a little fact about princesses

so, anna has started referring to herself as "princess" about half of the time. "mom! princess is awake!" "princess wants cereal." it's really funny and cute.

when nate got home today, I started to tell him about another of the cute princess anecdotes. here's exactly what I told nate:

so, today anna said to me, "princesses don't wear diapers." and I said {with a bit of attitude}, "oh really? well, what does it look like I'm doing here?"

nate looked and me and said, "you wear diapers? AND you're a princess? well, that's TWO things I learned about you today that I never knew!"

yeah, I neglected to mention at the start of my story that I was changing Anna's diaper at the time of my conversation with her. it was ANNA'S diaper I was referring to. I swear!

all night long, whenever I think about the line "what does it look like I'm doing here?" I start laughing uncontrollably. I wonder how long it will take for me to get over it...

A Winter Walk on the Beach

love these girls

Anna burps. Says to Nate, "Oh! I wasn't expecting that!"

Nate comes and tells Jane and Cate. Cate starts laughing really hard and says, "That was the silliest thing I could ever heard."

cute 2-year-old talk

I just pulled some corn muffins out of the oven. anna walked into the kitchen, smelled the air and said, "mmm, the muffins smell good. I can almost taste them!"

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Could I ask for anything more for my birthday? Two beautiful daughters and a chocolate cake? Nope, I couldn't.

kid talk

cate told me in the car yesterday that she can "snip" and then showed me how to snap. I love that she still says snip. and she also stills says "stirsty" instead of "thirsty" - I'll be sad when she starts pronouncing everything correctly, which will probably be pretty soon...

anna and I got out of the car the other day and a dog barked across the parking lot. anna exclaimed, "oooohhh! the doggie burped!" which is when I discovered that she thinks the word "bark" is "burp" - love it.

little things

little thing #1:

I'm cleaning up the apartment right now. picked up a piece of artwork from school. on the back it says "the cate." totally made me laugh.

little thing #2:

a little factoid so the "punch line" of this story makes sense: anna and cate each have a 'my little pony' toy car given to them by my mom this summer....that they LOVE. okay, on to the story.

anna has bad dreams maybe 1 or 2 times a month. I have always wondered what a 2-year-old nightmare is made of. this morning she woke up crying and upset super early. I went in to get her and in her half-asleep state she was saying over and over again, "I want my blue pony car! I want my blue pony car!" I loved that little insight into her scary dreams. what a sweet, innocent little mind.

Facebook Follow-Up Vol. 1 - And Cate Plays Soccer!

So, I feel like Facebook ends up being our primary means of updating family and friends of the latest goings-on in the Maynard family. But, well, those status updates are short. AND I feel like they just disappear into the ether at some point and any memory we try to capture is gone. So, I'm going to start doing some Facebook Follow-Up posts, so we can give a bit more detail on something...but mostly because I want to capture those moments for good.

Nate's Facebook Status on September 14, 2010:

Cate just told me all the boys in her class like her and Maya. I kinda don't want to think about this.

This statement by Cate is in fact true. I've witnessed it with my own eyes. There is one little boy named Otis who several times now comes running up when he spots Cate. And just sort of hangs around, smiles at me and her, etc. It's super cute. Well, it was cute until Nate posted this status. And now we know it's not just Otis. Which is a little terrifying. Sure enough, the other morning, Cate was trying to sit quietly waiting for the bell and this other little boy kept following her from bench to bench. So funny. But, seriously, I can only imagine what life will be like in 10-15 years time. {Shudder}

Jane's Facebook Status on September 17, 2010:

sooo...I have an agent, like a totally legit and awesome agent from a totally legit and awesome agency in new york. to write a cookbook. who's life is this anyway?

This is crazy talk, right? An agent from ICM in NYC contacted me a few weeks ago about representing me to write a cookbook. After the initial shock and a bit of research, we scheduled a call. And she was awesome. When talking with her, I found out she represents a friend of a friend, who gave a glowing review of the agent. So, I told her yes and now it's time to write a proposal! I'm excited. And terrified. But excited. I've been thinking about a cookbook forever, and this was the kick in the pants I needed to get it going. I know not where this road will lead us, but I'm just going to try to hang on and enjoy the ride. That is, once I come out of shock.

Jane's Facebook Status on September 18, 2010:

anna's new thing after she toots or burps. Anna: "Who tooted? {Pause} Oh, I think I tooted. {Laughter}" Every time. Never fails.

This Facebook update is the reason I wanted to write this post. I don't want to forget this little Anna-ism. It's so stinking funny. Since we're talking funny Anna-isms, her other new thing is to go "Hunh?" to everything. I'm going to have to pay attention for examples.

And some pictures for the grandmothers.

Last Saturday was the first day of soccer. Cate did awesome. And loved it.

Here she is, ready for the big game!

Anna insists in dressing in "soccer" clothes, so we just dig around and try to find something that looks uniform-ish. Here's what we came up with last week - a NJ Nets jersey and a pair of Cate's shorts.

Cate was literally smiling the whole time she was playing. It was the cutest thing.

And she scored at least 4 goals...here's one of them! Go Cate!

The Many Faces of Anna Maynard, Preschooler

Here she is. Our preschooler. Anna Maynard.

I love every single one of these pictures. Bottom row center - yeah, that's what 70% of the shots look like. The kid has timing...takes after Grandpa Hans, closing her eyes for every shot. Thankfully I took 2 million pictures, so we were able to get some pictures with her eyes actually open. ;)

Neither one of our girls are very clingy, but if you had to call one of them clingy it would be Anna. Last week I was pumping her up for starting school and she'd say, "I just want to stay with you, Mommy." So I was a little bit worried...there was no need. The girl was in HEAVEN. When we went to the open house last Friday, she actually got furiously mad when it was time to leave. When we took her to her first day yesterday, she could have cared less when we left her at school. That's just the way I like it.

It was SO cute when we were walking into her school. She's just walking, carrying her Thomas the Train lunchbox (which, by the way, just barely edged out the Spiderman lunchbox). As she got closer to the building, her pace quickened to a full-on run that nearly ended in a catastrophic collision with the gate. Thankfully, she recovered well. It was just so cute seeing her speed up the closer she got.

Here's the big girl all ready to go into her new classroom!

I think what she is most excited about is being able to paint. She keeps talking about it and it was one of the first things she did when we got to school.

I love preschool. It's so perfect for these little ones. Everything in the room is right at her level and exactly what she is interested in. From the fish tank to the little jars to the painting easel, it's heaven for Anna.

Anna, we love you! You're growing too darn fast...but we still love watching it happen.

the girls love each other

I just need to write a few things down that I don't want to forget about anna and cate and their sweet relationship.

anna is hating having cate in kindergarten. she frequently tells us that she misses cate, doesn't want cate to go, etc. yesterday she was really feeling it. she told me those things a few times. then, when cate got home, she left 15 minutes later for a play date. anna cried for a few minutes, and then told me she wanted cate to come back. it makes me sad that she's feeling such a hole, but thankfully she'll be starting her own preschool next week for 2 mornings a week, so that should help. but this really is an evolution in their life and relationship. after being together a LOT, they just aren't anymore...and won't be again. and anna is not happy about it. I'm SO grateful that this is how she feels...what a blessing to have her love her sister so much.

on cate's first day of school, the teacher had them draw self-portraits to hang on the wall, next to a photograph of themselves. when we went to back to school night and looked for cate's picture, we found and it just went "awwwww." there was a picture of her and anna standing outside together. are you kidding? she drew anna into her self-portrait? how sweet is that?

oh, and when they watch movies/tv together, they always sit RIGHT NEXT to one another. it is the cutest thing ever.

just now (and what spurred this post) cate said the cutest thing. it's morning, anna is still in bed. anna lost her two my little ponies this week and we've searched everywhere and couldn't find them. last night, when we were searching for something that I had lost, we found the ponies. nate set them on a bureau in the living room. so, cate gets up this morning, sees the ponies and says, "oh mom! I found anna's ponies." I told her, "oh, dad and I found them last night in the pocket of the thinking chair." cate said, "who put them there?" I said, "well, anna did." then cate said, "no she didn't." me: "well, did you?" cate: "no." me: "well, then it had to be anna, since none of us put them there." cate thought for a minute then said, "but anna usually doesn't forget!" okay, this may be a story just for me...but I just loved how cate feels like she knows anna so well, it was just the sweetest sentiment in our little conversation.

don't get me wrong. they have their squabbles. what siblings don't? but for the most part, they are thick as thieves...or sisters. :)

Kindergarten!

And just like that, Baby Cate is a Kindergartener! I know time flies, but seriously? Kindergarten?

Cate has been counting the days until the start of school. Yesterday we had the chance to go check out her classroom and meet her teacher Mrs. C. As Cate looked longingly around the room she exclaimed, "I wish today were tomorrow!"

As we walked to school this morning with Dad and Anna, I turned to Cate and said, "Well, tomorrow is today!" She was beaming with happiness.

As soon as they opened the door, she was in the room, I think maybe the first person in. By the time Nate and I could get into the room, she was already sitting at a table lacing a card. She was very focused, it was super cute. (Sidenote: A place where there are hundreds of crayons organized by color is going to be HEAVEN for Cate.)

We put Cate to bed last night at 8:00, 30 minutes past her bedtime. She laid in bed WIDE AWAKE until 10:30. She just couldn't fall asleep. Then she woke up on her own early this morning. She told me "I just don't want to miss the first day!" Cate and I decided the first day of Kindergarten is a lot like Christmas morning. Cate seriously felt just as excited for today as she does for Christmas morning.

I only started to tear up once during the drop off, but I was able to hold it in. See, you can't even tell that at this exact moment my eyes are full of tears.

Mrs. C gave each parent a little white bag as we left this morning. I started to read the note on the outside and immediately started crying, so I stopped reading and stuffed it into the back of the stroller for later. What a mean teacher. Just look what she wrote to us:

Dear Parents,

Here's a little gift for you as you leave your precious one with me on the first day of school.

As you hold this cotton ball in your hand {editorial note: this is where I stopped reading while at school. brutal.}, the softness will help you to remember the gentle spirit of your child.

After you've gone home and dried your tears {she included a tissue in the bag}, make yourself a hot cup of tea {tea bag also included}.

Put up your feet and relax.

Remember that together you and I will work for your child to be the best s/he can be.

Thank you for entrusting your child to me for this special year. I will do my very best every day to be a nurturing guide for learning about and exploring this bright new world called "school."

Sincerely, Mrs. C

I like this lady. A lot. She's going to be wonderful. And I'm not even mad at her anymore for making me cry. That was going to happen anyway, she just helped it along...and even gave me a tissue. :)

I actually didn't cry that much when I read the letter later. But then Anna and I sat down to read a book. She picked an Angelina Ballerina book, one of Cate's favorites. About one sentence in I totally lost it, could barely get any words out. Anna just looked at me, sucking her thumb, and put her little hand up on my shoulder. I just told her I missed Cate (which she had told me herself earlier) and that I love them both very much.

I just love our little girls.

P.S. This is what the little sister's hair looks like the first day of school for older sister. Think I was a little more focused on Cate, perhaps? At least Cate's hair looked smashing, even if Anna looks like Einstein's protege.

Jelly Belly Factory!

Since we only have one week of summer left, I decided it was time to finally drive a kabillion hours to take the girls to the Jelly Belly factory! We went today and had a perfectly fun and wonderful morning together. I wrote about it more on the food blog, but I had to post this picture on here because Anna just makes me laugh.

Our Brave Girl

A few months ago, Cate's classroom had a traveling Bug Exploration Lab come to their school with GIANT bugs. Cate was completely unphased.

In fact, when we were driving home that day I was going on and on about how big the bugs were. She said, "They weren't THAT big." I think she was expecting human-sized bugs or something, so rat-sized bugs weren't all that impressive. {Shivers}

things to remember

today is a post mostly for me...things I don't want to forget.

I love how anna pronounces the sound "K." there's a subtle "T" before every "K." Miltk. Yutcky. Nitkki.

I love how anna has started saying "huh?" at the end of various statements. "the dolly's sad, huh?" "they're clean, huh?" the "they" in that second statement is referring to her beloved spiderman pajamas. gotta love this girl.

cate is obsessed with Star Wars. she asks us questions about the plot all the time - detailed, thought-provoking questions. she watches the movies any chance she can get (which is far less than what she wants). she knows which movies are which - maybe not the titles, but she knows all 6 of them. she knows exactly which ones she's seen - in case you're wondering, she's seen all of star wars 1, 4 and 5. half of star wars 3 and 6, and none of star wars 2.

the best part of the star wars obsession is that she knows all the music and hums it to herself constantly. she even puts in the sound of symbols crashing. she really knows the music. and she has favorite songs. the best/worst part is that anna has even picked up on it. I catch anna humming the main song all the time now, too. you know the song, "duh-duh-duhhhhh duh, duh-duh-duh duhhhh duh, duh-duh-duh duhhhhh duh, duh-duh-duh duhhhhh"

for the record. nate and I are NOT obsessed with star wars. we have never attended a convention. I've only seen episodes 1-3 (are they even called episodes?) once.

both girls like to shoot us all the time now, with the cutest little sound effects. who knew violence could be so endearing?

another cute cate thing. a few weeks ago the recycling people came to cate's school to talk about recycling. when I picked cate up that day, her teacher was gushing about how cate knew the answer to EVERY question that the recycling guy asked, that he was very impressed with her. I'm sitting there thinking, "wow! she must have really been paying attention to how we recycle." so, when we got home later I said to Cate, "Wow, sounds like you did a great job talking about recycling today." To which she replies, "It's from my Wall-E game on my Leapster!" Thanks, Wall-E. I appreciate you stepping in to help fulfill my parental duties. Can you teach her to read while you're at it? Oh wait, you already did. Thanks! :)

2-Year Old Potty Humor

Anna just came over to me, made a raspberry noise with her mouth and said, "Who tooted?" and then laughed.

Wow, potty humor starts young, eh?

Anna's First Visit to the Dentist...and Funny Cate Stuff

Anna visited the dentist for the first time today. She did FANTASTIC. Her teeth are healthy and she totally cooperated with the hygeniest and the dentist. When the dentist walked in and looked down at her first thing she said was, "Oh my goodness, she is so cute! I'm keeping this one!" Then later in the appointment she said she would happily babysit our girls any time (she saw Cate yesterday, too). I just might take her up on it...if nothing else, the girls would have very clean teeth after a babysitting session! :)

Anyway, Anna did great. It was really really cute. She and Mr. Thirsty (the sucky thing) had an interesting experience together...it was pretty much a competition to see who could suck harder. Mr. Thirsty won. Barely.

Cate did great at the dentist yesterday too and has uberhealthy teeth. Good job, girls!

Two cute Cate comments from yesterday that I don't want to forget.

I checked her lunchbox to see if she'd eaten her lunch at school. The fruit snacks I had thrown in for a special treat were untouched. I asked her why she didn't eat them and she said, "Because they aren't healthy for your body." How about that? She and I had watched part of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution the day before. I'm also always talking about healthy food and I know they have been discussing fruits and veggies at school recently. I'm glad the message is sinking in and she even made a healthy food choice all on her own! What a cutie.

Later in the day we went to the park and she got a pretty nasty splinter that we couldn't get out. I told her that maybe we could wait until Dad got home to try again, maybe he would have a good idea on how to get it out. Cate said, "Yeah, because Daddy's smarter than you."

Jane's reply, "What? Why do you think that?"

"Because Dads are smarter than Moms."

Don't worry, I straightened her out. ;) Just kidding - but I DID tell her that I am smarter at some things, and Nate is smarter at other things. Nate said Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's smarter then me and that's that. (Arnold's signature is on his PhD degree. PhD Schmee-H-D.)

Sweet Sisters

what makes cate angry

yesterday for "communication" at preschool, the topic was anger. they were discussing how to handle angry feelings. the teacher was going around the room asking the children what makes them angry. the responses were all in the ballpark of "when my sister hits me" and "when my brother takes my toy."

when it came to cate, she said, "when I don't get my way." the teachers loved it. and, we all must admit, it's pretty right on for cate. the girl knows what she wants!

morning comments from the girls

this morning nate said to cate, "I like the trains going by." cate responded, "do you like the trains because they make your daughters happy?"

anna, said something equally as cute, but not quite so "awwwwww" inspiring. she received this purple striped sweater for christmas from someone in the family (any takers?).


I think it's adorable and try to dress her in it frequently. since Day 1 she gets mad whenever I put it on. I wasn't entirely sure why. but apparently she now has the words to express herself. today when I pulled it out of the drawer she told me, "sweater not pretty!" I wrestled it on her anyway. what does she know about pretty? she's two.

(post addendum - 5 minutes after I hit publish, guess who came and put a purple striped sweater on my desk?)

We moved!

We've been getting a lot of questions about where/why/when are we moving...so here's the skinny. We have moved across town just one mile from our now-old apartment and, starting tomorrow, will be managing 5 apartment buildings. Free rent plus cash was too hard to pass up...so here we are, Nate and Jane the Landlords. It should prove to be an "interesting" adventure, but we will be able to save a lot of money since we live in such a ridiculously-expensive place.

We moved yesterday and are currently buried in boxes. The girls like the new place - even though it's smaller, they love their room. It's a nice apartment, so we'll be good here (although we have to store about half of what we own to fit!). If our apartment were any closer to the train tracks we would get run over...Anna loves trains, so we thought she'd be in heaven. Turns out Cate is the one who runs to the window every time she hears the bells start ringing.

I need to go unpack so we can live like humans again. If you need our new address, I'll be sending an email out to friends and family, or you can email me. Hope to post some pictures and more fun stuff soon (my age-old, rarely-fulfilled family blog promise!).

the girls yesterday

Hannah gave this outfit to Cate, and she finally wore it WITH the scarf to school yesterday. It was so cute. I told her it was her "New York City" outfit and, to convince her to wear the scarf, I told her that this is just how Tia Hannah wears it. The trick worked. Although, when I picked her up at school the scarf was in her cubby. Nate asked her later why she took it off. She told us that when you leave it on to long it really starts to hurt, and it felt like it was choking her. It was a much more dramatic response than we were expecting. So funny.

(Cate bought the boots herself with a Target gift card she got for Christmas from Linda. She loves these boots. She slept with them for her nap and the first night she had them, since they hadn't been worn outside yet at that point. It was really funny.)

Here is Anna. She's too cool for school.

little things to remember

anna's new line "not it's not!" we don't really know where she got it and she uses it ALL the time. it's really really funny.

anna calls toiletpaper and papertowels "poo poo towels"

this morning cate was eating her breakfast and asked me if she had school today. when I said, "yes you do!" I could see her out the corner of my eye do a quiet little fist pump. it was just so cute and I love that she loves school so much.

cate snores. LOUD. (well, not as loud as, say, a grandpa...but loud for a 5 year old girl!)

Funny stuff

Just a few funny things Cate has said recently that I don't want to forget:

• This week we got together with our friends Aaron and Lindsay. Cate was wearing a black skirt with black knee-highs that had white stripes at the top of the socks. I had told her that Lindsay would like her socks. Sure enough, when Lindsay saw Cate she commented on how she liked her socks. When I was getting Cate in the car a few minutes later I said something like, "See, Lindsay did like your socks. They're so cool!" Then Cate asked me, "Is Lindsay a fan of cool things?"
  
• Last night we went to a New Year's party at Cate's friend Nathan's house (thanks to Rachel and Simon, Nathan's parents, for letting the kids turn their house into what looked like a frat house post-party!). When we got in the car to come home Cate said, "That was a fun party. Nathan always throws such nice parties."
• When Cate was getting ready for bed last night, Anna was making a fuss about her pajamas. I told Anna she couldn't change (I know, I'm so mean). Nate came in a few minutes later and told Anna she could switch PJs. Cate then said, "Mommies are the only ones who make the rules because they're the ones who buy the houses." While I thought that was pretty great, I did clear things up and told her Mommies AND Daddies make the rules together. Nate concluded that she thinks I'm the only one who works and that he's just going to school like her. She's so cute...and apparently a feminist.

Time for a few Anna tidbits.

• I don't let the girls play with my iPhone, but Nate lets them play with his. The other day I discovered that Anna had my phone, so I started to approach her and said, "Anna, that's my phone, please give it to me." She backed away telling me, "No, Daddy's phone! Daddy's phone!" Who knew she was so smart?
• Anna is the most cuddly kid ever. We LOVE it. It's seriously crazy how much she loves to snuggle and has no concept of personal space. It's the best.
• She says "I love you" all the time and loves to give Cate goodnight kisses.
• Anna LOVES the moon and says goodnight to it all the time. It is SO sweet when she's out looking for the moon.
• She is just such a delightful toddler...I think we say "She's so cute" at least 1000 times a day!
• She has the CRAZIEST sense of style. She's always accessorizing and has strong opinions about what she wants to wear. She can most often be found with a cute (normal) outfit buried beneath a skirt or two, a tutu and mardi gras beads.