clue that she was a little flirt was when she lunged for our friend, Mike Miller, when his child-loving, ever-smiling wife Carolyn was right next to him. She wanted Mike over Carolyn? What's wrong with this picture??? Not to mention their son James. Maria actually picked up my cell phone out of the blue and said, "I call James." Huh?? We hadn't seen them for weeks, but James was still on her mind. Yikes, we're in trouble.

Then it was Uncle John. We spent quite a bit of time around Uncle John recently, and suddenly he was the "Flavor of the Week." Maria would grab one of his fingers and drag him around, and he would follow. I'd say, "Let's call Daddy at work!" and she'd reply, "Nooooo. Call Jooooohn!" It's a good thing she's cute.

Then this past weekend, Maria grabbed the phone again and out of the blue said, "I call Josh." (Josh is my sister Jackie's boyfriend.) Josh??? We hadn't seen Josh for weeks, and she payed little attention to him when we did. In fact, Maria used to be terrified of Josh. Once, he instinctively tried to prevent her from ingesting a handful of dirt, and scared the living daylights out of her. This was a while back, but she remembered that incident. Now she was asking for him?? Interesting. By chance on Sunday we happened to see Josh, and her little world stopped. Her whole day revolved around him! She was literally flirting with him - batting her eyes, teasing him, chasing him. It was pathetic. At one point she even banned the entire family from the basement so that she could have Josh all to herself. "Upstairs, Mommy. All the way!" she pointed! Hmmm.... Thankfully, Josh was a good sport and went along with Maria's pleas and bossiness. "This way, Josh! C'mere! I show you!" She had him jumping through hoops the whole day. My sister Jackie even tried to lure her away from Josh with fingernail polish and candy. But that quick-fix only lasted a few minutes, then it was back to Josh, Josh, Josh! I'm betting Josh slept well on Sunday night.

I'm sure this will be poster-sized and framed in Maria's room before long...

Today it's Josh, but who will be next? What's a mother to do...

"More zoo, please!"

Charles's cousin, Amanda, is in town visiting from Oklahoma, so we've been doing the tourist thing for the past few days. (See our trip to the Botanical Gardens below.) Monday took us to the good 'ole zoo. This is our 3rd trip to the zoo this spring/summer, and Maria is really loving it. She knows what to expect, but she's still excited by all of the animals and attractions.

Maria LOVES having Amanda around. She held Amanda's hand walking around (while I shlepped around the childless stroller). And she wanted to do just about everything Amanda did. Even to the point of letting go of my hand in the goat area. But she kept a tight grip on Amanda's shorts!

Maria really got into the activities set up in the Children's Zoo building this time around. She loved cutting up the play food provided, and persistently tried to give it to the guinea pigs until the nice zoo worker said thank you, but they weren't hungry right now.

Then she ran right up to the mini-veterinarian play area they had. She 'fixed' the little toy camel they had (poor thing never knew what hit him!).

And her usual favorites, the water fountains and slide, were skipped over in favor of looking at the animals in the mini-cages scattered throughout the Children's Zoo. She loves owls and turtles right now. She even paused long enough to let me get a picture of her in front of the animal height chart:

We feel pretty cool going to the zoo with our membership this year (Thanks, Nonnie!). We pull right into the 'close parking' spaces that I longed for as a child, ease right up to the counter to get our tickets for the children's zoo, train, carousel, and sea lion shows, and then set off on our day. That's it! No waiting in line, crossing your fingers that you brought enough cash, or sneakily staying away from the carousel because we didn't bring enough money! We bring our lunch, so we have a GREAT day without having to dent the bank account at the same time!

Maria crashed in the car, of course, but this time happily with Amanda, her new "fwend" alongside in the backseat. She woke up when we pulled in the driveway and said, "More zoo, please!"

Don't worry, we'll definitely be back!