So many milestones, so little time

So it's extremely hard to believe, but Maren is almost 1-year-old now! Since I've been horribly delinquent on my blogging (Maren's baby "calendar" is at least somewhat up to date), I'm going to do a flash back over the last several months. The good news is, you can read it all in one sitting. The bad news is, her early milestones are now old news and seem so much less exciting! Regardless, I hope you enjoy the next several entries. And Maren, please forgive us, but 2nd child syndrome has hit us like a ton of bricks. If it's any consolation, we didn't even start the blog until Kayla was 8 or 9 months old.

And I just have to say, this blog site is awesome. Here’s a feature made with a slacker-mom in mind. You can set whatever date you want as the “post date”. Therefore, I’m putting all these things up in August, but I’m back dating them to the right timeframe, as if I was totally on the ball. Technology’s great!

So for all of you that have been criticizing my stale blog, CCR - we are still not dead, and KEW - I did get this thing updated by the end of August. Thank goodness for Aaron's golf trip; might as well sit in the office for another few hours after the kids are in bed. What else would I do on a Friday night? To those of you without kids, don't judge me! For those of you with kids, well, you know what I'm talking about.

So here are the dates you should make sure to check out. These are all new posts, even though all of the dates are not (yes, there are really 13):

February 15
March 14
March 15
April 15
May 15
June 15
June 30
July 20
July 21
August 3
August 10
August 18
August 28



So grab a cup of coffee, tea, red bull, whatever you need, and enjoy the multi-month update. It's OK if you can't do it all in one sitting...or even three!

But she's my baby

Two weeks. Not even two full weeks. 11 days really. What's that...it's practically nothing. Well, I guess that all depends on your perspective. In this case, Maren's moving into the 1-yr-old room two weeks early. It's not much time, really, but I hadn't prepared myself for the leap just yet. But when Maren's teacher, school director, and assistant director all ask me about it...well, how could I say no?

It's really not a big deal. It's more the mentality that she's no longer a baby. Real milk, walking, 1 nap, gym time, sleeping on a cot, outdoor playtime, etc, etc, etc. But she's my baby!

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that she's doing so well, and that the move up should be an easy transition for her. I guess I'm the big wimp on this one. I was reminiscing with a classmate's mom (her daughter was also born on September 10th), over the details of our respective labors. It seems like it was so long ago, but it also went so fast.

We found when Maren really started crawling, she liked going into the tent (and not just because Kayla carried her into it). The girls still like playing in the tent together, though it usually ends up on its side, and we have to go rescue Maren.


Maren also found that playing with Kayla's kitchen is fun! Kayla's gradually learning to share.


She is so close to taking off walking. Tonight she took about 10 consecutive steps, two different times. She will just stand up in the middle of nowhere. It still is crazy to turn around and see her standing up. We were outside hosing off her car seat (another story for another day), and she was standing up all over the place. In the grass, on the driveway, in the mulch (Kayla plucked her out for me), on the front steps...she's getting so independent!

Any chance Kayla gets, she tries to walk with her, dance with her, mop the floor with her. She's about 70% nice, 30% naughty!


Kayla also decided that it would be great fun to push Maren around on this little car. If you're thinking this looks like a recipe for disaster, you're right! I usually leave this toy set up for a walk-behind push toy to help Maren with her walking. But again, this used to be Kayla's, and most recently she'd flown around the house on it as a car. Old habits die hard.



A final note, I mentioned chatting with the other mom -- when I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed she was in a cop car. Is it wrong that I was totally freaked out by the pistol on her hip?? She was in a regular women's business suit; no uniform to set my expectations. Talk about respecting someones authority! It completely caught me off guard when I walked up beside her at the sign-in sheet. I'll be doing my best to stay on her good side. I definitely won't be accusing her kid of being the one that bit Maren!

Stop biting my child!

I understand that Maren is at the age where kids can't talk to tell you that they are upset or frustrated. They're still putting everything in their mouth, cutting teeth, etc., but come on! There has got to be a better chew toy in that place than Maren. First it was her finger, then it was her thigh, and this time it was her cheek. I honestly thought Kayla had done it due to the spacing of the top and bottom teeth marks. That kid's mouth must have been huge!

I'm so grateful that Kayla was never much of a biter, and so far Maren hasn't been either. But we may have to teach her to be one just to defend herself. The note on her paper from school indicated that she didn't seem to react too badly to the bite as they were laying down for nap. But when she woke up, the teeth marks were pretty evident.

Now, I obviously think my girls are the best, but I'm no fool either and thus realize that Maren's used to fending off her 3-yr-old sister. So maybe, just maybe, she's instigating this (these) kid(s). Still, I'll make my plea one more time -- stop biting my child!

Scootering

I doubt this is a real word, but it comes from the Kayla dictionary. It means that she wants to go ride her scooter! A perk of having older cousins is that they can hand down cool stuff. Kayla's been riding in the power wheels Jeep they'd given us, and now Sammy has provided Kayla with his old Razor scooter. Kayla and Maren stayed with my parents and sister over the weekend while we made the long road trip for Aaron's cousin's wedding. Not taking the girls on a 8 hour road trip was a win-win for everyone!

Anyway, I didn't see Kayla on the scooter until this evening when she was showing off for the high school neighbor boys (a foreshadowing of things to come??). She was whipping around in circles and I couldn't believe the balance she maintained!

So then I was discussing bringing the scooter back up to my mom's house when we visit her next weekend, and here's what she had to say about it. She also gave us an additional story to share. And now, the debut of my mom, the guest blogger:

'I think the helmet is a good thing for the scooter. Kayla gets pretty brave on the scooter and really can take off now that she “thinks” she has it mastered. She did pick up the technique very quickly and was impressing us with her skills.

Dad said she almost gave him a heart attack because she took off in a run down the hill with Maren in the stroller. He said it took him by surprise and she is so fast. He told her she could’t run with Maren like that and she said “but Mommy runs with Maren”. He is still talking about his almost “heart attack”.'

Poor dad! Poor Maren! Kayla's a little too gutsy for her own good sometimes.

I don't have any pics of Kayla "scootering" yet, so here's a picture of us from the wedding.

Don't feed the bears -- or Maren

Last weekend we had some friends at the lake, and what did I walk into the cottage to find? 3 little girls and Maren all crammed under a little card table, feeding her bits of chips. Of course Kayla was part of the trio, and received a stern scolding afterward. 1 - she hadn't asked for chips, and 2 - she should not be feeding chips to her sister! I imagine Maren was sad that I came and broke up the party.

Halle and Maren:


After I disbursed the crowd, they sat outside on the deck looking in the sliding glass doors at Maren. She stood up banging on the window, and the crowd tapped right back at her. It made me feel like she was an attraction at the local zoo! Most of the kids were at least Kayla's age or older, and it was so interesting to see how they flocked to Maren. We even had requests to take her home to be their own baby sister.

Eventually, Halle expanded her ask to include a baby like Maren...that doesn't spit. Emma wanted a baby just like Maren...who doesn't pull hair or jump on her. (Note, both Emma and Halle have 3-yr-old little brothers at home! Sweet, little Maren was looking awfully good to them. I didn't care to mention that Maren will probably grow into the same type of "annoying" younger sibling they might be used to. Why take away the dream?).



We had a great day getting all of the families together. Lots of splashing, tubing, and jumping off the dock -- and Aaron let everyone else do stuff too! Bravery awards go to Jillian, Grace, and Halle for tubing with the best of them. Though Kayla went, I had reports from other parents that it wasn't willingly. I guess Aaron tossed her in screaming. Riding with Jillian and Beth smoothed things over though!




We are so thankful for the lake and all the memories we get to create and share with our friends and family. I often take it for granted, but after times like these I reflect on just how thankful we are for the lake!

Ethan shows off his big smile...


and his sister, Emma, shows off her lack of teeth!



Jillan, Emma, Kayla, Nate, Bethany, Maren, Grace, Josh, Tyler, Halle, and Ethan (thank goodness for that big, old couch)