Amara

Amara is a goofy girl.  We already know that she has a great sense of humor.  She plays little tricks on people.  Example: Amara went potty twice at daycare last week.  This is BIG NEWS!  Margaret and I were cheering a lot as we went to pick up Maia from school.  When Maia got in the car, we told Amara to tell maia what happened today.  Amara said something completely off the wall that had nothing to do with potty and she smiled to herself.  Sometimes, if you ask her what she waqnts to drink, she'll say "wine" and then giggle. 
This past weekend, she saw Sesame Street Live with the Fishers and Amara jumped and cheered and squealed the whole first half.  Seeing Elmo is a HUGE deal for her!! She loves Elmo and Yo Gabba Gabba.  Her other favorite show is still Little Einsteins. 
Amara's best friend is Lydia Hurda. 

Maia

Maia told me "When I grow up, I'm gonna live with Grandma Fisher." 

This weekend, Maia was watching a movie and there was a poor girl who was freezing in the cold and someone gave her a blanket.  Maia sobbed.  She was so sad for the poor girl and other poor people.  She has a book that shows a lady giving some poor kids some cookies.  She stares at that picture and talks about how sad it is.  Maia has a tender heart.  She is very in tune with other people's feelings.  Sometimes, she is sassy and acts goofy, but just under the surface, she is very emotional and sensitive. 

Thanksgiving 2011

Here are emails from pat about Thanksgiving weekend:
The girls were really fun.  We played Old Maid and Maia was really a good sport if she lost; only once.  Then we played Yo Gabba Gabba.  They have 2 versions; we played the simpler one for a few hands and then we decided to try the older version.  She needed a little help with the more advanced version but she understood what she was doing.  It was fun. 

A bunch of us went to see the Muppet movie on Friday night.  It was a little too old for her.  Lots of humor that you would understand only if you had seen all the other muppet movies and shows; even I didn’t understand why people were laughing at times.  But she enjoyed being out with us.  Sesame St. was totally fun.  Amara’s reaction was so totally into it; unlike Maia’s first time when she was 3.

Amara related to everyone much more.  She still won’t go to Peggy and Peggy wants so much to hold her.  So when it was time to leave, I told her that Peggy really loves her and I asked her to give her a hug goodbye.  She said “will it make her happy?”  I said yes, so she gave her a really long hug goodbye.

Have to go; will write more later.

Mom 

Maia's first parent-teacher conference

Margaret and I went to the conference.  She is EXCELLING at letters, letter sounds, knowing which letter starts a word, etc..
She's doing pretty good at numbers, and she has to work on counting by 10's and knowing all the "teen" numbers.  She knows all of these now, though.  
She is doing a lot of work that they are expected to know by the end of the year, so that's super great!  
Now the bad things: she frequently doesn't listen to the teacher.  During carpet time, she doesn't sit in her spot, she pokes other kids, etc... and she gets time-outs for not listening to the teacher.  We have the same issues with her at home and we're working on them.  
She doesn't know her own strength and gets rough with other kids.  She wrestles and hugs too hard, etc...
Ms Sandra said that Maia has a very tender heart, though.  If one of her classmates is crying, she is the first to go help them.  
She said that Maia doesn't have any close friends in class and that her close friends are the ones she knows from Kids Korner and they play at recess.  
She said that Maia hangs out by her a lot, helping her with things and watching her do things.  Sometimes, she has to tell Maia to go play, and then she does.  
There's a girl names Ava that Maia is very competitive with and the teacher had to put them at separate tables.  They would tell each other that their work isn't pretty or they would say "I am done first" and things like that.  
She said Maia loves to learn and she puts a lot of effort into her work.  
We met with Ms. Brink, who is leading a session that we signed Maia up for about divorced families.  They play games in there and talk about dealing with feelings when you live in 2 different houses, etc.. She said Maia is doing really well in there. That's a 5 session "course".  Next, we want Maia to take "How to be a better friend".
We met with maia's music teacher and we loved the music room!  It's happy and big and they have really cool things in there.  The teacher said Maia is great in her class.  

a morning in the life

Just so we remember....
Here is a typical weekday morning in our lives. 
Margaret and Amara wake up early, around 5 or 5:30 and they make coffee, change the liter box and cuddle while watching Little Einsteins.  Mama makes cinnamon raisin toast and Amara and Mama eat.  Then Mama comes and wakes me (Holly) up.  She gives me a "snooze" warning and then I am up.  I start getting ready and then I wake Maia up.  I like to wake her up by singing a silly song or just kissing her head many times.  Then I help Maia get ready and when we're both ready, we go downstairs.  Mama comes upstaris to take a shower.  Sometimes when she blow dries her hair, the girls run up there so she can blow dry them, too.  They giggle and run and then come back for more. 
After Mama is ready, she gets Amara ready while Maia is either watching Curious George or eating cereal.  Mama and Amara come down, all ready, then we all get our shoes on and leave the house by 7:05.  We drop Amara off at daycare (Kids Korner and she is a Magic Monkey) and Maia goes to the Kids Korner School-age room).  and Margaret and I are off to work at WPS. 

Baby in tummy

Maia was going to the bathroom in the half bath and Amara was in there with her.  Amara yelled "Mommy!" in a worried voice.  I opened the door.  Amara said "Do I have baby in my tummy?" and I laughed and siad "No, Silly!" Amara said "Maia told me I have a baby in my tummy." and then Maia quickly jumped in and said 'I was only kidding."  and then she said that a boy at school said that if you have a big belly, you have a baby in your tummy.... I explained that Amara's tummy is perfect and that we don't get babies in our tummies until we're grown-ups. Then Maia said "You mean when we're 16?"  (good LORD)  I said "NO, when you're 30!."

Apology

A couple of nights ago, I was cooking in the kitchen and the girls were hanging out by me.  Maia accidentally stepped on Amara's toes.  Amara started crying. I told Maia that even though it was an accident, she needs to apologize.  I sat in the dining room chair and held Amara on my lap.  Maia was refusing to come and say sorry.  I again explained to her that even though she didn't mean to do it, she needs to apologize and make sure Amara is ok.  Maia muttered out a barely audible "sorry".  I told Maia to come closer, look Amara in the eye and say Sorry again.  Maia moved one step closer and, with her head down, mumbled "sorry".  Amara looked at her and in a very warning voice said "LOUDERRRR!"  lol 

butts and boobs

This age is so funny..... because Maia then asked "so when you're a grown-up, you can show your butt?" lol. How do you answer stuff like that, ya know?

And Maia knows that she came out of my tummy and they cut my belly open to get her out. The other night, she asked me if they gave me sleeping medicine and I said yes and she asked Amara was cut out of a woman's belly and I told her that not all babies are cut out of their Mommy's tummies and she said "the other babies come out of your boobs." HAAA!!! I was trying so hard not to laugh. Then I just told her that I would explain it to her when she is older and she dropped it.

What's in Heaven?

Maia: Mom, I know what's in Heaven.

Me: What's in Heaven?

Maia: Lots and lots and lots of beds.

• Yesterday, Maia got in trouble at school for being sassy and in the car, I was talking to her about it and she said "Mom!  Don't frustrate me!"   lol
• Later that night, she and I drove to Janesville to do errands and on the drive, she said, "Mom, I saw a park with a lot of statues in it and there's dead people there."  and that creeped me out ....  but I said "dead people?" and she said "Yeah, Daddy told me" and I realized that she was talking about a cemetery! 
• Amara is saying so many sentences now!   She loves to swim and she is fearless.  She loves playing with her baby and she names her babies "Haley".  She's a good Mama to her babies. 

Our wedding

A beautiful, sunny day, not too hot.  Olbrich gardens in the morning is so magical, beautiful...
The girls loved being Princesses.  Amara slept through the ceremony and woke up as everyone clapped and cheered at the end. 
Maia and Violet played in the wishing pond.  They took coins out of it and brought them to me.  Everyone laughed.  Amara and Jaxson played on the stage.  Gigi spoke into the microphone and gave us a toast.
It was a day of yellow sunshine, lots of flowers, a great brunch, laughter, good music and lots of love. 

June 25, 2011... Our Wedding

June 15th, 2011 How was the night?

This was an email written by margaret to Steve about how last night was. 

The girls did a lot last night.  They rode their bikes, and I took them through the carnage of our back yard.  Mia appears fascinated by our large black ants.  She cried when I stepped on one and killed it.  She made me promise I wouldn't kill the ants, but insisted we set them free in the forest.
Amara was fussy and demanding.  When giving her meds to her, she defiantly spit it at me.  I yelled at her VERY sternly and loudly, which made her cry.
They both experienced our first CSA box....very exciting.  They both hate radishes.  
Maia awoke to the thunder and Amara slept until 6AM.
Holly was fussy but slept through the night.

Mama Bear and Baby Bear

Written by Margaret:

I forgot to tell you about what Amara did last night.

When we were in the kitchen while you were in the basement, she gave me an art project she did at day care. She gave me a bear and said, "you, mama".

She then returned with a smaller bear and said, "me, Amara." She told me to keep them, I then asked if I should bring them to work with me. She said yes. This morning she asked if I had the bears. It was precious.

sweet, funny, insightful

Maia is learning that the meat we eat comes from animals.  Recently, she was asking me about where different foods come from:  bacon, ham and pork chops are from pigs; hamburger, pot roast is from a cow, etc...   She asked "do the animals have to be dead before we eat them?" and I said "Yes, they do." and she thought about it for a minute and said "I like eating dead animals." 

Months age, Margo told Maia that the dentist told her to stop chewing ice.  Margaret just sent me this email:
Last night I poured that lemon drink you didn't like, on ice in a tall glass. Maia asked for a drink...then of course, Amara did too. Maia liked, and Amara, not so much. As we shared the drink, I had an ice cube, and started chewing it. Maia said, " your doctor told you not to chew ice, you have a cracked tooth" I looked at her like, OMG, I won't be able to get anything past her, EVER. LOL

Amara turned 2!

Our little baby Amara is 2 years old now!  We had a great Birthday party for her.  Mama made her Grandma McBride's chocolate cake and I made rhubarb cake.  They were delicious.  All Grandparents were there and Amara got a lot of toys and clothes.  When we sang Happy Birthday to her, she was a little scared and clung to Grandma Fisher. 
We still have lots of nicknames for Amara.  Maia called her "Mara-Pop" last night! 
She absolutely loves being with Mama.  She helps Mama with laundry, making coffee, doing the dishes, everything.  They have an extremely close and very special, deep relationship.

weeds in juice

Yesterday, Maia was drinking orange juice and she said "Mom, there's skinny weeds in my juice!"  (aka: pulp)

What do you want to be when you grow up?

For the first time, Maia told me what she wants to be when she grows up.  She said "I'm gonna be a beehiver when I grow up." and I said 'Do you mean bee keeper?" and she said "YES! and I will get the honey!"  She asked me where the bee keepers are.  I told her that we would see one at the Farmer's Market this summer.  Also, Grandma Fisher said there's a bee keeper near the cottage, so they will visit the bee keeper when they go there.

Mummies

Last night, before bed, Maia and I were chit chatting and she said "Mummies are scary." and I said "Mummies aren't scary, they're dead. They're only scary on tv, but in real life, they're dead." She quizzically asked, "they're dead?" and I said "yes". She thought about that a long time, then said "Mommy, can we go to heaven to dig up mummies?" LOL!!!

I told her that mummies aren't in heaven, they're in museums. She said "which museums?" and I said "in Chicago" and she said "I want to go to Chicago and look at the mummies."