Our new puppy!

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!