Making pumpkin pancakes with Grandma Fisher!

Email from Grandma Fisher about the weekend with the girls

Hi. Thanks for the pic. We had a great weekend with the girls. Amara is a pro at cracking eggs. She did it two different times and was perfect! We met a family with two kids from Ethiopia. Amara looked at the little girl, 2 years old, and pointed to the girl's curly hair and then at her own hair. She identified with her! This family moved from Cottage Grove to Viroqua. The dad said they were active in the Madison adopted Eth. Kids group. Have you ever looked into that? Said they have monthly activities.

They both showered and washed themselves with a little help from me. I never know what kind of shampoo I should have for them. I know you have told me but please repeat. Thanks! Maia really had a reddened and sore pubic area. I put some cream on her but she may need some daily for a while.

They were great in church. They used age appropriate activity bags that the church provides. They were both engrossed but during the homily the pastor said stand up and raise your hand, as a figure of speech, and Amara's hand shot up. Guess she was listening! They went up and sat on the altar steps during the children's homily (I went too), and answered some questions about how they were getting ready for Christmas. During the collection they helped collect change by walking up and down the aisle. It goes to purchase mosquito netting to protect against malaria. During communion they go up with us and the pastor knelt down so he was eye level with them, called them beautiful girls, laid his hand on their heads and gave each a blessing. They felt very special.

Maia did really well at knitting while we were in the shop. I bought her some yarn and needles but when we got home it was hard for both of us to focus. We'll work on it again at Christmas. She picked it up pretty quickly! I was amazed. She got all of her spelling words correct the first time through.

Please make sure at Christmas that they bring dolls that they can use the clothes on. I am going to make both of them those tulle skirts with some for their dolls also. Did Sarah ask you for ideas for presents? If you want to list a few things, I'll forward to Sarah and Jeff.

It's really foggy here. Not going to venture out for exercise class. I'm hoopla hooping and walking to supplement the exercise class. It's a weighted hoop which makes it easier to keep up. Maia was able to do it a little. Fun!

Have a great day.
Love, Mom

"Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about things that matter."
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Tooth Fairy

Maia is about to lose her first tooth!  It is very loose, but she is afraid to wiggle it too much. She is also worried that she will lose her first tooth, then the Tooth Fairy won't come. I told her that if she loses the tooth, the Tooth Fairy will just know that she lost it and will still leave something under her pillow. 

The other day Maia told me that she knows where the Tooth Fairy lives. She said "yeah, you know, between those 2 churches." and after asking her more, I realized that it is in front of a dentist's office on S Madison Street. There is one of those cool art windmills there with the tooth fairy and a big tooth. She said that the Tooth Fairy lives in that tooth. I said "maybe... or maybe that's just art of the Tooth Fairy." and then she asked me where the Tooth Fairy lives. I said I didn't know....  where DOES the Tooth Fairy live?  hmmmmm  

Both of the girls like to be "Mommies" to each other. 
This email is from Steve:

Amara was not listening to me at Culvers this weekend and Maia said "He is the boss of you" to Amara. Amara replied "I KNOWWW MAIAAAA!"

The girls are creating such beautiful memories of their childhood.  The experiences they are having are enriching their lives and hopefully will carry them through adulthood. 

This email is from Pat.  The girls spent the weekend there recently:

I forgot about this until I was telling Dave this morning. Maia was reading to me and she pointed to a word and said it was a compound word. I was very impressed that she knew this. Later we were outside and were talking about the bird, titmouse. I said titmouse is a compound word. She thought about it and looked at me and said what is a tit? I searched my mind for an alternate meaning of tit, couldn't find one, and for sure wasn't going to tell her the slang meaning, so said whoops, I was wrong, it's not a compound word. When she's a teenager, or older, I'll tell her that story!
Mom

Amara at 3 years, 4 months

Amara struts with attitude

Amara loves little, pretty trinkets

Amara loves to hoard toys

Amara loves stuffing purses with a variety of things

Amara loves playing with baby dolls and loves to strap them into her car seat, then she straps herself into Maia’s car seat, and pretends they are driving

She loves playing in the car

She sometimes has nightmares

She loves playing with Mom’s makeup and having her nails painted

She loves trains, Thomas the Train, Yo Gabba Gabba and Bob the builder

Her favorite color is purple

When she is upset, she jumps up and down, or shakes her hands in frustration, sometimes, she throws herself on the floor

She is goofy and has a great sense of humor

She loves to play little jokes on people

She still sucks her middle 2 fingers, a lot

She still loves Elmo

She will sometimes get a piece of candy or gum and hold onto it for a very long time before eating it.

She has several nicknames, including: Mari, Mari-Mo, Mar-Mar, Tooty Butt-Butt, Tooty, Little, Boo, Mar-zi, Marzipan

Mac and cheese and watermelon are her favorite foods

She still takes medicines for absence seizures

She is terrified of dogs

Notes on our trip to Montana

An email I wrote to Grandma Fisher about our trip:

Our trip was great!  We took the train from Colombus, WI right to Havre, MT.  It took about 23 hours.  The girls were actually pretty good on the train! Amara had one major meltdown on the way back, but that is it!  We brought a cooler of food for all our meals except breakfast, which we ate in the dining car.  That was a lot of fun. 

In Havre, we stayed with Margaret's Mom.  She still lives in the house that Margo and her 6 other siblings grew up in, so that was cool to be there. 

Margo's brother Danny lives in Havre and he runs a restaurant called Murphy's Pub.  He has 3 girls, ages 9, 5 and 3, so that was PERFECT. 

I will write more in a second, but in the meantime, look at the pics!

Here's the link to the whole huge set of photos: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollybreeze/sets/72157630116754834/

 So, then on Tuesday, we went to Glacier with Danny and his family, except his wife and 3 year old. 

The mountains were INCREDIBLE.  When Maia first saw them, she said "Are those real?" 

We hiked a lot and Amara fell asleep on Margo's shoulders. 
We stayed in West Glacier at a motel right on Lake McDonald.  It was PERFECT! 

The motel was kind of rustic, no tvs! and the view was breathtaking.

In Havre, we went on  a "Havre Beneath the Streets" tour and we were HAUNTED!  A door opened, then slammed shut.  You will have to ask Maia about it.  It was freaky. 

Maia went to church with Grandma Kucera!   Mary (her name) went on and on about how good Maia was!  She crossed her arms when she went up for communion and she knelt and stood and did everything Mary did!  At one point, the priest called the little kids up to watch a baptism and the priest was folding his hands in a prayer and Maia did, too!  just like the priest. 

It was good to hear!  You have to take her to church with you whenever you can!  and she liked dressing up for it, too.  She even put on lip gloss. 

We also went to visit Margaret's Dad's grave.  In front of the grave is a tiny round metal thing that covers a hold to put flowers in. 

Maia was looking at it, then laid down and said into it, "I'm sorry you're dead."  Awww!!!  We wanted to laugh and cry! 

We went to a "Buffalo jump" in Havre, where the Indians used to drive the buffalo off of a cliff so that they could more easily harvest them. 

Maia and Amara had so much fun with their cousins.  They both just LOVE Ellie (she's 9).  and Abby is 5.  She has cerebral palsy, but she is super active and cute, funny and she loves fashion and having me do her hair.  Sophia is the 3 year old and she is ADORABLE, but Hell on wheels.  She is not mean, in fact, she is super sweet, but she is just all over the place!  She gets into things and she is a dare devil.  She and Amara had a ball together and they picked up on each other's bad habits.  Sophia has this loud, growl yell and now Amara does that, too.  ugh.  When we were making s'mores, Sophie took a chocolate bar and she and Amara had it gone within a minute or 2.  Sophia was practically force-feeding it to herself and to Amara.  lol.

The neighbor to Margaret's Mom is Nickolas and he is 6 and Maia played with him quite a bit. 

On Friday, Margo's brother Mark and his 2 kids Danielle and Frankie came up from Billings and we all went out to eat at Danny's restaurant and then to Danny's house for a bonfire. 

March 2012

This is an email sent to me by Margo, who is home with a sick Amara today:

Amara is pretty lethargic and just wants to be held. She ate lunch so she has some energy and is pretending to be Chester's Mom. She packed her bag and was moving into a new house with Chester.
I think she may need to stay home tomorrow too unless she makes a sudden recovery .  I'll keep you posted.
Margaret


And this is an email she sent me about a conversation she had with Maia yesterday.

She started by saying she wanted to go to Ethiopia . I agreed, said I would like to go as well.
She then stated a matter of fact like, that she stayed home with daddy while mommy went..... and said, "this was before we found you." She then asked how mommy found me. I told her Mommy and I met at work. She then said, "is that where mommy told you she wanted  to marry you?"  
This was so adorable and touched me to the core. I love Maia  and Amara with all my heart.