What'd I miss?

It has been a loooooooong time since we last stole pictures from the Gramma cam. Here's what I found that we'd been missing over the past several months...

Apparently Gramma humors her more when she wants to be like Makenna.

At church...wanting to put the bear to sleep?

Makenna LOVES Gramma Julie's dragonfly toy!

Seriously, it looks so absurd. It CAN'T be comfortable!

Reading to Baby Dear.

Playing catch with Grampa.

"Fetch, Grampa!"

There. That looks a little more appropriate. ;)

But that does not! ;) Wow, Mattaya. Just wow.

She just loves food.

Rub-a-dub-dub two grandbabies in the tub!

Makenna: "Ooh, bubbles!"

At the zoo.

"Alright, Guys, let's make some tracks."

Making muffins with Gramma Julie early one Saturday morning.

Makenna learned to climb the little step at Gramma's house before she learned to climb the big steps at home.

Mattaya: "So that's why they say not to drink the bath water."

Mattaya: "Consider me a fountain, then."

Enjoying her birthday lollipop from Auntie Net.

Small group BBQ @ Gramma's house.

Benton: "Come here, let me grab this off your head."

He was LOVING all the attention from the ladies. ;)

Mattaya with Grace, Hudson, and Lila

The kids each picked an apple from Grampa Dave's apple trees.

The Cousins

And the popcorn in a bowl with a spoon concept isn't isolated to home. :)

"I don't know what this is."

"I'll show you! It's a cupcake! See my cupcake?!"

"Mmmmm, cupcakes are yummy. Oh, do I have something on my face?"

"Huh."

"I LIKE birthdays!"

ANOTHER little drummer girl.

But they don't turn down opportunities to play piano either.

Have I mentioned the "flirty face"?

Painting with giant painbrushes at Gramma Julie's house.

She got to try out her new bike for the first time at Gramma's house.

The concept of pedaling only forward was a difficult one to grasp.

She was kind enough to share with Keaton who had been DYING to take it for a spin.

Looking a little tense. Perhaps feeling like she's up a bit too high.

(This is during our first pumpkin patch adventure.)

She was ready to explore!

Yup--that's us.

Mo' Taya

(A little more from the mouth of Mattaya)

Heretofore, Mattaya was referring to herself as "Taya" and to Makenna as "Kenna". Suddenly she began referring to Makenna as "MOkenna". "MOtaya" quickly followed, and now "MO" is becoming quite a common prefix in her vocabulary. For instance: banana. Originally it was "banna". More recently it became "muhbanna", but since MO hit, it's "MObanna".

Mattaya hasn't been feeling particularly well the last few days. Sounds like a cold. Maybe a sinus infection. Not sure. ANYWAY. She didn't sleep well last night and began a conversation with her bed buddies last night at 2:00AM. When I went in at 2:30 to ask her to pipe down, she explained to me that she was simply telling Weezah (i.e., Zebra) that she (the zebra, that is) could go to the nursery tamyo (tomorrow) on Moozday (Tuesday) and change her own diaper because she pooped in her diaper. This is the point at which I stopped her, because I could tell there was going to be NO END to this discourse. She did stop talking, though, after I left her room.

This morning, the funny continued. You must understand that if Mattaya is sick, then Curious George is of course sick as well. So this morning, she popped out of bed and began bustling about to care for the stuffed monkey. She came to the bathroom and rushed out with the thermometer, explaining that she was going to take George's "pentacher" (temperature). The thermometer indicated that George was seriously ill and in need of more rest. She tucked him in; turned on the CD player, sound machine, and nightlight; then announced that he needed a "fire", a "PACifier" (she clarified). We came to understand that George needed a HUMIDIFIER. Mercy.

Something else that has been striking us about her language aside from the funny words is her insistence in speaking in complete sentences. With Mattaya, there is very rarely a one-word answer (I have NO IDEA where she gets that!). ;) Yesterday we were at the eye doctor for the first time, and he was asking her questions that required one-word answers. What do you see? I see a duck. That doesn't seem particularly odd, but there's the processing time then her slow rate of precise speech which made the tests seem like for-e-ver. But her doctor was a kind and patient man and sat very well through every production. ;) Even at church on Sunday's, her answer to "How are you doing, Mattaya?" is "I am doing fine. I come to church and wear my shoes blah blah blah." She is a sweet and funny girl (in our opinion, of course).

Other words we've heard lately:

hiccup = pick-up

eftuhsize = exercise (this is even more hilarious if you can observe her attempts at jumping jacks and push-ups!)

On the Ball in October

Here's my attempt (again) to get on top of (and stay on top of) blogging. I'd really like to do it more often for a variety of reasons: (1)it will be a smaller block of time to carve out to post a few photos rather an a million, (2)I will actually REMEMBER what is going on in the photos, and (3)people will actually have more of a clue about what's going on in the PRESENT rather than what WAS going on a month or two ago. ;) So here's what the first half of October looked like for us:

"This feels yucky in my mouth."

First taste of chicken.

"Now THIS is yummy."

(She got the rice part of the chicken and rice.)

While at the commissary, Mattaya asked if she could have a little pumpkin. Oh, sure, why not. It's not like it's candy. They became fast friends. Little Pumpkin was a he, and he was quickly given the name "Pumpkin Patch". She kept a running conversation with the little gourd and introduced him to everyone we met.

One day, we decided to PAINT Pumpkin Patch.

Yup--barely started and she already had green paint in her hair. :)

She took this very seriously and was concentrating very hard. She took her time and was very particular about how she mixed the colors.

Assessing the breakfast sausage.

Given the stance, I was a little concerned she was about to use the pumpkin as a potty. ;)

This was the first year for this particular pumpkin patch, and we thought they did a fabulous job. Mattaya had a BLAST, and Makenna was very cooperative. Going with good friends also made the experience enjoyable.

Sisters!

Makenna and Analise

Mattaya LOVED climbing and sliding in this stack of hay bales.

Daddy tried to tuck in her shirt to keep the hay out of her pants.

There was a mini hay bale maze for the little ones. Of course, our daughter has no concept of rules and just CLIMBED OVER every obstacle between Point A and Point B.

And then it was on to the corn maze. We were quite the herd. Matt, Karisa, Mattaya, Makenna, Julie, Micah, Keaton, Valerie, Angela, Analise, double jogging stroller, and a regular stroller.

We were soon lost. After about 30 minutes, we were passing by food the kids had dropped and realized we were retracing our steps.

So we hung out and sent the boys ahead to figure it out (which was much faster without the strollers and such).

The kids did SO WELL given the fact that we were in the maze for well over an hour.

The girls got to rotate which strollers they rode/ate/played in. It was a good time. ;)

Munchkin kitchen is open for breakfast!

Pouty little princess.

Thanks for the dress, Grampa Gary & Gramma Pam!

She was a little out of sorts. Just awake from nap and on our way out the door for lunch. :)

As close as we could get to a smile. We should have taken the camera to the restaurant--all kinds of happy grins there, tasting so many different kinds of foods!

We're STILL having nice weather and trying to take advantage of it as much as we can.

Mattaya loves to have a picnic with her snack. :)

"And I get to eat the crumbs she drops."

She calls this her "garden". In her mind, the tools are flowers that she planted in the bucket of sand (which is potting soil, of course). Not sure what the goofy face is about, but it makes me laugh. :)

Standing on a step stool trying to reach the balloon.

Feeling a little dejected that she couldn't reach it.

(No worries--I did go help her after I got the picture.)

Mattaya has become interested in "eftasizing" (exercising). This is how she does push-ups with Daddy.

I think even I would enjoy push-ups like THAT! ;)

"Hmmmm, which toys to choose..."

Heeeeeeere fishy fishy fishy fishy!

New cozy jammies from Grampa Gary and Gramma Pam!

Matt's first stab at Tri-tip. It came out really nice! Flavorful AND juicy!

My beautiful husband allowed me to take a day off and go shopping with the ladies out of town. Before we were even out of city limits, he smashes my baby's face with a piano bench. ;) Not really. She kind of fell backward and pulled it down upon herself in the process. Swollen purplish eye and a little scuff on her swollen nose.

While I was gone, I found new snow pants and mittens and boots for Mattaya. She was so excited to put them on and immediately exclaimed, "I ready to go SNOWING." She was pretty sure that putting on these garments would magically mean that there was snow outside. Reality was a little hard to grasp that morning.

Pretty sure this was my first attempt at homemade bread in a decade. It was a Honey Whole Wheat. Excellent flavor. I started to run close on time by the end, though, and wasn't so careful about my rolling out process...hence the funny-shaped loaves. The one that looks like a butt did give us a little chuckle. ;)

V is for "vine".

We're nearing the end of the alphabet!

Now Mattaya is doing push-ups and the bear is along for the ride!

Now Mattaya is the camel, and the bear is Jonah (delivering a message from the Lord, of course).

This day Mattaya had asked to make blueberry muffins. In the process of making them, she became distracted by two of Daddy's little tomatoes sitting on the counter: a little one (Bob) and a little big bigger one (Bob's mom). As is typical of Mattaya, she began conversing with and mothering Bob: "Bob, you have to be patient while Mommy is making muffins. Be careful--no jumping off the counter. You can get hurt." She also kept telling me that she was going to take a bite, and I told her it was fine. Eventually she asked me to cut him up. Not wanting this to result in hysterical tears, I verified, "You want me to cut Bob up into little pieces so you can eat him?" Her response: "Yes. You cut him. I will eat him." So I cut him. She ate him. And offered some pieces of Bob to his mother who she began referring to as Larry. :) And to further confirm our love for VeggieTales, before the vegetable scene, she was helping me stir the blueberries into the muffin batter. She informed me these were Madame Blueberries and proceeded to sing, "I so blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo-HOOOO. I show blue I dadada do!" This girl makes me laugh. I love my life. :)

Special treat for snack. Sometimes if she's hungry after nap, we'll have a snack together. This day we sneaked some of Daddy's favorite granola cereal. Mmmmmm!

I was TRYING to get a picture of these girls in their matching outfits from Aunt Marlys, but there was just no cooperation. So here you have Makenna.

And here you have Mattaya.

And here you have Makenna trying to wrestle free from Mattaya's embrace and Mattaya thoroughly enjoying the fact that she had permission to try to pin Makenna down. :)

At lunch Matt pulled up a crazy drumming video online, and Mattaya was getting into the music and shaking her booty. ;)

And the best news of all, which we received JUST YESTERDAY: Makenna is all done with her nightbar! She saw the podiatrist this morning, and he was so giddy about her progress--just amazed at how well her feet have corrected. He did mention that she may need orthotics in the future for her flexible arch, but for the time being, she's GREAT! We thank all of you who have been praying for her, and we thank our great God Who has healed her. :)