Box

 We have a giant box that has been in our house since October. In various incarnations, it has been a favourite toy for Maren.  First, it was just a giant box that a chair shipped in. Then, it was a house, similar to what was depicted in the book “Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too,”   but more barn shaped. Then the bottom of the house was taken off and what was the roof was turned upside down and turned into a boat. For months it’s served as a boat, a car, a cradle, and I can’t remember what else.  Then it was turned back to its original roof orientation, but without the house underneath it became a tent.

 Then today it became this:

 I’m not sure exactly what this is, but I know that it has something to do with a lack of nap. Maybe tomorrow will go back to being a car or a tent :-)

Tacos

Last week we had a book from the library called “Dragons Love Tacos.” Maren has never had tacos before, and we were explaining them to her, and she somehow decided that we were going to have tacos for Father’s Day dinner, so that is the plan. We also went out for breakfast this morning to celebrate. Maren and I are so incredibly lucky to have Jeff as Maren’s daddy. He is so loving and caring, not just in an emotional way but also in a practical way. He takes on more than half of the work of parenting, doing so much for our family. Thank you Jeff, we love you ♥️

My mom is also here this week, which Maren loves. Here are some videos that Grandma took:

Extra Toddler

Totally unprompted, here is the story that Maren and told about this painting: “It’s ET. ET is crying. I made a pony tail with his whole body. I’m gonna make some hair on him. I’m gonna make him a slide.”

I feel like there has been a developmental shift toward Maren being a bit more sophisticated. Not that the above quote sounds particularly sensical, but there are so many concepts that are part of it. I think a lot of her thinking has been heading in that direction. Yesterday I told her what the word dehydrated meant, and today every time she saw her water bottle she said “I’m dehydrated. I’m going to have a drink.“ which is super funny to hear coming from a two-year-old.

We have been taking more trips to park, the museum, etc., just me and Maren.

She is mature enough now to know that if she runs away I can’t run after her, so she can’t run away from me if she wants to have mommy and Maren time out of the house. I only had to tell her that once, and now she repeats it every time we are out of the house together. It is so much easier having a child who you can talk to and who understands what you’re saying. I am looking forward to all of the good times we will have as she gets older.

Meltdown afternoon

Last summer a water main broke near our house, which led the city to dig up part of our street. Suddenly today, exactly at naptime, city workers came to fix the part of the street that has been in disrepair for almost a year. Unfortunately all the noise of the road construction equipment and crew meant no nap today.

Bedtime, and the hour or so leading up to it, was one meltdown after another. It was exhausting, and I don’t have much energy to talk about our week. So I will leave you with this: it rained a lot. In the video below it is a little hard to hear, but there is constant thunder – not just one roll of thunder after another but actual continuous thunder for maybe 15 minutes.

Maren has hardly ever seen rain since last summer was a drought, so she totally loved it :-)

Summer days

Maren keeps asking whether it is spring or summer. Jeff keeps saying spring, but I think as of this weekend maybe it is summer. 

The trees are finally all leafed out, there are lots of flowers blooming, the garden is planted and everything is starting to sprout.

We take Maren to the playground pretty much every day. Either the one across the street (which you can see in the background in this picture) or one of several others that are close to our house. 

We are spending more and more time in the backyard.  

This weekend we went to a street fair on Saturday, and went out for ice cream on Sunday. And on Friday Jeff and I watched Grease on VHS after Maren went to bed. We stayed up until a little past 10pm. Oh those summer nights :-)