learning

since mae's birthday isn't until the end of september, she was too young to start preschool this fall (sad day).  i honestly didn't think she would be ready for it either.  but as the summer progressed, i realized that she needed something for sure.  so i decided to do a little letter craft each week.  she loves it!  it's been really fun for us to do something like this together.  sometimes i feel like she doesn't get enough of my time or attention, so it has been good for our relationship to have that time to work on something together.

 she is quite the little crafter. 

she also has started to help me out in the kitchen quite a bit.  whenever i start to make something she yells "wait for me!", and grabs a chair to see whats going on.  we've had a few mishaps...flour all over the place for example.  but, she really enjoys it, and again it's something that we can do together.

we haven't seen much of daddy the past few weeks, he's been so busy with work.  but, on the nights that he does make it home the girlies love to wait outside for him.  and honestly, my kids are usually the happiest when they are outside. (trying to get these two to smile for a picture simultaneously is no simple task.)

with daddy not home much, it makes for some seriously endless days for me sometimes.  after izzy's nap in the afternoon mae is pretty much over being inside, or playing quietly.  the 4-6 o'clock hours are some of my least favorite of the day.  they never seem to end!  so, the past couple of days we've headed over to the lake to just get out for a bit.

 

i didn't think mae would want to swim, so i didn't put her suit on, but of course she wanted to.  so i stripped her down to her undies, and she thought it was the greatest thing to be able to swim in her underwear...ah the simple things in life, right?

this kiddo pretty much lives in the stroller.  between going on runs with me, the store, library, playground, lake, i'm pretty sure she's spent a good chunk of her life in here.  lucky for me she loves it.

 an example of what boredom can make a 2 year old do.  ripping the paper into tiny pieces and putting them all over the place.  on one side, she was occupied without me for a good 30 minutes.  on the other, we spent close to that trying to clean up!