"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!

Niki Exhibit - fun for everyone!

Today we visited the Niki Exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. I was very impressed with the mosaic glass sculptures throughout the gardens, and Maria was too! It helped that we went with Nonni, cousin Amanda, and Uncle Nick (now forever known as "Nicky-O!" thanks to Maria.) Nick and Amanda showed Maria all the neat 'gardens' and chased her through the Children's Garden as well. This was our first real experience in the kids' area - we were very impressed! Maria loved the fountains, sandbox, and rope ladders, but decided to skip the slides today. She keeps us guessing!

Here are a few highlights from our outing today.

June 2008 - new photo added

Although the month isn't quite over, it's been a very busy one! The biggest happening is my brother John's wedding to Erin. It was definitely a great day for all of us. Maria took one look at Erin in her wedding dress and said "Princess Erin!". We've seen them a few more times this week, and Maria is still using this nickname.

John and Erin with Jackie and Julie:

Here we are at the reception before Maria pooped out and went home to Uncle Nick:

Maria has also been taking an 'excercise class' this month, and she has really enjoyed it. My goal was for her to spend time around other kids and for her to listen and follow directions from another adult. She has done very well in both respects! Her teacher, Miss Vicki, is the new character in her pretend-play at home. Maria pretends to get out the balls, jump on the trampoline, and count her steps - just like Miss Vicki. Here are a few highlights from the class:

In this activity, Maria is supposed to 'control' the ball and roll down to the mirror and stick her tongue out at herself. Needless to say, she was most interested in the sticking the tongue out part!

Trampoline jumping with the famous Miss Vicki.

The 'cup run' relay - again with Miss Vicki! (She gets her own workout chasing the 2 year olds!)

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...