The Life of McKenna and Maya

The girls have been interacting with each other much better for longer periods of time. Maya follows McKenna around and does what ever she says… even when McKenna is quite mean.
This weekend we took the girls to a few events. Saturday we went and saw a musician by the name of Joe McDermot play at a church. They had lots of arts and crafts for the girls along with several other musical performers. Sunday we were blessed with really nice weather and traveled to Austin’s “Chinatown” for a Chinese new year celebration. The girls liked it for the most part but the firecrackers scared the daylights out of poor Maya.
Our weekend was relaxing for the most part but the girls have so much energy they wear us out. Maya has become very deliberately disobedient and time outs don’t work. She is going to be a tough one.
Here are some videos from the weekend:

We had a nice Valentines weekend together as a family. Its the first uninterrupted weekend in what seems like a long time. Its hard to believe Carrie and I kicked off our family journey 8 years ago today.
Saturday we met the Kleemans at a museum on the University campus where the girls got to see a live Tarantula and lots of other bugs. Both girls were very brave and wanted to hold all of them. Lots of the other kids there were scared. From there we went to Central Market for lunch and the girls played on the playground for a while. McKenna has become much more physically sure of herself and can climb very well and even better than some boys. In the evening I made everyone milkshakes and we watched The Iron Giant movie together. Since then Maya has been obsessed with ‘wobots’ and wobots that cwush.
Today we took a walk in the greenbelt and down to the river that was probably class 3 rapids. Too dangerous to attempt to cross. Later we went to Brynn Cuellar’s birthday party at Build A Bear in the mall. The place is a racket that forces you to spend money on cheap stuffed animals but both girls had a blast.
Here is a picture sent home with Maya of her class (she is the shy one..):

The girls were very difficult last night. They intentionally tried to get on my nerves every step of the way. Tonight however they were much better and were little angels.
McKenna has been working on her th’s and sounds very grown up with out the f’s replacing them.
Maya is still struggling with speech and I have been making efforts to have her pronounce and say things… She doesn’t seem to want to say anything.
Tomorrow night I am going to make milkshakes for them if they are good.

McKenna has been increasingly nasty towards Maya lately. It ranges from physical abuse to verbal. Maya of course reacts and over reacts in a negative way. I notice it more after school then before school and on the weekends. My guess it that its normal. I have tried to reason with McKenna but it seems to be falling on deaf ears. They do seem to interact more these days and Maya just adores her big sister regardless of what she does to her.
McKenna’s skills with writing, coloring and drawing have really had a noticeable improvement lately. She colors well with in the lines and draws faces. Her numbers look really good on the practice sheets she brings home from school.
Maya’s allergies seem to be making a rebound after a period of clear skin and good breathing. My guess is that it is something she is eating or being exposed to at school.

McKenna wakes up in the same mood as her mommy every day. Grumpy, grumpy, grumpy. Maya is usally grumpy as well and that leaves Jaxson and I to fend for ourselves. Jaxson usually sleeps in. I had not seen the girls for over 24 hours this morning as I traveled out early before they woke and returned long after they went to bed. Maya was happy to see me tonight I think but McKenna seemed a little angry with me.
Its mommies turn however as she is working the 11a to 7pm and then on call from 7 to 11p. We had a nice dinner and so far everyone has stayed asleep.