Malia's Party Place

Summer

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:25:28 GMT

Summer has finally arrived in Seattle after one of the coldest June's on record and we've been basking in the warmth and taking full advantage of the gorgeous weather. This is truly one of the most beautiful cities in the summer. Perfect 80 degree weather - just warm enough for us to really enjoy going to the wading pool, but not so hot as to make us miserable. Every day we've gone to the playground, beach or wading pool or combinations of all. It's just too nice not to get out and enjoy it.

Two weekend's ago, Malia and I went up to Edison for Cousin Jack's 3rd birthday party. On the way, we paid a surprise visit to Samish Bay Cheese and got to see Grandma Suzanne and Grandpa Roger along with a bunch of adorable piglets. Malia loved the little piggies. She was also very impressed with and I think tried to make friends with some of the cows. I think there was equal fascination of the cows for Malia and Malia for the cows. She certainly didn't seem afraid of them at all. I think she'd try to take one home with her if she could. After the nice visit at the farm, we went over to Jack's party and had a great time. Jack and Malia and Ava scampered about and tried to make (and catch) giant bubbles with Jack's new bubblewand. Malia and Jack also spent some time doing some construction projects with Jack's new "tools". Malia was completely exhausted by the time we got home. It was a great day.

Last weekend we were super busy as well. Friday, we had a bbq with Mary, Neil and Sadie and had a nice visit, although Malia was pretty darn pooped and so her more cantankerous 2 1/2 year old antics were well on display. Thankfully, she was COMPLETELY exhausted by the time we got home and managed to sleep through the insane 4th of July fireworks going on in our neighborhood. I don't think I got to sleep until around 2 am and that was with earplugs firmly in place! On Saturday, we had a Young family reunion, much like last summer, except this time Uncle Ron and Aunt Rita from Brazil were in town as well. We met at Uncle Al and Aunt Toni's gorgeous new house right on the water in Edmonds and had a great time. Malia and Jack and Ava were running around chasing and having lots of fun. They especially loved running in circles around Al's pool table. On Sunday, we went up to visit Lala and Roland as I was planning to go have dinner with some old friends in La Conner. Chris and Malia hung out and had a great time. I got back just in time for roasting marshmallows and watching Malia eat her first smore was a lot of fun. She LOVED it. Of course, who can blame her?

Chris is on vacation for two whole weeks right now and we've been enjoying every minute of his time off. We tried out the West Seattle water taxi which takes off about 5 minutes from our house and crosses Elliot Bay right to the Downtown Seattle harbor. We all loved it. It was so much fun and we had lunch and walked around Pike Place Market for a couple hours. On the return crossing, we found a little spot in the front of the boat and Malia peeked over the edge and looked for mermaids. We didn't see any, but I think Malia now considers herself a pirate. She keeps asking about the big boat, so I think we'll be doing that again soon. Today, we met Rachel, Brett, Jack, Kieran and Lucas at the zoo. It was a lot of fun. Jack and Malia kept us all busy, but we got to see some amazing animals. The cats were really out today and we got to see the Jaguar up close, Lions up close, and watch the tiger playing in his swimming pool. Malia was singing animal songs to herself and I think was so excited about everything she saw today that she had a hard time falling asleep. So much to see and do. (Of course, the ice cream might've played a role in that, too (see pics).

All and all we are LOVING our summer vacation so far. Stay tuned for details on our upcoming plans for a train trip to Portland next week!

Too Long

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:43:50 GMT

I've been terrible about keeping this blog updated so thought I'd better type a few words. It's hard to believe that 4 months have passed and that it's now summer. Not that I'm complaining. Winter and spring were really cold and wet this year. We've been very busy and having lots of fun. Malia is now 2 years and 8 months old, so closing in on 3. At her last checkup she was 28 pounds and 34.5 inches tall. I suspect she's a littler heavier and taller than that now, but not sure. That was back in May.

Here's a synopsis of the last few months:

March was a very cold and rainy month this year so we spent A LOT of time indoors at the local indoor playgyms that really are wonderful and saved us over the winter. Malia loves these places. Toward the end of the month, Malia caught her first of a series of very bad colds though, so we had a rough patch for a while. We ended up in the ER for the first cold because Malia started wheezing and coughed almost constantly for 24 hours. By the time we took her in, she was exhausted from coughing so much and the docs got her on some steroids and albuterol immediately. Within about an hour of getting her first treatment she was much better. We had one more treatment, but were relieved to finally be sent home by about 11:30 that night (after 6 hours in the ER). It was scary and it took Malia quite a while to get better. Unfortunately, for the next month, she seemed to get sick every 10 days or so. We had to use albuterol off and on for about a month and also steroids here and there. Basically, the entire month of April was spent either being sick or getting over the latest cold. It was NOT fun for any of us. In early May, I finally decided I'd had enough with traditional medicine's take on all Malia's colds and her wheezing issues and took her to a Naturopath. This doc noticed immediately that Malia had huge tonsils and suspected there was an allergy component to her wheezing. We've now had her on lots of supplements, vitamins, air filters and no dairy for 2 months and she is doing better. Of course, the real test will be when fall and along with it cold and flu season come again. Hopefully, all these changes will help us avoid the scary ER trips!

Malia's doing great now and there have been lots of changes over the last 4 months as well. She is quite the talker and we are now having conversations which are pretty darn amusing. She is a really social and outgoing kid and LOVES playing with other kids as well as just sitting in a corner reading or throwing a ball around. Of course, her favorite toys are her dolls. She is quite the girly girl in a lot of ways. She is obsessed with the Disney Princesses and we aren't really sure how that came about. She knows them all though. Ariel, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty. She also loves to play dress up and also ordering me to dress up. Her current favorite thing is to make me put on fancy shoes and a fancy dress. She loves it when Mama plays dress up, too.

We've also made big strides on the potty training front. About two months ago, Malia started refusing to wear her diaper and so we went for it. We've had some regression here and there, but she's probably 80-85% of the way there. We still have accidents, but for the most part she's doing great.

One big change coming up is that I'm planning to go back to work. Malia will be in daycare again 4 days a week and we got her into a good one with a preschool and swimming lessons. I think it'll be a good change for her and me, but I'm also keeping an open mind to staying home full-time again. I think we are both ready for a change though. I don't start until August, so we are just going to try and enjoy our time together as much as possible. Chris will be taking a couple weeks off in July and we are looking forward to our "staycation" as we will be staying home in Seattle and just hanging out with maybe one short road trip somewhere. Seattle is a great place to be in the summer and so with gas prices so high, it makes sense to stay here and be a tourist for a couple of weeks. Should be fun.

Developmentally, Malia is doing great. She's quite a talker, like her parents, and we are really enjoying having conversations with Malia about her day. Love the 2 1/2 year old take on things.

February Flew By

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:11:40 GMT

What can I say? The last month has been a blur. We've been so busy going to parks, meetups, playdates, and just having fun that I haven't had time to update much. We've also had our share of colds and coughs, but the last couple of weeks haven't been too bad on that front. The weather's been unusually nice for February which allowed us to get out and play on the beach a couple of times and go to the playground a lot. That's pretty much unheard of for February so it's been a real treat. Malia still loves going to the beach, but now is focused on looking for mermaids and throwing rocks into the water. I guess that's partly because it's too cold to actual wade out in the water and pick up seaweed.

One of the highlights of the month for Malia and I was when we went and watched the lunar eclipse. Malia had a bad cough and had been sick, but I was determined that she get out and see it. Chris was at his woodshop class that night, so I bundled Malia up tight, took her out for ice cream (where we could see the moon through the window) and then we drove to one of the best viewpoints in Seattle to watch the eclipse. There were tons of other people there and Malia loved it. She decided that the moon was hiding and playing peekaboo (both are still favorite games of hers). She got such a kick out of all the people and we stood there snuggling and watching the moon over downtown Seattle for about 45 minutes.

We also went to the museum of flight a week or so ago and that was a lot of fun. Malia LOVED the planes and wanted to sit in all of them. There was a lot of "whoa" and "Big Plane, Mommy" and other fun 2 year old commentaries while there. As everything is right now, it was fun, but exhausting for mom and dad. She just wants to go, go, go and chasing her around for an hour was about all we could handle before we were both wiped out.

Malia's favorite activity is still reading books, although she also loves watching Sesame Street. She continues to amaze us with her verbal skills. She is talking so well and can string together stories and long sentences, although not all of it is comprehensible. When I ask her about her day, she will list off a bunch of stuff interspersed with "because" or "but, but, but". It's funny to hear her say phrases that we say to her as well. Today, at preschool she kept saying "wait just a minute, wait just a minute, wait just a minute" over and over again while she was looking for something. She also called herself a "silly goose" the other day when she was being a goofball. She's also learned most of her colors and shapes, although numbers and letters are still a ways off. She can sing a bunch of songs, too, and has recently started making up her own lyrics. I need to get the tape recorder out for those moments!!! We've also had to get out the monster spray as her imagination has really started to kick in. She'll come running in the room yelling "monsters, Mommy" and I'll have to go and "spray" my special no monster spray that makes them go away (or at least remind her that I already did that). The tantrums are also happening more these days, but it's pretty manageable so far...we'll see what the coming months bring in that department!

Christmas 2007

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:36:40 GMT

The last several weeks have been a bit challenging for us. We all had the stomach flu in early December and in the midst of that Chris came down with shingles. He was quite sick for about 2 weeks, but thankfully is pretty much back to normal now. Despite that, we had a nice Christmas this year. We ended up spending Christmas Eve up with my family and then spent Christmas Day with Linda and Roland and Great-Grandma Mary, before heading back to Seattle. We gave Malia her Santa present on Christmas Eve morning and she LOVED it. Santa got her a play kitchen and cookware set and she's been cooking lots of yummy food for us for the last week and a half. Christmas Eve was a lot of fun watching Malia, Ava, and Jack running around and playing and it was wonderful getting some quality snuggling time in with the newest cousins Kieran and Lucas who are now 2 months and counting. Malia got some wonderful presents from her family and has been having so much fun playing tea with her new tea sets, reading her new books, and drawing with her new easel. She LOVES to draw, although we are still trying to convince her to keep the pen on the paper rather than on her face. The day after Christmas, Malia came down with a bad case of pink eye, so we were quarantined at home for a while. Having all her new toys to play with was great and Malia didn't mind being home for a few days. Thankfully, she has gotten over it very quickly, so we've been back to our usual playdates and fun times with friends. There are a lot of indoor activities around this time of year since the weather is so wet and cold most of the time. We've been having lots of fun going to the local community centers and playing with Malia's friend Ben.

Malia's also had some big transitions in the last few weeks. She is now sleeping in a toddler bed as we decided to make the switch out of the crib. So far, it's going all right, although Malia still wakes up quite a bit at night. In the morning, she will climb out of her bed, stand at the door and yell, "I'm Awake Mommy" or sometimes will lay in front of her door and thump on it until we come and get her. I guess she still hasn't figured out that she can open the door and come out on her own. That's not going to last, so we are enjoying that while we can. We are still strugging with no naps, which has definitely been harder on me than Malia. She is like the energizer bunny and seems to be able to keep going without too much trouble. She does get tired by the end of the day though, so I'm still trying to get her to at least rest for an hour or so every day. She might take one nap a week right now, if we are lucky. We've also been working on potty training more lately, although Malia's the one who is really leading the charge on that front. She likes to use the big toilet and asks to sit there a number of times a day. Her success rate is steadily going up, although she has a long way to go. I guess we are in what you could call the "Practice" phase of potty training. It takes a lot of patience for us to sit there reading books or keeping Malia company for such a long time (She could sit on the toilet for an hour, if we let her). Sometimes, if Chris and I are both home, we can switch off which helps alleviate the boredom for us. It will be fun to share this blog entry with Malia when she's a teenager!!! LOL

Malia's current favorite activities are Hide and Seek, dancing like a ballerina or a mermaid, and piggyback rides. She is constantly hiding or hiding things and looking for them (or asking me to look for them). It's adorable. The dancing is also super cute. She puts her arms out and then spins in a circle, rocking back and forth. The piggyback rides involve her jumping on my back and then we run down the hall and I dump her on the bed. She LOVES that and asks to do it again and again. We definitely have LOTS of fun goofing off and playing. One of the best things lately are the conversations. She just cracks me up and also surprises me with the things she understands (or tries to understand). It's a lot of fun....

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Too Long

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:01:58 GMT

It's been almost a month and a half since I last updated this, which is a sign of either how busy I've been or how little we've been able to actually do since the "Long Dark" has officially set in here in Seattle. I'll start with an account of our slightly crazy Thanksgiving. This year we opted to go up on Thanksgiving Day, have dinner with the Wechsler clan, drive back home to Seattle and then drive back up for a post-Thanksgiving Day feast with the Ballantine and Henderson side of the family on Friday. It was as exhausting as it sounds, but we did have fun. Malia was a trooper and spent the whole weekend after Thanksgiving talking about everyone she'd seen and asking to go back and see them. Probably the highlight of the holiday for me was when we went outside in the twilight at Roger's and watched a flock of thousands of birds swooping and flying over Chuckanut Bay. They were backlit by the setting sun and it was an amazing spectacle. Malia was wrapped up in a blanket in Auntie Mary's arms and she was so peaceful watching this beautiful scene unfold in front of her. The following weekend, Grandma Linda kindly babysat Malia for our first overnight together away from Malia. It was an opportunity we couldn't pass up because Chris's work holiday party was at the Space Needle this year. We had a great time and Malia survived (or should I say we survived).

Over the last month and a half Malia has undergone a huge developmental leap. She is talking in sentences and we can pretty much have conversations now, although sometimes we both get a little confused. She speaks very clearly for the most part (L's and R's are still a little tricky) and is learning some really big, impressive words (crocodile, rhinoceros, Christmas Tree, for example). I have to be even more careful what I say and how I act around her which is an enormous responsibility. Every parent has their moments of losing their patience with a situation (such as a 2 year old who refuses to put a coat on to leave the house, or change out of her pajamas, or eat anything I put in front of her, or who wants me to read that darn Dr. Seuss book for the millionth time!). A few months ago, Malia probably noticed it, but it wasn't that big a deal. Now, when she senses I'm frustrated, she'll actually say to me "Mommy Frustrated" and even more amazing, when she's mad she'll say "I'm frustrated, Mommy!". Malia's emotional development and empathy have just skyrocketed in the last month and she will try to comfort me, make me laugh, tell me "I Love you Mommy" (and also "Go Away Mommy" - we are working on that one). One of my favorite aspects of this is watching her play with her little baby dolls. She will talk in a high pitched voice, cuddle with them, put them in her shirt, or wrap them in a blanket and carry them around, kiss them, etc. It's just so darn cute.

Malia is still an avid bookworm, much like her parents, and we have storytime about 3x a day. She loves so many books and two of her favorite places to go are the local library branch and a local bookstore where she will sit in a big pile of books "reading" and looking at the pictures. When we read favorite books together now, she will say the words right along with me (or at least try) and it's so much fun to see her get so into reading at such a young age. Malia's also a big music fan and her current obsession is "The Wiggles". Chris and I both have to sigh deeply before turning them on because it definitely gets a little old after a while! My favorite part of her musical interest though is when we sing songs together. She knows quite a few songs now and will sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", Hush Little Baby, Tura Lura, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and the ABC song right along with me at bedtime. It's a hoot.

We've been having loads of fun and I'll update again after the holidays.

Trick or Treat

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:01:58 GMT

On Malia's Birthday we did a photoshoot with Sandi Heinrich from Soulstice Photography. Sandi did Malia's 1 year pics and we were so happy with those we decided to do it again this year. The pictures are great and we were especially impressed because Malia was quite sassy (stubborn 2 year old) that day, the lighting was very bright, and the park had fences up all over the place making it challenging to find good backdrops. We had a lot of fun though and it is nice to have some great pictures to remember from Malia's 2nd birthday.

Halloween was last week and we also had a great time, despite a pesky cold that Malia was battling all week. Malia wore a frog costume and we went trick-or-treating up at the "Admiral Junction" in West Seattle. Malia had a great time and discovered the joys of candy. We went trick-or-treating with Malia's friend Ian and it was so much fun seeing all the little kids in costume.

Birthday and Stats

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:31:16 GMT

Happy Birthday to Malia! Today she is officially a 2 year old!! We had a fun party on Saturday with a lot of family and friends and had a great time. Malia was so excited she was riding her rocking pony and kicking her heels high in the air. She had a blast playing with all her new toys and seeing all her favorite people. I started preparing her for the party a few days in advance and she kept asking about everyone. "Grandma? Grandpa? Dori? Grandpa Jerry? Auntie Sara? Auntie Rachel? Lala? Roland? Suzanne? Roger?". Then, when I was decorating her cake she kept circling me yelling "Birthday Cake" and of course, managed to sneak a few licks of frosting while Mom was busy getting things ready. I asked her how old she was going to be and she held up 4 fingers and yelled "Two!". Pretty cute.

Malia got lots of awesome new toys including a huge doll house from Grandma and Grandpa, books from Grandpa Jerry, an adorable purse and farm girl boots from Suzanne and Roger (which she carried/wore for most of the rest of the day), a gorgeous red Tutu skirt from Auntie Sara and Uncle Wade (which she also wore for the rest of the day), a new red wagon from Lala and Roland, a fun bouncy toy from Auntie Dori (she loves it), dolls from Rachel and Brett and lots of gorgeous clothes from Erin and Nate, Great-Grandma Edna, Great-Grandma Mary, and Aunt Mary and Uncle Neil. We had SO much fun and it was wonderful to have everyone there to celebrate with us. Tonight on Malia's official birthday, we are going to have a little quiet party at home and relax. It is a gorgeous day here in Seattle and it seems very appropriate for Malia's birthday to be such a bright and sunny day.

We are also very happy to welcome two new nephews to the family with the arrival of Rachel and Brett's twin boys Kieran and Lucas last week. The boys are completely adorable and doing great. Malia has been preparing for her first visit with the boys by wrapping her baby dolls in a blanket and then patting them on the back. She says "Auntie Rachel" when she does that so I think she knows that Auntie Rachel has new babies. It'll be fun to introduce her to them next week.

10/25/07: We went in for Malia's 2 year well child visit today. The doctor declared her to be thriving and healthy (other than her current cold).

Here are her stats:

weight: 27 lbs 4 oz (59th percentile)

height: 2'9" (33") (28th percentile)

head circumference: 48.5 cm (77th percentile)

October Update

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:27:23 GMT

The last month has flown by in the Henderson household. We've been so busy between preschool, gym classes, and home improvement projects that I've hardly had time to think about anything. Malia's changed so much even in the last month. The biggest change is probably in her continually growing vocabulary and in her desire to assert herself as an independent being. She is very adamant about doing what she wants and we are constantly walking a tightrope to allow her some independence and choices, while keeping her safe and avoiding too many big messy disasters. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and let her go for it, even though it's hard. Tonight, for example, she insisted on drinking out of a big cup instead of her usual sippy cup. When I'd try to help she'd say "Mom, Go Away!" or "Mine, Mommy Away". Hey, it's only water, so who really cares if it ends up all over her or the floor?

Malia's favorite toys right now are cars....as in my car. She loves to sit in the front seat of my car and pretend to drive, pushing all the buttons, rocking the steering wheel back and forth, and crawling around it like a big jungle gym. In some ways it's great because I can get some gardening done while she plays in there. In other ways, it's not so good, as when I get back in the car to drive somewhere and forget that she's turned the music volume up to Maximum. Yikes! She also loves to point out other cars and loves trains, fire engines, "Big Trucks", buses, any kind of vehicle really.

One of the best things we are doing right now is preschool one day a week. It's so much fun. Basically, it's a playgroup once a week, but with lots of cool toys, messy art projects, sensory (water) tables, and imaginative play (kitchen, tea party, cars and trucks). She is loving it and it's giving us a fun outing one day a week. One of the things Malia loves most at preschool is washing her hands. We do this twice there and now she is constantly asking to "Wash Hands, Mommy...Yeah?" I think she'd sit in the bathroom washing her hands all day if I'd let her!

The other bathroom activity she is really enjoying is sitting on the big toilet. Grandma Lala showed Malia how to sit on the big toilet at her house a couple of weeks ago and 2 days later, when we left her alone for a minute at home, we discovered her sitting on top of the toilet in our bathroom, proudly saying "Go potty". Needless to say, we immediately went out and bought toilet locks (we both had visions of her having some kind of near-drowning incident in the potty), and I also bought a toilet insert for her. So far, she's probably only peed in the toilet once, but we are putting her on it a lot every day (she asks at least 4-5 times a day). I'm sure she's going to love hearing about this when she's a teenager!

We also recently went to the aquarium and had a wonderful time. When we got home that night, I asked Malia about the aquarium and she immediately said "Fishes....Above" and pointed above her head (there's a part of the exhibit where you are underwater and the fish are overhead in a tank). She also was able to tell me what friends were there with her and about some of the other things she saw. It was really neat to actually talk with her about it.

Malia has also become quite the singer these days.... She learned "ring around the rosie" at gym class this week and spent the rest of the day singing "Ashes Ashes All Fall Down" and then she'd collapse in a heap. Last night when I was putting her to bed, I sang her Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and halfway through she started singing the Eensy Weensey Spider and then proceeded to sing the ABC song after that (only ABCD though). It was so cute.

We've definitely had our ups (mostly) and a few downs lately (pulling mom's hair is one of her new tricks), but mostly she's great. Her birthday is just a couple week's away and it's hard to believe that it's been two years. It's gone so slow and so fast all at the same time (I know I've said this many times before).

I Love You's

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:28:52 GMT

After a very long day yesterday (Chris went in early and got home late due to traffic), Malia made my day when she said "I Love You, Mommy" and gave me a huge smile as Chris was taking her off to bed. I actually started crying because it was so sweet and wonderful. She must have known I needed to hear that. I am a very lucky Mommy!!!!!

Today we had a wonderful adventure out at a farm with a bunch of Mom's from the West Seattle Tots group. Malia LOVED the miniature goats and fed them lots of treats. We also got to go on a hay ride around the farm and Malia loved it, yelling "Hay Ride" and giggling every few minutes. We will definitely be returning once the pumpkin patch is open because it was lots of fun.

We are trying to pack in outdoor activities every day since this weather is not going to last forever. We've been enjoying discovering new parks and pools in Seattle in the last couple of weeks and we've had a lot of fun. It's hard to believe that in a few short weeks Malia will be starting preschool (ok, it's just a coop - one day a week), but still it's crazy that our girl is almost 2. Time is flying by and we are making every effort to enjoy every minute of it.

August - 22 months

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 04:20:08 GMT

August has been a busy month. Malia has been undergoing a rapid metamorphosis into a kid, with her verbal skills growing every day. She is talking up a storm and learning new words constantly. The first sign that things were changing happened a few weeks ago when instead of saying "wa wa" for water, Malia actually started saying "water". Then the dam broke. Today she learned "spiderweb" at the park when we spotted an enormous one in a tree. She also says "car", "book", "bus", "cat....meow", "cow....mooo", "bear....raar", "dog....woof", flamingo, elephant, zebra, frog, spoon, fork, smoothie (booshie), cereal (seer seer), noodles (noo noos), banana (mana), buddha, and the list goes on and on and on. Yesterday, I taught her to raise her arms and yell "Super Malia" which is something her cousin Grace was doing in North Carolina. She now does it all the time although it sounds more like "Super Manena". (she pronounces her name Mena most of the time, so this is kind of her nickname right now). She also likes to climb on top of things and then throw her arms up in the air and yell "Ta Da". I was amazed the other day when we were looking at a picture book and she pointed to everything in it and could name what she was seeing. I've done some of that, but not a lot. We read books constantly though, so I think she just learns from that. One of the neatest things to happen in the last week is that she now says "Yeah" which is such a breath of fresh air after all the "no's" we've experienced. She can tell me what she wants in a much more pleasant manner now, thank goodness. She's also starting to sing songs. We've been taking a music class and every morning we do a little routine from the class where we swing our arms, jump up and down, and buck, buck like a chicken. Malia also learned to sing Rock a Bye Baby from Linda and Roland when they came down to visit a few weeks ago. One of our favorite sunny day activities is to go lay out in the hammock together and sing Rock a Bye together. She also can sing parts of the abc song. She'll say "A..B...C and then skip to Now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with me". I'm working on getting the gap in the middle filled in, but am pretty impressed with what she has down so far. Probably my best moment in the last week was when Malia was hanging out in bed with us one morning and she looked at me and said "Mama, I love you". I just about fell over. I think it was because we were reading a book where a girl is asking her Mom if she loves her, but still it was awesome. Especially since we'd had a rough night with sleep the night before. It made everything much better.

We had a wonderful family reunion last weekend with the Young side of the family. It was great to see all the cousins, especially since none of them had met Malia. Malia and Ava had a great time playing with dolls in the tent and seem to really enjoy hanging out together. It's a lot of fun to watch the two of them together. Jack loves to push Malia around in the wagon and they also had a lot of fun exploring Grandma and Grandpa's garden together. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures posted soon.

It's hard to believe that in 2 months Malia will be a 2 year old. Such a big girl and she's changing so fast. It's a lot of fun watching her grow and learn.

North Carolina Trip

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:03:17 GMT

We got back from our trip to North Carolina last Thursday. It was a wonderful trip except for the travel component. Malia did pretty well on the plane, but flying with a toddler is definitely not something we will do again anytime soon. Fortunately, once we were in North Carolina we had a great time. We stayed at Mary Ann's beautiful new house which made us really feel like we were on vacation. We spent a lot of time just hanging out around the house and Malia had fun running around and playing with everyone. She loved all of the attention and getting to meet her Great-Grandpa for the first time was a real treat. We also had a wonderful time hanging out with Jim, Christine, Eddie, Danielle, and little Grace. We went on several outings into Raleigh including the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Art and both were great. It was a wonderful visit and probably the highlight for me was just getting to spend so much time with family. Everyone really made us feel at home and we are so thankful to have such a wonderful family back east. Hopefully, we'll be able to visit the rest of the Henderson clan once Malia gets a little bit older. It'll be quite an adventure to take on New York with a kid in tow, but it's something to look forward to in the future.

Swim Class, Beachcombing, and Summer Fun

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:12:40 GMT

We've had a busy month and not a lot of time for updates here. It's amazing how much there is to do when you are home full-time with a toddler! In the last month, Malia's vocabulary has really exploded. She's saying short sentences ("Mommy this" and "Daddy that" mostly) and we are able to figure out what she wants a lot more easily, making for a lot less frustration. Of course, Malia's also become very independent and a big fan of the word "Mine" in the last month, which also makes things tricky. There are times when her refusal to hold mommy's hand is just not negotiable, such as when we cross the street, but she lets me know with a yell of "Mine" that she's not happy about it! Life can definitely be tough when you are a toddler, that's for sure! On the other hand, we've had some very wonderful moments in the last month where her communication makes you feel very loved and proud. For example, we went beachcombing with Malia last weekend and at one point Malia plunked herself down on a driftwood log, patted the log next to her and said "Daddy", patted the log on her other side and said "Mommy" and when Chris and I obliged her and sat down next to her, she smiled so sweetly at us. Then we just sat there and watched the water and enjoyed the moment.

Malia and I have been taking a Waterbabies class at the local YMCA, which has been a lot of fun. Malia's getting a lot braver about the water now and on our last beach trip, she was toddling out into some pretty impressive tidepools. We also go to the local wading pools a lot and she's much braver now than she was a few weeks ago. It's fun to watch her in the pool and she's usually grinning from ear to ear the whole time. It's also good exercise for me, hauling her around in the water and lifting her up and around. Goodness knows I need all of the exercise I can get these days!

We are also taking a music and dance class at a local community center which is fun. Malia is learning how to sing, although it's really more like humming. It's really sweet to listen to her earnestly humming away. She can also sing "Baa Baa Black Sheep", although sometimes it doesn't sound exactly like that. She seems to really enjoy the class and we are having a good time.

We celebrated cousin Jack's 2nd birthday on the 4th of July whch was kind of a double (or triple) celebration as my sister Rachel had successful surgery to save her identical twins. The babies had a serious condition called twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome and thankfully there is a doctor in the Seattle area who specializes in a type of surgery which can help this condition. It's now been 3 weeks since the surgery and the babies and Rachel are doing well. If all goes well, Malia will have two more little boy cousin's arriving in early October. It should be a lot of fun to watch all of these cousin's grow up together. At the party, Malia and Jack had a great time playing together and yelling "Mine" at each other (although not as bad as it could have been). Ava joined in the fun as well and at one point, all three cousins were going down the slide together. Malia was calling Uncle Brett's dad "Grandpa" in addition to her actual Grandpa and both "Grandpa's" took turns towing Malia around in the wagon and pushing Jack on his new tricycle. They had a great time. Just a few more months and it will be time to celebrate Malia's 2nd birthday. It's amazing how quickly it's flown by.

In other news, Malia also got a much needed haircut yesterday. We really agonized over it because her hair was just starting to get long enough for pigtails. Alas, Malia wouldn't tolerate the pigtails for more than a few minutes (or maybe a little longer if we were lucky) and since she was having to crane her neck to see through her bangs, I decided it was time to take her in for a trim. Thankfully, the results are very cute and I think Malia is a lot happier. We can finally see her beautiful blue eyes again!

20 months

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:17:18 GMT

Malia is officially 20 months old and really starting to act like a "2 year old". She's a lot of fun (most of the time) and is keeping me very busy. She's into absolutely everything and has become a little jungle monkey - climbing on top of everything she can in the house. I don't know how many times a day I have to pull her down off of some object - the kitchen table, the toilet, the piano, a chair - it gets exhausting, but it's all part of being Mom to an adventurous toddler. She's also even more of a parrot than she was a few weeks ago and she's constantly repeating things we say to her. One of my favorite things is when she says "I Love You". That's the best! So far, I've avoided teaching her any bad words, but I'm sure it will happen eventually. You definitely have to be careful about what you say around toddlers, because you'll be hearing it from them in no time at all! She's also asking me "What's This" about 50 times a day and is so curious about everything. I'm still working on her to NOT put everything into her mouth that she finds. Hopefully, she'll grow out of that one eventually!

June has been a fun month and we've been very busy. We've been up north a few times to visit family, including our niece Ava's 4th birthday party a week or so ago. That was a lot of fun, with a tea party theme and kids running around, having a good time. Malia loved trying to keep up with the big kids and really enjoyed herself. She was exhausted by the end of the day. She seems to worship Ava and wants to see pictures of Ava on the computer whenever we have it on. Malia and her cousin Jack are much closer in age and are both firmly in the "Mine" phase, so they have fun, but are a little more adversarial. It's pretty fun watching them play together though. Jack turns 2 in a week and we will be heading up there for his party next weekend. It's amazing that both he and Malia are almost 2 now. I am constantly amazed at how quickly the time has flown by.

Yesterday, we went to a BBQ with our PEPS (Mom's) group. It was a lot of fun, although Malia fell and got a nasty fat lip within the first 10 minutes of our arrival. The lip was so swollen and she kept pointing to it and saying "Owie". Poor kid. We gave her an ice cream bar because we couldn't get her to sit still for us to put ice on it. She loved that and ended up covered in chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Beachcombing

Mon, 04 Jun 2007 20:23:31 GMT

It's now been about 5 weeks since I stopped working and things are still great (to the surprise of a number of people, I'm not going insane and am happier than I've been in a long time). Malia and I have been having a wonderful time for the last few weeks, as the weather's been great and we've had a lot of fun outdoor adventures. One of our favorite activities has been going down to Alki beach and playing in the sand during low tide. It's so much fun and Malia gets completely covered in salty sand and mud. There are usually a bunch of other toddlers down there in the mornings so there are lots of opportunities to play with other kids as well. We also had a big zoo adventure a few weeks ago with Daddy and the highlight of that trip was getting to see a huge grizzly bear swim right up to the viewing window and look us in the eye. Chris immediately mapped out all of the escape routes from the exhibit, I imagined a headline in the newspaper describing a bear massacre at the zoo, and it was all too much for Malia, who started crying. She definitely knows what bears are now and whenever she sees a stuffed bear or a picture of one in a book she says "Bear....Rarrrr!".

We had a nice visit with Auntie Dori a couple of weeks ago and Malia is completely in love with her. She wanted Dori to pick her up and snuggle her, read her books, and play with her. It was great to see them having so much fun together. We also made a trip over to visit Great-Grandma Edna and Noah. Malia had fun running around their apartment and playing peekaboo with Edna. Hopefully, we can plan more visits with them because it was great to see them.

On the skills front, Malia is doing really well with her words. She's a parrot and learns new words all the time. Some of my favorite words of hers are "Flowfer (flower)", "Dumpa (Grandpa)", "Boot (milk or bottle)", "Outsysh (Outside)", "Bug (always said with a yell or scream when she spots a bug", "Lilalalala (Lily, our dog)", "Sa (Sam, our other dog)", "Dada (Cracker)", Mommy and Daddy, and "Meena (Malia)". I really need to start a list. She's also starting to say two and three word sentences such as "Momma Num Num", "Mommy Outside", "Daddy Night Night". She's also a little lovebug and managed to give kisses to two of her toddler friends in the last couple of weeks. It was very cute. She also loves to give her Mom and Dad kisses. My favorite are the big, sloppy, cracker crumb ones.

We also recently bought a tricycle with a pushbar and have been taking walks in the neighborhood. Malia loves her tricycle and it's really great for me since I don't have to lean over to push her on it. Her feet still don't reach the pedals, but she'll get there. I also got her a doll stroller and she loves to push it around and swap her babies in and out of it. I love watching her play with the dolls and talk to them and put them down for "Night Night". It's very sweet and neat to see her imagination already at work.

Malia has a little cold this week, but we still managed to get down to Alki for a walk with some friends this morning. Malia and her friend Ian were chatting and holding hands while sitting side by side in their strollers. It was pretty sweet watching them. I'm still waiting for the afternoon nap to take effect today, but the cold/cough definitely makes that a challenge. I'm hoping for the best though.

Headstands and other new tricks

Mon, 14 May 2007 15:54:15 GMT

Sunday was Mother's Day 2007 and what a day it was. We went up north to visit Lala and Gamma and Roland (Ro Ro to Malia) and Terry. It was lots of fun, but we were all pretty exhausted at the end of the day. It was good to get home and go to bed!

This was my second official week at home full-time with Malia. It was great, although I definitely do miss my friends from work. All in all, it's totally worth it though. I feel much more relaxed and Malia and I have settled into a nice groove at home with each other. Malia has been napping very regularly as well which has made the adjustment easier on both of us.

The things I'm enjoying most about being home with her are not having to rush out the door in the morning and not having to feel guilty when dropping her off at daycare knowing she might be sick or fussy. I also am reveling in being able to truly enjoy and appreciate Malia at this age. She's such a complex creature - smart, silly, independent, stubborn, loving, funny and the list goes on. She's a comedian who loves to make her Mom laugh (putting a paper bag over head or Mom's bra around her shoulders for example). She's also very independent and wants to do things her way (eating and diaper changes are a good example of this one! Very frustrating for Mommy!) Watching her throughout the day, you can also so clearly see and feel her frustration when she can't communicate something she wants or can't understand why you won't let her juggle knives or climb on top of the piano. It's just SO incredibly unfair to be an 18 month-old sometimes! Thankfully, we get through those rain showers and thunderstorms with a lot of distraction and cuddling. I'm sure that won't always work, but for now at least it is working (and thank goodness it's summer and we can run around outside - the best distraction of all!).

Spending so much time with Malia is also giving me more insight into her perspective on the world. We spend a lot of time walking up and down the sidewalk in front of our house and Malia notices a lot of things that I never had before. One of my favorites is Malia's discovery of a stone garden fairy in a neighbor's yard. I'd never seen it until Malia screamed "Baby" and pointed at it. Now everytime we walk by this house we have to stop and say hi to the fairy.

In addition to walks around the neighborhood, Malia's favorite activities right now are playing with the water table on our deck, going to all the local playgrounds, hassling the dogs (as usual), and coloring. Recently Grandpa Roger (Ra Ra to Malia) taught Malia to do headstands. He did one in front of her when he was over for a visit a couple of weeks ago and the very next day we found Malia trying to do one. She put her head down on the ground with her butt up in the air and was trying really hard to figure out how to get her legs up in the air. With our help (see picture in the photo section) she is now regularly doing headstands. She seems to love doing them so we think we might have to try some gymnastics classes with Malia.

Malia's verbal skills are also continuing to improve. She's saying a lot of words now and her pronunciation is improving so that we are starting to actually understand her. The highlight of my mother's day weekend was when Chris got Malia to say "Happy Mama Day" and also "B...Bear....Rarrrr" (a sequence from a toy she has). It was so CUTE!!!!

Life is pretty great right now and I am feeling really good about my decision to take time off from work. This is a time in Malia's life that I know I will appreciate more for being home with her and will be worth any sacrifices we have to make financially or career-wise.

First Week At Home and Stats

Fri, 04 May 2007 04:40:55 GMT

I officially started my 6 month leave of absence from work on Monday. So far it's been great. We've been very busy running around and playing and just having a good time. Malia and I have both quickly established a routine and the days seem to go by pretty quickly. I think it helps a lot that the weather's nicer and we can spend time outside. We discovered a great park for toddlers less than 5 minutes from our house this week and in the process stumbled upon a group of other West Seattle mom's who happened to be meeting there that day. We spent Wednesday morning at the Children's Museum in downtown Seattle and Malia had a great time running around and playing. Her friend Ian came over for a playdate in the afternoon, so that was a pretty exciting day for her.

Today, we went to the doctor for Malia's 18 month well baby visit and that went very well. Our girl is now in the 90th percentile for height!!! She seems to have shot up in the last three months and is now 33 inches tall and weighs a solid 24.8 pounds. She's kind of a string bean right now because her weight is only in the 50th percentile. All in all she is very healthy and thriving. I guess the growth spurt explains the fact that she has been eating quite a bit more food. She can eat a lot when she puts her mind to it. (Of course, a lot of it ends up all over her and the floor as well).

We spent this afternoon with my PEPS group and Malia had a great time playing. She loves playing hide and seek right now and the house we were at today was really set up well for that. Malia would disappear and the I'd hear her yelling "Mama" really loudly from some other room in the house, followed by silence. I'd go looking for her and eventually find her hiding in some little corner of the house. When I would find her, she'd giggle and squeal and toddle off. She's just so funny right now. She also loves finding bugs and will scream "Bug!!" whenever she spots anything that looks like one. The same goes for birds. We have a nest right outside our kitchen window right now and Malia loves to watch the Mom and Dad bird come and go. She screams "Bird!!" whenever she sees them fly in.

All in all, I think this SAHM thing is going to be great. It's not easy, but I definitely feel a lot more relaxed than I was a week ago. Just knowing that I don't have to rush out the door in the morning with a kid on my hip and 2 bags on my shoulder is such a relief. That was probably the hardest thing about working. Plus, Malia was often very fussy when I'd pick her up in the afternoons from daycare (which I guess is pretty common). I'm not going to miss either of those aspects of working. Malia seems really happy to have me home with her and I am thrilled to really focus on parenting her and playing with her. It's such a fun age and I know I won't ever regret making this decision to take some time off.

18 months

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 02:59:17 GMT

Another month has gone by and it's sure been a busy one. Malia's such a toddler now. She's running around, putting puzzles together, talking more and more every day, and throwing regular tantrums (so far minor, but still tantrums). We've had a couple of wonderful weekends this month up north visiting family. We spent a day up at LaLa's and Krumpa's (Linda and Roland's) and Malia had a great time running around their yard finding spiders and kissing the buddha statue. She thought that was the neatest thing. That weekend she was particularly into giving hugs, and the buddha statue got a lot of them.

The next weekend we went up for Easter at Grandma and Grandpa Young's house. We had a great time, despite the fact that Malia was coming down with a cold. We had a mini Easter egg hunt in the backyard and it was pretty clear who was the egg collecting champion for the day. Miss Ava had a heaping basketfull of eggs, while Malia preferred to only take what she could carry in her arms at one time (3), and Jack ran around mowing the lawn with the toy lawnmower. We have some hilarious video footage of Malia trying to carry 4 eggs, dropping one, toddling off, and Ava swooping in to grab the dropped egg. Very funny stuff. Mom and Dad's dachsund Tinker Bell even got into the egg hunt and made off with and buried at least one egg. Grandpa Jerry also came over to visit and brought Malia a toy bunny rabbit for Easter.

With the slowly improving weather and longer days, we've been spending time out in the yard almost every evening. Malia loves to sit and play with the rocks and dirt, although trying to keep both out of her mouth can be a little frustrating. She will look right at me, hold the rock in front of her mouth, and say "aah" "aah". She definitely knows she's not supposed to put them in her mouth, but just loves to test me. I try not to think too much about what is on the rocks when they do make it into her mouth. Yuck!!! All the time out in the yard, is slowly paying dividends, although it is definitely not as kid friendly as we'd like it to be. We've decided Malia will just have to learn to be a mountain goat and learn to navigate the challenging topography of our yard. It's definitely challenging.

Malia's verbal skills are getting better every day. She can tell me when she's all done, wants more, wants an apple, milk, crackers, wants to go outside, when she has a dirty or wet diaper, and many more things. One of our favorite before bed activities is when she is sitting in my lap facing me and she will point to my different face parts and say their names and then point to hers, her dolls, the dogs, etc. It's pretty amazing how much she knows now. We also spend a lot of time doing puzzles and she can get all the pieces in by herself. Sometimes she'll have trouble and then the piece might get thrown across the room with a loud "No". When that happens, I tell her to go get the piece and try again. Usually she does, and when she gets the puzzle done there is always lots of clapping and smiling.

I have two more weeks until I start a leave of absence from my job. I'll be home full-time with Malia and can't wait to spend more time with her. It's going to be a great summer.

17 Months

Sat, 31 Mar 2007 14:40:03 GMT

March has been a busy month for us. Malia is keeping us very busy and is so much fun right now. The big news for us right now is that I am going to take a 6 month leave of absence from work and hang out with Malia at home. It's pretty exciting, although a little scary at the same time. If all goes as planned the leave of absence will start in May, and I can't wait to have more time to spend with Malia. Getting up every day and trying to get everything ready and pack Malia off the daycare has been very challenging and while being home will bring another set of challenges, I'm excited to take it on. This is such a fun age and I just hate to miss out on it. As everyone says, they are only little once and for a short time.

In the last few weeks, Malia's really starting to figure things out. She clearly says more (mo) and even says please (peas) when she really wants something (she also knows the more sign - her one sign - and uses it a lot, especially when she wants a baby cookie). There are still plenty of words we haven't figured out....the mysterious "Eeeshooo" for example, but I'm sure that one day it will come together. She also says Hello and Bye Bye very clearly now and whenever we go for walks, she is constantly yelling one or the other at people walking by or cars driving by. One of our favorite activities since the weather started to improve, is going for walks to the park and also gardening in the front and backyard. Malia loves to dig in the dirt and help me rearrange pebbles and rocks. She wants OUTSIDE constantly and it's really hard on those rainy days. I guess we need to buy her some rubber boots so we can all go do some puddlestomping. Malia is also a lovebug. She gives everyone kisses including the dogs, her dolls, and of course, mom and dad. She likes to make her dolls kiss each other, too, which is very cute. She is really into imitation and starting to develop an imagination and she will carefully lay her dolls down on a blanket, line them up just right, and then lay next to them while saying "Night, Night". One of my best moments with her recently was when I was putting her to sleep. We were snuggling, with her laying on me with her head on my shoulder, and she suddenly turned her head, kissed me on the lips, said "Night, Night" and then snuggled back in and fell asleep. That was pretty wonderful.

March Update

Wed, 07 Mar 2007 05:26:48 GMT

We've had a busy few weeks. Malia's doing wonderfully. She's still sleeping great, which has been pretty life-changing for her parents. She's a busy, busy girl, running around and keeping us on our toes. In the last couple of weeks, she's become even more affectionate and loves to give hugs and kisses. The kisses are especially cute because she will touch your cheek with her lips and then a few seconds later make the actual kissing sound. Sort of a delayed reaction. At the store today, I asked her to give me a kiss and she reached over and gave me a huge hug followed by a kiss.

One of her other favorite things lately is pestering our poor dogs. She loves to hug them and kiss them and they just lay there and sigh and take it. She also has developed an adorable "woof woof" which she does all the time. We have a book where we make different dog barks and sounds...woof, arf, bow-wow...and even howling.... When we read it out loud to Malia, the dogs get in on it the barking and howling and soon we are all barking and howling and laughing. I hate to think what the neighbors think. I guess we are quite the little wolf pack these days.

She's also learning some more words and some sign language (something I've wanted to do, but haven't had much time to do). Her newest word is flower, which comes out as "woo-foo" (kind of flower backwards or sideways). The crocuses and daffodils are starting to bloom here and Malia points to them and screams "woo-foo" and runs over to touch them. She's also figured out moon (moo-moo) and also says "moo" whenever she sees a cow. (At least she knows what sound they make!).

Last weekend, we made our first visit to the Seattle Aquarium. It was pretty neat, but I think a little overwhelming for Malia. She seemed to like the Northern Fur Seals (she called them doggies, of course) and the underwater dome, the best. She got a little freaked out by some of the darker exhibit areas. It'll be fun to go back when she's a little bigger, because they have some great interactive touch pools and other exhibits that will be more fun at that point.

On a slightly more serious note, we made our second trip to the ER with Malia since she was born, two Saturdays ago. Malia had a bad cough and started wheezing and working hard to breathe, so on the advice of a nurse hotline, we took her in. They gave her a few treatments with a nebulizer and after about 5 hours sent us home. Malia was completely fine the next day, almost making us think we'd imagined the whole thing. At any rate, she's been perfectly healthy since then, so hopefully that will be the most excitement will have on the illness front for a while. Our family doctor was very reassuring that this is a really common thing this time of year and basically was just a bad case of the croup.

On that note....things are well and we are looking forward to spring. Today it was 71 degrees in Seattle and that really gets me thinking about the fun summer we have ahead of us.....trips to the wading pool and the zoo...I can't wait!

16 months

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 05:12:03 GMT

February has flown by and I've realized it's time for an update. Malia will be 16 months old on Friday. She is doing so well and is so much fun. Probably the most exciting thing that's happened in the last month is that Malia has started sleeping through the night! Finally. We never thought this would happen, but it appears that we are on some kind of roll right now. It all started last Wednesday night when Malia was sick and very fussy. We ended up bringing her into bed with us that night after she would start screaming her head off as soon as we'd put her into the crib. The following night, she did the same thing and we decided that we needed to let her cry it out. Amazingly, after only about 3 minutes of tears, Malia fell asleep and then proceeded to sleep until 6 the next morning. It's been the same story every night since then. I think we are all happier for the better sleep. I hope it continues!!!

We've had a lot of stuff going on lately. The Ballantine clan had a family reunion a couple of weeks ago centered around Great-Grandma Mary's 80th birthday. We spent the weekend up north and completely wore Malia and ourselves out. It was fun to see everyone and Malia got to go out to a fancy restaurant with all of us and stay up way too late visiting after dinner. The following day, Malia got to spend some quality time with her cousins. Ava came over and she and Malia were hilarious. Ava told me that she would pretend to be Malia's mommy and I would be Malia's older sister. Then, she got Malia to snuggle up with her in her little toddler bed. I think Malia will definitely have a lot of hero worship for Ava as they get older. Malia and Jack also got some playing in and were, as usual, jockeying for the various ride-on toys at Grandma and Grandpa's house. At one point, Malia was on the motorcycle and Jack was hovering, waiting for his chance to swoop in and take over. It was so cute watching them play together.

My friend Erin and her son Magnus came over for a playdate on Monday as I had the day off work. We had a nice visit and Magnus is the sweetest little boy. He even gave Malia a kiss and then Malia fed him some veggie booty. They are kind of sweet on each other I think (ok that's probably a stretch, but they are really cute together!).

Malia's saying lots of words these days, although we are still not understanding a lot of them. She says something that sounds like "issue" or "tissue" when she wants something, but we haven't deciphered what exactly she's trying to say yet. She also says outside, duck, water (wa-wa), Mama (for just about everything), and even is saying "Poo Poo" when she goes poop. That is one that really surprised me. She was playing by herself one morning and I heard her say "Mama Poo Poo". I went into the living room and sure enough, she had a dirty diaper. I thought it was a fluke, but then today, she did the same thing. I guess she's starting to figure that out. We have been sitting her on a little potty a few times a day, so I think she's just becoming more aware of those types of things. Fun stuff!

Photo Album: July 20 Trip to Portland

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:35:13 GMT

July 20 Trip to Portland

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Photo Album: July 09

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:02:11 GMT

July 09

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Photo Album: May 20

Tue, 27 May 2008 15:09:36 GMT

May 20

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Photo Album: March 05

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 05:02:43 GMT

March 05

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Photo Album: January 27

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:44:57 GMT

January 27

Preschool Fun

Preschool

Favorite Preschool Activity

Music Time

Big Slide

Flaxseed Fun

Mirror

Music Fun

Talking on the phone

Good Times

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Photo Album: Christmas 2007

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:07:24 GMT

Christmas 2007

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