Mara’s Blog Influencing the world one day at a time since 2005…

Our little ones are suited up and ready to get some treats…no tricks! This year Mara was able to choose her costume. Surprise surprise (I mean this sarcastically of course) she picked Dora. Since mom was hoping for a theme between the two of them Campbell became Boots the monkey, Dora’s sidekick for Halloween. I must say Campbell makes a sweet monkey! And Dora, well how authentic she looks considering the blonde curly locks of hair underneath. We loved the brown yarn wig with her costume.

Be sure to click on one of the pics to see the rest!

Today for the first time Mara asked if she could hold Campbell. This morning while we were getting her dressed for school is when she asked. Her brother was hanging out in her pink bean bag chair. I told her she could sit on the bean bag and I’d put him in her lap. She was very sweet with him. Kissing him and holding his hand. We compared her feet and hands to his and she was entertained by how little his were compared to hers. I guess this really makes her feel like a “big sister”. So entertained in fact that when I asked if she was ready to go downstairs to eat breakfast she said, “no”. This is totally unlike her because she loves breakfast and it is by far the meal in which she eats the most. This isn’t necessarily the first time she has been sweet. She usually says, “Goodnight Campbell” once we are done reading her books at night before being tucked in to sleep. This would be the first time she proactively wanted to hold him though. Here are some sweet shots I got of the two of them hanging out together.

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So Sunday, April 1st, at the hospital Mara took a class called Big Sister/Big Brother. It’s designed for 2-5 year olds to prepare them for a sibling. She brought her baby doll as you will see by the pictures. They were taught how to diaper their dolls and wrap them up in a blanket. The blankets were crocheted and donated by volunteers and Mara got to pick hers out and keep it. Of course she picked the pink one for her girl doll! After those lessons we went upstairs to the nursery to see any babies that might happen to be in there. Luckily there was a little baby boy. She looked thru the nursery window at him and said, “Hi baby”! After that she got to visit an empty patient room so she will have some familiarity with it when she sees her mom there. All in all it was a good class and at the end believe it or not she “passed” and got to receive a certificate with a gold seal on it. She was ran up to the front of the room when they called her name to get it. Upon returning to mom and dad she showed us her gold seal saying, “ooooooo”!

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Sure her baby is upside down in a photo and also her head is covered up with the blanket but hey, she’s working on this big sister thing, right? Click on the any picture to view the entire album.

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As you well know from visiting the blog Mara is a huge fan of the water. If you say pool she’ll run to her chest of drawers and try to get her bathing suit. We headed to the pool just weekend before last with our little tadpole in tow and here are some of the photos of her splashing around. We also got a few shots right afterwards in the locker room getting cleaned up. She was worn out and ready for a nap. Usually on the way home from swimming we have a very hard time keeping her awake.
We are hoping that all this pool time will pay off with her somewhat able to swim/doggie paddle by our summer vacation. She already will kick, blow bubbles and put her face under with no problems. Usually she will do these things unsolicited too as if she’s showing off for us.
Click on the picture to see the all the photos!