The Kids' Log: April 29-May 5, 2012

I cannot believe it is already May! The month of May is the best, and I'm not just saying that because of my birthday or Mother's Day. May has always signified renewal and hope for me. It's when the flowers really bloom and the leaves on trees turn bright green after the April showers. May also makes me take stock of where I am spiritually, mentally, and physically (swimsuit season around the corner!). I start to make plans to get my butt, brain, and spirit into gear.

This week I fed my brain the Hunger Games and it ate it up! The concept may not be original, but Suzanne Collins is a master with prose and keeps her dystopian novel bursting with vivid imagery and hopping at a fast clip.I am undecided about seeing the movie (like I could go right now anyway) because I hear it leaves out many key scenes from the book. That would irk me. I treated my body to some exercise. I've been power walking up to 4 miles a couple times this week with Desmond attached to me thanks to the Boba 3G carrier my mother-in-law bought for me. I've also been working on cleaning up my diet and curbing the sweet tooth that I developed while pregnant. Spiritually I find myself praying a lot more, asking for infinite patience (like when Magoo has been up for two hours in the middle of the night and won't go to sleep) and infinite wisdom (like when Marlie is throwing an atomic tantrum and I need to get through to her).

With my birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, I find myself itching to redesign my blog. It's only been a year since the last makeover, so I can't really scratch it. Maybe I'll just get a few things tweaked like add some pictures of Magoo to the header and change  the fonts. I've decided not to change the name of my blog because it's more than just my online journal, it's my budding enterprise and I don't want to risk losing any business. It's too much work (and time I don't have) to rebuild my rankings if I buy a new domain name. I could just change the title, but I hate it when blog titles and domain names don't match. So, yeah, this will always be Marlie and Me.
 
Toddler Log: 2 Years and 37 Weeks Old
Marlie is becoming more of a kid each day as she rapidly approaches her third birthday. She still has her moments of toddler drama. Her tantrums are more intense, but happen less often. She is obsessed with snails and likes to show me the slimy buggers crawling up her arm when I pick her up from school. I grit my teeth and tell her they are so cool when I really want to hurl. Shudder. I think she is going to pick a profession working with animals. Marlie is taking her imaginary play to new levels with tea time and pretend baking. She loves to bring me "tea and cookies" and "pancakes." She watches while I pretend to drink and eat what she has made then she asks me if it was yummy. She has also gotten into caring for her doll baby and loves to rock it to sleep and change its diaper. She is suddenly afraid of the dark and the shadows of the trees in her room are scary. We have to cover up the glass door in her room so she can go to sleep.I wonder where all of this is coming from.She was looking at a picture of a young girl who was missing her two front on the cover of a magazine and exclaimed, "her mouth is yucky like a horse!" I told her that she just lost her teeth and that they would grow back. She insisted it was yucky, so I told her that she would lose her teeth too and big, grown-up teeth would replace them. She got all upset and cried that she didn't want to lose her teeth. Why'd I have to go open my big mouth?!

Baby Log: 5 Weeks Old
My big boy is about 10 lbs now and giving me a back ache. The temperatures are skyrocketing and it's becoming an oven down here. Magoo has a heat rash on his ears, neck and the back of his head. Poor baby, but it gave me an excuse to give him his first real bath in the tub. He liked being immersed in the cool water. I rubbed him down from head to toe in aloe vera and the rash looked a lot less red. I finally got him to smile at my funny faces which made my heart melt. He makes these weird sounds that remind my of that guy from the Police Academy movies. He can sound like a tire squealing and hiss like a lizard, but the best sound effect he makes is a dolphin call. I might have to change his nickname to Flipper!