Deep Creek Thanksgiving

What a wonderful week of hanging out with family. Maeve and Kaleigh loved seeing their cousins Madelyn, Nicholas, and Baby Jackson (not so much of a baby and a much better walker that Kaleigh). Some highlights included swimming, an early Christmas exchange, a fun outing to the Bear's Den for the mommies and daddies (thanks to the grandparents watching the 5 grandchildren!), hot tub hang outs, a yummy turkey dinner (thanks to Gma) and SNOW!
Kaleigh finally started walking more than crawling (I think she felt the pressure of keeping up with Jackson who is 2 months younger that her). Maeve pooped on the potty (but has seens regressed to not using it at all...UGH), I ruled in Wii Bowling (although Madelyn was tough competition) Jon and Brian had heated discussions about OSU and cars and Maeve fell in love with barbies.

Before I share a couple of Maeve and my crafts, I have to share a couple of my recent favorite Maeveisms

mom, sleep with me in second minutes.
mom, are you going to wear a life vest? (as she put on her regular fall vest to go outside)

and one for Kaka

"di" as she insists on dipping everything while we eat, over and over again she whines and gets frustrated unless we give her the plate of olive oil for the bread, the plate of ranch dressing for the carrots, the ketchup for the chicken.....and on and on. She is such a Calkins!

And now for the crafts.......

One of my recent cards

My latest hand painted baby gift (I had so much fun doing it)

Maeve's leaf from Little Bits, a weekly preschool-like class

Maeve's Thanksgiving card for Lolo and Papa (I was impressed b/c she did the turkey all by herself)

November already!

playing in a huge leaf pile outside our house a beautiful November day at Frying Pan Park.....Kaleigh was all into petting the animals while Maeve was a bit nervous. Maeve did get to feed a horse a carrot which was cool.

A cold day in November (a little unpredictable in temperature around here!)

Playful girls....it's great to see them play more and more together. They do best when I stay out of the room, otherwise, the frequency of tears escalates dramatically.

A quick but fun visit from Lolo and Papa. Maeve and Kaleigh were troopers and are finally at an age that I can enjoy going out to dinner again. We had a great meal at Bone Fish Grill. I highly recommend it!

Halloween 2009

My little giraffe Tigger at her best

Friends; Lucy, Maeve and Taylor

My girls!

Maeve is a girl after my own heart. (After taking an hour to convince her to put on her Tigger costume.) She was all into trick or treating. (who wouldn't be when there is chocolate involved). She would charge right up to the door (having to be reminded to say "trick or treat" and "thank you" and then be off on a mission to reach the next house (or should I say candy). We had to encourage her frequently to slow down and enjoy the experience and stay with her friend, Taylor. Kaleigh was a trooper and stayed up for the whole event that spanned almost 1 1/2 hrs. It was a great evening of friends and fun.

Kaleigh is 14 months old Maeve is 32 months

Some of Kaleigh's latest tricks include:
taking one or two steps before sitting down (finally!)
saying up and down for the slide (one of her favorite activities)
signing more, eat, all done and help
saying hi
saying mama and dada and maaa (for maeve)
saying baa for sheep
panting with her tongue out for dog (although she does this with a lot of animals)
she loves drawing
she loves playdoh
she loves feeding herself (and actually does pretty good)
she loves climbing stairs and is getting better at going down
she loves her push toy and walking with it
she loves her blankie and continues to be paci free!!! (unlike her older sister)

Maeve's latest tricks.....
counting to 20 in English
counting to 10 in Spanish
identifying M (for Maeve), K (for Kaleigh), A, B , and C (most of the time)
playing Diego inspired games (rescuing animals and people, looking for something then shouting it out if you see it etc)
feeding her sister
loving on her baby (she will be a great mom)
NOT getting dressed (although she can put on her pants, socks and shoes by herself, she just never WANTS to)
going pee pee in the potty (still have yet to overcome the fear of the "dropping the kids off" as Jonny likes to call it)
playing with the older kids in the neighborhood (Shanti, Heather and Emma are her favorites!)

Kaleigh's latest trick

Ka Ka wants so much to walk and is finally starting to stand independently at 13 months. She is so proud of herself!

Kaleigh's 1 year old check up

Growing another strong healthy girl!

Weight 24 lbs (90%ile)

Height 31 3/4 in (97%ile)

Head 90%ile

I can't even believe she is one. She is not walking yet but certainly likes to have you hold her hands. It's funny to watch her when she gets to a ledge. She starts anticipating it way before hand by extending her leg way up in the air. She learned how to give five and says "ah" with it.

Kaka trying to walk

The next Olympic runner....HA, and her assistant, Maeve Evelyn.

The simple things

Some days I still wonder if I made the right decision to drop down to one day a week at work. This week was a week that made me so happy about my decision. We went to Frying Pan Park to visit the animals. Maeve decided for the first time to name the animals (up until now, whenever we asked "what's your baby's/teddy bear's/doggie's name?", her response was "baby/teddy bear/doggie). Today, all by herself while we were looking at the mama pig, Maeve looks up at me and said, "His name is Feet!" She thought she was hilarious. Then later, while visiting the goats, I asked her, "What's his name?" She responded "White" (even though the goat was all black except for a small patch of white). While this is not quite as creative as her cousin Madelyn's first baby doll's name "Finga", it shows her imagination is continuing to grow. So this is why I celebrate the fact that I can be home day to day to see and enjoy these simple and small changes as she grows up.

Kaleigh's 11 months old

She's actually almost 12 months, which is crazy. She has changed so much the past few months. She is becoming her own person and showing us all the things she knows and understands. She surprises me all the time. Some of her current accomplishments......
-crawling everywhere
-wanting so bad to walk but so far from it. All she wants is for us to hold her hands so she can walk around
-squatting like a sumo wrestler
-cruising along the couch
-signing eat and all done
-saying mama, "o" (for uh oh")
-imitating other words like "done", dada, up
-shakes her head no and yes
-love putting toys in and out
-carry on "conversations" (I am convinced she thinks she is saying really important things)
-eating everything....some of your favorites are broccoli, black beans, mac and cheese, blueberries
-drinking from a sippy cup (that's what you prefer...you are ready to be weaned)
-dancing to any music you hear

Another month of summer gone by

Does anyone else wonder where the days go by? It has been such a busy fun summer. After finishing July with trips to the pool and meeting up with friends, we headed to Wrightsville beach on the first day of August (my birthday, which who wouldn't want a week at the beach with familiy for a present!). Maeve and Kaleigh had so much fun playing in the waves and mastering the pool (Maeve's able to swim on her own with wings and her favorite qoute is "move back boys" to clear the pool so she can jump in). Once home, Lolo and Papa came to visit. It was a busy weekend with trip to Totally Trucks, Frying Pan Park and a early birthday celebration for Kaleigh! (I CANT believe she is almost one!)

Frying Pan Park visit with Papa and Lolo

Lolo and Maeve at Totally Trucks Papa and the girls

The crab feast!

Uncle Dan's awesome sandcastle

Pooltime with the family

Gpa the best beach friend around!

A great week at Wrightsville beach

.)

A month of fun

We have had a busy month with a trip to Canada, a visit from Grandma and a wedding with lots of friends in town. It's been fun creating more memories with friends and family we love.



Kaleigh eating yummies at Lauroil Plaza I'll take a mojito

Let's go for a ride with Brennan and Ryder!

The boys at the wedding!

The beautiful bride and her entourage.

Maeve's favorite summer activity....she now jumps in and has no problem getting her face wet.

Kaleigh loves the water too!

On of our favorite hang outs....Frying Pan Park

Saying hello to the horses

The whole gang in Moosecall Canada

Happy 4th of July...Maeve was a little scared of the sparklers!

Our transportation to Moosecall....the girls loved the airplane ride, Finn....not so much!

Mealtime with the gang....go Oma for cooking!

After a cold bath in the lake

Kaleigh actually liked the cold water!

Hanging out at the boathouse

Maeve's first boat ride....she loved it!