ER

This is old news now, but I wanted to make sure I documented it all the same. We all know Marla is somewhat accident prone. Fortunately, most of her bumps and bruises have been pretty minor. In December, however, we got a call from daycare in the middle of the day. She had tripped and hit her head on a chair, then had trouble staying awake afterwards. I was out of town for a meeting, so Jeff raced over to daycare to bring her to the ER.

 

This was a rite of passage I could have done without, but I guess it wasn't really a surprise. Here's her first ER hospital bracelet.  

 

 

The doctor determined she didn't need a CT scan and prescribed close monitoring for a couple of days. These pictures don't really do it justice, but she was sporting a giant bump and bruise for a few days.

 

Well, that's that. Hope we don't need to do that again any time soon. Oh wait...

 

Exactly a month (to the day!) after her first trip to the ER, Marla was jumping on the couch and cracked her head on the corner of a wall. This time there wasn't a huge bump or any concussion symptoms, but she got a gaping gash on her forehead which bled a lot. Best part was, it was in the exact same spot as her previous head injury. I swear, this child is going to make me go prematurely gray.

 

Back to the ER we went for another two-hour visit. Bracelet number two!

 

The doctor didn't think she'd sit still enough for stitches, so she used Dermabond to glue the cut shut. Marla requested a puppy bandaid, but Tweetie Bird was the best they could do.

 

 

As you can see from the below photo (taken that same night), she was real broken up about the whole ordeal. It's amazing what a bandaid can do for toddler pain management. She still has a scar and probably will forever, but it's been over a month and we haven't been back to the ER, so we'll take what we can get!

 

Another year, another party

Since Christmas was so crazy this year, we kept Marla's birthday pretty low-key. On the actual day, we spent a lazy day playing with all her new Christmas/birthday gifts.

She woke up to her birthday gift from us... a kitchen! (All we needed was another gigantic toy taking up precious space in our living room.)

 

Sharing a kiss with her bouncy horse, named Red.

 

Later in the day, she opened some more presents. Believe it or not, after five Christmas celebrations and a birthday all crammed into a week, even a two-year-old gets bored with unwrapping gifts.

 

We did a practice run with birthday cupcakes in preparation for her party later in the week.

 

We tried to keep her party small, but just inviting our immediate families brings the guest list up to about 20, so we'll just say it was a smaller-than-usual gathering for us. If there's one thing I've learned in two years, it's that I'm perhaps not cut out to make a homemade cake for each birthday. Last year's cake was a success, but only because my mom was responsible for about 98% of it, including the decorating. This year I tried it on my own and the results were... mediocre. The big cupcake looks ok in the picture, but it was pretty sloppy up close, and looked absolutely nothing like the picture in my mind. As for the small cupcakes, let's not even talk about it. At least it all tasted good!

 

The birthday girl took a snooze on the couch before the party.

 

I'm thinking that since cake decorating doesn't seem to be my strong suit, maybe I should go into preparing meat/cheese trays instead. Check out that symmetry!

 

Along with her cousins Brennan and Graden, Marla's buddies Sydney, Lizzy, and Isabella all came to celebrate. Apparently a houseful of toys is no match for a set of stairs, which somehow kept the kids occupied for most of the party. Who would've thought?

 

Hanging out with her cake while we all sing Happy Birthday.

 

 

If this picture isn't proof that we need to buy a house ASAP, I don't know what is. I'm so glad our families and friends are such good sports and don't mind being crammed together like sardines. Would you believe me if I said this shows only about a third of the people in our apartment that day?

 

It took her about an hour to open all her gifts. It's hard to stay focused when every present needs to be played with immediately!

 

All in all, Marla had a great birthday party and we all had a lot of fun. Can't wait to do it again next year. I'll end with a video of the crucial moment.

 

Christmas 2012

Now that it's nearly spring, I thought it was about time I wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Yes, I'm a little behind in blogging, but I'm going to do my best to make up for it now.

Our Christmas this year was BUSY. We had five (5!) separate family gatherings, so there was a lot of hustle and bustle. Also, we took a family picture in front of *almost* everyone's Christmas tree except our own. In the interest of saving some time and sanity, I decided to simply put together a slideshow of some of my favorite photos from the holidays and let them speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Birthday wishes

Marla:

You are two years old. I can't believe it. It seems impossible that another year has gone by even faster than the first one. A year ago, I was writing your birthday post and feeling bittersweet about the end of your babyhood. You were learning to walk, saying a few words, and sporting a whopping two teeth. I don't know how it happened without me noticing, but at some point during the last year, you became a toddler. This morning I told you happy birthday and you responded, "I so HAPPY!" Now you don't just walk, you run and dance. You speak in full sentences. You draw and pretend that your scribbles are words and pictures. You sing. Sometimes I can almost see the wheels in your head turning as you make a new discovery. It's so amazing to watch you soak up the world around you. You know your ABC's, can recognize some letters and numbers, and can count to 30, if you're in the mood.

Speaking of moods, you have a lot of them. And they change faster than the weather. You can throw a mean temper tantrum. But most of the time, you're sweet and loving and energetic. I can't tell you how many people have described you as "full of life." Your personality and spirit haven't changed over the last year, but they've crystalized somehow, and I feel like I know you so much better now. You love to play with baby dolls, put together puzzles, watch videos (mostly home videos of yourself, but also Shrek 2, Elmo, and Dora), read books, dance, play music, ride piggyback, and bounce on just about anything (couches, beds, yoga balls, trampolines, you name it).    

You bring us more joy than I could ever express in words. I love that you understand so much of what's going on in the world, because it means that you can give more back to it. You are funny, intelligent, compassionate, and creative. I know I'm biased, but I believe you're going to make a difference in this world. Tonight you blew out your candles on your cupcake (with some help) and we told you to make a wish. As you grinned back at us, all I could think about were my wishes for you. I wish for you to be confident in who you are and content with your place in the world. I wish for you to feel challenged and fulfilled in whatever you choose to spend your time on. I wish for you to find true love, make the best choices, and get the most out of life. But above all, I wish for you to be safe, healthy, and happy, and for you to know how very much you are loved. Happy Birthday, sweet girl. 

           

Halloween: the primate edition

Halloween was a lot different this year than last year. For starters, Marla was big enough to get dressed up and hit the neighborhood for trick or treating. Also, she was actually enthusiastic about her costume this year. In fact, she was downright obsessed with it. Whenever I took it out, she would carry it around, hug it, kiss it, feed it, and basically treat it like her best friend.

 

You look hungry, monkey. Have some banana.

 

Of course, on the big night, it didn't seem quite as special. Wearing a costume isn't as much fun as hauling it around, after all.

 

 

She got a little more fired up once we got outside. (Don't be fooled by the cute Halloween decorations in the background here... we're actually posing in front of our next door neighbor's house.)

 

I can't say she really "got" the whole trick or treating thing, but she was a great sport about it. We only went to 10-15 houses, simply because the attention span of an almost two-year-old doesn't allow for much more. And we got tired of corraling her to front doors when she'd rather be stomping through landscaping or vandalizing pumpkins.

 

We made the mistake of allowing her to open a Kit Kat and a sucker after the first house. She carried the same two pieces of candy around for the entire evening, which made for a very sticky costume by the end of the night.

 

 

All in all, it was a very successful Halloween. Here she is lounging with her monkey costume and enjoying the fruits of her labor.

 

Little Miss Independent

It took almost two years of training, but Marla finally smiles for the camera (sometimes). The proof is below:

This is seriously a huge deal for me. For the past year, pretty much every picture of her smiling is either a coincidence or the result of copious distraction techniques. Next step: getting her to sit still long enough to actually snap a decent shot while she smiles AT THE SAME TIME.

She's getting more into pretend play lately. She talks on the phone ("Ho? Are you?" = "Hello? How are you?"), pretends to apply make up, talks to her baby dolls and stuffed animals, etc. She also likes trying things on. This includes glasses, hats, clothes, jewelry, etc. Here she is in one of Dad's shirts.  

She's gotten extremely independent. Apparently this is normal for her age, but Jeff and I suspect she may have inherited more of my personality than we originally thought. She insists on doing everything herself, whether it's walking down the stairs, putting on mittens, drinking from a cup, reading a book, or singing a song.  

One of her favorite activities is drawing and coloring, and talking about what she's creating. She'll sit at her table and pretend to write her name, saying "Maya Mae Schmidt... that's you!" (She has trouble with her r's, so Marla Rae comes out Maya Mae.)

Some of my favorite Marla expressions of late:

• "Watch a biddy-bo!" = Watch a video
• "See Maya, see Maya!" = Her refrain whenever I point a camera at her; she's also started dragging the camera case around and asking to "see Maya" regularly
• "Mama go"; "Mama sit"; "Mama carry you"; "Mama come with you" = a small sample of her many bossy instructions
• "Hun-ee!" = I'm hungry (she usually wails this in the middle of the night in an attempt to persuade us to take her downstairs to play)
• "Weed a book" = Read a book
• "Oh no! Fall down yet. Yay Maya!" = Praising herself for building a tower of blocks that "hasn't fallen down yet"
• "Hot! Sun in eyes. Mama turn wound." = The sun is in my eyes. Turn the car around.
• "Beep beep. Out way, cars!" = Get out of the way, cars (this is her response when we stop at a stoplight or stop sign. I have no idea where she learned it...)
• "Maya funny!" = Marla's funny (usually after she does something naughty. Again, where does she get this stuff?)
• "I got it" = Her reaction when she drops a toy, like "I got it, no big deal." This seems like such an adult thing to say, it cracks me up every time.

I could go on and on. She's gotten so verbal and can communicate really well. It's so much fun, and also bittersweet, because my baby is truly a toddler now. Below are a couple of videos showcasing her counting and alphabet skills. You'll notice her independent streak in the second video when she seriously scolds me for praising her and helping her sing. What was I thinking?? 

Polka Pots

As Marla gets better and better at talking, I'm finding myself feeling sad when she actually pronounces things correctly. In an attempt to capture this stage, I'm trying to get some of my favorite words and phrases on video. Here are a couple recent ones: "polka pots" and "I dub-oo."