big girl hair cut

Look how long Maren's hair has gotten! It's so beautiful but it gets pretty tangled at the ends. I figured she would benefit from a hair cut and not one that I give her standing on the toilet after a bath. I scheduled an appointment for her at Kids Hair in Highland.

She was very brave and quite excited.

It didn't occur to me that Lilly would want her hair cut too. 

(of course she did she wants to do EVERYTHING Maren does)

10 minutes and 20 dollars later she was done. She even had a cute waterfall braid. 

aside: The cut- not happy with, the cost, not for the quality of the cut. A friend told me there's a better stylist there. I'd suggest requesting your stylist...

Happy Birthday, Maren

My oldest is now four years old. Four! I can't believe it. She does act fourteen sometimes so it is a nice reminder that she is really only four. We did pizza and cake here at our place. I took the night off work and we invited a ton of family. We had a great turn out and Maren loved it! I let her stay up late and play with friends. She hauled in a ton of gifts and couldn't be happier. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day special for her! HUGS

From the vault

I finally managed to download videos from the last few months and here are a few short clips to summarize my favorites. Maren would sing made up songs for the camera all day long if you'd let her.

As you can see Lillian is following in her footsteps.

New Hat

Maren and Lillian got cool new hats from the best babysitter ever for Christmas- 

here's Maren's:

oink oink oink

I guess you'll have to stay tuned for pics of Lillian in hers.

Christmas Program Highlights

I wish these were clips of Maren and her perfect singing that she'd practiced so hard for. Of course there was not that much singing from her. There was:

clip 1: Looking for Mommy

clip 2: Lying down for a nap (those blue pillow things are baby jesus dolls made in class)

clip 3: Finding a new seat

clip 4: Finale

No, that was not part of the program.

New videos

I'm not sure I ever mentioned that my 18 month old is beyond verbal. Ok, I might have. She is just crazy ridiculous in the vocab category. Here is her latest video.

I love that laughter is contagious. I dare you to watch this and not start laughing along with them.

I am actually pretty proud of this post because that second video was taken just two days ago!! Yeah, mom!

My Little Katy Perry

So funny!

My little performer

singing Firework by Katy Perry.

Cuddles with Calvin

Calvin, my cat since he was still too young to be weaned. I got him in my first studio apartment my freshman year of college and bottle fed him between classes. He was just tiny.

He's never been the perfect cat but he's been mine for 14 years. We recently got some hard news. He has developed diabetes. He is so scrawny. Not the 12lb cat I was use to all these years. The weirdest part, he's been so social and nice lately. He use to spend all his time away from the family coming out only when the kids are asleep and not wanting much attention. This has changed drastically. He wants attention often and is around so much more. He use to bolt at the sight of Maren and now he'll sit with her as long as she's still and she loves it. She cuddles with him all the time and covers him with blankets - he likes this. They watch TV and read books together. It is so cute. The hardest part is what if his health declines? The two of them have become so close? Tears roll just at the thought of it.

What Maren likes

Maren is officially three and a half and is quickly outgrowing her 4T clothes, at least in height. 

She is very proud of the length of her hair although she still doesn't have very much of it. 

She still loves to read and is memorizing short books at a fast pace.

She loves when Mom goes to consignment sales and the thrift store and buys costumes on the cheap for her to use for dress up. Here is a Captain America costume (purchased for $2.50). Dad made a shield out of a cardboard box and some velcro to complete the look. 

Maren likes when Lilly naps longer than she does and she gets one on one time with Mom.

Mom just finised making muffin/cupcakes with her and she decided we had more baking to do. 

Mom was on the phone and decided to ignore the mess making behavior for the sake of an adult conversation. Here she is mixing her muffins:

Can you name any of the ingredients?

Then she grabbed the wine glasses that were out and decided we'd have to drink the "batter"

-cheers! (no I didn't try it, I'm pretty sure she did though)

Maren also loves to cuddle with Calvin. Hank has always been the social tolerant cat of the house but recently Calvin has really taken a turn and loves the attention. He will sit by her for as long as she sits by him. They'll even snuggle under blankets together. 

Maren's latest works

When Lillian naps and Maren doesn't I try to let Maren do things that we just plain can't do with Lillian around. Painting is one of those things. Maren is happy to go down in the basement and paint while we listen for Lilly on the monitor and her attention span for it is quite short so clean up time comes quickly and calmly.

When Lillian is awake there is no painting, at least not with acrylic paint. We have to find other things to do. Maren is now trying photography. Here is one of her latest:

And then it's markers. I don't like these out while Lillian is awake because she really likes to color but Maren managed to draw a quick picture while Lillian was drawing with an ink pen on her shirt.

Here is Baby Olivia (my friends Dan and Erin had a baby on 8-8) getting her diaper changed. Note the belly button, ears and hair! Wow! I think Baby Olivia is from the line of Mr Potato heads but she's cute none the less.

Socks

In Mommy and Daddy's room the girls can easily get to a basket of Mom's socks on the bottom shelf.

And they do, often. Maren's new thing is putting on as many pairs as she can one right over the other until they are so tight and her feet are so big that she can't get another pair on.

 

It's pretty funny because she ends up with round, fat feet.

There's about 9-10 pair there.

I'm guessing that when I start wearing socks again I may find that they are a bit stretched out.

Maren partied too

Maren was quite excited for Lillian's birthday too. She had her dress picked out four days ahead of time. She got to help Gramma pick out what was on the cake and everything. Grampa put up a new swing at their house and it was a big hit with Maren.

 just love these ones- too cute

Great Aunt Donna tried to teach Maren how to make a whistle sound blowing grass

Out to the pasture to visit Dawn. Gramma let Dustin and Maren feed her watermelon!

She'd sleep on her if we'd let her. Dawn is so good around the kids. She doesn't even move. She closes her eyes and soaks up the love.

Singing Happy Birthday

Gramma always let's her pick the piece she wants. She wanted the kitty's eyes - well actually the whole face. She got it! She tends to eat the frosting and hand off the cake.

Maren got to help Lilly open her gifts. She was so excited to be the big sister and help little Lilly. 

Thanks for having a birthday little Lilly so we could all party!

My Maren

Oh, my Maren. She is non stop. She is always busy. She currently enjoys musical instruments. Last night after dinner we were all given an instrument and told to play it.

This is what she created. 

Notice she is wearing my old Wonder Woman costume. 

This may also resemble a Katy Perry song.

She's a big Katy Perry fan, E.T.?