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Before I had Maxine my biggest fears would be concerns over breaking rules or not working hard enough for my boss or if there was something behind me in the ocean that I could not see.
Once I had Maxine my biggest fears were over wether or not I could be a mom, could take care of her, was I ever going to sleep again?
Somehow over time that has changed and now all my previous fears pale in comparison. My new fear can grip me and instantly give me a cold sweat: now my biggest fear is that for some reason I could not be in her life. What if something happened and I could not be Maxine’s mother, if we were separated for some reason? It destroys me to think that I would not be the one in her life to love her and put her down for naps, and watch Mickey Mouse with her, to wrap Momma Hoppy up in a blanket or to tickle and kiss and love her! I did not know you could love something so completely and utterly that you fear being taken out of their lives so fiercely.
On this Mothers Day I am so happy that I am the one she calls Mom and could not be more thankful for the blessings, smiles and love from my little girl and am grateful that my biggest fear int he whole world is not being her Mom.
When we were at the beach Maxine would work up quite an appetite during the day with all the playing/swimming. One night she ate two bowls of spaghetti for dinner – at the end of the meal she lifted her shirt, patted her belly and told us “I have a baby Sarah!”.
3
Last week, Dave, Maxine and I headed to the beach for our first ever nuclear family only vacation! We headed down to Panama City Beach and stayed in a wonderful condo right on the beach with a heated pool, lazy river, indoor water park and toddler splash area. When we first got there the weather was a little chilly and we were happy to have the heated pool but by the end of the week the water was warm and the weather was perfect and we had a wonderful, wonderful time – here are pictures as proof:
She played her first round of mini golf!
We could not get Maxine out of the pool – she was in there for over 3 hours a day!
We loved to pose for pictures on the beach!
2
As most of you know Dave and I believe in education (which is partially why it has been so quiet here – I have been working on getting a paper out). Just how to educate our children is something we regularly debate – from private vs public schooling to experiences that we feel are important for them to have in life. We both believe strongly in parental support and continuation of any education option we select.
But what we did not realize what that all of this would become important so soon. This coming Fall we are planning on having Maxine start pre-school. At first I was excited about her starting school. Then we had to find a school that we could agree upon. Dave was a large proponent of the Montessori method and after speaking to friends that had their children enrolled in Montessori as well as themselves having been through the system I was not opposed. The Montessori method has a lot of positives that I felt Maxine would work well with her personality, especially being in mixed age classes as I strongly feel she surges when around older children. But loving traditional school it was hard to make that commitment. Then I toured a school that was AMAZING – she would start learning Mandarin Chinese at age 2, they taught Zumba as part of the PE curriculum, their kindergarteners were reading at grade 1 or 2 level and the children tested into any private school and got place in TAG programs in public school. They even wore school uniforms!! But it is not the right fit for us at the moment.
Finally after touring the two accredited preschools near us we have decided to go with Mount Pisgah. I am very excited about the school, curriculum and teachers. I think Maxine will have a wonderful experience at the school. The most important thing for Dave and I was that the school would be fun and instill a desire to learn in Maxine. To us this is more important than the schools average test results and reading levels. We loved the fact that during music the kids get to run around and have fun for part of the lesson, that they have a science lab with a lizard and a hypoallergenic bunny, that there is take your dad to school night.
As excited as I am – I still question if we have selected the right school – most of her friends in the area are attending the other school. So should we have enrolled her where her friends would be? Still more doubts arose: would benefit more from staying home with mommy and having the flexibility to enroll in other activities like swimming, gymnastics, music etc instead of just going to preschool? Maybe because I am pregnant it all became extremely stressful. I think deciding on a college for myself was less stressful than deciding on a preschool for Maxine. What is the best option for our child and us as family? Then we have to consider the fact that we have a second on the way – does sending Maxine to preschool give me more one on one time with the new baby? And does this apply if I go back to work?
Hopefully we have made a good decision and Maxine will have a wonderful time at her new school in the Fall and start on a solid path that will lead to a desire to learn throughout life. She already talks about going to school and wants to go to school so I think the transition won’t be too traumatic. We will see when the time comes.
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Maxine and her cousin, Olivia, get to play together quite often and are becoming great friends. Maxine jumps up and down when she sees Livie arriving to play.
This past week Kulu and I took them to a lovely park in downtown Norcross that a friend had introduced me to. I love the park as the equipment is sized just for them.
We had not planned on them wearing coordinating outfits but it made for a cute picture.
The girls loved the slides and swings:
Of course the highlight was the train coming by – which Maxine will tell you ”It was a big one!” and was “Very Loud!”
(I hope you know the reference above to Magical Trevor – and hopefully the tune will not be stuck in your head for the next day).
Two weeks ago I was in charge of our preschool/playgroup activities and decided to go with the theme Spring. Well the kiddos had spring fever and we quickly abandoned the activities to play outside.
One of the activities was to talk about how plants grow in the spring and to look at some beans I had “planted” in the window (I really liked the contact paper way of growing beans as you can feel the roots and shoots under the paper and see the whole plant). I started this project a week before class thinking we would have a great showing and when class came – it looked like I had just stuck some beans on the window – I was so disappointed.
So I decided to pour some extra water in and see what happened.
Well this past Friday this is what we had on our window:
Some happy, happy lima beans!
Dave and Maxine have moved them into little containers and we will see how they grow. I suspect they won’t last long as Maxine will keep watering them until they float right out of the soil!
My sweet niece Olivia turned 2 this past week and we got to celebrate with her over the weekend. She had a wonderful Mickey Mouse themed birthday party with lots of attention to detail!
Here are a few (because our camera ran out of batteries) snapshots of the fun.
Isn’t the birthday girl a cutie!
Maxine loved the lollipops and is still asking for them!
This weekend we spent a lot of time working on the yard and getting ready for the spring. Although Maxine does not care too much for the flower planting – she loves to water them with her little watering can!
Her favorite part by far was going to Pike Nursery though – we could not get to leave. She even tried to hide herself in the rows and rows of flowers so that she could stay longer. Luckily someone there was watering flowers and let her jump in the puddles and that is how we got her out.
1
Maxine LOVES bugs! When we read a book with a picture of a bug in it – we have to stop and talk about the ant, grasshopper, butterfly etc. When she sees bugs outside she gets super excited.
She wants all of them to crawl all over her – from ladybugs:
To earthworms (or wiggly wormy as she calls them)
and she could not be happier!
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