More in Alaska Part 1
Tide pooling on the beach with beautiful views and creatures.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Monday, May 28, 2018
Mazie is 10!
We started this blog when Mazie was but a little peanut growing in my belly... lo and behold, she has now grown into a lovely 10 year old child!
For Christmas this year Mazie got her first computer (Chromebook) and has started using the email address we created for her right after she was born. On her birthday I forwarded her her birth announcement email, and wrote this:
****
Dear Mazie,
If you scroll down through all of the email addresses below (we had lots of people to share our exciting news with), you'll find your birth announcement.
My memory is pretty terrible, but the feeling of holding you for the first time is still etched clearly in my whole being. I can feel your wiggly and slippery little body on my chest, the ecstasy of having the pain and effort of labor instantly replaced with pure love and relaxation, the wonder of examining your perfect fingers and toes and face (oh, that miraculous little face) of a tiny human that your daddy and I somehow created. Ahya and others had tried to explain to me the love that a parent feels when they meet their child for the first time, while also understanding what I now know: there's no way to really describe it. It is something completely new and magical. You gave me that gift when you were born.
Since that moment, the gift of Mazie James has grown and changed in so many ways. You give me so much just by being who you are. You have always made me laugh... whether it was with the many silly faces you would make as a newborn, your never-ending renditions of Little Bunny Foo Foo and your pronouncements about the delightfulness of our neighborhood as a toddler, or your current dry wit and cleverness. You've given so much love and kindness to your friends and sisters and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and classmates and pets.... It's been so rewarding to hear your teachers talk about the confident and compassionate leader you are in your school community.
I am so excited for the adventures ahead, starting with this crazy Mazie summer! I'm excited to bring you out into the world with me, to share these spaces that are now familiar to me with you, and to watch you share your gifts with our global community.
Bright Mazie, keep shining. I love you.
Mama
*****
Mazie leaves tomorrow to spend a week in Alaska with Uncle Ty and Aunt Sara - she is flying solo to Seattle, meeting up with them there, and traveling on to AK with them. On the return, she'll spend a night in Seattle with Nanny and Papa before coming home. We are so excited for this adventure! One of her birthday presents was a camera, and I'm getting her set up so she can actually post to this blog while she's gone! Pretty amazing how far we've come... when she was a baby we would write blog posts in her voice, making up a narrative for her. Now she's taking over her story!
Mazie also finished 4th grade this year. For yet another year, she had wonderful teachers who absolutely adored her... here she is with Mrs. James on the last day of school.
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Zae Singing
Zae and I have been singing "rainbow songs" as part of our bedtime routine. Here we are singing them in the morning recently.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Night Owl
Zae's at a point where if she takes a nap, she won't go to sleep until after 10. Yesterday afternoon she managed to sneak in a short one, and after we put her to bed she reappeared in the living room ALL ramped up. Hard to be too frustrated when she's this cute.
Similar story from a few weeks ago...
Similar story from a few weeks ago...
** Updated 11/27... the saga continues. Here are more late night antics.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Resurrecting the Blog
With Facebook and various other social media, this blog has been neglected and idle for some time. While I've gotten out of the habit of lengthy posts and don't know if I'll use it the way I did before, I very much miss having this resource to look back on for updates on the kids' progress, antics, and milestones. So I'm going to attempt to resurrect it with more frequent short updates and anecdotes. We'll see how it goes.
Here's one short one. I was filing my nails the other night and Zae wanted to use the file. She proceeded to stick in into her sock and declare that she was using it as a "honk-shoo," which is our onomatopoetic snoring noise, and also, apparently, confusingly similar to "shoe horn."
General impressions of the kids these days:
Mazie:
9 years old, 4th grade, loves writing, has two close girlfriends (Mae and Tia) who are similarly good kids, school-focused and creative. Caring, kind, and helpful big sister. Got Zae all ready for bed tonight. Independent and self-sufficient, but also social and great company.
Athena:
6 years old, 1st grade. Doing great with her reading and writing. On our recent trip to California and Washington, she kept a little journal with notes and drawings of our trip. Loves school and lights up when she learns something new. Still strong willed, but less volatile than a year or two ago... growing up. Loves her sisters... plays creatively and in different ways with each of them. Read Zae a book at bedtime tonight. Best friend is Lucy (although they "break up" sometimes, but always get back together.)
Zae:
2.5 years old, preschool (Patchwork, aka "Paige's House.") A riot. Goofy. Like her sisters, super verbal and confident. If we're at a restaurant or a park and there's a kid her age or a little younger, she'll walk right up to them, sometimes as close as nose to nose, and see how they react. Recently pottytrained, still takes a bottle (bad / lazy parents), moved out of her crib to a toddler bed (briefly) when we moved out of our house a couple of months ago for our remodel... now sleeps on the bottom bunk with Mazie while Athena has moved to the top.
Some pics...
Here's one short one. I was filing my nails the other night and Zae wanted to use the file. She proceeded to stick in into her sock and declare that she was using it as a "honk-shoo," which is our onomatopoetic snoring noise, and also, apparently, confusingly similar to "shoe horn."
General impressions of the kids these days:
Mazie:
9 years old, 4th grade, loves writing, has two close girlfriends (Mae and Tia) who are similarly good kids, school-focused and creative. Caring, kind, and helpful big sister. Got Zae all ready for bed tonight. Independent and self-sufficient, but also social and great company.
Athena:
6 years old, 1st grade. Doing great with her reading and writing. On our recent trip to California and Washington, she kept a little journal with notes and drawings of our trip. Loves school and lights up when she learns something new. Still strong willed, but less volatile than a year or two ago... growing up. Loves her sisters... plays creatively and in different ways with each of them. Read Zae a book at bedtime tonight. Best friend is Lucy (although they "break up" sometimes, but always get back together.)
Zae:
2.5 years old, preschool (Patchwork, aka "Paige's House.") A riot. Goofy. Like her sisters, super verbal and confident. If we're at a restaurant or a park and there's a kid her age or a little younger, she'll walk right up to them, sometimes as close as nose to nose, and see how they react. Recently pottytrained, still takes a bottle (bad / lazy parents), moved out of her crib to a toddler bed (briefly) when we moved out of our house a couple of months ago for our remodel... now sleeps on the bottom bunk with Mazie while Athena has moved to the top.
Some pics...
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Kids... and words
Holy cow, it's been a while since I've posted here. 8 months to be exact. No time for catch up, here's what's going on right now.
Zae is 18 months old. Still perfect. Has just started getting serious about talking in the past couple of weeks. She had plenty of words here and there, but is just now embracing verbal communication. A list of commonly heard Zae words and phrases:
Bottle (bah-woe) -- uses one to go to sleep every night, a habit we'll break at some point but aren't messing with for now since she's still the only one of the three kids who sleeps all night every night in her own bed.
Eat it! (will eat lots of anything)
Open
Up
All done
No! (was "Mo!" until recently, now more like "now")
Yeah!
Mama
Daddy
Papa
Mazie
Athena
Wiley (Why-yee... just lost him a few weeks ago. Zae adored him.)
Stop it (bop it!) -- said frequently to big sisters
Baby (look, there's one in the mirror!)
Meanwhile, Athena turns FIVE tomorrow. She is amazing... strong, fierce, loving, and curious. We're all so excited for her to start kindergarten. Recent quote: "I want to LEARN!" She's been starting to read and is THRILLED to begin cracking the puzzle of letters and words, and has also been enthusiastic about math and numbers. Not that I compare my kids... but watching Zae's language evolution has reminded me how remarkably articulate Athena was from a very young age. At five, she speaks incredibly clearly and confidently to friends and strangers (aka new friends). For this reason, I have deliberately NOT corrected the few words she mispronounces: my favorite is "veginning" (beginning). She'll probably yell at me when she reads it for the first time. Or yell at her teacher and insist that it's spelled wrong.
Mazie is a grown up. Practically. She flew home from Washington by herself today, after spending 4 days there on her own with Nanny and Papa (the other 2 and I also went for a week and came home without her).
As a rising 3rd grader, she is officially halfway done with elementary school. She also knows lots of words. A new one: fascinator, the name for the fancy hats that she and Auntie Catherine modeled on her WA trip.
Zae is 18 months old. Still perfect. Has just started getting serious about talking in the past couple of weeks. She had plenty of words here and there, but is just now embracing verbal communication. A list of commonly heard Zae words and phrases:
Bottle (bah-woe) -- uses one to go to sleep every night, a habit we'll break at some point but aren't messing with for now since she's still the only one of the three kids who sleeps all night every night in her own bed.
Eat it! (will eat lots of anything)
Open
Up
All done
No! (was "Mo!" until recently, now more like "now")
Yeah!
Mama
Daddy
Papa
Mazie
Athena
Wiley (Why-yee... just lost him a few weeks ago. Zae adored him.)
Stop it (bop it!) -- said frequently to big sisters
Baby (look, there's one in the mirror!)
Meanwhile, Athena turns FIVE tomorrow. She is amazing... strong, fierce, loving, and curious. We're all so excited for her to start kindergarten. Recent quote: "I want to LEARN!" She's been starting to read and is THRILLED to begin cracking the puzzle of letters and words, and has also been enthusiastic about math and numbers. Not that I compare my kids... but watching Zae's language evolution has reminded me how remarkably articulate Athena was from a very young age. At five, she speaks incredibly clearly and confidently to friends and strangers (aka new friends). For this reason, I have deliberately NOT corrected the few words she mispronounces: my favorite is "veginning" (beginning). She'll probably yell at me when she reads it for the first time. Or yell at her teacher and insist that it's spelled wrong.
Mazie is a grown up. Practically. She flew home from Washington by herself today, after spending 4 days there on her own with Nanny and Papa (the other 2 and I also went for a week and came home without her).
As a rising 3rd grader, she is officially halfway done with elementary school. She also knows lots of words. A new one: fascinator, the name for the fancy hats that she and Auntie Catherine modeled on her WA trip.
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