We have a climber!

We have noticed in the past few days that Cambria seems to have discovered her insane climbing ability. Maybe, it's just been awhile since I've had a 14 month old, but I don't remember so much crazy climbing going on at this age!
The other night we were in Avery and Valie's room getting them ready for bed and I turn around to see Cambria attempting the bottom step of Avery's top bunk ladder. I stand there to observe exactly how far she'll get, and in a matter of moments she is at the top (SO proud of herself), crawling around all over Avery's bed! We now must remember to remove the ladder during the day!
And yesterday when I got home from work, Tom tells me about how she carried the little foot stool over to the kitchen table. Then used it to climb onto the chair and from there got up onto the table. Crazy girl! I have a feeling we could be in trouble with this one! :)

Cambria at 1 year

At the beginning of this month I took Cambria to get her 1 yr pictures taken. It wasn't the best she's done with pictures, I think mainly because she did not have her siblings there for encouragement. And although she wasn't extremely cooperative, I think we were able to get a few cute shots. So, here are the best and the worst...!

The best...

...and the worst!"don't let go, Mommy!"

"you DID let go!"


"How about I lay down and cry, then?"


"or maybe I should just look cute and tear up your props, hmm?"
(I wonder where that silent rebellion comes from....)

All in all, we captured the many moods of Cambria. And isn't that what milestone pictures are all about?! :)

Dance Recital

Avery had her dance recital on Friday and Saturday of this past weekend. Can I just say, it was cute, and exhausting, and cute...! In fact, perhaps I should titled this post as the Week of Dance! It seemed to be all consuming last week, with group pictures at the studio on Tuesday, dress rehearsal on Thursday and the recital on Friday night and Saturday. One thing I will say about The Pointe Dance Studio that she goes to, is it's very professionally run and operated. As if all these children are being reared up to be professional dancers. And maybe they will be - who knows!!? They put on a great performance. While I was there volunteering back stage on Friday night, one of the other mom's told me, "Ms. Katherine (the owner) doesn't put on a recital, she puts on a show!!" And so she did. Anyway, here are a few pictures of Avery in her costume.

*****************************************************

And as a side note (if you haven't had enough cute for the day), our neighbor invited us over this weekend to pick our fill of homegrown tomatoes. The kids LOVED it, especially because our tomato plants have yet to flower for some reason!! We've known for a while that Cambria is a lover of tomatoes and will eat them until we take them away! She got a hold of one and munched on it for the entire wagon ride back to our house until it was totally gone! Gotta love summer gardens!

1st Birthday Joy!

My sweet, sweet little Cambria is 1 year old today! How, on earth, did this happen? Where did the year go?

One year ago, at 6:40am, she entered our lives and changed our world forever. During this year she has learned so much, and taught us so much - like what a blessing the 4th child is!

• Cambria has mastered the "look" of shy coyness that only little girls know how to do. Who teaches this look? :) She will wrap you around her little finger with this look, so watch out!
• Cambria can hug you sweeter and tighter than any little 1 year old I've ever met!
• Cambria can make you laugh out loud at the little dances she does every time she hears music (or something that resembles music). All this while she tries so hard to maintain her balance!
• Cambria can make her Daddy pick her up into his big, strong arms at every little whimper. (Early-learned manipulation?! Nah!!)
• Cambria will give you the most innocent, sweetest, most beautiful smile you will ever see - with zero prompting.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, MY BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL!
We love you so much!

Monumental Weekend

So, it was a monumental weekend at the May Home. That is, in terms of milestones. I'll start first with our youngest! Little 11 month old Cambria took her first steps this weekend, and, boy, was she proud!!!! She's been practicing her stand for a week or two now, but had yet to take a step. And Saturday was the day. We saw 2 steps at first. And then an hour later she made it 1/2 across the living room all by herself! How exciting! And, oh, how cute!!! :)

And then there was Valie, our 3 year old! (You should stop reading now if you don't like the word "poop") For those of you that know us, Valie has been potty trained for a long time now. However, she decided at one point that she just would not poop in the toilet. It wasn't going to happen. "I'll do it when I'm 4, Mommy!", she would tell me. So, rather than fight her on it (which I learned long ago, does not work with this issue) we kept a supply of pullups in her room for her, and would change her whenever she needed to go. Well, I don't know what did it, but we were at Target on Saturday and she decided she needed to go potty. When we got in the Family Restroom (which I love, by the way) she said she was going to pee and poop.... in the potty. I didn't want to make a big deal out of it so I said, "OK! Go ahead" and it happened!
She did it! It was at that point that I made a HUGE deal out of it - yelling and clapping and hugging. You would've wondered what was going on had you been standing outside the door! But it was awesome and we are SO excited and proud of out little girl! And if you don't understand the hugeness of this, you will when you become a parent!!!

Birthdays and Such

This past week has been packed full of activity. I will try to summarize...
March 6th: Avery had her tonsils out. She surprised us all by being totally resilient. The worst day, as you would expect, was the day of her surgery. However even that day, by evening she was asking to go to Parent's Night Out at church with her siblings and wanting to eat Bean and Cheese soft tacos from Taco Cabana! Crazy girl! The only real tears she shed were when we had to tell her no to things she wanted to do like jump on the trampoline! I'm glad we got the tonsils out before she starts Kindergarten in the Fall and we hope she will be healthier for it! She was a great little patient!
March 9th: We got to celebrate Daddy's birthday! Unfortunately, I had to work all day, but I brought home Carino's for dinner and we had angel food cake and strawberries (his favorite!) for dessert. Happy Birthday, Sweetheart! We love you!
March 14th: Valie's first "Valie's friend" birthday party. Don't get me wrong - Valie has been to many a birthday party! But this was her first party that it was her friend only - a little girl in her class at Mother's Day Out. She was sooooo excited! In fact, she was in the car waiting, gift in hand, a good 10 minutes before it was time to go. Really cute, how excited she was!
She didn't get to go entirely on her own, though! Mommy and Cambria went along for the ride, too. So, Cambria got to experience the excitement of a jumpy castle for the first time as well.And that is our week in a nutshell. Which brings us to today, the first day of Spring Break! Even though I have to work several days this week, I've made it my mission to try to post several times this week. So, check back!

aaand.... it begins

Things around the May house are about to become tricky! Just this morning, I set Cambria down in the livingroom next to her basket of toys and went to go strip the beds. After picking up a few toys in Carsons room and pulling off his sheets, I peeked into the livingroom to check on the baby and she was no where to be found. Hmmm.... I looked around and ultimately found her in the kitchen - right next to the dog bowls. I hurried over to find her little fists full of dog food and 1 piece in her mouth! Noooooo! I don't remember her asking if she could start crawling!