First Miniature Golf

Today, for the first time, Ethan and Maya played miniature golf with us. Ethan was complaining when we first arrived. He could see a pool and some water slides just next to the course and wanted to go over there instead. We coaxed him onto the course. He waited, rather impatiently, for our turn to start.

Although we tried to teach him correct hand position, etc., that all went out the window with our four year old. We gradually made our way around the 18 holes, Ethan helping all of us with our puts. Ethan tried to hit every water hazard and sometimes tried to do a hole two or three times. Luckily the group behind us was quite slow, so we had no problems taking our time.

Maya just wanted to be in the middle of everything, literally. She sat down in the middle of the greens and grabbed at balls. We tried to play around her as best we could. Maya often used her new favorite word "share" to ask to hold the ball. Then she would chuck the ball to the ground. This was a little challenging when walking between holes, juggling the clubs, camera and baby while trying to keep up with Ethan.

All in all, we had a blast. Ethan already asked to go back "next week" which loosely translated means tomorrow.

Thirsty Monkey

Our little Maya decided she was thirsty and attempted to get the orange water bottle on the cupboard. She climbed up on the oven drawer handle, but soon found that she was stuck. She started to call out to get someone to help her down. We were more than willing to help, but just after we snapped a few photos.

Bye bye!!!

Our poor Maya has developed some allergies. Unfortunately, those allergies were triggered by our dog, Belle. While Belle has been an energetic, happy part of our family, we needed to put Maya's needs first.

Sadly, yesterday we sent Belle to live with someone else. A lady in Pennsylvania has a ranch and a soft spot for Scottish Terriers. So now Belle is off barking at horses and playing with other dogs.

Ethan is taking the news quite well. He said good bye to her without tears. He later asked if we could go visit Belle. (I hate those moments when you feel like you should lie to your kids.) I told him no, she's not our dog anymore. Besides, I don't know where in Pennsylvania or the name of the lady as our vet acted as an intermediary.

Maya might be more upset if she were not already distressed about 2 new teeth coming in. Poor princess. I found them this morning and realized that was the cause of her decreased appetite and slightly less cheerful demeanor.

What a Strange URL!!!!

Okay, so we've been catching some flack about the address to this blog. Yes, we love our two little ones with all our hearts. I may be a bit biased, but I think they are two of the most beautiful children I've ever seen. And yes, sometimes we get frustrated in parenting. If you've found a parent that doesn't, please introduce me to them so I can find out all their secrets.

But really, the name came from a little bit of an inside joke with some of our friends. One of our good friends, Cathi, is actually decendent from gypsies. No joke. That is her lineage. So, as is common with her friends and family, we joke that we will sell the kids to the gypsies, or ship them off to Cathi's for a while.

But we all know that it is an empty threat. As she has 3 daughters whom my children adore, it would be more of a reward than punishment to send them to her house for a day.

Our Princess is Walking, Kind Of

Yes, Maya is taking steps around the house, unassisted. She has been doing it for about a month. (Sorry I didn't update sooner.) She is still unstable though.

Often, she decides that it is just easier to scoot, so she drops to the floor and resumes her unique hobbling. She learned to stabilize herself on our wood floors when going to both knees resulted in a few face plants. Ouch!! So she started putting her right leg forward, using her arms and dragging the left leg a bit behind her.

This is also apparent in her walking. She tends to drag the left foot when she takes steps. So we're still working on the whole walking concept.

In other news, we've found that playing hide and seek can be quite dangerous for mommy. Maya and I were hiding under a blanket while Ethan did his Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum bit. Maya gets very excited when he does this. She launched herself backward and planted the back of her head against the bridge of my nose. Crunch!!!

Oh, the pain. Not just the instant watering of the eyes from the stinging, which I'm sure most parents have experienced. No, it takes quite a bit of pain to actually make me cry, and tears were running down my cheeks.

Maya was upset at seeing me cry so, being the sweetheart she is, she kept kissing me to try to help me feel better while I applied ice, lied down and tried to minimize bleeding and swelling. So two days out, I've got some bruising across the bridge of my nose, congestion, unrelated to allergies, and the constant throbbing pain through the sinuses. I still don't know if my nose was actually broken, as I was too cheap to pay $30 over the weekend to get it x-rayed, but it's not crooked, no leaking cerebral fluid or gray matter, so I figure why bother.

I'll just have to remember to place my face a bit more strategically in the future, or at least make sure it happens on a weekday.