Snow Day

The view out Marie's bedroom window

The view inside

Doing nails - everyone's toenails (and toes) got polished today!

Woke up to find that every school in Northern Lower Michigan is closed and the State Police warned everyone to stay home. Even the hospital where Jim works at has called a snowday too; which means if you are nonessential, you do not need to report to work. Course if you stay home you have to take a sick day. He waited until 11 and then ventured out with the Jeep and strict orders to turn around if he thought the roads were bad.

So...we had a nice family morning! Nails were painted, Marie danced naked for a good 15 minutes, stories were read...I say, "Let it snow!"

For Uncle Jeff

Today Marie was the snazziest (and one of the loudest) kids at church. She wore her little mini-dress that Uncle Jeff gaver her for Christmas. Since this is not Southern California, leggings were a must. She loved the flowy sleeves and just thought she was the bomb. She chattered loudly throughout the service, asking repeatedly what the choir was doing and, as we went up to Communion, she wondered aloud, "Where did Momma go?" Half the church turned around as I reminded her that I was still there, just in front of them in line. Then she came home and proceeded to not nap for an hour in her crib. Currently, she is being driven around in a very warm car with soothing music. May be a long afternoon. Anyways, before she got in the car, she sang a little song here for Uncle Jeff. Then she wanted to say "Goodbye" so that is why there are two videos.

Party Girl

Marie attended a birthday party this Saturday at the Great Lakes Children's Museum. It is a small but nice museum with a mix of activities for kids. There is a big water table that caught her fancy, big stuff to climb on and in...don't think she learned much about the Great Lakes watershed but that will come later. She had a b-l-a-s-t though and liked hanging out with a bunch of critters the same age as her. And yes, sadly, that is me on the big climby thing with her. You can see my hand holding her and my eyes in the last photo. I did it 3 times and then decided she would just have to bump her head cause I couldn't squeeze through that tunnel anymore...

Colors?

This little image is on the back of a few books we own. It indicates the reading level the book is intended for, I guess. We always point to the colors and say them, "Red, blue, green, yellow and purple!" Today, Marie decided that she knew her colors and didn't need my recitation. She proudly pointed them out, left to right and said, "Boo, yellow, boo and boo-yellow!"

Snow Days and Exam Week

Lady in Red

In her special Lady Bug Jumper

Chef Marie...her specialty is "boo yello"

What is a normal schedule with kids? There is all the December pre-Xmas stuff, then The Holidays, then, for us, exams and snow days. What's with that? To the family of a teacher, that means very unpredictable weekly schedules. Between exam days, sick days, half days and snow days, we couldn't get our times straight for daycare in time to have Marie there on Monday. So, Grandma Tina came up from Grand Rapids to watch Marie (as Jim had already taken 2 days off the week before when she was ill). Today, Marie and I are home together as I do not have any classes. So we cooked. First, we made "yello." It was actually green Jell-o but if you ask Marie it is "boo yel-lo." Then Marie made a marvelous concoction of sprinkles, flour and water. This paste, along with two mixing bowls, a measuring cup and spoon, kept her very busy for a half-hour. We won't mention what the floor and chair look like right now but it was fun. By the way, sprinkles turn to a gray mush when added to water and flour.

Wanted to share a few pixs of some cute outfits Marie has donned recently too!

Sorry No *New* Picts

Watching the Rose Bowl together...Marie does have her jersey on.

Daddy reading the history of U of M football to Marie.

Marie is sick. Fever-over-100-and-a-croupy-cough sick. My back is tired from holding/carrying her all day. She took a 3 hour nap and coughed herself asleep for the night by 8. We watched Sesame Street videos together, read books in bed together, ate chicken soup together and took a bath together. I didn't get much done, needless to say. Nor did we take any pictures to commemorate this event. Thus, you are stuck with old U of M football pictures from the past season.

I'm a big kid now!

Look how we have grown! Marie loves her pockets; they are fascinating. She also now loves to say, "CHEESE!" These are from Wednesday morning.

More Glimpses of Goofiness at the Table

So l-o-v-i-n-g our yogurt in the fancy glass!

Little Miss Bracelets and her Tiffany Bag.

Eating breakfast with her cousins. When she is mad, she turns them around.

She's a Goof!!!

Yelling, "Momma!" while we eat.

Enjoying our yogurt perhaps a bit too much.

Enjoying the play-offs

Ready for the slopes!

A Complete Goof!

Ahhh....two. Last night we had to pull out the "sleep book" to review how to help Marie go to sleep. I was re-reading the section on 2 year olds and laughed out loud at one statement. Something about their newfound vocabularly consisting of "NO!", "MINE!" and "I DO IT!" That is about half of our conversations right now. The other half is consoling her when she falls on something or "Boppy," Marie's way to say Big Bird. She picks up both of her Big Birds, holds them over her shoulders, finds me and screams, "MY Boppy!" then takes off running around the house. The other most fun thing right now is to take all of her bracelets and put them in a small bag, carry that around for a while. Set it down, take all of them out and put them on. Then, take them off, back in the bag and repeat...

Jim came home tonight to find Marie "cooking." Standing at the counter on a chair, stirring a bowl of flour and water. She kept repeating, "It's good, it's good."

Needless to say, we are laughing a lot right now.

Christmas 2007

Marie and her Chicago Cousins

Haute Couture Marie looking oh-so-fashionable

with Uncle Jeff

"What's that?"

"Does every girl get one of these?"

Eating lunch with Grandma Tina at Uncle Scott's

"I love my new bike!"
"What is Pooh doing in MY seat? He should be in the trunk. I will move him there...twenty or thirty times."
Santa's Little Helper at Uncle Scott's

Marie had a busy busy Christmas. We started with a little morning Christmas at our house Saturday morning where she got her bike and the Little People Castle. She also got a light up Pooh pen that she is in awe of. Then we packed up the car for the first road trip...down to Brighton and Nana Whall's. We had a quick Xmas Saturday night and then played games. Saturday night we played "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" Some of us were and some were not. Sunday we played "Hand and Foot" which is a fun card game involving 3 decks of cards. Some of us get a little too into it and other's (along with their sarcastic brother) like to make jokes and drag the game out. Fun was had by all! Marie had a blast playing with Uncle Rob. It is great to see the progression of that relationship. Last Christmas she barely tolerated him. Now she screams in glee when she sees him and has lots of little games they play together.

Monday we packed up and headed to Lombard, Illinois. Jim and Marie crashed in the car (see previous post). We had a lovely Christmas Eve and Day with my side of the family. Marie just loved being with her cousins and watching everything they did. She wasn't too into presents but loved the attention. A cute moment was after dinner on Xmas day...we were waiting for the kids to open another round of gifts and the two littlest ones were getting restless. Jim and I decided to take them outside to get them some fresh air and tire them out. We didn't have any toys or anything to play with so we took two gift bags - one for each - and collected leaves. Each leaf was a h-u-g-e event and met with squeals from the little ones. This one was red, this was a big leaf, this one had needles...each one was exciting and HAD to be put in the bag. When we finally got cold enough to go in we were presented with a slight problem. We were not going to let Marie take this bag of wet leaves into our host's house and she wasn't about to part with them. Her little two year old hands death-gripped the bag of leaves and the yelling made us wonder what she was fighting for? Jim finally had her put the bag in our car so we could get her back into the house.

The ride home was blissfully uneventful (see previous post). Marie made it almost all the way home before we had to bust out a DVD. She is a trooper.

A Quick Peek as I Must Unpack...

December 24th - on the way from Nana Whall's (Detroit suburb) to Uncle Scott's (Chicago suburb). It's hard to hold the camera steady AND drive.

December 26th - on the way home from Uncle Scott's

With our new best friend. She took the hat off her own head and put it on BB. In case you noticed her outfit (and how could you not?)...long story.

Christmas Party

Marie attended a Little Girl's Christmas Party last night. Four little ones were present; their Mom's all work together, that is how they know each other. Marie was the youngest by far but she still had a good time watching the other "big" girls. One of the other girls kept feeding Marie pretzels; they got along well! All the girls exchanged gifts. it was interesting to see how Marie instantly knew how to tear open the gifts. Marie got the other girls a huge princess coloring book. They each gave her some wonderful gifts as well; she got some puppets that she is wild about! But she was so excited about all the energy in the room! She was so into watching people and just soaked up all the enthusiasm. We left a little earlier than the other families but took a few minutes to walk up and down the city block to look at the Christmas lights. She was enthralled with all the lights and outdoor decorations. The entire drive home she kept pointing out all the lights to me with her shout-outs. She had a great night! Eagerly anticipating a wonderful Christmas with her extended family!

This Weekend

This little one LOVES to play outside in the snow. When I told her we were going to go outside, she ran into the laundry room, came back with her boots and threw them on the floor at my feet then ran off to the closet to get her coat. She could not could not could not wait for me to get dressed. She dragged my black/blue coat over to me and was just bouncing around while I got ready. We went for a walk, played a little with the shovel and pails but mostly she wanted me to pull her in the sled up and down the driveway. It is easy to get her to go inside too...just say the words "hot chocolate."

Marie always loves Saturday mornings because there is no rush, no fuss. Both parents are there and are relaxed. We eat breakfast together and more often than not, Jim makes her pancakes. You can see how thrilled she was this Saturday morning.

Pigs Must Be Flying...

and H*$% has frozen over...I made a cake. It is supposed to look like a "snow drift."

Birthday Aftermath

Balloons are just good clean fun...especially after you have ripped off your socks and hair bows.