Mini Missy

For better or for worse, I see more and more of myself in Mackenzie. Mike, who has to live with two of us, doesn't normally complain but was saddened when Mackenzie declared she doesn't like mushrooms ( he loves them). For the record, I HATE mushrooms. But I've never told Mackenzie that nor do I make a big deal of pushing them to the side of my plate when I find them. And up until now, she's eaten them with no trouble; however, I found this on the table after Mack finished eating today:

For the love of oats

My interview with Mackenzie about her love of oatmeal:

One small request

" Daddy? May you please put up the Christmas lights on the patio?"
It's a tiny enough request, right? Never mind that it was about 30 degrees outside and pitch black. Mike , who is fully wrapped around Mackenzie's finger, agreed to her request. Here's the photographic evidence of the event:

Always ready to go:
We don't mind a little cold:
Helping. No, really. She was very helpful in handing daddy the zip ties for the lights.

Long distance relationship

No one in our family is stranger to the long distance relationship. Our marriage is the product of one and since this is our 6th year in Michigan , we maintain plenty of long distance relationships with all those we love in Colorado( and now Arizona as well as Washington and California to name a few). I am forever grateful for the technology that helps to bridge the gap between the miles. Lately, we've been Skyping with my mom and my sisters. Mackenzie absolutely LOVES it. She insists on giving tours of our house ( staring with the tree and her bedroom) and then begins the entertainment portion of the chat. She sings and does sommersaults as well as dances and spins for whomever happens to be on the other side of her computer screen. Since " Skyping" , Mack has been asking more and more to go to Gram's house. While we will always miss being in the actual presence of them, I love seeing my sister and her kids or mom huddled around the computer , drinking in the latest and greatest of Mackenzie's repertoire:

Getting a glimpse of Brooklyn's lost tooth:
" Everyone clap!" And they did:

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a great Thanksgiving with our usual crowd ( although we missed Aunt Meg who was in California soaking up some Chloe love!)

We headed to Mary's for breakfast. We ended up staying there all day. Gramma and I started up a round of Scrabble:

Mike and Mary worked on dinner while Mack colored:
Since Mack doesn't nap any more, she rested for about 3 minutes on Grammy's bed. She had company:
Dinner was so good, I couldn't pry myself away to get to my camera. Here we all are playing cards after dinner. G.G. taught us how to play *ahem * Bitch Rummy. It was then that I nicknamed her " the Warden" since she managed to keep track of everyone else and their rule following all while beating the pants off us!
Thanksgiving 2010:


Thanksgiving 2009:

Thanksgiving 2008 ( pre-turkey appetizer ):

G.G.

We were so excited that my grandma could make the trek down from Ludington to be with us for Thanksgiving again this year. We had such a good time with her and I feel very fortunate to have her so close by. Unfortunately, with the unpredicatbly fierce Michigan winter, we ususally don't see her again until spring so we try to soak her up!

First things first- anyone coming to our house has to see the tree and then the bedroom. Here Mackenzie is opening a gift from GG - a personalized snowman ornament!
They chattered back and forth. Mackenzie wanted GG to draw a spider web ( after she informed GG that a spider is an arachnid and has 8 legs)

It's Christmastime!

Mack has been declaring " Christmastime" for about two weeks now although she is disappointed that we don't have any snow for snow angels. We traditionally put up our tree on Thanksgiving but jumped ahead a few days so it'd be up for my grandma's visit:

Mackenzie had so much fun decorating this year. The lower half of the tree was hers to decorate and she had enough of her own ornaments to more than fill it.


Mackenzie wearing her stocking:

Mommy and daddy were glad when it was done and we could relax:
More tree pics to come.....

No snow but lots of rain

Michigan hasn't had it's first snow fall yet but we've had plenty of rain. What a great time for a final stomp in the puddles!


By the time we came in, our pants were soaked to the hips and rain poured from our hats. We undressed at the door and made a bee-line for the hot chocolate!

Dress up

Mack is old enough to really enjoy the dress up box. Though she is rarely the one being dressed, she enjoys adorning whomever is present with goodies from her dress up box.

This is her favorite outfit and it's not complete until you place the 1981 tassel over the ear:




Here she proclaims " I'm a swimmer!"
This isn't dress up but she was pretty darn proud of herself for this:

Daddy date

Nearly every day that Mike isn't working, Mackenzie asks him to take her to a) the farm or b) Greenfield Village. Last week was no different so Mike snatched up one last chance to visit the Village before it closes. They visited all things train at the Village and the museum:

It was Daddy day from start to finish. Here Mike and Mack are reading a bedtime story:

Nap...where are you?

I am in mourning. And I'm only half kidding. Over the last week, Mack has not taken her nap. All the tell tale signs are there that SHE'S ready to give up ( she's not tired in the afternoon even with out a nap, she goes down for nap but never falls asleep, she's been staying up super later at night the last few weeks, unable to settle down) but I'M not ready ! My fantasy was that she'd continue to nap until she was ready to start school. And it wasn't far fetched because, up until this week, it seemed as though those the naps were still needed.

So now, in place of the *beloved* nap time, we now have " quiet time". Mackenzie stays on her bed and talks quietly to herself for the duration of the old nap time . While I can't force her to sleep, I know that she needs some time to herself that is quiet and , heaven only knows I need that time, too!

Consider my mommy flag at half mast.

Book worm!

My little book worm is on the path to reading! Yesterday, she was sounding out words that she knew from memory ( stop, train, ). Today she's sounded out three words that she didn't know ( red, car, let). I am so proud of her! Mike and I both love to read so I am hoping Mack does, too!

Heart warming

This picture just melts my heart. I hope in 14 years, this is still a familiar sight in our house.
PS. YES! She won AGAIN! She must have been wearing her lucky jammies.

Date night!

Thanks to Mary for having a date night with Mackenzie so Mike and I have dinner and do a little Christmas shopping!

Ode to the Binky

Plastic, perfect, night time friend.
Upon you , our slumber depends.
Tucked perfectly between those rosey, plump lips
praying it's never lost, forgotten or slips!
Babies and parents, they need their sleep
So , Binky, your please promise keep!
And when the time to part ways does arrive
I pray to heaven we all survive!



Ok. So here's my confession: I was one of those mom's who was never going to even so much as allow a binky in my house. I despised them and always worried my kid would be the five year old at the park with a binky hanging out of their mouth, snaggle- toothed and unable be understood through that plastic piece of junk in their mouth. But guess what, that was back before I had kids and knew nothing about being a mom. So, Mack ended up with a bink. And up until last night, she still had one. I was my own worst nightmare.

Mack's only ever used her pacifier at night and naps. She has the same two pacifiers that she's had since she was 3 months ( with plenty of disinfecting between , of course) and the paci's never leave her room. But still, I couldn't fight off this load of mommy guilt that weighed heavy on my back. Embarrassed, I came clean to Mack's pediatric dentist. I worked in pediatric health care and had heard the spiel about binkies plenty of times. I braced myself for the "look" followed by " the talk".

And guess what? Her dentist didn't yell at me or eye me carefully as she signaled for the assistant to call Child Protective Services ( this is how it went down in my head before the appointment, anyway). She actually relieved me of my guilt.

She told me that because I have limited use of the paci, Mack's teeth show no hint of damage due to the pacifier. She said the only thing she sees wrong with Mack's teeth are an inherited over bite. One that won't be fixed magically by yanking the binky. She told me that paci is just like a blanket or favorite stuffed animal- it's a comfort item and one that's causing no harm.She told me not to worry about taking the paci until sometime between 3 and 4 unless I was really bothered by it.

So the plan was to let Mack hang on to her bink for a bit longer as I regularly fed her small snippets of information that would hopefully comfort her when the time came for the bink habit to be broken.

Fast forward to last night when a small, confused sounding voice, calls for me from Mackenzie's room. She hadn't seen her daddy so I brought her out for a quick hello before I tucked her back in bed. As we get into the lamp lit living room, I see why the voice sounded small and confused. Mack had bitten a whole through her binky . Oh man! Of course, the bink needed to be trimmed down so there was no choking hazard. With nothing but a tiny plastic nub left of her beloved binky, Mack asked to throw it away. I think my heart was more broken than hers as she so easily tossed this faithful friend in the garbage. I was heart broken because I knew that eventually Mack would come to feel the void left by this comforting piece of plastic for which she had not slept with out since she was three months old.

While Mack slept perfectly through the night with no trouble, she cried the tears of a heart broken little girl at nap time. And I wanted to cry right along with her. The tears were sincere longing for that old friend . Though it was so hard, I know that in a day or two, Mack will drift off to sleep with out so much as a though of the binky. And so goes the last remnant of my baby leaving behind a sweet smile and perfectly accessible, kissable lips.

Finding pics of Mack with her binky is pretty hard to do since she only used it for sleeping. Here's one of the only I could find:

Thankfully Thankful

Anyone who's a victim....er...member of Facebook has likely seen the " Thanksgiving challenge" Each day, you challenge yourself to think about something that you are thankful for and, every day leading up to Thanksgiving day, you post that item to your status update. It's a really neat concept and really does force one to think about those things that are often taken for granted in the break neck pace of life.

I think it's a great thing to press pause on life occasionally and collect our blessings, dust them off and be really, truly grateful for them.

So, instead of dragging on a long list of people ( and odd inside jokes) for which I am thankful for, I just want you to know that if you are reading this, I am thankful for you. Each person in my life adds something unique and special to me- those who know just the right thing to say to me. Those who try to traverse the up and down waves of my moods. Those who's warm smile can't be anything but filled with genuine love and hope. Those who's sense of humor so perfectly fits mine. Those who's ears never get tired of hearing about my days. Those who mirrored the love of God .Those who's friendship, though only "virtual" can transcend the boundary of a computer screen encircling what we know to be true friendship. Those who've journeyed with me through mall hair, shoulder pads and stirrup pants ( and back again!). Those who said nothing at all. Thank you!

Dr. Cullen

Mack paid a visit to Dr. Cullen, her pediatric dentist, for her 6 month check up. Mack did great. She cried while in the chair but she held her mouth open for the dentist just as she was asked . She was back to her old self once the cleaning was done and she got to pick her reward, a stretchy blue lizard she named " Michael". What a compliment to her daddy! We got a clean bill of dental health and won't need to see Dr. Cullen until after Easter!