Exclusive Interview

You read it here first!

A few of my bloggy friends have been interviewing their kids. It's been a hoot to read their responses. So I thought I would give an interview with Analese a shot. Here's how it all went down:

~What is something mommy always says to you?

Don't spit out your gum. (This is true - I do tell Analese to keep her gum in her mouth and not to play with it.)

~ What makes mommy happy?

That I don't spit out my gum. (Can you tell this has been an issue in our household recently?)

~ What makes mommy sad?

When I hide. (I did become a little overly panicky one day recently when Analese was really hiding out.....)

~ How does your mommy make you laugh?

When you say funny words like "cack." (Hmmm.....don't know about this one)

~ How old is your mommy?

3 (That is the first digit in my age:)

~ How tall is your mommy?

6 (I wish.)

~ What is your mommy really good at?

Folding laundry. (Sigh.....)

~ What does your mommy do for her job?

Fold the laundry. (Sigh.......)

~ What is your mommy's favorite food?

Tamales (It is a favorite!)

~ What makes mommy proud of you?

To color in school. (She has been coloring amazing pictures lately - in the lines and everything:)

~ What do you and your mommy do together?

Spend time.

~ How do you know your mommy loves you?

Because I'm good at school (I had a talk with her about unconditional love at this point and she added - and you give me hugs and kisses).

~ Where is your mommy's favorite place to go?

To the restaurant.

Some Randomness...

Whewww it has been a busy week. Pleasantly busy, I must say. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. I have been able to log all of my miles this week outside! I have passed the 150 mile mark for my 500 miles in 2010. I do enjoy the runner's high when I am able to run.

Analese had her first dental visit yesterday. She was a fantastic patient. I think they were a little surprised at how cooperative she was since it was her first visit. She was ready to get "shiny princess teeth." Oh, and a toothbrush. She thinks it is really neat to get a non-battery powered toothbrush. Go figure.

I'm not sure I have mentioned on here, but Analese is actually READING! We are doing the Kindergarten level Hooked on Phonics, and she is making amazing progress with it. We are a little over halfway through the first of two levels. She particularly enjoys the mini-book activities at the end of the units. This morning she was working on a mini-book when I told her it was time to go to her make-up class at The Little gym. She actually started crying and said she wanted to finish her mini-book. I told her she could leave it on her desk and finish it when she got home.

She was making up a class that she missed while we were in Colorado. Just for the fun of it, we did the sports skills class today. She has been expressing such an interest in sports, and Lee and I are so totally "non sport" people. In all fairness, I did want to give her the opportunity to try it. There were three girls and about half a dozen boys in the class. They were working on baseball skills today. They had the soft tee-ball equipment. I asked Analese how she enjoyed tee-ball, and her response was, "Weeelllll, I really wanted to play REAL baseball." Meaning, she would have preferred it if the teacher would have tossed the ball to her and let her whack it with the bat. We have been playing "real" baseball in the backyard lately. She did seem to have a great time.

Here she is in her desk working on her mini-book before we left for Little gym.



Here she is all decked out for the sports skills class, ready to hang with the boys.



And Mariele - what's new with Mariele? Well, she just gets cuter and cuter. She loves to sit in Elmo's lap here.



She is becoming more and more verbal. She says mama, dada, Bo (the pink bunny), nana (depends on the context, if her hand is down my shirt it means she wants to nurse, sometimes nana means food), mac (mac n cheese - one of the only solid foods she really likes), no, hi, hello, hola (yes - she is bilingual), bye-bye, up, down, baa (for sheep). She sings the first part of "I Like the Flowers." She just sings, "I." She bob up and down to any music that she hears. If there is an explosion on the TV or a scene where football players are colliding into one another, she just laughs and laughs. She really does enjoy chaos. She imitates EVERYTHING that her sissy does. She likes to stand on the stool in the bathroom and get her teeth brushed. She takes her clothes to the dirty clothes basket after we undress her for a bath. She will bring me a diaper if I ask her to. She shakes or nods her head if asked a question. She can point to her belly, nose, ears, eyes, head, hair. She likes to brush her own hair. She is a climber. If she cannot reach something, she will find a step stool and pick it up and move it to the desired location. She loves to give hugs and kisses. One morning this week, Analese was crying about some random thing. I was holding Mariele and Analese had her arms wrapped around my waist. Mariele reached down and started stroking Analese's hair in an attempt to comfort her. This sweet bond that is developing just warms my heart and soul every time I am able to witness it.

The "end" of the blue bonnets

Following the last wintery blog that I posted, here are the very springy blue bonnet photos. Last year we were there on the first day of spring when the blue bonnets just happened to be at their peak. This year we were there a little past their peak. But I still took some beautiful photos of the girls in their matching yellow sundresses.









After the pictures, the girls enjoyed some playtime at the playground there.

Our last day in Colorado

On our last day in Colorado, we went up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was Monday after Spring Break. We saw maybe five other cars in the entire park. It is the first time that we visited the park without paying! There was a sign instructing us to proceed into the park. No one was there to take our money. So much of the park was closed due to winter conditions. I had never seen it closed so far down before. We made it to 9600 feet before the road was closed. We saw lots of wildlife. Elk, coyotes, and mountain goats!



We enjoyed our Einstein Brothers bagels in the car, and Mariele got a driving lesson.




Then we got out at Sprague Lake. This has been one of our favorite little easy hikes in the park over the years. I wanted to pull out a before pic of the lake since it was snowed and iced over this time. I came across this old pic of me and Lee, then I realized that Sprague Lake is not the background for this pic. It is the Lake in Estes Park. But I decided to share this photo anyway. Don't we look so young and carefree and childless here?



I did find one of Sprague Lake, though. Here it is. Analese was 15 months old here, riding on Lee's back.



The lake was completely snowed and iced over. We perilously hiked the trail around the lake. There were some very slick spots. This was probably not a hike I would take my grandma on. It was beautiful and the snow was falling while we were there. It was a winter wonderland. It has now been a couple of years since we have seen true winter, so it was actually kind of neat to get our winter "fix."

Kids at Play in Colorado

I am so behind on blogging. One of these days I will catch up now that we are back at home. In the meantime, I will do a couple of "wordless" or not too wordy blogs to share the rest of the Colorado photos. It was nice to be able to spend some time with our good friends while we were there. The kids enjoyed some backyard play, while the adults stood around the fire pit that was being fueled and stoked by our insanely crazy pyromaniac friend.

Happy Easter Weekend!

We have had a wonderful Easter weekend. We had Mariele's baby dedication at church. It was so nice to get her dedicated in the same church where Analese was dedicated, and by the same pastor. The video is way too huge to share on this blog, unfortunately. We had a great lunch after church. We enjoyed a nice Easter brunch with friends this morning. Tomorrow we are heading out to the mountains one last time before we return home.

More from Colorado

Yesterday we got out in nature. It just happened to be cold, windy, and snowy in the upper altitudes yesterday. We stopped at the Buffalo herd overlook on I-70.



Then we headed out to Three Sisters Park in Evergreen. That is one of our old hiking haunts. This is the first time that Mariele has ever been seriously bundled up!





We all bundled up and it even started snowing!






Analese enjoyed playing in the snow field.






Then we spent the evening with friends. You have to admit that one of those group photos is pretty funny!