Worn Out!

Big girl was up late last night (after 10 before she finally fell asleep - yuck) after attending a friend's birthday party. Lesson learned - no chocolate cake for Maren at 7:00 at night. She passed out on the couch after John picked her up from school.

Are we the whitest people in America?

We spent quite a bit of time dancing to John Denver's Greatest Hits CD at the Gregg House this weekend. Maren's particular favorites are "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (known in our house as "Cakes on the Griddle") and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" which causes us to yell 'West Virginia' with gusto, in honor of Grandma Bunny.

The Gregg's - on the cutting edge of music and entertainment.

Egg Dress

A slow weekend in Grand Rapids...middling weather, but no disasters, unlike other parts of the country.

Maren, like all of us, is ready for warm weather and has been modeling the warm weather clothes I am starting to pull out for our trip to Hilton Head in less than two weeks (yeahhhhh). Here is her own creation that she calls "the egg dress." She found egg garlands that Grandma Bunny brought last year and has been "wearing" them for two days. She also informed us she wanted to be "an egg dress for Halloween."

A Song by Maren

Created tonight, on the spot, after being denied a request...

"There was a girl named Maren, who wanted a donut hole
Jana, her mama, said no wait for breakfast
Sooooo, Maren had some bread and butterrrrrr!"

Mix & Match Day

It's Spring Fling week in the Bunny Room. Monday was "yellow" day. Tuesday was "take your favorite snack" ("Grover" and "Big Bird" flavor snack bars for Maren) and today is "mix and match your clothes" day. She has been soooo excited for this one, as she loves choosing her clothes every day. Tomorrow is "Pajama and Movie" day and Friday is "Bring your favorite book" day. How will we choose??

Silly Faces

John took this, after picking Maren up from school. We will post a close-up of her face. It is MUCH healed and amazing how fast kids do heal.

Incident at the Playground

Oh no!!! Good thing we took a cute picture yesterday morning. Maren took a big spill at the school playground before lunch yesterday. Poor baby!! John was home with a cold and picked her up not long after it happened and comforted her. Unfortunately, we didn't feel that the teacher that contacted us about the situation handled it very well. It's the first time in more than two years when we were both upset about something at school. I've met with the lead teacher and expressed our concerns. Hopefully nothing like this will happen to Maren, or any of her little friends again. And if it does, it will be handled better by the staff.

As always, Maren is one tough cookie and after with lots of rest and loving from mom and dad, she is better this morning.

Happy Birthday, Nana (and Happy St. Pat's)!

Here are my two lucky charms, saying Happy Birthday to Nana this morning before school. Maren is wearing shamrock and green ribbons in her hair.

It is going to be a gloriously warm day here in Grand Rapids. Hallelujah!

Healing

Although she has taken to lifting up her dress and dropping her pants to show everyone (teachers, friends, neighbors) her injury, her knee is nearly healed.

Gymnast!

Maren was very proud of her "award" (certificate of participation) from Grand Rapids Parks and Recreation this weekend. She is a pro at somersaults and walked forward and backward on the balance beam with no help. Yeah!

Healing Slowly

The knee...day four...this picture was taken on Tuesday evening, a little more than 24 hours after the incident. While Maren was genuinely hurting (and may still be a little sore) "my owie knee" has become an excellent excuse for "I can't walk up the stairs," and "I need my paci, I have an owie." And, it's very hard to take a bath when you don't think you can get your knee wet...but we worked past that. The drama, the drama!

Injured Reserve

A big owie for Maren yesterday on the school playground. Probably the worst scrape her little knees have ever had, John called it "road rash." She was running and fell on the cement going or coming from the school playground. Shockingly, there was only a snag, no tear, in her Lands' End tights, with a good washing they can be worn again. I'm not sure why they didn't suit up into snowpants and boots one more day, based on the temperature and wetness of the day, but...

Here is our pathetic girl, she now walks like she has a peg leg. John did a good job of giving her some Tylenol in the afternoon and some good loving, and fresh band aids last night. We told her "no running at school." It's no broken arm, but traumatic nonetheless.

BIG GIRL BED

John converted Maren's crib to a toddler bed on Saturday. Here she is practicing on Saturday afternoon. We've had a little bit of parading up and down the stairs as she explores her freedom and what it means to STAY IN BED. But, Sunday night was much improved over Saturday night and we hope tonight will be even better. She has also shown up in our bedroom at 5:30 the last two morning saying "I need to snuggle." How can we turn that down?

Toes!

Yuck, what a gray and rainy weekend. On the plus side, most of the snow has finally washed away.

Here are Maren's toes, which brightened up our weekend. As always, she was naked or in a bathing suit or dressed up in a tutu for much of the time.

Oh, Bummer!

Our niece Allison broke her arm! A freak accident and four weeks in a cast. Poor Alli! Maren has been very sad about it, crying a few times, and now tells us she has a broken leg. She also keeps asking if we should take band aids to Alli when we go see her in April. We are praying she heals fast.

Spring Break - Of Sorts

Maren's school is closed this week, as it's Grand Rapids Community College's Spring Break week.

Yes, as always, Maren prefers to be undressed versus dressed.

Fortunately, we have paired up with another family and Maren and her pal Maddie are having a fun-filled week.

John took care of both girls on Monday. They had a blast, and from the looks of the house when I got home, every single toy we own had been used. Tuesday and Wednesday, Maddie's parents watched the girls and Thursday and Friday, Bunny, Grandpa and Uncle Jay are in Grand Rapids using their best entertaining skills.

Disney On Ice

Last Thursday, we had the fun of taking Maren to her first live show of any kind. Disney on Ice - 100 Years of Disney Magic (http://disney.go.com/disneyonice/) was touring through Grand Rapids and we were able to get good seats through work. And, opening night was half-off, a bonus in this economy.

We joined some good friends for pizza before the show and walked a short block to the Van Andel Arena. Maren loved...parts of it. It was extremely loud and I didn't think any scary parts needed to be included in a show aimed at kids. She was not a huge fan of the sharks chasing Nemo!

But, in the end she asked "When can we go again?," always the sign of a good experience.

Here she is, enraptured by Mickey and the gang.