Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday Marin O'Connor!

Marin and Alima go to Sesame Street Live for Marin's Birthday! (folks that IS her smile)

We love you baby!

Some Summer Pictures

Painting in the driveway with Callie Beth
Finding a little toad and loving it so much. Marin just loves finding little frogs and toads that have fallen into the swimming pool and pulling them out to dry land... and trying to keep them!
Marin is taking her first dance class, this is her interpretive worship dance. (More dance pictures soon)
Frog puppet from Grandma Judy. It was a kit to put together and Marin and Todd did this one day while Holli was at work. It turned out really great.
Sunday trip to eat lunch in a nearby town. We love the countryside of Florida, all the Spanish moss, and old cracker style homes, old historic farms... So beautiful. Marin looks like she doesn't want to be a part of our family for some reason, we hear 3 year olds are like 13 year olds, when it comes to girls... this might prove to be true some days.
Love Frogs. This little Cuban pair took over the pool picnic table umbrella all Summer. We loved checking on them each day to see if they were still there together. Even though they are an invasive species we still enjoyed watching our little pair snuggle up and set up house in the shade near the pool.
Is all this stuff really necessary for swimming?
Marin and Todd get their toes painted.
Evening reading.
Marin gerbil-sat Molly for a few weeks. This was a big highlight for her... almost had us convinced we were going to be getting one for Christmas. We have made no decisions on this yet, but she really loved having a pet.

And this here people is the man who was just offered a job as an academic advisor!

More soon, like what is going on in our lives, changes we are expecting, Holli's work situation--as it developes, and other such things. Either way I wanted to post a few pictures because we have not put a lot on this Summer as we packed the USB cord that transfers our pictures onto the computer... so thanks to Steph we borrow her's when we get around to filling the camera.

Coming soon: pictures of our little "balleria" at dance class, our night at Sesame Street Live, and our new housing situation. If anyone has a washer/dryer or table let us know as we will need to acquire one soon!

Coming Soon

Two bits of info that we must share. On Monday Todd was offered a job at the University of Florida. We will get a final offer in a few days once things get rolling. But this is a huge answer to prayer and the end of a long wait. We know that in this economy we are very very blessed to have gotten a job in our current town. I will post more information on this as we find out more in the next few days.

Second we won tickets to Sesame Street Live a few weeks ago and took Marin and her friend Alima to the show on Tuesday. More about this event and pictures this weekend! Sorry for my lack of posting these days.

Offspring

Tonight as we were eating dinner, Marin was getting a bit rowdy at the table. After a few minutes of watching me try to calm her down Todd had this to say; " There are ways to control your offspring you know... I've read about them in magazines."

Seriously Todd's comments are just about as funny as Marin's these days. (From the picture you can tell who controls who... this is what happens to unemployed dads who spend a lot of time with their little girls!)

On another note, Todd and I just celebrated our FIVE year anniversary! Thanks to some good friends who let Marin spend the night, we had our first ever night away from her (she's almost three years old). And thanks to some other good friends we got to get away to their little guest house in the beautiful woods of Ocala, FL. It was a wonderful retreat and a great way to celebrate our five years together, without having to spend any money... which is our main goal as we continue to look for a job.

Happy Five Years Honey... with hair bows in your hair!

Twilight Books

I (Holli--obviously do any of you think Todd would read vampire love stories) have started reading the Twilight series. I'm not going to give a book review but I am going to say that it is a fun Summer read. Its been very entertaining... you know in a way that high school vampire romances can be, haha.

Either way cherries were on sale the other day at the grocery store and Marin loved them. But because I have vampire love novels on my mind I got a little nervous when I saw this...

More Prayers From Marin

Tonight as we were attempting to put Marin to bed we asked her if she wanted to pray. She told us she wanted to sing a song to Tinker Bell instead. We informed her that we were going to pray and if she wanted to pray first she needed to pray to God and after praying she could sing songs about Tinker Bell. Here was her prayer--

"Dear God, thank you--Tinker Bell, Tinker Bell, ummm she has wings, Amen."

Seriously who is this child?

Family Photos!

We had family photo's taken by our good friend Carolyn (ICRPhotography). Carolyn and I made a barter, I would take care of her youngest son, Elliot, in exchange for some family pictures. This was probably much more rewarding for me, as Marin and Elliot got to have play dates and we got family pictures.





This is one of my favorite series of pictures. It really captures our obedient child! Haha



Marin don't take off your shoes there are ants in that grass!













Who me? I'm not taking my shoes off. I'm just sitting in the grass.... hum hum hum













Whoooohoo! I'm Free!!! Who needs shoes anyways!














She kept doing this weird lip thing. Carolyn somehow got a bunch of great non-kissy-fish-lip pictures.


























Thanks for the great pictures Carolyn!

Comments From Marin

While getting ready for bed the other night, Marin started putting all her "things" on the bed; blankets, dolls and random odds and ends that most people don't really sleep with, like pool toys or extra clothing. In this process she over shot the bed with her Madeline doll who landed on the floor on the other side of the bed, to which she replied, "OH Madeline! Are you OK?"

Todd and I both use the word "frustrated" without really realizing how often we used it until Marin started asking us, "Are you frustrated?" to just about anything that is going on. If she has an accident she will ask, "are you fruatrated?" if we are driving somewhere and make a comment that we are late, or about anything related to where we are going we hear, "are you frustrated?" coming from the back seat. When Todd sighs she asks him if he's frustrated, and when she gets in trouble before we even say anything to her she askes "are you frustrated?" She is very concerned about when we are frustrated, whether it has to do wither her or not.

One of my favorite Marin-isms, that I think a lot of toddlers probably say, or at least get ideas like this switched around with the correct word usage, is when she wants to be held. She lifts her arms up and says, "I'll hold you" or "I want to hold you". Today when we were in the pool she said, "Mama I'll hold you when you fwim". There is something about the way my little red hed says it that is just so sweet I cannot help but hold her tight and kiss her chubby cheeks.

In light of our current job situation, while there is fruatration and stress, I think both Todd and I would agree that Marin had been a source of joy throughout this whole process. She seems to say the funniest things just when we need a laugh. She loves to be hugged by both of us at the same time, which brings us all together when we might otherwise be at odds. While she has her crazy moments its easy to forgive her when she blurts out in her loudest singing voice, "by the dawns learly light..." or announces that "I'm gonna take my time" as she opens a book and settles herself onto the potty backwards. I just love this kid.

THE PLAY HOUSE!!!

Have we mentioned the play house at our new little apartment? This little house belongs to the little girl next door, Callie. Callie has kindly let Marin... well let me just say, move in! Marin is completely in LOVE with the play house. I mean what little girl would not be in love with this place. I took these photos of Marin before nap today while she was playing.

Multitasking--Marin can have complete conversations on her play phone with just about anyone. Sometimes in a different language too... we are not sure what language it is exactly but its not English.
Still on the phone. Getting ready to take the baby's for a walk.

Every hard working woman needs a nap!

What's been going on...Pictures!

This was taken right after Marin got her sling when we were still packing up our apartment... notice the mess all around her. Here she is showing me that she can still put a hat on.







This was Valentines day. Her Great grandma sent her this dress and she just loves it (because she loves anything with pockets or a hood on it, this dress has little front pockets)

FIRST BRADS!!!!



Another picture of her first brads! We think they are just so cute.









After living in an apartment, its amazing how the little things are such big deals to us. Like getting to go out in our yard and paint and then use the hose to clean up the mess.


Marin and Choc... a.k.a Chocolate. What a great name for a dog. Marin just loves him. Our "cabin" is on the left.



One night Marin was carrying this baby around in this box for a while and before bed she informed us that this was baby Jesus. So in case you all are wondering, Jesus lives at our house in this box. We have tried to get her to call the baby something like Jessie, but she insists on calling this baby Jesus... and carrying her around in the box.








Don't worry its not lit.











A little Sunday afternoon hike. Notice the alligators on the water below. OK more soon. Sorry this is so short.

Catching Up

OK a lot has been going on in our lives these days. And I wrote about most of it in my other blog here at Thoughtful Parenting. Please feel free to jump on over there to check it out. Also while this post is short I wanted to say that we have temporally lost our camera-to-computer-wire. So we cannot put any new pictures on our blog at this time. Which I am dying to do so that we can put some fun new pictures of our new place on here. So as soon as we get that little problem taken care of we will begin the process of adding some new pictures and updating our site.

Baby Wearing

For all of you who knew how much we wore Marin, and sometimes still do I thought you would enjoy seeing her using a snow-neck-gator (for those of you who live in Florida and don't know what a neck gator is, its like fitted scarf) as a baby sling.




"Hmmm does my baby need to wear cloths? Oh probably not considering I'm not wearing any pants!"














"Lets go outside for a walk baby"














Book and wash cloth in hand. She must be up to something fishy... look at those eyes, you can tell she is.











Here she is sleeping her day away with daddy in
Ergo. She just loved being in her slings.

Snake Scarf

A woman who comes to the bakery where I work a few hours each week made this cute snake scarf for Marin last week, her husband made the wooden button eyes. Marin just loves it, so do we.

4 hours in ER and one sling later...

Well here we are, our first visit to the Emergency Room!

The Story: Marin and I (Holli) were home packing boxes (if you don't know we are moving--I'll write another blog about why) and Marin decided she needed to retrieve all of her babies from my bed. I think there were 4 dolls she had set up on my bed to rest with and according to her, they were all crying and "they need me". I followed her into the room to make sure she was not going to jump on the bed (which is her all time favorite activity--Todd and I are great spotters) once I saw she was just gathering the dolls and her intentions were to bring them back out of the room I turned around and headed back to the living room to resume packing. I was listening all the while to make sure she did not start jumping, it makes me really nervous for her to jump on the bed with no one watching. I had not even picked up the next item to pack when I heard her fall off the bed. I ran back to the room to check on her, there was no screaming or crying. As I reached her she was standing up and said "my arm" but didn't actually start crying until she grabbed my neck.

She and I went over to the couch and sat down to cuddle, and at this point I didn't think she had actually done any damage, she was just fussing. However her fussing soon turned into crying and finally I called my friend Paige to find out what I should do, she suggested I first call our hospitals pediatrics department. Once I got in touch with the nurse on call she recommended we just go right over to the ER because it sounded like we would be needing an x-ray. At this point I started crying too. Todd arrived home at this point with the intention of going for a run, going out for pizza and packing for the rest of the evening...

We arrived at the hospital, with Marin asking the whole way "where is my dock-e-tor?" Everyone we saw was very kind, like all emergency rooms it did take a very long time--4 hours. Which means we did not eat dinner until 10:30 pm, but that Marin got to watch cartoons, which is always a treat to a child who never gets to watch television. She also got lots of stickers.

Diagnosis: according to the x-rays there was fluid on her elbow which 60% of the time means a fracture so Dr. Light who was attending the pediatric unit that night called in a doctor from orthopedics to view the x-rays. Dr. McCormic informed us that he did not see a fracture (which meant we did not have to wait for another team to come and set the bones, and put on a cast) however there was swelling which can cause other problems if it gets worse. But seeing as the accident had happened 5 hours before the actual x-ray was taken and there was still light swelling he thought she would be fine with a wrap, half cast fabric type material to hold a bend in her arm/elbow, and put her in a sling. He quickly and carefully wrapped her arm, Mairn was very brave and the told him "thank you" very quietly with her bottom lip stuck out.

We were dismissed, ate a quick sandwich, which brought about more tears because we had been talking about getting pizza for dinner that night and Marin was not about to let us forget our promises for her bravery (we will be having pizza for dinner tonight). By the time we actually got home and in bed it was 11 pm. Marin slept well for about four hours and then woke up saying it hurt, we gave her more motrin and she slept for another 4 hours. Her spirits are good and she's doing really well figuring out how to do things with one arm.

After this whole experience we are very thankful we did not have to have a bone set, surgery, cast, or more severe swelling which would have meant spending the night in the hospital. I do think we are all ready for an early nap though.

News From A Toddler

At this point in Marin's life she only has two friends who have no siblings. She is the only child in her Sunday School class who is an only child, and when we have play dates with most of our friends they also have siblings. In fact I would say the majority of our close friends average 3 or 4 kids. Back at the beginning of the Fall Marin started to realize this, probably because one of my good friends was having baby number 3, it was her first girl, and we were very excited for them... meaning we talked about baby Olive and her arrival a lot. When Olive was finally born I informed Marin that Lincoln and Wells now had a little sister (Olive), to which she replied, "No! Marin's little sister!" That was the first time she had ever said anything like that. From that day forward she bagan her "matching-family-together" game. Which goes like this: "Jonas' daddy name?", "Jonas' brother name?", "Jonas' sister name?", "Jonas mama name?" and then moving on the her next friend, "Lulu mama name?", "Lulu brother name?" and through the whole list with each family. She still plays this game. I truly believe the birth of Olive sparked her understanding that most other families she knows have KIDS in the house, which means some are big and some are babys, but no matter what she has realized that she does not have other kids in her house.

Well this is going to change in September... yes we are pregnant! It comes at a busy time in our lives as we are uncertain as to Todd's job situation. But as some wonderful friends have put it, "Isn't that just the way God works. You have a wonderful blessing to lookforward too, while you are in the midst of something unenjoyable." Either way we are looking forward to this new journey in our lives, and Marin is extactic! In fact she just cannot keep from anouncing it to everyone, including random farmers at the Farmers Market, or the manager of our apartment complex. So in her words here is her way of announcing our news:

I'm big sister--Baby in tummy!--Hear heartbeep next week!!!

My favorite part is that she thinks we are going to hear the heart "beep"
I'll post some pictures soon.