jenga photo shoot

Last week before Uncle Dave and his pal Julio headed back up North, Abby talked them both into a game of Jenga. Turns out Uncle Dave had never played Jenga before and I think he was surprised to find out how much fun it was. And hanging with photogs means someone is always snapping pictures.







I love this picture of Abby. Every now and then I'll catch her sitting like this. Julio snapped these and I love his record of that morning playing Jenga. I love the way he edited the pictures. He's such a talented guy, you have no idea.

And then he shot this...... which I love more than I can say. Maya is such a complex little girl with such huge emotions and this one photo perfectly sums up my three year old My-Pie. It might not be true a year or six years from now, but it is a completely perfect representation of this point in her life.



And despite the look of utter disgust on her face, I smile every time I look at it.

tiny moments - blankey

I have tried many things in the past three years in my quest to get Maya sleeping through the night. I remember the night I picked up the pink fleece blanket that Auntie Yoli had given to her as a gift for her christening because the book I was reading at the time told me introducing a "lovey" might be helpful. It had Maya's name and the date of her Christening stitched across the corner. I tucked the super soft pink material up close to her face as I gave her her last bottle before bed. Little did I know that little pink blankey would become one of the most important things in my Little My Pie's life.



That pink blankey has traveled many miles with us. It's been to the grocery store and to Uncle Dave's and to various Grandma's houses and to the sitters and to friends and to church and a million places more. It makes her happy and very likely makes her feel safe and secure. The trick though, to get it to work -- it has to be touching her nose.

tiny moments- kitchen floor picnic

Maya: Mommy, you make me toast?
Me: Sure babycakes.
Maya: I have picnic?



And how could a picnic be complete without her bff -- blankey (and her sucky)?

tiny moments - hide and seek

Maya: Daddy you play hide and seek with me?
Mike: Sure.
Maya: Count to ten!

Bet you can't find her.

tiny moments - second in a series

Daddy you take picture my finger?

tiny moment - a simple request

Daddy you take a picture my hand?

tiny moment - a calling maybe

For quite some time there has been a satin bathrobe hanging on a peg in my bedroom. It went with a set of satin summer capri jammies that Granny bought me ages ago. The other night I caught Abby looking at it somewhat longingly.

Would you like to wear it? I asked my loves to dress up every chance she gets little girl.

She quickly nodded yes and I handed it over to her.



She slipped it on put her hands together and said, "Now I look like Margot"*



*Margot is the Minister at our church. And I'm pretty sure she doesn't use a clothes peg to hold her robe closed.

tiny moments - little my pie

Oh I have so many stories to tell you. Like all about how the Grandparents Club is working out. Or that Abby's been wandering around here in a satin bath robe held shut with a clothes pin. Or the tiny bedrooms issue that is ongoing with Michael and I. Or my to-do list for 2009. It's all gold Jerry! For tonight I am still trying to get my house back in order and still attempting to catch up on my sleep. And I'm wishing and praying really hard that all these sick germs leave so I can go hold that brand new baby that moved in across the street.

How about a couple of tiny moments to tide you over?



Here's my sick Little My Pie in the wee morning hours when I snuck out from under her for a bathroom break. Yes that is her sucky. Yes I caved. No, I am not proud of it. But when you have little one who is so clearly uncomfortable, who would lie in my arms half asleep and whimpering you just do what you have to do to make them comfortable to get some much needed rest.



Still living in her jammies, but feeling well enough for an impropmtu game of Hullaballo. Now that she can pick out her shapes and her colours, she can play with Abby.

coming or going

One of the key parts of mastering potty training is be able to pull up/pull down your own pants. Maya is managing this part of it a tiny bit better than the actual toilet training. She can get them on, they just might not be facing in the right direction.



*this picture was taken a few days ago. All suckies are still missing. I haven't found any yet, but either has she.

tiny moment - pudding face

Guess who fed herself some chocolate pudding before dinner?

tiny moments - colouring

Today was our last day of holidays. Abby's back to school tomorrow. Maya's back to the sitter's. I am back to work. So today we decided to go low key. We all slept in. Well Maya and I did. Mike and Abby were up well before us. We lazed around in our jammies and watched movies. This picture, though, I think sums up the entire day.



The two of them had disappeared upstairs where I found them in Abby's bed both colouring in this mini colouring book one of them got for Christmas. They got a dozen colouring books between them and a brand new package of paper, but here they were colouring together in a book that measures about 4 inches by 6.

tiny moment - just before bed

I have said may times before that all Maya needs in this world to be happy is her blankey (touching her nose) and a free finger to twirl in her hair.

tiny moments - the little mother

Perhaps I have a future co-sleeper on my hands.

tiny moments - two for one

I am really enjoying our family time at the stable each Saturday morning for Abby's riding lesson. I dutifully bring my camera each week and managed to snap a couple tiny moment worthy shots. I couldn't pick between the two, so you get both.

The first needs a little explanation. On the outset it looks like a sweet picture of a dirty faced little girl. Look at little closer and you'll notice that tongue peeking out. Maya has a lisp and her 's' sounds come out like 'th' sounds. I managed to get her in the middle of saying 'cheethe'



At the stable we go to it's not uncommon to find the odd random horse wandering around unrestrained. Abby usually keeps a respectful distance. She's more comfortable in a traditional horse and rider setting. Maybe it was because this pony was more her size, but she followed this one around for as long as he was an interested participant.

tiny moments- where did she go

Each night at bedtime, if she can manage to wiggle away, this is where you'll find her. Under my desk, prolonging the inevitable.

tiny moment - grandma linda's birthday cake

Tomorrow is Grandma Linda's birthday, but we celebrated it earlier this week so Abby wouldn't miss out on the party. Although being in the middle of a rushed and busy week I'm not sure you could necessarily call it a party. Papa ended up having to work. Grandma Linda showed up with her own cake and a used one at that. And we actually forgot to sing happy birthday. Something I didn't realize until about an hour and a half ago. And now I have a headache.

*note to self - make sure Grandma Linda's birthday is kick ass next year!

What more can I say about Grandma Linda that I haven't already said. She is an amazing lady. This family could not function without her. She deserves the best of everything! Happy birthday, Grandma Linda. We love you!!

Now back to the cake. It was an ice cream cake and, of course, it was frozen. It never occurred to me that Maya may need some help with it, but as they say necessity is the mother of invention.

tiny moment - sleepover

Now that Maya is in a big girl bed the question of sleepovers has come up. There was one attempt a few weeks ago that was unsuccessful. A couple of nights ago Abby asked if they could try again.

It took them forever to fall sleep and I did find myself on more than one occasion yelling up the stairs, asking them to be quiet and go to sleep. I contemplated, more than once, sending Abby back to her own bedroom.

And then I thought about it for a moment. So what if they were chattering away to each other long past their bedtime? Nobody had to get up early the next morning. Then I remembered reading some bit of parenting advice, somewhere long since forgotten, that letting your kids do relationship bonding type stuff far outweighs any inconvenience to you. Or something along those lines.

Seems like pretty good advice.

tiny moment - perfect timing

For some reason I was feeling a tad melancholy last weekend. Just a little blue. I had things weighing on my mind and I was beating myself up over it as I usually do in such situations.

Then, Abby got invited out to watch Papa play baseball and somehow that turned into a trip to the grocery store and since she was shopping with Grandma Linda she came home with chocolate pudding for Maya and lemon pudding for herself, but that's not all. There was also a bouquet of grocery store flowers that Abby ran in the house with.



"Because I love you Mama," she said as she handed them over.

I'm not sure exactly who's idea it was, but it couldn't have come at a better time.

*Thanks Grandma Linda <3

tiny moments - family game night

Part of Abby's birthday gift this year was Scrabble Junior. Mike and I both love Scrabble and I have been waiting to be able to add it to our Family Game Night rotation.

Here Abby is helpfully helping Daddy plan out his next move.



A decision she later "regretted" when he was done kicking our butts.

tiny moments - in the blink of an eye

She is just about the cutest thing ever, but boy can she go from zero



to mad in record time.



* these pictures were shot, literally, seconds apart.