Hi-Yah!

Maia is quite a girly girl most of the time. She likes bows in her hair and putting on makeup. But every once in a while, you can spot the influence of an older brother. This morning she was walking around the house, swinging two swords around, and shouting, "Hi-Yah! Hi-Yah!" Luckily, Noah and I made through the morning with no sword wounds.

Emma Lost a Tooth

Wow! I'm really behind on adding pictures. I thought I'd better add this one. Emma lost her first tooth and was very excited. She didn't want anyone to touch her tooth for the longest time. She was the only one allowed to wiggle it. Finally, when it was about it come out, she let me move it around with my finger. It was so loose, it came out with hardly any effort. This is just another reminder that my 6 year old is growing up too fast!

Navigating the Terrible Twos

I love Maia so much! She is usually smiling and happy and social. She'll walk up to strangers and say "hi." She loves to be outside and walk and run and play. But lately, she has become terribly independent and will not accept help in any way, shape, or form. And she can get pretty onery about it!

I've decided I cannot take her shopping anymore. She won't sit in a shopping cart. If I happen to be able to bribe her with a snack for a few moments, she'll rip the food in the cart apart. Monday, it was a package of raisins. Thank goodness, the scan code was still intact. So, most of the time I am grocery shopping with a toddler lollygagging behind me, stopping to look at and touch the interesting cans and bottles at her eye level. This makes for a very loooooong shopping trip, and since I'm usually in a hurry, a stressful one too!

She doesn't like sitting in her car seat. We usually have a struggle to get her buckled because she wants to buckle herself. But, like most 22 month olds, she's not quite able to yet.

She refuses to sit in a stroller, so going to the mall is pretty much out.

I'm sure I went through this with Georgia, Emma, and Noah. It's just hard to believe that I survived it 3 times already. I'm exhausted just writing about it.

If there is a silver lining in all of this, maybe sticking to my budget will be easier this year. (Of course, there always is online shopping!) And, playing at home with Maia and Noah is pretty fun!

Winter Wonderland

Winter in Kansas is usually cold and icy, but not very white. If it does snow, it usually has melted within a day. Luckily for us, it there was a great snowfall in December, and we knew exactly what we had to do: find a hill and go sledding.

Because sleds are always sold out when I go to buy them in the winter here, I bought one in November. The cashier looked at me like I was crazy because it was still 60 degrees outside. I told her I was just getting prepared for the winter, and I'm glad I did because we had a blast.

We went to a nearby park and searched for a nice small hill. Most of the roads were closed off, but we found if we crawled under the fence that we could have access to a perfect hill. Our kids were very concerned that we might be breaking the law crawling under a fence. We assured them that we would not get arrested, to calm down, chill out, and have fun! I guess they've been taught well, right?

Braces:Before and After

On January 5, Georgia went to the orthodontist and got braces! She was so excited for them. She couldn't wait to get them on. According to Brett, she was a trooper though the whole appointment. She couldn't wait to get back to school on the 7th to show them to her friends and teacher at school. I'm not sure what the appeal of braces is to her, but she sure doesn't complain about them at all. She is very proud that she is the only 3rd grader at her school to have them. Isn't she cute?