Happy Birthday, Dear Mazie

To our Amazing Mazie,

Two years ago, at right about this time in the evening, we were spending our first amazing moments with the tiny little brand new Mazie James Dickinson. When you were born, we found out one part of your identity that had been a secret until that moment: you were a little GIRL! Other than that, we really didn't know anything about you... except that you were absolutely perfect.

Over the past two years, it has been so wonderful to watch your personality develop and emerge. While it's still hard for me to picture you as a 15 year old, for example, it's suddenly not such a stretch to think of who you'll be at 5 or 7. You are absolutely your own little being, so full of your own ideas and character. The word your daddy and I use most often to describe you is BRIGHT. You are such a bright person in so many ways -- smart, of course, and clever, but also cheerful, curious, engaging, alert, kind, and funny. With few exceptions (you ARE two years old...), you are an absolutely delightful person to be around.

Here are some of your recent accomplishments:

You've been potty "trained" for at least two months. Really, there was very little training involved. Last fall, you started to show an interest in the things that happened in the bathroom, and Daddy and I let you dabble with using the potty for a while without any real commitment. A couple of months ago we bought you some underwear and spent a week or so setting a timer and putting you on the potty every hour, and that was pretty much all it took. You still have accidents and wear a diaper at night, but our days of changing poopy diapers seem to be behind us... until your little brother or sister comes along.

Your vocabulary continues to expand and amaze. Sure, Dad and I taught you silly things like "stethoscope" that make good party tricks, but what I've been really impressed with recently is your use of more mundane words and phrases:
actually
probably
right, Daddy?
okay, Mom?
no, thank you
now?
NOW!!
The concepts you're able to communicate just keep getting more complex and subtle. A few days ago when Daddy caught you getting into some candy at a friends house, you said, "Don't look at me, Daddy!" Daddy also recently explained to you where your shadow came from, and you recited it back to me: "Sun shines on me, and shadow goes on the ground. Sun isn't there, then no shadow!" You've even started to branch out into other languages: with your Portuguese "obrigada" and French "bonjour," you're a budding polyglot!

You are a very social little girl. You love your friends and talk about them all the time: Julia, CharlieHenry, Morris, and even cousins who you haven't seen in months (but will see a lot of very soon!). You're generous with hugs and kisses, and love to play, often narrating as you go: "We playing together! We running! We having fun together!" It's so much fun to watch the enjoyment you get out of being around other people.

Happy birthday, Miss Mazie. We love you so, so much.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Europe... continued

We added some more pictures to the Europe photo album here. We had some added excitement at the end of our trip with a missed flight from Paris to Chicago. In the end we made it home with one extra connection (DC to Chicago to Madison), a few extra hours, and a little extra stress. It was a great trip, though! We'll post some videos soon.

Europe...so far

Mom, Dad, and I are on a fun adventure in Europe! We spent 6 days in Portugal (Mom went to a conference in Coimbra and we spent a few extra days in Lisbon), and then we were supposed to fly to France except our flight was cancelled because of some dumb ash volcano. So we took the long route: an overnight train to Madrid, a few hours of sightseeing there, and then a 6 hour train to the French border (Hendaye) and another overnight train to Paris. Now we're at Mom's "sister" Elvire's house -- she and her husband, Arnaud, own horse stables where they teach classes and take care of lots of horses. I even got to ride a pony today! And even more exciting than that, Elvire has a baby, Timeo, who I just love to play with!

On our bonus night in Lisbon (because of the cancelled flight), we got to experience what happens when a European soccer team wins their league. Here's some footage from the last Benfica game and the subsequent celebrations.



There are a bunch more pictures from our trip here. We've got a few days left before we have to go home... if the volcano doesn't interfere.

More Stories

Here are a couple more stories from Mazie. You'll note that a lot of important things happen at "2:45".

Poor Daddy

Tonight over dinner I treated Mommy and Daddy to some improvised operatic tunes. I sang as loud as I could, making up the sounds as I went along and gesturing dramatically with my arms. After a while, I told Mommy it was her turn, and being a good sport, she belted out a few lines of nonsense, complete with arm gestures.

Then it was Daddy's turn. "Daddy do it?" He sang a few lines, and I watched him with my brow a little furrowed. When he was done, I shook my head. "Daddy can't do it. Daddy a man."

Easter Pix

Last year I subjected 10 month-old Mazie to an Easter photo shoot.

This year she was an even more compliant model.




(More pictures here)

Here's a video of her hunting Easter Eggs.


A couple of photos from Nanny & Papa's visit...




And here's another long video -- Mazie tells us her plans for the day.

Pretty Awesome

Mazie's mom here.

We just finished a great week with back-to-back visits from Ahya (who came for Easter weekend while Caleb was in San Antonio visiting Bryon and Miles) and then Nanny and Papa (who got in on Tuesday and left this morning). Mazie absolutely loved having her grandparents around -- an expanded audience for her increasingly complex stories, more people to read to her and play games with her and just generally adore her. Watching Mazie interact with my mommy and daddy (and step-mommy, too) was especially wonderful for me, giving me a glimpse into my own early childhood as I saw the absolute love and joy that they radiated in her presence.

Mazie is, in her own words, "pretty awesome," and a few people have been generous enough to give me and Caleb some credit for her awesomeness. I don't know how much of that credit is deserved -- Mazie has sure made parenting easy on us -- but having my own parents around has also made me reflect on the emerging parenting philosophy that Caleb and I are growing into. Our central tenets are pretty simple, and I recognized them in my own parents interactions with Mazie over the past week:

1. Treat Mazie like a person.
Caleb and I are constantly amazed by how much Mazie understands and how well she responds to our efforts to explain things to her and let her participate in our conversations. This explaining process also helps us avoid "Because I said so" moments, making us examine why we're making certain requests and what we can let go of.

2. Have fun.
Most of the time, Mazie makes this so easy it hardly seems like a parenting philosophy, but this really does seem to be central to our experience. Mostly, this just means paying attention, watching, listening, and interacting with Mazie, and reveling in the her unfolding character. Even in difficult moments (for example, this week in her new swimming class when she wouldn't get in the pool...), we try to take a step back and appreciate the humor and value of each new step.

I'm grateful for the way my parents applied these techniques in raising me, and I'm grateful for the way Mazie rewards our efforts with a constant stream of entertainment and sweetness. Parenthood is pretty awesome.