My goofy girl

Mack has learned the fine art of the silly face. She's such a ham and her antics keep us laughing through our days: ( if you click on the picture, you can see it better)

Interview with a preschooler

With Mackenzie's birthday just around the corner, I asked her a few questions with the idea that next year, I might be able to ask her some of the same questions to see how she changes. Here are the zany answers I got:

Favorite food: "Pasta. And Noodles and Company!"
Favorite color ( of the minute): "Green. Mommy loves yellow."
favorite song: " The good night song" ( this is a song I made up for Mack when she was a baby)
Favorite dance: Body in motion ( a silly song I made up to get the wiggles out)
Best friend:" Mommy. Umm....Hannah. Yes."
favorite animal: "bald eagle"
favorite toy:" puzzles and books"
Favorite thing to do: "Play at somebody's house"
How do you stay strong? " This"* raises arms above head with a big deep breath in*
What is silly? " Happy"
How many licks does it take to get to the tootsie roll center of a tootsie pop? * confused look* " I love suckers" *enthusiastic slurp*
Favorite thing to wear:" Bunny Costume. I like to hop around."
Least favorite thing to do? " Don't go to time out"
What is time out? " It means you didn't listen to the rules. Little kids don't treat their toys ..um..and break their toys"
Who's your favorite pet? "A lizard. We don't have a lizard. Just cats. And Dorothy ( goldfish)"

What to do?

Because we've been seeing a bunch of this:
we're all battling a big case of cabin fever. Nothing ends a gloomy day better than a movie night:
Mack's dress up is getting more and more zany the longer winter drags on:

Foggy!

Mack loves to "draw" on the foggy windows that appear in our room after a shower. ay to daddy as she wrote her name on the window.

Mad scientist

Mackenzie has been learning all kinds of things lately! For Christmas, a family friend gave Mack several different science kits. One of them was making your own marbles! The marbles weren't glass, but a slimey substance that made for lots of fun bouncing.

They started out so tiny but in a few hours, they were the size of regular marbles.


The marbles made the rounds- they got nice and warm on Mack's play stove, were feed to her Zhu Zhu pets, were bounced around like crazy before I finally put them in a plastic bag for squishing before they found their way to the trash. What a fun experiment! Along with making marbles, Mackenzie helped her daddy make root beer ( pics to come) and a batch of daddy's real beer, both great ( and a little advanced but still fun) lessons in science.

Proud mama

I posted a few weeks ago about how Mack had started sounding out three and four letter words . I was SHOCKED a few days ago when she read the syrup bottle at breakfast! " L-og C-ab-in. LOG CABIN!!" She exclaimed! So proud of my girl.

Counting it down!

How many days until Mack's birthday? Let's consult the chart:
And look what else she can do: Numbers! She did 1-8 all on her own.

Using those hands!

Mack is quiet the helper. Like any child her age, she likes to get her hands dirty and do " big kid" things all on her own. Yesterday was full of " do it myself" kinda things. Have a look:

Since learning she could pretty much make her own sandwich, she's been eager to create different flavors. Yesterday she made a blue berry, blackberry and peanut butter sandwich. See the blueberry poking out?

After a little quiet time, we mixed up a batch of cookies. Mack used her own cookie sheet and utensils:
I like her chocolate to cookie dough ratio:
Waiting for a warm cookie:
Yum!

Duped!

Mack is, by nearly all standards, a very easy to handle child. She does her own testing but quickly learns that the rules don't bend and gives up. That's most of the time.

A few weeks ago, I asked Mack to clean up her toys. She happily obliged the request but did what I considered to be a sub-standard job. Last year we took a Love and Logic parenting class and I was feeling confident ( perhaps overly so, looking back) so I said to Mackenzie " It looks like you've forgotten to put some of your puzzles away. Do you want to pick them up, or do you want ME to pick them up? " , my voice raising just enough to indicate that "ME" doing it was not a good choice. She took the bait and giggled as she said " You do it mommy!" I made a big, extra dramatic production about swiping up the toys and putting them where all " exiled" toys go- the top of the refrigerator.

Fast forward a day and the top of the fridge is now cluttered, toys teetering at the edge, and my closet is over flowing with fake food and stray books. Clearly, this wasn't working and I was getting frustrated. Each time I offered the choice, Mack eagerly ( and unremorsefully ) allowed me to pick up her toys. It even seemed like she was picking up less toys than she was before this ordeal began! My plan was back firing. But I was waiting for that one special toy, the one that she would miss when I cleaned it up. I knew the toy, but I was losing hope.

Finally, the moment was upon me. Mackenzie's most treasured toy, her Tag pen, was left carelessly on her bed . I can't be sure, but I think angels sang and a special ray of sunlight was sent down to highlight the occasion.

" Mackenzie!"
Running feet getting closer
" Yes, mommy"
" It looks like you've forgotten to pick up some of your toys. " ( Dramatic glance down at the Tag pen) " Do you want to pick it up , or would you like ME to do it? "
I held my breath and waited for the moment my point was driven home, a lesson learned.
" Go ahead , Mommy. Bye- Bye Tag pen!"
Running feet getting further away

*Sad trombone*

So , after my attempt at being logical failed, I surrendered the exiled toys back to their owner and decided to lower my expectations. She is two ( almost three, but still, TWO) . And the very fact that she cleans up 90% of her toys with out being asked is phenomenal! So what if she leaves a stray ( and uncomfortable) toy under my pillow or misses one or two legos out of 1,000 . She's two. There will be plenty of time for this later , when cleaning up after herself 100% of the time is a little bit more reasonable. For now, I'll be proud of the 90% and dodge the rest!

Love day ♥

Our Valentine's day was pretty quiet this year. Personally, I am not someone who believes we should pull out our debit cards simply because Hallmark thought so. BUT I do think we all need a day that reminds us of all we have and all we love. For us, that's what Valentines day is:

One of Mack's love bugs. She did 90% of the work on these all on her own, even the cutting!

What Valentine's day is complete with out chocolate? Oh! And a new book or two?
My sweethearts:

Daddy asks a silly question

Welcome to the weekly edition of" Daddy Asks a Silly Question " while this isn't such a "silly question", I think it fits the category:

Mack : " ....10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18,19,19,19,20!..."
Mike: "What happened to 13 and 16?"
Mack: " ummm...they turned out very nice!"

Work it, girl!

In prep for running weather, I've been doing " The 30 day shred" along with paying my usual dues at the gym. Mack has been joining me every day! She is very energetic although she stops every four jumping jacks to rest. It's fun to have a work out buddy!

Hands On!

We've been spending quite a few of our winter days at the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum. Most recently, Mike took Mack and the two had a lot of fun together.

Lovin' the water table. She likes to collect all the like sea animals and hoard them:
Cool, Mack!
Daddy's have to have their own fun:
It was a true date, ending in lunch at Mack's favorite place- Noodles and Company:
The returned home, almost 5 hours later, all tuckered out but happy!

Rockin' robins!

I don't know what got into them, but the robins have made their first appearance of 2011. Robins are usually a tell tale sign that spring is near. This can't possibly mean that spring is THAT close can it? I'm not sure but they look awfully cold and hungry out there!

Family Band

I found a harmonica in some of Mike's music stuff. While Mack wasn't fond of the harmonica, she was inspired to accompany my musical stylings with her piano:
Maybe Mike could find a way to play his sax and guitar at the same time. Then we'd be....even noisier!

My crafty friend....

Angie ( remember , Angie has Hannah who is a fellow " Marchie" from my on-line group)
made Mack this cute Valentines shirt! Thank you , Angie! Mack didn't want to take it off for bed.

Railroad queen

I think I've posted before of Mike's undying love of model railroad building. It's something his dad loved doing and was a "thing" in the Long household growing up. I am so proud to say that the train loving gene has successfully been passed down to Mackenzie.

Together, the two of them have been working on painting their own trains. Mike bought some "naked" ( unfinished) trains a few years ago and has been saving them for the day that Mack would be able to enjoy putting them together and painting them. They started the trains together last month and it's something Mackenzie can't get enough of. The two workers are nearly silent as they both work hard on their end of the project. I will post pics when the trains are done.

But the love goes being painting trains, going to train shows together and going reeeeeaaally slow near railroad track in hopes of getting " stuck" at a crossing. Every month, Mike and Mack read Mike's "Model Railroader " magazine together. Mack has a genuine interest in it and it makes me melt to hear them in their railroad babble.

Rock that hair!

Mack had CA-RAZY hair the other morning. I had braided it the day before and, instead of unbraiding it before bed, I just took the elastic band out and left the braid in. " WOW! " was all I could say when I went in to get her out of bed. So instead of taming the mane, we rocked it!

"Mom"

At music class the kids and parents wear those sticker name tags. On our way into class, we stop , pick a color of marker for printing our names and then wear the tags through out class. Last week at class, I asked Mack if she wanted to write her own name on her tag and she did, but the class ahead of us got out so we had to hurry. I told Mack I'd just write hers so we could move out of the path of the exiting class. While I wrote her name, she grabbed a pen and wrote mine. I proudly sported a name tag bearing the word " Mom" for the class.

Did you know?

For those of you with blogs, did you know you can print your blog in book form? If that sounds like something you're interested in, I'd suggest doing so before you are in your third year blogging and 300+ blogs deep! Other wise, you may find yourself investing a large sum of " Encyclopedia Britanica" style money into archiving your family's daily grind. Of course, many of you would argue that I am a bit more long winded than the average blogger ( realizing that I'm writing a blog about printing my blog, your point is well taken) . In any event, just passing along the info :)

Don't you get it?

Another episode of "Daddy asks a silly question!"

Daddy: Wow! You just ate all of your sandwich and part of mine. Where are you putting all of that?
Mack: In my belly.

Mackenzie must wonder who took care of us before she came along. We seem to miss the obvious stuff.

Wheeeeee-eeeee ! Sledding fun

OK , so the title is misleading. Meant to portray the imagine of my snow bunny and me happily skidding down a large ( but not too large) hill, heads back in mid-laugh stance, the title is a far cry from what really happened. What it should say is " AGGGGGGGHHHH!!" OR , if you prefer " Mommy! I wanna go home!"

Our friends, Jeanette and Ben , met us at McHattie park, the home of a great big hill. After two snow storms and a snow day from school, the hill was packed snow but felt more like a big down hill skating rink. After a partial run ( which ended with me , face first in the snow) I decided against " the real thing" , happy to assume that the rest of the hill is much colder and much faster. Mack slid down on her buns which was "kinda fun" but after a single venture down the less steep side of the hill with Ben, she was truly done sledding.

Mack and Ben found a deflated inner tube to test out. This was just prior to their accidental dismount:
The kids on the trek up the hill:
Mack atop Mount McHattie:
Ben and Mack played in the park, plummeting off the slide into snow drifts until Mack's toes ( and belly) screamed for warm air and warm food. Thankfully, McHattie park is next to Wendy's. Warm chili was just the thing we needed to thaw out!

Snowy Wednesday

Though we didn't get as much as predicted, we did wake up to about 7 inches of snow this Wednesday morning. I didn't even get past " Would you like to play in the sno--" before Mack had her snow boots on and was waiting at the door for me.


It was a light fluffy snow, not very good for snow man building:

But great for snow angels ( our favorite)
And of course, EATING!