Today, three year old MacKenzie and I had a neat conversation about "holy" and God. We have never talked about God with her. She saw our garden sculpture of a monk stored away for the winter in our carriage house. She asked what it was. I told her "It's a monk". She asked what a monk is. I said the monk is a holy man. She asked what holy is. I had a hard time figuring out where to start. My first thought was to ask a question back. My question was "So you know God, right?" and her answer was "Yes. Yes I do." Reminder...we've NEVER addressed this thought before. I proceeded to say that a holy person is someone who has a relationship with god and helps others with their relationship with God. I always ask her if the things I relate make sense, and when I did, she answered with a matter-of-fact "yes".

My sense of God is very different than most people's definition, I believe. I love that MacKenzie is connected with the thought and energy of Divinity, without the interruption of the dogma of others. There will be that, of course, as we live in a very diverse world with many paths to the Divine. Until then, I will watch and learn from my beautiful daughter as she wonders at the gifts of living with Divinity all around her.

Ah Ho, Namaste and Blessed Be.

Princess Party

Yesterday, we took MacKenzie to our friend Jess' little girl's first birthday party. We had a lovely time! MacKenzie made a new friend named Allie. They had fun playing. MacKenzie got to sit with a lot of fun people. She talks to everyone she meets, and she gives her hugs freely!

We got to see just how small the world is yet again at the birthday party! One of the people that MacKenzie was talking to and hugging turned out to be our neighbors from when I was a little girl! Ron & Patty Lambert were some of my favorite people when I was little. I used to go to their house after school a lot. Patty taught me how to count in German! MacKenzie took to her just as easily as I did. It makes me wonder just how in tune to shared memories children might be!

MacKenzie had fun playing "Pin the Tiara on the Princess"! She got a goodie bag of prizes for playing. Everyone was a winner! In her goodie bag was her very own lemon flavored lip balm...she was SO excited to have her own "lipstick"!

We had Ava's 3rd birthday party last weekend, Baby EEEE-vaa's (as MacKenzie calls her) party yesterday, and Ryott's 2nd birthday party at the end of March! 'Tis the season to party!

Party on, Princess MacKenzie!

Drawing Faces

Today, MacKenzie had another big "first"! She was drawing on her new (new to her, anyway...we bought it at a thrift shop!) "My Little Pony" magnetic drawing board/book. She drew eyes, a nose and a mouth! She said what she was drawing with each step. She drew the pony's face!

She amazes me every day. I can't believe how much she has grown...her personality, as well as her body!

We bought her some 4T clothes today, and they fit! Some were a little too big, but not by much! And she is only 2 years and 3 1/2 months old!

She had a big-girl lunch date with her Pop, David, and his fiance Peggy. We all went to a funeral of a family friend this morning. Afterwards, we stopped (by coincidence) at the same restaurant for a bite to eat. MacKenzie sat with Pop at his table and ate her lunch without her Momma and Daddy! I was proud of her, and of Pop too! What a fun thing to watch...and I got to eat my lunch without interruptions!

Julia would have loved to see MacKenzie at this stage. She only got to see her once when she was a little baby.

I will go to sleep tonight, loving life just a little more, and knowing that Julia made all of our lives richer. Her legacy is strong: facing life's difficulties with grace and loving life completely...her father described it as "pedaling all the way downhill"...I hope that I can pass that affirmation of "living out loud" on to MacKenzie. Thank you, Julia.

Tiptoes and Music

Today, MacKenzie is happily bouncing around on her tiptoes! She has been playing her pink recorder, moving her fingers up and down like she is really playing! One note, in many different lengths streams out from the recorder...music to this mama's ears! She looks like a little naked sprite, dancing and swaying, reaching high up on her toes, and bending low to the ground while she plays. Blissful! Her eyes sparkle, and she is so joyful when she is singing, dancing, and playing music.

MacKenzie put on a pair of her "big girl panties" diaper cover/bloomers all by herself this morning! She was so proud of herself. I was very proud too!

She also proved that she could open a container of yogurt all by herself and spoon it (very successfully, I may add!) into her mouth, unaided by her mother! I guess she was just too hungry to wait for me to get to the breakfast table! We are having an unorthodox day...just doing whatever we feel like...no schedules or chores...just enjoying being together and doing silly stuff. I think we all should do that more often.

Baby on Wheels!

Well, the day has come. My baby is mobile on wheels! She got a bicycle with training wheels for Easter, and we finally got a helmet for her. She rode her bike for the first time on Sunday. Daddy was in charge, and Mommy and Grammy stood by and watched her on her first ride down the block. I didn't know whether to cry or shout "hooray"! I did fine until she wobbled...Daddy caught her...she didn't have far to go because the training wheels do their job quite well. I just know that concrete is VERY hard. I didn't want there to be blood on her first day in the saddle!

MacKenzie has a great vocabulary now. She tries to say everything we say. Her favorite thing to do is take a bath, and she is VERY vocal about it! She says so many words verbally and in ASL that I can't even keep up with it. We are saying sentences with ASL to her, and she is doing great with that. She uses two signs together a lot now. Her best one..."more please"!
MacKenzie has found a love of all sorts of food. Well, except strawberry shortcake! She's turned her nose up at that twice now. That's ok by me...all the more for me! She loves hummus, green beans, asparagus, pizza, cheeseburgers, tea, blueberries, onions, black olives, tomatoes, and a lot more. She will dip any food into ANY kind of sauce! Catsup, mustard, Ranch dressing, you name it!
We have been gardening a bit this year. MacKenzie likes to dig in the dirt and she loves to move rocks around! She loves rocks! She tried to get in the pond on Mothers' Day, in her pretty shoes and dress (she got her foot all wet), so we decided to take out the pond for a while. In its place (hopefully) will be a raised bed for sunflowers and other pretties.


My mom has moved in to our house now, and MacKenzie loves spending time with her. We end each night in Grammy's bedroom, watching Fraggle Rock and other favorites. MacKenzie asks for Fraggle Rock by name...it sounds a bit like "wah-wah"!

She also asks to wear her fairy wings a lot. She puts them on and says "whee!" and spins in circles and pretends to fly all over the house. Too cute! We have been to two fairie festivals this year already, and she has had some serious fun. Two of her favorite friends, Sydney and Katie, played with her at the Maryland Fairie Festival for HOURS! MacKenzie even got to dance to the music of one of our favorite performers, Jenna Greene. It was beautiful! I am still trying to find out if anyone got video of it...it was adorable!

I am looking forward to this summer...I wonder what adventures it will bring?

Opinions!

Well, MacKenzie now has lots of opinions, now that she can nod yes and no! Today I asked her if she wanted eggs for lunch, because that's what I always do..."ok, it's time for lunch...do you want some eggies?" Needless to say, we didn't have eggs today! I changed my tactics and said "ok, I'm going to make some soup for lunch!" We had a lovely lunch, and now, Momma has learned her lesson.

MacKenzie is now tall enough to hold my hand and the handrail and walk down the steps like a big girl! She is 15 months old, and is wearing 2T clothing. Whew! It's hard to keep up with her growth spurts! She grew 2 inches between 12 & 15 months. She only has one pair of pink shoes that fits her perfectly...her boots are WAY too big and fall off when you pick her up, and her lavender fairy Robeez are still a little too big. She can wear both of them, but they are not ideal. Maybe shoe shopping is in our future this weekend!

Where Does The Time Go?

Wow...has it been over a month since I have blogged? Where did that time go?

Oh, that's right...the holidays happened!

Shortly after the last blog, Mom moved in to our house temporarily. She was having some work done at the house, and it turns out that she needed to have surgery at the same time. All is well now, but it was a crazy December!

MacKenzie is loving having her Grammy here at the house with her. I like it too...Mom is very helpful with her. She watches her sometimes while I get stuff done around the house. It's very convenient!

We had a great Christmas with Mom here. We had Christmas morning in her room (the living room + her bed and stuff!). MacKenzie got lots of stuff from Santa, and family across the country in several directions!

Santa brought MacKenzie a snow suit and a ball pit...and lots of little goodies too.

We got to spend time with family and friends, which was great. Boy, can those girls run around! Ava got a Thomas riding train from Santa, and MacKenzie got to ride on it. The girls are getting so big!!!!! They can ride all by themselves.

We even made cookies with Ava...guess how long it took MacKenzie to sneeze all over a whole tray of cookies?

MacKenzie got the chance to wear her snowsuit once already. How cute was she, falling all over the place in her powder blue marshmallow snowsuit?!? She even went down her sliding board into the snow. So much winter fun!

MacKenzie's vocabulary is growing. Both signing and verbally. She repeats ANYTHING! She's said Grammy, Jack (Uncle Jack will be so happy!) horse, hot, juice, teeth, ball; she even said "Daddy, I love you" the other day! Now if I could just get her to call me Mommy instead of Daddy! She does call me Mom, but often says Daddy instead. She can sign mom & dad, mouse, cracker, please, bear, and her favorite is monkey!

MacKenzie gets her teeth brushed now. We do the first part, and then she finishes up with the brushing by herself. Such a smart young lady!

She builds with her Megablocks, but she really prefers to pull them apart after Mommy puts them together. Ava has introduced her to Care Bears, and now we don't go very far without one. Ava also introduced her to Strawberry Shortcake...those movies are so very sweet! (Almost too sweet!)

MacKenzie eats with a fork and spoon. Sometimes more effectively than others! She hardly ever lets us help her eat her dinner, after she has gotten her utensils moving. Luckily for Mommy, she lets me help her over breakfast, as long as Sesame Street is on to keep her distracted. Otherwise, she surely wouldn't get enough to eat...the utensils are just not quite effective yet!

We are looking forward to Ava's second birthday in a couple of weeks. I can't believe that it has already been two years since I became pregnant with MacKenzie...time has been speeding by so fast...I hope I don't miss anything!