some new art

Coraline

9/26/2012

Mae-
You are 5, almost 6 now. It's been awhile since we've written on this, but reading your baby journal inspired me to start up again. It was really fun to flip through those pages and read silly and sweet stories about you. You and I sat on the couch, giggling and snuggling up. 5 years is not that much, but it feels like you've been with us forever.

We are currently living in Mesa, Arizona, right next door to the house my grandmother grew up in. The house we are renting is 115 years old. It's very charming, and you love the skeleton key we use to lock the bathroom door.
The owner of my grandmothers house is also the owner of the house we are renting, and she has become a great friend. Her name is Janice, and I'm sure when you read this later in life you will remember her because she will be in our lives forever. She is like family. You adore her, and you guys have play dates. She picks you up from school every Thursday and takes you to Dairy Queen. You guys play hopscotch and watch Mr. Rogers.

You are going to a very small charter school called New Horizon. It's a performing Arts School, which is what sold mommy on it right away. I wish I had that kind of school when I was your age.
You skipped kindergarten cause you're so dang smart, and you are loving 1st grade. We are having so much fun watching you learn so much! You are a fast learner.

You are an amazing big sister to Sawyer. He absolutely adores you and you adore him. It's beautiful watching you two together. You have nothing but his best interest at heart and show him love and kindess.

Right now you are into Monster High, Justin Beiber, singing, dancing, and art. You are an incredible artist!

You have lost 5 teeth already! We are afraid you will need braces.
Today we cut your hair off. About 10 1/2 inches. I looked over into the bathroom where I had left the scissors from trimming my bangs earlier. You were snipping away at the front of your hair. I was so upset, and when I told you we would have to cut your hair you started sobbing. You didn't want to cut your hair off, I think you just thought it would be fun to cut some parts of it and thought it would look pretty. But once I said we could finally donate your hair to Locks of Love, AND your hair would look like your best friends McKaylas hair, you lit right up and were on board. Now you have a little a-line and you look so grown-up! My beautiful girl :)

Dear Mae,
Last night I was at work late. When I came home, daddy told me how you guys were watching Dr. Who, and it was a very complicated story line. You actually figured it out, and thought it was so crazy that you started laughing hysterically, which got daddy laughing hysterically. You guys just kept laughing harder, so hard that daddy actually. threw. up.
That is a crazy story, and although I'm glad you guys had so much fun, I'm very happy I was not there to witness the barfing.

Dear Mae,
You are five now. Stop. Growing. Up.

The other night I was in the bathroom and you were walking around yelling my name looking for me. I kept yelling back, but you couldn't hear me, for whatever strange reason.
When you finally heard me you came running in, panicked. With your hands on your hips and a look on your face between angry and on the verge of tears you said,"MOM! I couldn't find you! You scared me out of the crap!"

Also, a couple of weeks ago, Aunt Aubs and I put the seats down in the back of my car in hopes to get a piece of furniture in there. The entire back of the car was flat and open. You and Caitlyn came outside, and you went running over to the car, bent down, looked inside with your eyes wide and your mouth hanging open. With that, you exclaimed,"What the HELL!? Caitlyn, LOOK! What the HELL!?" and in response to your potty mouth, Caitlyn nervously laughed and said,"Oh my god...!" A double whammy, and neither of you knew you had said a bad word. It was hilarious.

You are soooo great with Sawyer. You guys sure adore each other. When he sees you his whole body wiggles and squirms and he squeals so loudly. He literally cannot handle his excitement.
You take such good care of him and act like his second mother sometimes. I know he will always be safe with you around. He is so very lucky to have you.
Today you built him a "babysitting house", which was basically a little play area underneath my art table with a chairs and books propped up as a "fence". You sat in there with him for a good couple of hours and played with him, as well as organizing his toys into categories for him. You also laid him down with his blanky for a nap, which he didn't take, but whined in protest because he wanted to play with you. I love watching you two together. Nothing makes me happier.
The other day I was working on an illustration based on Jareth from "Labyrinth". You have seen the movie before and loved it. You wanted to watch it again, but soon after starting to watch it you got really upset and made me turn it off. You told me that you were scared the Goblin King would come and take Sawyer away, too. The thought was upsetting you so much you couldn't stand watching it any longer. Looks like you got your moms inability to separate movies from reality. It's hard, isn't it? Ever since I had you and Sawyer, I can't watch movies that have anything to do with kids being hurt or sad or anything like that in any way.

You just started ballet class on Monday. Daddy took you. I was so tired from my new job at Ikea that I had to take a nap. I can't wait to watch you. Grandma Jenny was a ballet dancer for 19 years, and she was amazing. I think you got her genes. She has said several times how graceful you are and how natural dancing comes to you, and I agree.

You are such a smart girl. You and I do school online at ABCmouse.com. You love it and you are learning so much. You are a really giving little girl. You absolutely love to share and give things to people.

You are also quite the business woman. When we first moved here, you went around the yard and gathered twigs. You taped paper to them and had me write prices on them ($5) and then you went around and left them on peoples doors. This was in reality, giving people twigs with price tags on them, but you hoped that by putting them on the porch, people would bring the money over to you. You are so awesome :)

Tonight Mae was going poop and she was grunting and straining and then she yelled out,"Mom!" in this pained voice. I went in there and I guess I had come in right when she'd gotten it out, cause she sighed a huge sigh of relief and said,"I thought I would never get that out of me! I thought I would have to push super hard until I was a grandma!" She was totally serious! Ha!

The other day Mae and I were watching one of the many Winnie The Pooh movies, and the gang was falling down a huge ravine and Mae narrates in a dramatic voice," And they fell to their DOOM!" It was so random!

This morning Mae informed me she wanted to shrink down really small, hike up my arm, and have a picnic lunch on my boob.

 

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I told her soon enough Sawyer would be having constant picnics on my boob and her time had already passed.

look who lost a tooth!

and a funny mae story:
the other night mae climbed in bed with me. my back was to her so she thought she was being sneaky. she was supposed to be in her own bed. then she started snoring, big fake snores. I couldn't help myself and started laughing, and she started laughing too. i asked what she was doing and she said,"I knew you would tell me to get back in my bed, so I was pretending to be daddy."
clever girl.

Mae was in the shower and was washing up and she goes,"I found something in my bum!" I asked what it was and she said,"I think it was chocolate!" um....I don't think that was chocolate.

Mae had a nightmare last night about a cooked "checken" (chicken) that could walk around. (ha ha!) I told her things like that aren't real, it was just a dream, and she said,"But Cinderella said our dreams come true!" I tried explaining to her that she meant dreams like becoming a ballerina and such. She got distressed and said,"But mom, I have a dream that me, you and daddy could all be mermaids! Daddy can be a merman and you and me can be mermaids!" So I had to explain that not all wishes and dreams can come true. Quite the 5am discussion.

Mae walked into her room where Tom had fallen asleep, and it smelled really bad. (a night of manly sweats and farts).

So Mae ran and grabbed the air freshener, started spraying it like crazy and exclaimed,"Ew! It smells like chipmunks in here!" I don't know where she came up with that.

Mae to Grandma Jenny
"Um...Grandma? Sometimes when my mom isn't home and my mom doesn't know, she lets me use her makeup."

Ah the reasoning of a four year old.

I also wanted to write about what a tender heart Mae has. She is really sensitive to other peoples feelings. I showed her the video of photographs I took of my mom while she was going through her last round of chemo, and she came into the room after she was done watching it and she was trying so hard not to cry. She kept pulling on the skin under her eyes and kept asking why her eyes were getting wet. She couldn't understand what she was feeling, and she was getting so mad about her emotions. I kept telling her it was okay to be sad and cry, seeing Grandma sick is hard.
Then we watched "Little Miss Broadway" a Shirley Temple movie. At the beginning, Shirley is in an orphanage and Mae asked why all of the little girls were living in the same big house. I explained to her about orphans and adopting and she starting tugging at her eyes again, trying not to cry. The thought of someone not having a family really upset her. We had to tell her it was okay to feel sad, she was getting really mad again about it. I don't know why. She kept saying she wasn't crying, her eyes were just getting wet. I think she has a hard time understanding why she feels so sad.
Yesterday I threw away some of her underwear that was too small. She saw them in the garbage and took them out and asked why I had thrown them away. I told her they were too small for her. She got really upset about it and said that we needed to give them to a little kid that didn't have money to buy underwear. I told her that underwear isn't usually something people buy second hand. She said we could wash them. I kept trying to explain to her, and then she started crying and was so upset and insisted that we give them to someone who really needs them. She was so worried that a little kid out there wouldn't have any underwear.
And then the other day she was telling Tom and I about a bad dream she had had. Caitlyn (her cousin) was getting tied up by mean men over a fire. As she is telling us this she starts getting choked up and can hardly go on. Then she says that they were trying to get her. She said she ran away and found mommy and we went home. Throughout this she was crying until she got to the part where we all went home and then she was smiling.
She is a sweet little thing.

Things Mae has said recently:

Out of nowhere: "So if we put our hand in the oven and it gets burned that means we have to eat it?"

I got after Mae for not listening and she said with hands on hips:"Mom, that's just what I DO. I don't listen very much!"

mae

Mommy and me did a makeover on the computer yesterday. It was so fun!

 This picture has curly hair and purple eyes!

 

This one is my favorite cause it has short curly hair.

I had fun doing this cause I wanted to be so pretty! And I like these pictures. Love, Barbie
(AKA Mae)

4 years

i love being 4 years old! i love 4! i am excited to be 4 cause i can have aunt elise for christmas! i miss aunt elise.

guess what?

Mommy has a baby in her tummy. Right now the baby is kind of scary. And I'm excited to get the baby. And I love babies. I want it to be a girl. I want to tell a joke. Knock knock. Who's there? Knock knock. Who's there? Knock Knock. Who's there?! ITS KNOCK KNOCK!

I am living with grandma and grandpa. And grandma so cool! And pretty. I am believed in grandmas house. I believe Jesus, but I miss Caitlyn. Grandpa is cool! And I love giving those two hugs. (grandma and grandpa).

Love, Mae

sleepover

we are really really scary in this picture! we are ready for halloween! and you guys are invited for my party!

 me and mommy had a sleepover and watched a scary movie called "Ichabod Crane". my favorite part was about the monster the guy with that had no head! and that was so cool! he had a mean horsie. i thought  ichabod in the movie was funny cause he had a big chin. there is a girl that is in the movie. she has a hat and a beautiful pink dress! and she has yellow hair.

 i am so silly! i'm in my curious george pajamas!

 knock knock. (whos' there?) chicken. (chicken who?) chicken butt!

maes photography

it was so fun when i took a picture of the fruit

 it has hello kitty and strawberries on it! hello kitty is adorable she's a cat and there are hearts right by her and i'm so excited my mom gave this hello kitty cup to me! its mine now, cause now i'm too big and i drink water now! but i still love milk!

 my cat. i love my cat, he's so cute and furry! i love him so much.

 i love my pancakes, they're so yummy! that's all!

 i love the cookie pancakes are so yummy and yummy and yummy and yummy and yummy!

 i love my daddy so good and good!

 my toes are funny!

 i hate this funny picture but i like it a yittle bit.

 i love my furry mae mae! i love that one a lot, and she's a furry girl. i know she's furry but....(starts singing)

hi!

i love you! i have a cat and hims name is Biff. he's a baby cat, i love him so much. M-A-E. we love you and this is not a good day but you can move if you want to. we moved right now and just go right and left and towards too our house.

i have a skirt
i have a shirt
and i have a stop! uh....blue eyes
i like to play tricks
and me and my mom and my dad have to get in things i haven't been in for two hours.
and i have a loose tooth!

love, mae

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