Auntie Di and Uncle Tom come to visit

Auntie Di and Uncle Tom came to Maine to meet Cooper! For more pictures, check out Coop's blog. Here are some cute pictures of Laina enjoying her company.

Scary Girls!

Books before bed

More Art and Spring has Sprung!

Laina is really enjoying drawing. This is a "bunny flower". The face is the the bunny with the circles for ears and whiskers and then those ovals on the top of the circle represent the flower petals. So cute.
In other exciting news, we have our first flowers poking up from the ground. Of course two feet away from that there is still snow on the ground but it gives me hope of warmer temperatures around the bend.

My Artist!

Laina has started drawing actual things. I love it. Today she drew for me, a cat....and a dog. I know I'm somewhat biased but -- I think they are rather good! Later today she asked me to draw tons of things for her. I think she's trying to see how to draw things so that she can duplicate them. I had to draw a chair, a sock, pants, a shirt, a baby, an ear, Minnie Mouse, Mickey Mouse. I stopped when we got to Pluto and Daisy -- I'm just not that talented. When I drew the baby I put one strand of curly hair on the top of the head and Laina said "this is how you do hair Mommy" and proceeded to draw all those straight lines like the hair that appears below on the cat and dog. Now I know.

Reflective

I normally use this blog as an opportunity to muse about all things Laina - the funny, the silly, the frustrating, the good, the bad, the ugly. Today however I am using the blog as an opportunity to reflect --- on the beauty of life.

Laina takes dance class with a four year old girl named Elle. She has been in dance with Elle for two years and the girls really seem to dig each other. Elle hasn't been at dance for the past few weeks and her absence has been noticed. I figured that maybe they had colds, the flu, were on some great vacation or just bogged down with life in general. Boy I didn't know the half of it. Elle was at dance class today and I had an opportunity to speak with her mom Beth. Elle was diagnosed with cancer this month. Cancer. She's four years old. Cancer. Nobody should have to use the word chemotherapy in a sentence ---- but a four year old?

This hits too close to home. Laina and Elle will be in the same kindergarten class in 2010. My heart goes out to Elle, Beth and their family. Elle is a little girl with a lot of spunk. I trust in my heart that her future is bright. She has a tough road ahead of her. I am praying for her and her family. Her dad has created a blog to keep friends and family updated on Elle's journey.

Take a moment to reflect on life -- the precious beauty of life. Grab hold of your babies and hug them tight. I know I sure am. Here's to Elle for fighting the fight.

Cooper's New Home

Laina and Cooper are getting along famously! I think he views Laina as a play mate because she is more his size. When he sees her coming, his tail just starts flying! She's learning how to play gently with a 2.8 lb. ball of fur!

As fun as it is to post lots and lots of pictures of Cooper on this site...it's really a site dedicated to Laina and so it is time for Cooper to have a new home, on the world wide web!

Announcing Cooper's own blog! Click here to see more!

Maine Maple Sunday

We took Cooper out with us on our family outing for Maine Maple Sunday. We have gone to this same sugar shack the past three years. This year they were very low on syrup by the time we got there but we were able to bring some home, watch the process, see the animals and of course Laina's favorite --- riding on the tractors. We had a great time. It was really cold and Cooper just stayed inside my fleece coat making friends along the way. Hard to resist that face. He does great in the car!

Our first family group photo with Cooper outside the barn

Happy Girl on the tractor

Loving the tractor!

Checking on the syrup....212 degrees is HOT!
Cooper and I hung out in here to keep warm while Laina & Joe rode the tractors!

Outside the sugar shack

And........Looking Back......
Outside the sugar shack in 2007

And in 2008

Meet Cooper!

We're getting a puppy! We bring him home tomorrow. He is 8 weeks old today. We are very excited and a little nervous. This is a BIG step for us!

Brand new baby

1 week old

3 weeks old (Cooper is all the way to the right)

4 weeks old

6 weeks old

8 weeks old

Laina and Cooper

The Hazards of Coloring

Laina learned the hazards of coloring today..........she got her first paper cut! OUCH!

The Leprechauns Came Last Night!!

Well, the little Leprechauns did in fact visit our house last night! Before bed we read our two St. Patrick's Day books. One of them is a story about the Leprechauns that we bought for Laina last year. It's the cutest book and the thing we love most about it is that one of the Leprechauns is named Boo and that is our nickname for Laina so it just fits us so well! The other Leprechauns are Col and Ari and the three of them go about stirring up trouble on their way to hide the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We've been telling Laina that after we all go to sleep, the Leprechauns will come to the house and leave presents for us in the morning -- and they did! The first chocolate gold coin was left on the headboard of her bed and so when she woke up and went to turn her bedroom light on she found it and she was so revved up -- "MOMMY! The Leprechauns Came!" She then asked if we could go outside and find the Leprechauns under the trees (where she sees them in our Leprechaun book). I had to explain that it was "Leprechaun Law" that we cannot see them!!! She headed downstairs to find the rest of her stash and had a great time! It was so cute. The Leprechauns came last year too but this year she just was so into it!

The hunt for gold dubloons!

Score!

Then we had our green eggs for breakfast. Once she took a bite, she spit it out even though it tastes EXACTLY the same as the eggs she always eats! Silly girl. I guess the green is a little scary looking!

After breakfast I let her eat a chocolate coin -- at 7am! A first for me!

Off to dance class - here's Laina twirling around before class begins. To me it looks like she's practicing her Irish Step Dance!

And back at home wearing her "Everyone Loves an Irish Girl" t-shirt!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We had a wonderful day - hope you did too!

She Jumps!

Hooray! Laina jumped in solo from the side of the pool today. She used to do this over a year ago, then she decided she wasn't comfortable doing it and now she's decided its OK again!

And a couple of cute pictures of Laina & Joe in the pool...

I just love these two

Here are a couple of cute little picture of Joe & Laina taken at book time. Generally the rules according to Laina dictate that Daddy reads a book and Mommy reads a book but the other night she "allowed" Joe to read all the books at bedtime. I just loved watching the two of them on the couch together snuggled in and reading. They are the two most important parts of my world.

Is this girl a model or what?

We went to Gymboree today and had a wonderful time purchasing lots of great things from their new summer line. Gymboree goes and puts these great colors together and covers it all with ladybugs just to taunt me! When we got home, Laina was SO excited to do a fashion show for Daddy - like seriously excited to try on clothes. Then when I wanted to take pictures of her, she just hammed it up for me. In fact, when I had decided I had taken enough pictures, she would say "one more, Mommy". So funny -- so very funny. Well - here it is - the fashion show.

Trying on our dance recital dress

Laina's dance recital dress came in today so the girls got to try them all on and then we got a brief sneak peek of what they've learned in their dance recital so far. It was so much fun. When we got home, she was VERY excited to put on a fashion show for daddy so I snapped a few pictures. At the real recital (in June) she won't be wearing footless tights but since that is what we have on hand for dance class that is what we tried the dress on with. Something about this get~up makes Laina look very grown up to me ~ *sigh*

Playdate with Max, Colby & Asa

On Sunday, Laina and I got together with Cassie, Max & Asa and Karla and Colby over at Cassie's house. This group has been trying to get together since last October and between snow storms, illness, and just plain bad luck we've had to cancel this get together so many times. But we finally did it on Sunday! It was so nice to see everyone. The kids are all growing up so much and this time they actually played together instead of just playing in the presence of one another. I think everyone had a wonderful time - kids and adults alike. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I actually got to talk to Karla & Cassie instead of just monitor the little ones. Generally our play dates last about 2 hours maximum but we were able to play together for five wonderful hours - I think we could have all gone longer if we had packed ourselves a picnic lunch! I hope it doesn't take that many months until we can get together again!

The crew eating scones, fruit & munchkins - YUM!

Building a puzzle - great group effort!

Laina and Max dancing ~ Max has the sweetest smile

Napping in Max's crib (ok, not really)

Fooling around in Max's crib is more like it!

Three little monkeys jumping on the bedand jumping...

and jumping!!!