Gingerbread House

While our awesome friends Kai (Sky and Moxie called him) and Kiki were here we made a gingerbread house. It turned out pretty well. Sort of. They had a good time though. 

Salon

Moxie played with Strider's hair the other night. She was very serious about it but not very good. He was good about it but not very serious. 

Big Shirt

Yesterday as I was getting dressed for work Moxie looked over and said, "You are wearing your big shirt." Is it a big shirt? Yes. Is the giant belly underneath it actually giant? Yes. Did she need to say that? ...yes. Moxie keeping it real as we are two weeks from the due date and likely three weeks from this baby making an appearance. 

Yes. This picture was taken from my work bathroom. 

Chop stinking.

Recently we got Moxie (and Strider) a pair of trainer chop sticks. She is already a pro. I actually think she ate more of her dinner because of how proud she was of her success.  She can actually do it better than her dad.

Halloween part 2

Here's our adventure in family pumpkin carving. It's really great having Grandpa and Grandma here to help. Moxie wouldn't touch the pumpkin guts but it was still fun. 

Cupcakes

We are late to Halloween but here we go!

Face of an angel...sort of

Moxie's teacher posts pictures regularly documenting the fun and cuteness of 2-year-old preschool. Sometimes she makes really weird faces. Ok. Most of the time. 

Phone home

Moxie is having a great time at preschool. She's adjusting to the schedule and playing with big kids in the afternoons and rules in the classroom. Each week her wonderful teacher posts photos from class. I loved these two:

Handyman

We are building a dog run in the back yard. Moxie is a really big help with things. Almost as big a help as our super friend Laura who's here working full time AND helping us build a fence. 

Sleep twins

Mox usually ends up in our bed between 5-6 am most mornings. It is a nice time to snuggle and (try to) snooze a bit longer. I'm terrible at it. Strider and Mox, however, are pros. I ruined this photo with a bad crop job but the point of it is: they are totally asleep and totally up in each other's personal space. 

More preschool

Moxie is having such a great time at preschool. She's started going to the extended day program (1:30-5:30) where she plays with some pre-k kids. They are 4 years old and much bigger and faster. She loves big kids and they have decided to "take care of her." It seems like a great experience. Here are some pictures of the last two weeks. 

Chalk

Moxie continues to LOVE chalk.  This a picture that Strider took but Google made awesome.  Anyone else seen the amazing work of Google Awesome? Holy Awesome.

Anyway, Moxie loves chalk.  Today (not the day this picture was taken) she chose an egg shaped piece of chalk and decided it was a baby.  She carried it under her shirt as she walked up and down the sidewalk, patting it and telling me to "shhh, baby sleeping."

She really does have a holistic love of the medium.

Rainy day play day

Yep, another post about preschool.  Suck it up folks.

As we mentioned before part of the transition to preschool has been an ice cream social, orientation, and play dates.  Moxie has now attended ALL the activities.  We'd like to establish our kid as a kiss ass from the start--obviously.

I'm going to post pictures from both play dates.  The first took place at the SSDS playground and ALL the kids made it.

I swear.  She had fun.

And then the second play date was on a rainy day.  Honestly, if Strider weren't the scheduler I wouldn't have gone--but because he was and I am a good wife, Moxie and I braved the rain (with no coats of course, and went.  I was just about to call it quits when Ms Cathy rolled up and said, "So glad you toughed it out!  We play in the rain all the time at SSDS."  Then, without any big deal she joined Moxie out in the pouring rain.  It was really cute.  I, of course, stayed under a tree.

Puddles, it seems, are Moxie's jam.  She and her friend Kayden (pictured in the yellow jacket) spent a lot of time finding new puddles and either rolling or stomping in them.  Makes perfect sense of course.  The bottom picture shows Moxie following around her classmate Molly.  Molly is one of the youngest and won't join class until December.  She was a little overwhelmed by all the kids playing so she walked around the outside of the playground.  Mox followed her for a while.  

Ice Cream Social

As part of the process of getting to know her new school Silver Spring Day School hosted an ice cream social--complete with ice cream.  Moxie's mind was blown.  Even more mind blowing: her Bibi and Babu showed up to join the party.  Mind. Blown.

She was really, really, really into the sprinkles.  Like crazy into them.  

Strider got tapped to be the Class Scheduler for the Rolling 2s (Moxie's class) and thus has to go early to help with things, set up, talk to people, and send emails.  I think he is doing a super good job at it and it meant that Moxie got a head start on the ice cream consumption.  

When Bibi and Babu rolled in it got crazy.  Moxie saw them and started jumping and yelling "Ice Cream! Bibi! Babu!" over and over again.  She has a good life.  She got to play with her new classmates and now has a permanent positive association with her teacher.  Ms. Cathy=ice cream.  Well played teacher.  Well played. 

First day of preschool

Today, September 9, 2014 was Moxie's first day at preschool. She's met her teacher a couple of times, had an orientation (where she got to see the classroom) and met her classmates. Today was a short day--just 2 hours--but she had a great time. I was getting her back pack ready this morning and she announced: I'm ready to go! and after than there was nonstop talking about her teacher Ms Cathy.

On the way to school she asked (about every 20 seconds) "see Cathy?" To which I answered "yes" a million times. When we got to the room she saw Ms Cathy playing with another girl (there are only two students in the class until October) and ran in screaming "Cathy! Evey!" And immediately began to play with paint and Legos. I said goodbye and she turned, acknowledged me and went back to the fun. 

I came to pick her up two hours later and she was covered in dirt, paint, and a bit of frosting. Evey's mom brought them pumpkin cupcakes because they both turned two recently.  There's the snack mom packed: apple and pretzels being ignored for the awesome cupcake with sprinkles. But also notice she's got her own placemat complete with a picture and her name. 

Here are a few shots her teacher took on their first day: 

She is going to love preschool. Love, love, love it. 

Balti-smore

On Mother's Day weekend we went to Baltimore for a stay-cation.  It was really fun.  We went with another family (Betsy, Bob, and Faye) and did the tourist thing.  We got adjoining rooms so that we could have parent time in one room and pack-n-plays full of snoring toddlers in the other.  To be honest, though, all of us were dead asleep by 9:30.  We rode a carousel, ate ice cream, went to the children's museum, and just had a really good time.

Insert opening credits here.

The Queen

The Joker

Adventures in the toddler room

Dangerous adventure in a Egyptian Tomb

Builders or runners.  Either one.

Us as a threesome.

Kids cups, crayons, and ducks.  Roll credits.

Big girl bed.

In our attempt to help Moxie become self sufficient (and boot her from the crib before the next kid comes) we've taken off the rail and she's in a big girl bed.

She helped her dad take the railing off. But then, after bath, when she came in and saw her bed she got really nervous. She danced a little, laughed in a weird way, and wouldn't look at the bed. I really wasn't expecting her to be this nervous. 

We did our usual bed time routine but 2 hours later. After she got into bed she gripped her dad's hand with a mighty monkey strength until she fell asleep. 

We will let you all know how it goes. 

For now: she's asleep. 

Unicorn in the mail!

Today Moxie got mail. Unicorn mail. Our super friends took time out if their busy lives to send Mox a magical package. She immediately saw it in the mail basket and recognized that it was hers. (Well to be honest she thinks most things are hers.)

Anyway, they addressed the body and each family member wrote her a special note. So. Cool. Unicorn mail. 

Anyway, we have kick ass friends. Tom, Jenny, Ben and Peter: thanks so much!

Unicorn mail. 

Napping

On weekends, especially since I've been pregnant, I've been napping with Moxie. It is wonderful. She smells nice, she snores just a little, and for the first part she's cuddley and cute. After that though all bets are off. She flips and kicks and does all kinds of things that make it impossible to sleep. 

Well, that is if you are anyone but Strider. He can actually sleep through anything Moxie does. Example: this morning I brought her into bed with us at 6:00 and she fell back asleep. However, she quickly turned perpendicular to us and had on foot on Strider's face and the other in his armpit. He just slept right through. 

For me, she even thinks about moving and I wake up. Blast. 

Activity wins

We have had a couple of activity wins this weekend. Moxie is a great laundry unfolder, toy remover and all around uncleaner. She's cute but hard to keep busy when you are trying to clean. This weekend we tried two activities. 

The first: green foam block and golf tees was an idea of Aunt Bear's. It worked great. Kept her busy for about 30 minutes with no help from us but showing her how to play. Drawback: she figured out she could crumble the foam and marched around the house leaving a trail of green behind her. 

The second are brainbows we bought at a science store that grow to 200x their size and (theoretically) shrink back to the tiny balls after drying out. So wet they are the size of marbles and dry they are the size of pin heads. Anyway they are soft and pretty and really fun to play with. Drawback: they bounce all over. We will probably be cleaning up rainbow pin heads for a week. 

No activity is awesome and mess free. We realize that. Mostly. 

Home Improvement

Coming soon: less sleep, more diapers, and probably a whole lot of cute.

Puppet Show

Moxie went to Glen Echo to see a puppet show. She had a glorious time. She got to hang with her friend Faye and play on the playground. Oh. She also got to see a creek. That was big doings.