Well, we’re headed home….reluctantly...

I wrote the following post on our way home yesterday, but first I have to start with a story about our arrival in Omaha.  Our plane landed about 11:10pm, most of the passengers were tired and ready to be home, Maggie on the other hand was full of energy and ready to chat with anyone who would listen.  As soon as we parked at the gate, she took off her seatbelt, jumped up in her chair and said to me (and pretty much everyone else in the front half of the plane), "Mommy, I need to shake my booty to get the bugs out!"  She proceeded to do a little booty dance (and presumable get rid of the "bugs" that were bothering her)...where does she come up with this stuff...ok, now on with what I wrote yesterday...

As I sit here, my 2 ipad junkies are fully entertained by their respective movies next to me.  Maggie started the flight watching Monsters Inc.  She screamed really loud (twice) and spent most of the movie with her eyes covered, I finally offered to change it to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her current show of choice, and she was thrilled to turn off the “scary monster movie”.  I guess maybe she’s a little young for the one.  I bet she’ll quit having nightmares about the scary puppy movie she and grandma watched (Santa Paws) at Christmas and start having them about Mike and Sully instead.  

We had such a great trip.  It was a little easier than usual to get on the plane because yesterday and today (and the forecast for the weekend) we’re very cloudy and unseasonably cool for Cabo.  I think it was God’s way of keeping my blood pressure down. 

Today as I was packing, I was really struck by the fact that next time we make this trip it will be as a family of 4, not our little threesome.  I can’t wait for baby “potato” to be with us, but it will certainly be different.  I adore Maggie and being her mom is the greatest thing I’ve ever had the opportunity to do, I can’t imagine what it will be like to have another baby girl.  Maggie is so excited to meet her sister, I’m sure the adjustment will be a rough one, but I hope that in years to come they can have as much fun with each other as we’ve had with Maggie. 

Maggie seemed so grown-up this trip, she will be three in May and a big sister much sooner than that but she seemed like such a little girl, I would occasionally glimpse the baby that used to be, but not very often.  Every night at dinner she practiced writing her numbers and some of her letters, she used lots of funny words like delectable and delicious (thanks Fancy Nancy) and she can count to 10 in Spanish and to 4 in Russian (she would probably be able to get further, but that’s all the more I know, we’ll have to enlist Uncle Deem for help with the rest).  She also took to saying “okie dokie karaoke” constantly while we were gone.  She loves using her Spanish when we’re in Mexico, besides counting, she regularly says “como estas?” (how are you?) “como te llamas?” (what’s your name?), “gracias” (thank you), “de nada” (no problem)  and “por favor” (please).  She also often asks some of the locals “How do you say _____?” and then practices what they tell her.  By the time she starts kindergarten she’ll be having whole conversations mom & dad don’t understand. 

Even though the weather wasn’t great this morning, we had to make one more round of all of our favorites.  Blueberry pancakes, another sand snowman, a walk on the beach, lots of seashell searching, swimming (thanks dad, there was no way I was getting in that water, brrrrrrrrrr!!!) and guacamole and steak tacos for lunch (that’s right, Maggie’s new favorite food is steak tacos).  It was a busy day and now we have a few hours of travel before we’re back to Omaha. 

I heard the weather there isn’t so bad today, so maybe it won’t be awful.  We get to spend the weekend in Omaha and we’ll have a chance to check on Aunt Laura (she did have a little surgery yesterday and will have another bigger one this coming week), celebrate Grandpa’s birthday and check in on baby potato.  All in all we are SO blessed!  Amazing experiences, amazing family, amazing friends…what else could we ask for. 

Family time...

We're having a great time.  Yesterday Maggie told us that she didn't need a life jacket anymore and that she was a big girl.  We talked her into wearing it for awhile, but what she wanted most was her dad to take her to the bottom of the pool (with her goggles on, of course) so she could grab a golf ball, kick to the top and swim to the edge...I can't believe how much her swimming has really turned into swimming and improved the last few days.  She never ceases to amaze me.

This morning Arnie dug out some painted tires that we found on the beach for me... This place is a photographers dream and these tires were the icing on the cake.  I want to hide them in the garage so they'll be here when we come back.  Maggie wasn't thrilled about having her picture taken, but that's not unusual.  

 

Yesterday morning we took Maggie on a Catameran to look for whales.  We saw a few, but mostly she loved the boat ride and the sea lions.  She called them Sea Reagan's because she thought they looked like Reagan suning themselves on the rocks.  We thought she might be a little bit afraid of the boat, but she thought it was great.  She was really hoping someone would jump off because she really liked the life saving ring that was hanging on the front...and she wanted to throw it in the water. 

In these pictures you might notice the bracelet (it's actually a rubberband) on Maggie's arm.  On Tuesday evening, Aunt Laura had a terrible fall on the ice in Omaha. She broke her leg pretty badly.  We're waiting to hear if the doctor she sees today decides to operate and pin it back in place before they put on a real cast.  Maggie was really worried.  Right after we heard about the accident, we were cutting up some asparagus, Maggie took the big asparagus rubberband, put it on her arm and declared that she was going to wear it until aunt Laura was better.  A waiter who works here (and Maggie adores) was in an awful accident a couple weeks ago and everyone is wearing bracelets with his name on them, so I'm sure that's where she got the idea, it was very sweet.  She also asks to pray for aunt Laura alot and she is really hoping for a pink cast.

It's been a bit cloudy here for the last day and a half.  I really hate to see the clouds but they do make for beautiful sunrises. 

We have a SWIMMER...

...and Maggie discovered goggles today.  She especially likes it when daddy wears goggles too.  After she had the goggles, she made it all the way across the pool a couple of times.  She gives mommy a little scare sometimes, but she always comes up lauging.  We usually have to force her to take a little break before she takes off again.  She's napping now, I'm guessing after all that swimming, she might sleep for a while.

   

Smarshmellows!!!

Tonight after dinner we got a great surprise.  There was a bonfire on the beach and they had all the makings for smores (or smarshmellows as Maggie calls them) waiting for us.  We had a great time and it was the perfect dessert.  On a side note, in case you're wondering, roasted marshmellows and sand make a cement like substance on a little girls hands and face.

  

It was -13 in Norfolk this morning...

...thank God we aren't there.  The beach is beautiful.  Maggie has made a lot of progress on her swimming skills, I hope to post a video later and we're realy enjoying being here.  Mom had to head home today, I'm not sure whether she was more dissapointed to head home to the cold or we were more dissapointed to see her go.  Having her here with us was great....Maggie, potato and I would all be alot more worn out if we hadn't had her help. 

Here are a few more pictures...

the only good thing about Grandma going home is that Maggie won't have to share the Guacamole anymore...

Who needs a snowman...

...when you can make a sandman!

Maggie, Mom and I arrived in Cabo yesterday.  Our travels were fairly uneventful and Maggie was a great little traveler.  She goes through security more efficiently than most grown-ups.  She kicks of her shoes, throws her back-pack on the belt and off she goes.  There were lots of people around us who could have taken a lesson from her. 


Since we got here we've been busy playing.  Lots of time in the pool and on the beach and we spent most of the morning at the playground.  The weather has been beautiful.  I don't know why we don't just move here...

 

On a sad note, my Great-Aunt Barbara died this morning.  She was a wonderful woman who I adored as a child.  One of my favorite birthday presents every year, always came from her...she would make apple sauce (it was amazing and it's her recipe that I still use) and freeze it in yogurt containers and give me a cooler full.  They were perfect in my lunch box and kept the rest of my lunch cool all morning.  I know I got lots of amazing presents over the years, but that cooler full of little yogurt containers is the one that I remember most.  She was also the best letter writer I've ever known, I'm willing to bet that she was still sending handfuls of handwritten, long letters/cards weekly.... she had lots of pen pals and was always sending notes to her family and friends.  In a world where letter writing has become of a bit of a lost art, I will definitely miss seeing her very distinctive handwriting on envelopes in my mailbox. She will be dearly missed and my heart aches for my cousins and their families.

Disclaimer- I'm a TERRIBLE speller, it has always been that way and I don't think it will change anytime soon...since I'm in Mexico my online blog editor is working off of a Spanish platform, so spell check doesn't work so well...so I'm sure there are tons of errors, when in doubt, sound it out!

a really long 10 miles...

Maggie and I make the drive from Norfolk to Omaha and back at least once a week, sometimes more, we know the drive better then most and even she knows what town is coming next, where the next horses will be and she can occasionally point out spots where we've stopped to have "friendly" chats with state patrol officers.  But today's drive was not like most.  We were in a hurry because we had just under 2 hours from leaving preschool until we were supposed to arrive at the doctors office in Omaha...Maggie was having her picnic lunch in the backseat and about 30 miles into our drive all of the sudden I heard it...the cough that is always, always followed by PUKE.  We pulled over and I did my best to clean her up with the napkins I had stashed in the glove box, but it didn't really do much to help the problem.  We continued on down the road and stopped at the first gas station in Westpoint, we went inside, Maggie announced to everyone (that's alot of people in a small town gas station at lunch time) that she was covered in puke and we changed into clean clothes.  The we got a BIG icy cold diet coke, and back to the car we went. I just happened to have a 2nd carseat in the back of the car (that never happens), so I didn't have to clean out the carseat in the freezing cold, I just shoved Reagan to the back of the car, and put the carseat on the other side, started to load Maggie in....and she kicked over the diet coke :( I shouldn't have set it there...lesson learned, there wasn't time to get a new diet coke, so we buckled up and were off again. We made it half a mile down the road and all of the sudden Maggie was SCREAMING, not fussy whinny crying, but "I'm in pain!" screaming....I turned around and somehow she had gotten her thumb stuck in the cup holder on the side of her carseat...so once again, we pulled over, I got out of the car, we dislodged the thumb and off we went!  We made it to Omaha and were only 2 minutes late, thankfully we didn't have any friendly visits with officers today, we definitely would have deserved it! 

what an adventure....I hope our flights tomorrow are less hectic, but I think I'll pack an extra change of clothes in our carry on just in case!

On a side note baby Potato weighs about 3lbs and has tons of hair.  So much hair we could see it clearly on the ultrasound.  The tech said that it pretty unusual to be able to see at this point, so she must really have alot of it.  I'm afraid she might be born with more hair then her big sister has.  I'll remember to pack a few ponytail holders in the hospital bag. 

Sorry there aren't any pictures for todays post, but I promise if there were pictures, you wouldn't want to look....

A weekend at home...

We don't very often spend a weekend at home, I actually can't think of the last time it happened, probably sometime in the late summer or early fall.  To be completely honest, I kind of like it that way.  I would much prefer to be on the go, traveling, spending time with family and friends, working, experiencing life with Maggie and Arnie, etc... BUT this weekend, we had nothing we had to do and nowhere we had to go...it was a nice break. 

Yesterday Arnie headed out to shovel off the deck, Maggie really wanted to go help, despite the freezing cold temperatures, so we bundled her up and off she went.  She really wanted a shovel like daddy, but of course I couldn't find any of the sand shovels or the little gardening shovels in the garage, so we turned to the next best thing....a big kitchen spoon.  I'm not sure how much she actually "shoveled" but she loved flinging spoonfuls of snow around.  They tried to build a snowman, but this just isn't good snowman snow, so instead the piled a bunch of snow in the middle of the deck and made a snowman head...Reagan has since eaten all the lifesavers that used to be eyes and a mouth, but it was really cute while it lasted.  Reagan LOVES this weather, she comes in looking like a live snowman and leaves a trail of little snowballs and puddles in her wake. 

Last night we watched the Panthers beat Creighton Prep and had a great evening with dear friends.  Before I moved to Norfolk I never would have thought of a high school sporting event (that one of my kids wasn't playing in) as a Saturday night activity...but now, it just seems so normal :) 

Maggie has been asking to go sledding since she got a new sled for Christmas, and today her daddy agreed.  After bundling up, again...we went to skyview lake, they made a couple of runs down the hill....it's a HUGE hill, Maggie was loving the riding down but having a really hard time with the getting back up, so we decided to get back in the truck and go to a little bit smaller hill in Grandma and Pop's front yard...that was a good idea.  While Arnie still had to do most of the work getting them both back up the hill, at least it was more manageable and she could go down over and over and over.  She had to be freezing (her little gloves kept falling off) but of course she still didn't want to quit, we finally drug her back to the truck.  Last year we pulled her around a little on the snow and I think she rode down the hill with Arnie a couple of times, but this was really her first sledding experience and like she does with most things in life, she jumped in with both feet, had no fear and LOVED every minute. 

Since mommy isn't such a lover of all things cold (I took pictures from the truck most of the time they were sledding) and this is cruddy snow for building a snowman...this afternoon we made an indoor snowman. He turned out pretty cute.  I think the highlight for Maggie was getting to use the scissors, she loves to cut!

This is turning into a rather long post, who'd of thought I'd have so much to say after just spending the weekend at home...

We have a busy week ahead, Maggie has a couple of days of school, then Tuesday we get to go see baby Potato again.  I'm thankful that the doctors are watching her so carefully and it's fun to get to glimpse into her little world so frequently....Maggie's been talking alot about Potato playing with toys in my belly, I wonder if she'll notice there aren't any toys in the picture?  Wednesday we're headed to Mexico, and at the last minute Grandma decided to fly along (she says it's because she's worried about me traveling alone so pregnant, but I think it might have more to do with the sub-zero forecast???? hmmmmm.... Either way it will be really nice to have the help and we're thrilled she's coming.)  Next weekend Mom and Arnie will trade places and he'll join us for one last vacation as a family of 3.  I'm not planning on slowing down much once we're a family of 4, but it will definitely be different for all of us.  I can't wait to meet Little Miss Potato but I'm also trying to take in every moment of the remainder of Maggie's only child days. 

I'm sure we'll have lots of exciting updates to come, I can't imagine we'll be spending another weekend at home any time soon :)

I wonder who tucked her in....

this is what I found when I woke Maggie up for school this morning. 

I'm sure Daddy is very proud.

5 years, 3 months and 19 days....

So much has changed and yet so much is still the same.  I'm a lucky wife and mama...

We made it home from Arizona late yesterday afternoon...When we took off it was about 60 degrees and sunny, when we landed it was 2 degrees and windy... This morning the temperature here was -2...maybe we should have stayed in the sun!  Maggie was excited to see the snow and is already asking about using her new sled.  Hopefully it will warm up a bit before the weekend and she and daddy can really test it out.



Maggie is a busy girl...

We've had a great visit to Arizona.  We're all enjoying the sunshine and Maggie is having a great time keeping Grandma, Pop's and Lucy busy.  We were supposed to head home today, but since it sounds like there is quite a snow storm in Norfolk, we're going to wait until tomorrow to pull on our boots and find our stocking caps.  Darn!

While we've been here, Maggie has been very busy with lots of things...

She had to teach daddy how to swim...Pop's heated up the hot tub for them because it's been to COLD to get in the swimming pool.

She's played lots of ipad games...Tom the Cat is her new favorite, I'm not sure who is more entertained by it, Maggie or Pops (Thanks Aunt Amy!)

We got to spend the day with Tucker and his family, Maggie loved the bouncy place that we went, and she loved seeing "Baby Tucker"...she keeps asking when he's going to "grow big".

I think she did a good job teaching Tucker to run from little girls, especially the ones that want to hug and kiss him all the time.

Arnie and Shawn have been friends for a long time, I'm guessing in their college days no one would have believed they would spend a Saturday afternoon during the NFL playoffs chasing their toddlers through the bouncy maze....such good daddy's they are!

Saturday night we drove up to Cave Creek for a balloon festival.  Maggie was a little bit afraid of the fire and noise that came with the balloons, but she loved the 2 Bumble Bee balloons and she really liked the school bus we rode from the parking lot to the festival.

Maggie had to show Pop's that even without cheating she could whoop him in Candy Land (a few times).

There have been lots of laps on the tricycle.

and of course Lucy has gotten lots of attention.  Maggie loves taking her to the dog park or going on walk with her, the highlight of todays walk was coming home for a "POOP bag".

There have also been lots of games, stories and a trip to the Phoenix Children's Museum.  Our little girl sure knows how to pack alot of activity and energy into a few days.  I'm sure there will be more pictures to share when we finally get home...

Busy couple of days

It's been a busy 48 hours at the Robinson house. We had 2 mornings of preschool, christmas de-decorating, the regular craziness of our house and a flight to Arizona. Here are a few pictures to share....

If you don't have bath crayons, GET SOME! I don't know where I've been, but I hadn't ever seen them before, Maggie got some for Christmas and she loves them. They make the bath water a funny mix of colors but they are lots of fun.



It's chilly in Arizona, so last night after we got here Maggie and Pops needed a little fireside picnic to warm up. Maggie was so excited to see Lucy and she was even happier when Lucy slept with her.



This morning Maggie and daddy are doing a "project" they are among maggie's favorite current activities. Today they are decorating a little mailbox with glittery stickers...Arnie is getting very good at girly things.




And now as I bring this to an end...I just overheard the following conversation...
ARNIE: "Maggie, where did you come from?"
MAGGIE: "Norfolk, why?"

Happy Weekend!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Scottsdale, AZ

Perceptive Little Girl...

This morning Maggie was laying in bed while I picked out her clothes for school and very seriously she said "Mommy, why are you getting so round?"  I think she's getting tired of baby Potato taking up the space on my lap.

We've had a busy few days.  We spent New Years Eve at the Ries' with great friends, too much good food and lots of laughs.  We're lucky to have such wonderful friends here, they really are like family to us.  (and can you believe I didn't take a single picture!, what the heck!)

Saturday/Sunday was the annual Westerfield Family Christmas...it's total chaos, but a great time.  People sleeping everywhere, kids screaming, way too much food, lots of germ sharing, and a great time had by all. 

Maggie and Great-Aunt Bobbie worked on getting breakfast ready.

Maggie & Alex got new sleds, but the only place with any snow was the sidewalk, so Great-Uncle Jeff ran up and down pulling them...I think he was ready to quit before they were.

Maggie thought she would give it a try (I think it was still more work for Uncle Jeff).

Tuesday Grandma Karen and Maggie spent the day at the Children's Museum, this picture pretty much sums it up... I thought she would sleep all the way home from Omaha, but I was wrong, she talked non-stop, I've kind of gotten use to the chatter, but yesterday even I had a hard time keeping up.

And now it's officially time to take down Christmas at the Robinson house.  I hate to see the decorations go, but I'm sure before I know it, it will be time to put it all back up again.  Maggie had her own little live tree in the kitchen this year, she was very sad to see me haul it out to the trash and made me PROMISE that we could have another one next year.

Tomorrow after preschool we will head to Arizona to visit Lucy (and Grandma & Pops too) for a few days.  I'm sure I'll have some pictures to share when we return....AND finally my studio is under way, so as it comes along I will share some pictures of it as well.  I can't wait to have the beautiful space to capture baby Potato's first pictures!!