May 2008

Well, it's only been 6 weeks this time! It's busy as usual here. I am officially off for the summer - from May 8 until the 3rd week in July - so we've been cramming in as much fun as possible in the recent weeks. Unfortunately, I haven't been great about taking pictures because most of what we've been doing has been spur-of-the-moment fun. But the batteries are charged and ready to go now!

Maria is such a whirlwind of fun right now - talking up a storm and singing non-stop. Anything she hears in musical form is filed away in her little brain and comes back (in parts) later in her own little musical rendition. Her favorite song of the moment is the ABC's. She fumbles through the L-M-N-O-P like any beginner, and the tune is priceless! We may be forking over some big bucks in the future for some music lessons, because she sure has the interest!!! Daddy has also trained her in the car to identify Bruce Springsteen... just what every 2 year old needs to know!

Her interest in counting everything under the sun is waning a bit. As a teacher with a little background in early childhood, I was a little worried when she seemed 'fixated' on the counting... but she has since lost interest in the constant repetitious counting we saw last month. But she attempts to count past 13, with everything adding a 'teen' to the end... 'eleventeen, twelveteen....'. It's priceless...

She is now into negotiating with us as well. "Just one more" is her current plea when we tell her it's time to stop something. Or, my personal favorite, "I do it YATER, mommy!" (she still can't say those 'L's' very well!) So just one more bite, has turned into "One more bite yater, OK?"

Our big accomplishment of late is getting rid of the daytime pacifier. Maria has been quite the 'Paci-Queen' for a few months now, and I was beginning to worry about her speech/articulation development. So.... after 1 full week of enjoying Maria after my school year was over, I decided to bite the bullet and take it away on Monday morning, reserving it for only the bed. I decided to keep it out of site/reach for her on the shelf in her room. I had been advised to let Maria do the 'putting away' of the paci, and I laughingly said, "Yeah! Sure, that'll work!" But 'lo and behold, after the initial shock of me telling her that yes, we love paci, and yes, we can have it 'yater', she said, "OK, Mia do shelf, mommy". (She calls herself 'Mia') Well.... OK!!! And that was it... seriously! I haven't been more shocked or pleasantly surprised about a parenting 'fear'!! I was convinced that we would have a week-long battle of wills, with both of us crying it out. But she proved me wrong yet again. I need to give her more credit!!

We have also been doing a lot of 'activities' locally to keep ourselves busy and occupied. We attend a weekly "Time for Two's" class at the library, where Maria is beginning to come out of her shell around other kids her age. She still wants to hold my hand when other kids get too close, but it isn't the clinging, grabbing, and panic of the past. So we're definitely making progress! Maria also took a Springtime Music Class at the Community Arts Center this past month. They gave each 'student' a CD of songs, which Maria asks for each time in the car. This week begins our "Mommy and Me" dance and movement class at the YMCA. Coordination hasn't been Maria's strength, so I'm excited for her to try new things, and meet some new kiddos too. And we're doing a few programs through the Conservation Department as well. We should have lots to report on soon! And I promise to bring my camera for more outings this summer!

Hope this update helps some of you who have been teasing me about my 'non-existant' blog!! I'll try harder...

3 months in pictures....

We went to see Sesame Street Live on the coldest day of the year in January.

A week later it was 60 degrees so we headed to the park! Uncle Nick brought Diablo too!

Then there was the big snow of the year a few weeks later. We all went sledding at the school by our house. Maria, daddy, and Uncle Nick posed.

Birthday #2 was a blast! We had an Elmo themed party (of course) and Maria got lots of great gifts. Uncle Nick made her this beautiful rocking horse.

In mid-March we went to a breakfast with the Easter Bunny... Maria was not a fan! The rest of the breakfast went very well, though!

Easter was fun, too! It snowed on Easter this year.... Crazy Missouri weather!

Maria started her next round of swimming lessons at the Rec-Plex in March, too. Daddy was very excited to get his turn in the water with her this time while mommy works in the evenings!

Now it's April and the Spring weather came just long enough for a family trip to the zoo. 65 degrees!!!

But we were prematurely excited about the warm weather....4 days later it was 38 degrees and rainy again! Our playdate at the Butterfly House was cancelled, so we went to the Magic House instead. We are ready for spring!

December for the Saso family

I know, I know.... I'm getting worse at keeping up with this blog each month! I'm not even going to pretend that my New Year's resolution will be to become a more consistent blogger, but anyway, here are a few pictures that will sum up our last few weeks:

Fun in the Snow

We had our first big snow of the year, and it was Maria's first time playing in the snow! We lured her into her snowgear by putting on her favorite Elmo show, and by the time we were finished, she didn't even know she was dressed! The snow was about 6-7 inches deep so she had a little trouble walking in it. But she LOVED going down the slide and landing in the snow. She kept looking at her snow-covered pants and shoes, saying: "Messy! Messy!" She's so much like her Nonna...

(Hopefully the video will be on the YouTube sight soon....)

At the bottom of the slide after saying, "Weeeeeeee!"

And who can resist a first taste of the white stuff?

Decorating for the holidays

Maria also helped me decorate the Christmas tree. After much deliberation, I decided to put up our small 4-foot tree we had when we lived in the apartment. The big tree would have taken up most of Maria's play area in the family room. In hind-sight it was a good decision. It would have been a LONG month with smaller play area. Maria loved putting the 'Ho-Ho's' on the windows, too.

The Gift Extravaganza Begins at Nonna's

Nonna went to California for the extended holiday, so we did a little celebrating and gift-opening before she left. Here are the two 'peas-in-a-pod." She loves her Elmo purse and seek-and-find book from Nonna!

Video of the fun to come soon....

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at our house with the Schelich family. The whole clan came over, and after much entertainment by Maria (note the Hokey Pokey Elmo demonstration below), we commenced the gift-unwrapping bonanza. Maria really got a kick out of tearing the paper and tossing the gift. She was quickly onto the next present without a thought of what she just unwrapped! We had a Very Elmo Christmas at our house - an Elmo Aquadoodle, Elmo purse, Elmo drawing board, Elmo sweatshirt... you get the picture. But she also loves the play vaccuum cleaner from Aunt Julie (Mommy hopes this will eventually ease her fear of the real thing) and keyboard from Aunt Jackie (she's already figured out how to turn it on and play the demo songs over and over and over...mommy catches herself humming the tunes in the shower...) She even coerced Papa into dancing! It took years for Grandma to get him to dance, and Maria? Let than 10 seconds!

Christmas Day

We started the day in our jammies, opening Maria's gifts from Santa. (Mommy and Daddy already opened their gifts: Mommy got an iPod and Daddy got some bonus cable channels! How did Santa know???) When I can get the video to download, it will go here! Bear with me!

Christmas Day was spent in Washington at my Aunt Cindy's house. It was a full house this year! But Maria loved asking for Papa and dragging him around by the finger nearly all day. She also enjoyed 'helping' Uncle John play ping-pong and playing the piano with Aunts Julie and Jackie. We took more video than pictures, but here are two of my favorites:

At the beginning of the day with Grandma...

At the end of the day, 'resting' at the bottom of the stairs! How lady-like...

We had so much fun watching Maria enjoy the holiday this year. She is talking so much now, and letting us know exactly what she wants. We looked back at last year's video when she wasn't even walking yet, and were in awe at how much has changed in one short year. This year she was participating in the fun, instead of being a bystander in the madness. We are truly blessed to have this wonderful little girl in our lives! And we know there is only more excitement and joy to come in 2008.

Ho, Ho, Ho? NO! NO! NO!

We recently went to one of the early childhood programs in our school district (the Parents As Teachers program that I work for). It was called "Frosty and Friends" - the politically correct holiday activity. Maria enjoyed the activities: using glue on a Q-tip to paint an ornament, a magnetic fishing pole game, peppermint playdough, the coolest pretend snow, pasta snowflakes... and then it was time to visit Santa. She saw him across the room while we were squishing the playdough. She immediately said, "No, Ho-Ho." But eventually she waved at him. We got in line to say hello to Santa and Maria had a death-grip on the back of my neck and hair (I have the scratches to prove it!) I sat next to Santa with Maria on my lap. Surprisingly, she didn't scream or freak out, but she wanted to be as far away from him as possible! Actually, she did better than I thought. But she still isn't a big fan of the Big Red Guy.

We have been procrastinating putting up the holiday decorations due to Maria's dislike of Nonna's holiday fare. Nonna actually had to put away some of her Santas and the musical snowmen she loved last year. But I think all of the snowmen and Santas are finally growing on her. Today she took a marathon nap, and I got the tree up and some sparse decorations. We decided to put up the 4 1/2 foot tree I used to have in my apartment. Somehow our house has shrunk, now that Maria has taken over 95 % of it! So rather than take away the majority of her playspace, we went with the smaller tree. She didn't freak out when she came down from her nap either, so I have hope for a Jolly little one by the time Christmas comes!

I have also been fighting a yucky stomach bug this week. Just when I thought it was over, I decided to go grocery shopping... big mistake. Thankfully, Charles was at home with Maria, and she didn't have to be drug into that. I'm feeling better now, but that's also what I said this morning before the grocery store mess...

Blogger issues!

I've been trying, unsuccessfully, to upload a short video from Halloween and also a certificate from Maria's first haircut .... I AM SO FRUSTRATED with Blogger!!! I may just begin inserting links to YouTube to make things easier.

But here's a run-down, sans photos or cool videos, of the recent happenings at the Saso house:

Halloween
This Halloween was quite eventful. Maria had been having a good time practicing saying "trick-or-treat" (sounded more like "chi-cha-CHEE!"), and saying "BOO!" everytime she passed a ghost decoration in our house. She was enjoying Halloween... that is until the big day finally arrived.

I attempted to dress Maria in her adorable bee costume at about 9:00 that morning to go to the stroller shape-up class we'd been attending. The costume was so cute - a black and yellow striped leotard with a yellow tutu. She loved it 2 months ago when I bought it at a kids' re-sale shop. Everytime she passed it hanging up she would enthusiastically say, "BUZZ, BUZZ, Mama!" She loves the Laurie Berkner song, 'Buzz, Buzz' - so I (mistakenly) thought the costume would be a home run, no doubt in my mind. WRONG! That morning, she refused to let me put it on her. And when I finally wrestled her into it anyway, thinking that she'd get over it once it was on, she threw a tantrum for the record books. She flailed around on the floor, yanking at the cute little tu-tu. She actually ripped a piece off in the process...

Fifteen minutes and a pacifier later, we were off to stroller class dressed in the cute little Halloween sweater Nonna had gotten her. Oh well. There has still the evening, right? Ha ha, mama.....

So when daddy came home later that night, we took the costume over to Nonna's and attempted the it once again, while mommy, daddy and Nonna cheered her on and tried all the distractions we knew. (I'll attach the video or link to it here when it's available). I promise this video will come back to haunt Maria in her teens!

Bottom line: we put Maria's adorable costume on her giant bunny, and dragged bunny along with us trick-or-treating. It was pretty funny explaining the story at each doorstep - we got some laughs! But by 7:30, we were all pooped and ready to go home. What a day!


Maria's first haircut (Nov. 20, 2007 - age 21 months)
Needless to say, after the Halloween fiasco I wasn't planning on the haircut going smoothly. I just knew Maria wasn't going to wear a smock or actually sit in the same spot for more than 10 seconds. I prepared myself for a battle: I brought every bribe I had in my arsenal along in the diaper bag. I was ready!!!

Based on numerous reccomendations, we went to the Hairy Elephant, a kids hair salon, in O'Fallon, where"Miss Erica" eased Maria right into the routine. First she lured her into the elevated "jeep" with an Elmo video (have I mentioned she's obsessed with Elmo?). Then she gave her a bubble wand and bubble juice to blow at Elmo and mommy. And Miss Erica started spraying her head with water, combing, clipping it up, and cutting. "What?!?" I thought, where's the meltdown? Maria didn't budge! When she started to squirm about 10 minutes into the haircut (about 9 minutes and 50 seconds longer than I thought she'd sit!), Miss Erica gave Maria her very first sucker, and Maria was sold! She sat for the rest of the 15 minute process, and even let Miss Erica put in TWO cute little pony-tails (Mommy has only achieved that feat once -about 6 months ago.) I was so excited and proud, you'd think she won an Academy Award! I beamed all around the store, buying her some new bath toys and bows, spending almost as much as I pay for a haircut, once the shopping and generous tipping was over. We immediately called Daddy when we got into the car, and mommy bragged all the way home about how great the first haircut experience was. Maria even allowed them to take a picture and they gave her a certificate with a few of shed curls attached. (I've tried to upload it today with no luck...)

Anyway, I'm as proud as a peacock of my little girl and her patience today. I guess I just don't give her enough credit...



Later that day...
We got home from the fantastic haircut experience, and Maria was exhausted (or so I thought). I popped her in her crib, with the paci and blanket and closed the door behind me as always. I jumped online to check my email, and heard the loud THUD and scream. Yep, she had quietly crawled out of the crib and fell onto the floor. Not knowing how she landed, I went into panic mode. Did she have a concussion? Broken ribs? Dislocated shoulder??? I gently poked and patted every inch of her, and decided I thought she had a bump on the top of her head. WHen she said, "No Mama!" to my poking, and requested Elmo, I was a little reassured. I called her pediatrician anyway, and they gave me things to watch for and check. I wanted to keep her awake to watch for signs of a concussion, so we watched Elmo (AGAIN!) and Maria proceeded to laugh, dance, and sing in all of the usual spots. She was getting tired (it was 3:00 by this time), so I layed her down, cracked the door, and turned up the monitor, listening to her every breath. I even made some extra noise to rouse her a few times throughout the nap, and she responded. So, for now, I'm going with the idea that she is OK. But I haven't been that scared in a long time... I 'll let you know if Family Services comes knocking at my door!

More catching up.....

I'm finding it harder and harder to keep up with posting here regularly, so I'm going to try to scale back a little and hit the highlights each week.

Circus Time!

On Friday, Nov. 9, Maria and I went to her first circus at the Scottrade Center (formerly Savvis, etc.) We went with our Parents As Teachers playgroup, and ended up bringing our friend Allison and Jack too. Both of them seemed to have a great time! Maria did not get a nap beforehand, so she was a little apprehensive at first. The darkened arena and loud noise had her holding onto Mama most of the show, but she loved the animals - mostly the elephants and horses. She smiled and laughed the most when the elephants 'danced' - now when she sees an elephant in a book she gets up to dance!

The kiddos transfixed by the circus excitement...

Maria's favorite parts of the circus...

Maria's favorite part of all, though, might have been the ride home. We carpooled with Jack and Allison in their minivan, which has a DVD player, and the kiddos watched Elmo all the way home (Have I mentioned that Maria has become an Elmo Junkie? She is obsessed!) I thought Maria would crash immediately, but the ability to watch Elmo in the van was just too exciting... she was just amazed at the little TV screen in the ceiling! It was pretty funny to watch her reaction.

Welcoming Lilia

On Saturday, Nov. 10, we helped welcome a new member to the McLane/Cope family. Lilia was adopted from Russia 2 months ago and she was ready to meet many new friends at "Pump It Up!" in Newtown. This is a giant room filled with those blow-up slides, jumping houses, etc. Maria thought it was really cool to slide down the slides with daddy, but she did NOT like it when Mommy held Lilia or Stevyn's little boy, Silas. She got really mad.... yikes.

It was great to meet Lilia, and to see Stevyn, Troy, and their son, Silas - he's a year old already!

Troy and Silas

Catching up...

I know, I know... it's been a while! Just like everyone else, we've been very busy. So here's a quick re-cap of the past few weeks:

Family Trip to Thies Farms (Thursday, Oct. 18)

The family visited a great REAL pumpkin patch. There was so much to do: hayride, climbing the straw mountains, sliding, walking the plank on a 'pirate ship', checking out the goats, and pumpkins, of course! It was a beautiful day - 80's and sunny in October! We had a blast spending some time together, just the three of us.

Trip to Chicago (Oct. 19-22)

Charles and I went away for our first weekend together since Maria was born. Neither of us had been to Chicago, so we planned a big trip - 4 days and 3 nights TOGETHER!! WOW! Plus, Springsteen was playing in Chicago, so that sealed the deal for Charles. We felt like we got to a LOT in a short amount of time, even finding time to meet up with my cousin Mike and his fiance (who coincidentally grew up in the town next to Charles in NJ!). And my Aunt Joyce was in town visiting Mike, so we had a nice dinner together - and even hit a piano bar afterwards. Charles and I managed hit Navy Pier (decked out for Halloween), a tour of Millenium Park, the "loop," Michigan Avenue (a few times), the Hancock center, a mafia bus tour - this was great!, and the concert. All of this between some GREAT food - Chicago-style pizza, Greek food in Greektown, the Weber Grill restaurant, Heaven on Seven (Cajun reccommended by Mike), and more.... I'm still full!

More to come... Blogger is on the fritz and won't let me upload right now...