Touchdown!

Laina and Daddy have recently started playing football, which Laina loves. She'll say "Daddy, football game?" and they play. She's getting good at catching but the best part is that she has to get herself dressed for football games now. She insists on winter boots, mittens and hats....and Joe must wear gloves as well. Not sure where she came up with all this but its pretty funny.

Ziggy Piggy

The Easter Bunny left quarters hidden in eggs for Laina to find. The Easter Bunny also brought Laina a "paint your own piggy bank set" (the EB loves a theme gift, right?).

Laina was generous and shared her kit with Joe and I. The set came with 3 ceramic pigs to paint. We had great fun on Easter evening painting our piggies. At first I wasn't sure how I wanted to paint mine but then it came to me....make a Ziggy Piggy to honor our furry friend Ziggy. I pulled out some photos to get the coloring just right!

Laina and Joe had a blast too. Laina used every color available and I think there are about 10 full layers of paint on her pig. She used sooooooo much paint that Joe didn't have enough to coat his piggy....but it was her gift right so she can use as much paint as she likes.

We all named our piggies afterward and I named mine "Ziggy Piggy". Joe named his (far left) "P is for Patch" and Laina named hers (far right) "Pop Pop".

Ohhhhh, there are many years of fun craft projects ahead of us!

A Stock Tip

Laina is doing awesome with the potty. She's been using the potty for a while now and doing a great job. She's been wearing diapers at night though, but recently she's been waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and staying dry all night and at nap time!

So, your stock tip for the day...sell your Proctor & Gamble stock...we're just about completely diaper free...woo hoo!!!

Here's a picture of one of Laina's potty sticker charts. She loves covering her charts with a sticker every time she successfully uses the potty. Way to go!

Maine Maple Sunday

This year, Maine Maple Sunday happened to fall on Easter Sunday. Since we were solo for the day and had a quiet day planned, we were able to take a nice Sunday drive and head over to Triple C Boilers in Lyman and get our Maple Syrup. This year we bought a big jug and a little jug because last year we ran out. Up next...French Toast Fun! Here's a picture of Joe and Laina in front of the sugar shack where they boil off our maple syrup. Laina had just woken up from a nap so she wasn't all that into it but Joe and I had fun!!!

Bunny Here?

We've been telling Laina that the Easter Bunny will be coming and bringing her treats and so we talked about it again before bed last night. When I walked into her room to get her this morning, the first words out of her mouth were "bunny here"? I told her we'd have to go downstairs and see. Sure enough, on the table was a basket filled with fun toys and the Easter bunny had left eggs filled with candy & quarters around the house for Laina to find! Boy was that fun!!!

The Partridge Family?

We gathered in Belmont on Saturday to visit my parents for Easter weekend. Dianne was with us for the week and we were returning her back to her family. Laina loves music so Uncle Tommy & Nik brought Auntie Di's bongos with them for Laina to enjoy. They also gave Laina a bunch of new musical instruments to play. We had a fun time playing all sorts of songs and singing and dancing around. I think Nicole was pretty mortified though -- poor teenager!

Easter Preparations

On Friday we colored easter eggs and this year, Laina could really participate. Last year I did most of it for her but this year was a different story! She had fun dropping the eggs in the color, stirring them around, plucking them out, letting them dry (ok waiting for them to dry was kind of hard!) and then she enjoyed peeling one and eating it....until she got to the yolk, where she proclaimed "no like that!". Can't blame her for that one!

Goodbye Old Friend

We had to say goodbye to Ziggy yesterday, which was incredibly difficult for me. He developed kidney disease. The symptoms came on pretty suddenly on Monday. I brought him to the vet on Tuesday and we were back there again on Wednesday. Things were just getting worse for him. I could tell he was in a lot of pain and just not my happy little Zig so I made the most difficult decision I can remember making in a long time. He "fell asleep" in my arms at the vets. It was actually really quite beautiful and he was so warm, soft and peaceful and I could see the pain just go away.

Zig has always been an aloof cat, requiring heavy doses of love on his timetable. He tends to keep his distance from Laina so she really hasn't noticed that he's gone yet. I'm not sure that she really ever will so that makes it a little bit easier.

Di is visiting this week and she was with me when I got him from the Westbrook shelter on March 7, 1995 and now she was here this week when I had to say goodbye to him on March 20, 2008. He was my first baby. My first real responsibility as an adult. We've been together 13 years. He's seen me through having my first apartment, my first real job, meeting Joe, getting married, buying a house, having a baby, all of it....he's just always been there, my faithful friend. Joe calls him our guardian angel because he just knows when we're having a bad day and there he is to comfort us.

He will be truly truly missed.

Half Way to Kindergarten

Laina is two and a half today!!! Wow! We're half way to kindergarten. How exactly did that happen? Here she is...two and a half years ago....our sweet beautiful Laina.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

The leprechauns came last night! We've been reading about them for a few weeks and last night, they came to our house. They left little gold coins from their pot of gold for Laina to find this morning. She also enjoyed green eggs (with cheese & ketchup of course)! Fun traditions!

A person's a person, no matter how small

We took Laina to see her first movie!!! We've been reading "Horton Hears A Who" so that she knows the story, hoping that it would help hold her attention for 86 minutes at the theater. She did wonderfully. She sat for the whole thing and enjoyed every minute of it. There's a character named Jo Jo and at the end of the story he helps save the day. When Jo Jo came up on the screen, Laina shouted out "JO JO!!!!" Very funny. Of course, the Mommarazzi brought her camera and here are a few shots of our outing.

Auntie Di is coming!!!

Auntie Di is coming....Auntie Di is coming! We're very excited because Auntie Di, Uncle Tommy and Cuzzie Nik are coming to visit this weekend and then Auntie Di is staying the whole week to visit with us! Yeah! Laina and her Auntie Di go way back....when Laina first came home and needed those middle of the night feedings for the first couple weeks, it wasn't Mommy who got up with her, it was Auntie Di! We had to set an alarm to wake up and wake Laina up to eat every 3 hours because she was jaundiced and just sleeping through her feedings. Auntie Di got up in the wee hours for the first couple of weeks so that Joe and I could rest and I could recover from my surgery. We love you Di!

99 Red Balloons

Laina is a dancer...there's no two ways about it. Here's a little clip of her grooving to a beloved 80's tune of ours.

We just signed her up for a dance class. We've been to 2 classes and so far she seems to like it. At the end of the year, there is a recital and all the 2 & 3 year olds perform one dance. I don't know whether she'll actually participate -- I really hope she does. It should be adorable!

The Pink Stuff

The house is sick. I have managed to avoid it so far. Hopefully I remain immune. Laina's had a fever since Saturday...the wake up at 3am-scream crying-103 degree-kind of fever. Poor baby-sleepy mama.

I took her to the doctor Monday and they say she has a sinus infection (I was so happy to hear it wasn't an ear infection!!!) They put her on amoxicillin...the infamous pink stuff. She hasn't been on prescription meds for a while and after I gave her the first dose, her reply was "ohhhhhh, that's YUM!" Very cute. After being on antibiotics for three days, she's looking better, becoming less crabby, her color is back and her fever is staying down. Yeah. She only woke up 3 times last night!

But now Joe is sick. It started yesterday. He feels awful. I feel very bad for him! So, I'm playing nurse to my two loves. I've jokingly been calling them "Germ 1 and Germ 2" (as opposed to Dr. Seuss' Thing 1 and Thing 2).

Spring can't come soon enough!

Here's a favorite photo of my Laina...I love the lighting and her sweet little face and her hair pulled back.

Daddy's Are Special

Here's a very sweet picture of Laina and Joe having fun. There's something about playtime with daddy that is so special. Daddy's just play hard. Sometimes I look at Joe and Laina together and think to myself..."I don't play like that with her"....like I'm not giving her something she needs. Then Joe reminds me that I give her the other very important things like nutrition, clean clothes, pretty pigtails, fixed boo boo's and baths. I guess she's lucky to have both of us...and we agree we're lucky to have her!

In other news, the snow here in the Northeast is frankly getting ridiculous. I don't know how much more of this I can take - and I'm not even doing the snow removal! Its just getting old and boring to look at. I'm sick of wearing bulky coats and carting Laina's boots and snowsuit to school. I long for the day where I just pop her in her car seat wearing just her outfit and not 5 other layers. We've bought some really adorable Spring/Summer Gymboree stuff and wow, I can't wait until Laina can wear it! Soon enough. Daylight savings comes early this year, Easter comes early this year, its March which means the 1st Day of Spring is right around the corner. Now if only Mother Nature would cooperate!!!