Dressing herself

1. Maryam agrees to wear a pretty dress I made her. She wears it until she wakes up from her nap at 2.

2. Maryam sees her blue dress I made her in the laundry basket. She insists on wearing it after taking off her first dress.

3. Maryam sees another dress. She won't let me take off her blue dress and insists on putting dress #3 on over her blue dress.

4. Maryam wants to take off dress #3.

5. Maryam wants to take off blue dress.

6. A naked Maryam insists on wearing a long sleeved nightshirt, after daddy offers her 4 other more appropriate shirts - it's 90 degrees outside.

7. Maryam demands to take off her nightshirt, and is now asleep in her diaper. I'm glad she allowed me to keep that on her.

8. Mommy decides to keep Maryam naked until winter to save time.

Agh - has it been that long?

So, with my dad's heart surgery, the boys being out of school, and my recent trip to Iowa, I have gotten so far behind on this blog. I don't even have any recent uploaded pictures to share. Tomorrow I hope to record a video of Maryam doing her cute animal sounds (Maryam, what does a daddy say?), and I'll get that posted.



We're in full summer swing here. We usually go to a park in the morning, and Maryam naps at noon, after lunch. In the afternoons, we'll go to the pool, a playgroup or playdate, or the library. Both boys are very into their library summer reading programs. They want to win a bike. They then want to sell the bike and buy something cooler. Kids.



I've been doing lots of sewing. Aidan has three pair of piratey-skull-camo shorts I've made for him with my NEW SERGER (thanks, Jim), and Wayne has a pair of turtle shorts. With flowers. And he wants a matching shirt. That kid cracks me up. I'll post pictures eventually.



And if you want to see more pictures, you can visit my new blog: http://naturallymama.blogspot.com/

You know it's been a tough day when...

you post a sign on your child's bottom.

A couple of weeks ago, Jim came home to this. It was just one of those days when the whining is endless, the sleep not happening, and the tears plentiful.

And no, I would never give my child away. Sell her maybe.... NEVER!

Happy Easter!

At our church, before the service













We had a wonderful Easter this year. It was cold, but sunny. Grandma H. and Aunt Vicki joined us for a ham dinner. I ended up having to go to Urgent Care for some 2nd degree burns on my hand from grabbing the roasting pan with my bare hand.



A few months ago, I found the perfect Easter dress for Maryam. It had short sleeves, though, so I was determined to knit a sweater for it. The first sweater I knit for her was too small, but the second one turned out perfectly. Maryam even seemed to like wearing it.



The boys got to find Easter eggs we hid throughout the house. Jim says there is still one unaccounted for. Lucky for us, they're the plastic sort, so in a month we won't be smelling something rotten.





Here's an action shot of Maryam dumping out the Easter eggs. We were trying to get her to sit down with her brothers!

Mommy and Maryam

Cooking, Maryam style

On a whim, I bought Maryam this little cook's outfit. Pretty cute! She kept the hat on for all of 2 minutes.

Snowbunny

We had a record snowfall in Central Ohio, and received over 20 inches in 24 hours. We kept Maryam busy, having her help to shovel the driveway. Her fingerless and thumbless mittens made it difficult for her to hold the shovel, though.

Maryam wasn't too fond of the snow, although she seemed to like watching Daddy shovel, and shovel, and shovel. All that snow is finally melting, with temps in the 40's this week.

Crazy baby hair

Ring around the Daddy

Jim was trying to show me how Maryam gives kisses. She's very particular about giving kisses, and mostly they go to daddy. This time, though, she put the dog's toy on his head, and had no intention of giving kisses when I had the camera out.

Playing dress-up

Maryam has this obsession with pulling things out of my dresser and putting them on. Her favorite piece of clothing? My bras. She'll put them over her head and parade around the room. Today she insisted on wearing them downstairs, which allowed me to pull out the camera.

It's been a bit since I've posted, so I'll update on her development. She sings "la la la", and sticks her tongue out of her mouth when she does it. When we ask her to sign "please", she signs "cheese" every time. At this point she signs more words than she talks, which is normal. She'll go to the fridge and sign "apple".

She likes to put things away. Yesterday I opened up the garbage can to discover:

a shoe

a clean cloth diaper

a phone extension

the remote to our new TV

We think she also threw away some cash we had pulled out to go out to dinner with. How much? Well, it was going to be a nice dinner out. We haven't found the money in a month.

Today she has already thrown away two pretend kitchen things. We've only been downstairs for an hour. Ugh.

It's been a little cold outside, so we haven't gotten out as much as we'd like. Here she is looking out at our backyard.