Does anyone still ready this?

Every once in a while, someone will bring up our blog and either ask whether we've updated it, or tell me they're following it. My canned response is, "Yeah, I haven't updated it in a while but I plan to soon." That's kind of the truth, but sort of a lie. In my head what I'm thinking is, "Do you really think I'm that interesting and will you even notice if I don't update it?" Regardless of how that question is answered, the truth is that I would love to be more diligent about this blog for the sake of my family and girls. But damn Facebook and it's instant gratification interferes with blogging and makes it seem about as old school as writing a snail mail letter.

Nonetheless, I'm standing here in my kitchen on this fine Tuesday a.m., hammering out a quick post while the girls sleep. We're approaching July 4th - a favorite holiday in this house. For me, because it means family and friend time, for Jake, because it means explosives. So he was up bright and early and is out in the yard attacking the very overdue landscaping that needs serious help. We moved in over a year ago and were beyond overwhelmed by all the flower beds (I don't even know if that's what you call them, they're honestly more like gardens), shrubbery, and odd trees. So today and tomorrow Jake will be doing Sherman yard surgery, in prep for our annual party on Friday.

The girls are keeping busy this summer and lil Miss Maya has been giving us a run for our money and a glimpse of the temper she's got. It's a tad disturbing sometimes, to be honest. Layla is as sweet as ever, and always looking for the next big thing. "What are we doing today?" is her favorite question. Needless to say, play dates are our favorite thing right now. Next week she'll hit Camp Y-Coda for Pioneer Camp.

Over the next week or so we'll be prepping for a week long trip to Gig Harbor, WA. Just Jake and I. No kids. Yep, I said it. No kids. Both sets of grandparents will take a turn with kiddos while we're gone. I'm so very excited for the trip, but the anxiety has set in. Prep work is in full go with organizing the house, making sure the kids' laundry is done, food is prepped, guests are taken care of.

Never a dull moment. As I speak I hear the Monster yelling. I'm going to ignore her for a while and see how this goes.

Happy 1st Birthday, Maya!!

Happy Birthday to you, our little Mayasuarus (aka: "Smalls")!!! I can't believe that it was just one year ago today that you came into this world to join us (eight days early). I remember that morning like it was yesterday... My water broke while we were still sleeping, at around 6:00 a.m. and when I told your daddy he flew out of bed like the house was on fire. This didn't happen when your big sister was born. She was born on her due date, and I had to be induced because she had no plans of joining us in this big wide world unless she was forced to. So daddy's only "experience" with the whole labor process was via t.v. He thought for sure that you were coming at any second, and that we needed to get to the hospital as soon as possible. I laughed, and told him that was only in the movies, and that we could at least get Layla up and ready for school, feed her some breakfast, and for God's sake, I wanted to take a shower! You were born at around 12:30 p.m. on April 16, 2012, by C-section (little bugger, you were upside down in my belly, to our surprise)!

Our family is now complete with you here, Maya. You bring sunshine to our lives every single day. Your smile is the brightest, most vibrate smile I've ever seen. And your passion for this family is amazing, even at the young age of one. When you see your sister you light up, and same goes for your daddy. You also love, love, love your "brother" Hudson. You always reach for him and talk to him, but when I bring you near him to pet him, you're either reluctant, or in the mood to smack him (I think you think that you're giving him love pats). Your favorite time to pet him is when he's sleeping, and for some reason you love lifting up his lips and digging around in his mouth. I'm sure he really appreciates it.

You're not walking yet, but I think you will be soon. You're standing and scaling anything you can get your hands on, and sometimes will walk with us if we hold your hands. You've definitely got a lot less weight on you than your big sis did at this same age, so I'm surprised you're not running around like a maniac yet.

You're favorite thing in this world is your polka-dot blanky. Daddy was teasing you the other night with it, pretending he was going to take it and you did NOT like it. You took hit away from him and took off like you had just robbed a bank. You've also fallen in love with your new "Maya" ball from Auntie Meg. In fact, you about jumped out of my arms this a.m. when you saw it sitting in the living room!!

We had your birthday party this weekend and it went great. Gma D, Gpa Ice, Autie Meg, Uncle Jeremy and Nonnie all came to shower you with gifts. You were a bit overwhelmed at first though, because you woke up from your nap to a house full of people and presents and we sat you down and expected you to be as excited as we were right away. You warmed up pretty quick though, after you got your new ball! And you were a big fan of all the rubber duckies mommy got you too!

Happiest of Birthdays to you, our love.

 Ripping paper. Cheap entertainment.

 Did you want me in this pic? I can lean in!

 Ohhhh, I'm so excited! My first tankini!!

 Wait, can I eat this? Will it taste better than the vegan shit you're gonna give me in a few minutes?

 Introducing her to her brand new duckie puppet!! Love!

 Balloons and balls - who needs more??

 Vegan cupcakes. Thanks so much Nonnie for bringing these!!

 Duckie cake that our poor smalls couldn't eat. :(

 See? She loves it!

Don't even think about taking my ball!!

Better pull up my Big Girl Skivvies

Well, I recently took the plunge and committed myself as a writer / strategist for a fitness / wellness / nutrition Facebook page called Big Girl Skivvies, partnering with my bestie, Theresa. It's going to be one fun adventure that I'm looking so forward to since I'll have the opportunity to write about something that actually interests me (nope, believe it or not, my day job writing topics aren't really that riveting to me).

We'll be launching our Big Girl Skivvies blog soon. And as I thought about that, I realized that if I'm going to commit time to writing for a fitness / mommy blog, I better get to it with our family blog, for God's sake. So here goes, another commitment to myself and you (whoever you are), to provide random thoughts and happenings on all things Sherman.

The latest with the kids: Layla is growing into one shining star of a little girl. We're on a big kick right now with the whole, "What do you want to be when you grow up." Her latest dreams: choreographer, Culver's worker, and teacher. She cracks me up. The other day, while trying on a dress that a friend of mine gave to us, she said, "Mommy, look! I can wear this dress in the summer when someone dies!" Good grief - I'm guessing that's a sign that I don't really dress her up enough unless there are unfortunate circumstances.

She's also growing into quite the loving big sister. Don't get me wrong - she has her moments where I see a glimmer of, "I'm going to shove that baby right off this couch if she doesn't stop touching my shit" in her eyes. But for the most part, Layla is a loving, protective, adorable big sis. Since Maya is starting to move around pretty freely, and is getting close to walking, Layla is loving helping her get around and helping her 'practice' walking. I've even found them playing together a few times and am loving it!

Maya is a hitch. She'll be one year old next week and is developing quite the sense of humor. She loves to make us laugh and has discovered that funny facial expressions also make us laugh. She's got the deep frown down pat at this point. She also loves telling her daddy, "I love you!" It is the cutest thing ever. When we ask her for a kiss, she dips her head down and leans forward at an alarmingly fast rate. You pretty much have to be on guard or else you're going to get a fat lip from her big dome coming in hot for a kiss.

We still haven't gotten to the bottom of her eczema. We have an allergist appointment tomorrow that I'm a bit nervous about because of the skin test. Hoping it isn't too traumatic for her and hoping that we find some answers (although really praying that we're not told she's allergic to ever food under the sun).

Maya's 1st Birthday party is this Saturday! Just a tiny little gathering at the house. I'm sure she'll have a blast being spoiled and eating cake - I ordered a cute cake with rubber duckies on it (her favorite). And hell no I didn't even contemplate actually making the cake. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here folks.

More to come from the Sherman fam. For now, bring on Spring!!

Dear Maya

Dear Maya,

You are now almost 11 months old. You, for the most part,  are quite the chipper little nugget. You are also, however, quite the firecracker. You don't like to wait for things, you don't like to be left alone in a room (don't get ahead of yourself here, no one goes leaving you in a room for more than a min or so at a time unless it's bed time, in which case, you hate that too), you FLIP out if I am not with you 123% of the time, until only very recently you hated sleeping, you love table food (sausage, hot dogs, meatballs and bananas are your fave), and you're a comedian (you love to make us laugh). You are also VERY brave - nothing scares you and I've had to catch you by your ankles a number of times to prevent you from landing square on your head after attempts at swan diving off my lap, chairs, your changing table, you name it.

You started crawling when you were about 9 months old and you are hitting top speeds now. You can move fast girl, and you've also recently discovered that you can pull yourself up to standing and scale the couch and your toy bin. It'll only be a matter of time before you start walking and then we're really in trouble. Oh, and you have your two bottom chompers - those suckers took a long time to come in, but made their appearance just before 9 months.

A few words you can say - duck, yeah, hi, bye. Duck just happens to be your first word. You have a stuffed yellow duck that you sort of stole from your big sis, and you LOVE it. If someone shows it to you from across the room you'll attempt a superman launch to get to it. It's so funny to hear you say, "Duck, Duck, Duck".

You have proven to be pretty high maintenance too - you have eczema on your cheeks and your poor thing it drives you nuts. :( We have tried everything and I think the only thing that will really help is summer - we're close, but I'm getting sick of waiting, and so are you and your sis. I've discovered that you have reflux, so we've got you on Zantac to help with your eating and sleeping habits. It has made a world of a difference for us and I'm relieved because little baby, you had a ROUGH go at sleeping, let me tell you!!!

You're quite the peanut compared to your big sis at this same age. You're weighing in at just over 19lbs now, and I believe your sis was at least 10lbs heavier at the same age. Figures - so far, you two couldn't possibly be more different than each other (personality wise mostly). You sure do look like Layla did though (less a few lbs)!!

Smalls, as we call you, I love you. When you look at this blog when you're older and ask why there are so many gaps in posts since you've been born, I'll explain it all to you. For now, just know we love you to the moon and back and are so happy to have you and your sis as our daughters!!

Love you,
"Mum mum mum"

Sunday (or Wednesday) Post

No, I'm not claiming to have my own periodical (is that what people used to call newspapers?). I am however, making an attempt at making regular posts to our blog to continue capturing wonderful pictures and videos of our continuously growing and changing girls. My wonderful sis-in-law proposed the idea over Thanksgiving (thank goodness for teachers). I can commit to a weekly post, every Sunday, right?? [I started typing this post on Sunday, and was interrupted as moms always are... it's now Wednesday and I'm just returning to it.] By Sunday, I've had a break from the computer that I can't escape during the work week, and am a tad less put off by the idea of entering my user name and password - even when it's not for work I sometimes shutter at the idea - since computers run my life Mon - Thurs.

Today, I'll share a few of the latest happenings from our little Miss Maya, who is now 7 months (and then some) old... Recently, lil miss had her 6 mo checkup (a tad late, as she was 7 months at the actual appointment). She weighed in at 18lbs. Interesting fact: her big sister was weighing in at 22lbs at 6 months. Oooofda!

Maya is sitting up now... although she's a bit wobbly and would rather roll onto her side and take a spin around the house by continuously rolling. She prefers to roll to her left - we have to force her to roll to her right. Perhaps an indication of another South Paw for the Sherman family?

We just recently started referring to Maya as "Worm" because she's always wiggling, kicking, dancing, shaking, or bouncing. If she's awake, she's kicking and bouncing. It's pretty funny to watch, but a little exhausting at times... It's like holding an 18lb bobber at all times.

Another fun little thing Maya does is growl. No really. She growls. She kind of sounds like a Gremlin after midnight. She thinks it's pretty darn funny too. If we growl at her, she'll growl right back. I guess she prefers it over just cooing, like a "normal" baby would.

She has started to hold her own bottle (actually started a while ago), but only does it on her own terms. If she doesn't feel up to it, she's not doing it. And when she does feel up to it, she has a dead lock on that bottle!!!

With the help of my wonderful husband, we've started to let Maya cry it out at night... And, it seems to be working. The little miss is quite the sassy one and tends to wake up just to chat, yell, or demand food she doesn't need. We've gone from being up 3-4 times a night to 1-2. That's progress, right?!

Little Miss Maya (aka, Worm), we love you so much. Thanks for always making us laugh, even when we're exhausted and praying for peace and quiet. You're already a spunky, independent, and determined, and we love that about you.

xoxo,
Mumsie

Maya Diane

Over this past weekend, I spent some time looking back at our blog, and was so happy to have all of the pictures, stories, and videos of our little Layla girl from the time she was sent to us from Heaven. The videos were my favorite, so get ready Maya, I'll be shouting, "Action!" at you quite often in the coming weeks, months, and years. I've got a good number of pictures and videos stacked up already, and I'll be adding those slowly but surely to the blog.

I thought today I'd start with pictures of you from before you even joined made your big debut... and added some of my favorites from your newborn shot. Those were taken when you were just ten days old. The day was cold and rainy, and you were not a very happy camper, since you were having some trouble making a good old fashioned poop. But eventually, you fell asleep, and you were a peach for the remainder of the shoot. I'm so happy we did this, and one of these days soon, I'll be ordering some of these wonderful photos of you to add to frames for your bedroom!! 

Let's not forget to add your stats to this post either... I'm having a blast going back and comparing you to your sister. So far, your big sis seems to be the ribbon winner as far as weight goes (even though you weighed more than she did when she was born)!

Maya Diane Sherman

Born April 16, 2012

8 lbs, 4oz (your sis was 8lbs, 2oz)

20 inches (your sis was 22 inches)

 My first picture with lil' Miss Maya.

Our first family picture with the four of us. :)

 Baby girl sleeping soundly.

 Even while sleeping, you smile.

 All snuggled up.

 Zzzzzzz...

 Your first picture with your big sister! She is so proud of you, Maya!

Our little peanut. :)

Technology curse

See! See what happens when I try to commit to using technology!? It back fires on me - every time. Every God Damn time! I think it might be blogger that's cursing me. Every time I revisit it, shit hits the fan.

It's 11:18 a.m. and I've been trying to connect to my work network for work since 8:30. Here I sit, watching the clock tick, tick, tick, with no access and I'm unable to work because although I work for a GIANT finnancial corporation, we cannot get our SHIT together to form a solid technology support system. Can you believe that I was rerouted SIX times this a.m., only to land with someone who's solution was submitting a "help ticket" for me? That ticket was submitted almost two hours ago and I haven't heard a peep from anyone. I called to check the status of it and all they could tell me was that no one had picked the ticket up yet.

You know what I'd like to know? I'd like to know why the hell I can't do my job the way our I.T. group does (or should I say doesn't) do theirs. You know, something like this: "Hi, I work in I.T. I don't really know how to solve your problem, so I'm just going to Google it for you, even though I know you could do that yourself. After that doesn't work, I'll tell you to call some number that I've never tried myself, and the rep on that line will tell you to call another, and the process will repeat itself six to twelve times. After that, we'll tell you that we really care, pretend to sub what we refer to as a 'ticket' just to get you off our ass for a few hours, and when you finally call back a few times to see what's going on, we'll tell you we can't fix it unless you go to your nearest branch to use their network and maybe then we'll fix it for you, but probably not. At that point, you'll have to make the hour and ten minute commute to your office to resolve the issue, where you'll talk to a rep who tells you your computer has been obliterated by a corrupt file and we'll need you to send it to Minnesota. Minnesota will keep your laptop for a week, send it back, it still won't be fixed, and then you'll have to send it back again. Hopefully once the issue is actually 'resolved' you haven't lost your job for being unavailable and / or for this very blog post."

Cripes. What a JOKE.

Just sayin'. Maybe later I'll post with an update on the kids and some pictures for you visual learners. For now, I needed to vent.