Speaking of Snakes

Okay, so the other day I (Jeff) was out doing some errand and Emily got the bright idea that she would clean up the deck of our house. The deck had to be cleaned up because it had several wood boards, two-by-fours, and other items that I had left there after finishing a project in the basement. When she moved one of the larger boards away from the house, to her surprise she found a snake (as pictured), who had made a leafy home on the deck.

Of course, when I got home, I got an earful about cleaning up after myself, and to be honest, I felt very, very sorry about what had happened. Emily seemed to take the discovery in stride (she did get the camera and take a picture of it). Although her first estimate on the snake's size may have been a bit outlandish (she told me it was "approximately 12 feet," I think at most it may have been 4 feet with its tongue sticking out) she simply scooped the snake up in the dust pan and "threw it away" (whatever that means). Emily is a very smart woman, but I did have to point out how stupid it was for a pregnant woman to pick up a snake she knew nothing about. I have to admit though, I was also impressed. I think if I had found it, I would have screamed like a little girl, run away, and never returned to that area of the property again. As it is, I have vowed to never mow the lawn again--you just never know when there may be a snake in the grass.

Williamsburg and Grandma

When Mia was little she spent every Monday and Wednesday with one of her two grandmas while I went to work. Overtime, needing a way to differentiate between the two she gave them labels based on the most significant things that they owned at their homes. Jeffrey's mom became "Santa Grandma" because she owned a Barney Christmas movie that featured an early Barney who looks like he has been exposed to radiation and a rapping Santa -- if you have never seen it, be grateful! My mom became "Macky Grandma" because she had a dog named "Mac." In any case, it stuck.

When "Santa Grandma" came to visit right before Mother's Day you would have thought it was Santa coming to our house. We counted down the days, barely could get the girls to sleep that evening, and then they awoke at 6am and remembered Grandma was supposed to be arriving while they were asleep, ran downstairs to wake her up. We also had Auntie Jessie visiting, which is always fun. Maggie called her "Jenna" for the first few days, and after that would periodically call her "Jenna" just so Jessie would get frustrated and say, "That's not my name!"




We decided to take a couple of "Mini-trips" this summer when we had family in town, and so early Friday morning we drove a couple of hours down to Williamsburg. We spent day 1 at Busch Gardens and had a great time. The girls LOVED the rides, Jeffrey and Jessie braved the Griffin roller coaster, and we got drenched at least three times.









After dinner we got to the resort where we were staying at 9:45, but this did not slow down Mia and Maggie. Grandma and Jessie took them swimming that night until 11 pm! Then, they were up and back at the pool with Grandma and Dad the next morning before we checked out at 10 am. (I think that they had looked forward to the swimming more than any of the other activities.)

Saturday we spent the day in Colonial Williamsburg. Grandma bought both the girls aprons and hats so they could look "authentic" while we visited the historic sites and buildings. During our tour of the Capitol Building's House of Burgesses, Maggie almost knocked over the one original item they still had (since there had been a big fire in the 1800's) the original speaker's chair and spit out peppermint Tums (the one thing I had to give her, which she liked in the beginning) all over the floor. My two year old clearly needs more training on etiquette in such circumstances! We ran out of time to do all we wanted there, and never even made it to Jamestown, so we will be planning another trip again soon.






We finished the evening with a picturesque picnic on the banks of the James River. We had so much fun, and only wish that Santa Grandma could have stayed longer!

Teasing and Snakes

Growing up my mom had certain stories she would tell to teach certain lessons, and when it came to teasing, there was only one standard: Melody and the snake. (I was always on the receiving end of the teasing, so this story was applicable to me -- I do not recall that there was ever a similar parable given to my brothers who were on the perpetrating end, but perhaps I never heard it.)

Melody was my mom's roommate from college, and growing up she had a younger brother who would tease her incessantly, chasing her around the house with reptiles and bugs just to listen to her scream. One day, Melody's brother approached her with a new snake. Instead of running in terror, Melody simply said, "Cool, can I hold him." And, she did. She held and touched the snake and then returned it to her brother. According to my mom's version of the story, Melody's brother never tormented her again.

Having grown up with this story woven through my childhood (and never having successfully implemented the principles of not reacting and complaining about being teased myself) I find it interesting that Maggie has discovered the perfect way to tease her sister lately. She looks right at Mia and says, "Lala, I snake" with a little grin on her face and then makes a series of hissing noises. Without fail, Mia responds by screaming and running away from the "snake." This game is repeated quite frequently and always with the same result. Apparently Maggie just can't resist doing something she knows will make her sister scream. And, Mia, well Mia has yet to learn from the Melody story, and given how much she smiles while running away in "terror" I wonder if she ever will!

April at the Merchants

I am not certain where the last month has gone. It is all a bit foggy for me, and for anyone trying to stay updated through our blog -- well the last month has literally been a blank. So, I thought I would recap some highlights of what happened in April at the Merchants.




DANCING IN THE RAIN
It is spring in full force with temperatures ranging from the fifties to the eighties. Overnight it seemed that everything around us turned green and our home is once again blanketed with in a canopy of leaves. In Virginia this also means lots of rain. Mia and Maggie LOVE the rain. They are impervious to the discomfort of being cold or wet and will run outside to puddle jump and soak themselves as often as I will let them during a storm. We will never be able to level out our driveway since right now it creates perfect spots for pooling water and gigantic splashes!




MAKE NEW FRIENDS, BUT KEEP THE OLD...
We enjoyed a visit from our good friends the Novacs. The Novacs lived three doors down from us in Salt Lake City, and early on my girls discovered a bastion of welcoming friendship at their home. They would constantly invite themselves into the sandbox in the backyard or to swing on the swings at any time of the day (and often while still wearing their pajamas). We loved having good friends so close, and literally available to chat with and play with when we walked out our front door. We have truly missed the Novacs since moving in August.

It was very fun to have them stay with us here. Mia and Cristina had many adventures to catch up on. They had to hide from witches, go exploring, be wild horses, and a host of other pretendings that I never figured out. They also rehearsed and directed ALL the rest of us in a theatrical production.

Maggie, early in her life, found a way into Giny's and Andrei's hearts and was delighted for them to return to admire her shoes and "squeeze" her. In fact, when the Novacs were loading in the car to leave Maggie asked, "Where everybody go?" I told her they had to leave and go back to their house, to which Maggie replied, "No stay dis house. Stay dis house." When they didn't, she got mad and refused to say goodbye.

We are having to readjust again to the boring life we live without the Novacs nearby.


MIA'S WORLD
About a week ago I drove through McDonald's for Happy Meals for the girls on the way home from an errand and an evening where I was running out of time. They got these horrid, plastic "American Idol" toys that played music. Mia said to me, "Mom, when I am on American Idol, what song would I sing?" "Well," I replied, "You should sing whatever you really like." Then after a pause for some thought, Mia said, "Could I sing a church song?" I tried to explain that people usually don't sing primary songs on American Idol, but she should sing her favorite song if she was ever on the show. Thinking the message had soaked in well, and knowing Mia has a broad repertoire from which to select, I then queried, "So what would you sing on American Idol?" Without missing a beat Mia replied, "I am a Child of God, of course -- or maybe Scripture Power." All I can say is: watch out David Cook; who can refrain from voting for a rock version of Scripture Power?

Mia has been on a constant search lately for a new pet. First, she caught and carried into the house a large, gray moth, which she named "Greya." (Mia loves to name things the color they are plus a "y" or an "a" at the end. When we first adopted Lucy it took awhile to convince her that "yellowy" was not a fabulous name for the dog.) Anyway, she took Greya to her room and built a house for her atop her dresser using doll house furniture. She picked some grass and put it in her window sill for the moth to eat. Then, after watching her sit on the window for a couple of hours, and running around the house stating, "I can't believe I have a pet like Greya!" she decided to play with her. Mia grabbed the moth by the wings and began running and dancing with her. Jeffrey found them; Greya's wings tattered shreds at this point, and insisted the most humane choice was to re-release Greya to the wild. Mia was very sad at the loss of her pet. It was only days later that she found a small, blue bird's egg in the front grass and brought it in. It had a small crack, and clearly was never going to hatch. But, I could not convince Mia of this fact. She built and decorated a castle home in the basement for her new baby bird, which she is planning to feed with a miniature bottle. It still has not hatched. But, I am just bracing for the next critter from nature that she tries to adopt.

The last thing to take over Mia's world lately has been an obsession with the Chronicles of Narnia. I had determined we should wait a couple of years for these stories, since they are rather intense. But, Mia got an abridged version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in a kid's meal at Chik-fil-A. (Okay, so when two of my stories are related to feeding my kid's fast food -- which normally I do quite rarely -- well, I have to think something is non-functional in my life!) She was so enthralled by the pictures and asked so many questions about the story and was so persistent about wanting every detail, we finally determined to just read them to her. In the past two weeks, she and Jeffrey have finished two books and are half-way through the third. It has been making bedtime a very exciting and anticipated event. The problem is that nearly every night she cries before bed because Jeffrey won't read to her for more than an hour! I also wish I could listen in on the conversations she tells me she has with friends at school when she is setting up the blocks and explaining that they are the four thrones that must be defended on Cair Paravel.


CAN YOU SPEAK "MAGGIE"?
Maggie communicates quite well, but there are several important phrses that could confuse the general public. So, I thought I would provide a short lexicon for those interested in speaking "Maggie."
Nae-Nake: Naked
Lala: Mia
Bebe: Blanket, specifically the pink and purple one Nama made for Christmas
De Up-Down: Upstairs or downstairs (This can be a bit confusing if you ask Maggie where she left her "bebe" and she says "up-down." You then have to search both upstairs and down.)
Louie: Lucy, the dog
Ews: Shoes
Ocks: Crocs shoes or socks (We had a long misunderstanding related to the intention of this word just the other day.)
Noo-Noes Cookd: Macaroni and Cheese, or really any other type of pasta (and, for the record, I don’t usually feed her noodles, uncooked)

Maggie has a habit of leaving off the ends of words when she speaks. Which gives rises to several important phrases:
Pocks: Pockets (Maggie is always delighted when her clothing includes these.)
Buck: Buckle (This is usually accompanied by the word "No," since Maggie prefers to not be buckled into high chairs, grocery carts, or her car seat. "No buck!")
Butt: Button (This gives rise to my favorite Maggie phrase of late: "Tummy Butt," which is her belly button. She loves to show anyone ready to admire her "Tummy Butt.")

Finally, the number one most used phrase in Maggie's vocabulary is "Me too." This follows any request, plan, or idea that her sister Mia has or anything that we may say to Mia. Maggie is determined not to be left out. "Me too. Me too. Me too."