Marley had a three day weekend before starting summer camp today. We really had a great time with her - she is starting to break out of her "terrible two" stage and become a fun little kid.
Saturday we had a pool party for the girls - I couldn't grab Maya fast enough, she jumped in fully clothed.
I found a photo recently of me, Casey & Guinness on the deck for our first Christmas in the house, long before babies were born. It's amazing how differently this deck has changed since then - no white lattice work zip-tied to the railings, no large red & yellow toys, playhouse, pool...just two deck chairs and a little table to set your drink on. I could get all sappy here and go into a little song & dance about how much more wonderful the mess on the deck is, how there is so much more laughter in the house now...but I won't. I'll just leave it at that...as I daydream about that drink sitting on the little table on the quiet, clutter free deck...
So Sunday morning...we took the girls to breakfast at Yacht Haven Grande, which is really a great place to grab some photos. I only had my point & shoot camera with me and had I known I would be taking pictures, I would have dressed Maya in something cuter. Although, this is her daddy's favorite onsie.
Marley wouldn't take the bait for any of my camera tricks, no "don't smile", no "there is a bug on my nose", nothing. This is the best shot she would give me. Doesn't help that the point & shoot camera is so slow. Anyone know of a good small camera you can throw in your bag that takes great photos and is quick to snap the shot? Although I think purchasing another camera may fall under the category of irreconcilable differences in Stu's book.
Sunday afternoon we broke out the water color set I purchased a few weeks ago.
Maya wasn't too happy that she wasn't involved. This is her, "screw you two and the horses you rode in on!" look.
We also broke out Marley's new tea set. I purchased this at the Children's Museum in Indy - it's made of 100% recycled materials (see how green I am?). I had been eying a cloth set online for a long time but it didn't dawn on me until I saw photos of a friend having a tea party with her own daughter that the cloth set can't really hold "tea" and wouldn't make for much of a tea party. I'm so glad I didn't get the cloth set. Making the tea and pouring everyone a cup was the most fun and easily added another hour worth of time to the activity.
Even Maya got to enjoy the party too, we didn't leave her out of the fun all weekend. Just pour a little tea on her tray to splash and she was happy.
We also dug out Marley's apron from the toy box. I think the grandma's will appreciate this - know how I got her to smile here? "Smile for Grandma, Marley, give Grandma a smile so i can send her your photo..."
On Monday, I took Maya to daycare so that Marley and I could go to the pool without being restricted. We're going to sign Marley up for swim classes this summer - she is awesome in the water, but only if she has her swim arms on. I know, it's not a good thing to make them so reliant on the swim arms. We feel we really messed up here. So I worked with trying to get her comfortable in the water without arms and even got her to try floating on her back - but only if she was near the edge and/or on the steps. She didn't trust me out in the middle of the pool.
She always enjoys the beach or pool "with Mom and NO MAYA". She really does love her baby sister but as baby sister starts turning into a toddler (which is fast approaching), it'll be interesting to watch their relationship evolve. After picking Maya up from daycare, I took both girls to the park. Marley had a bottle of water which she left for me to take care of while she went to play. I handed the bottle to Maya so she could play with it. Marley seeing this, ran over screaming to grab it - Maya saw Marley running towards her so she started screaming back - it was like watching those National Geographic specials with the two bull elephants fighting on the African plains. The screams didn't stop until I was able to wrestle the bottle out of four pudgy little hands - and only then did it subside to whines of complaint from them both. I have a feeling our lives and our home will be very similar to National Geographic for at least a few more years.
