Missing Matt but Catching up with Marlie

Today is Tuesday and Edouard, Marlie and I are going to be hanging out all day. No Edouard is not my latin lover. He is the Hurricane that has come to visit. So far so good. Just some heavy rain.

Doug took Matt down to San Antonio last Thursday and my life just seems incomplete without him around. I miss him terribly but he is having a blast with his Grandparents and cousins. Every day we get an update and it seems to be nonstop fun. Doug's Dad and wife Lisa own a great gym so Matt and 2 of his cousins are going to gymnastics camp this week. Matt has been talking about it for awhile and keeps asking if we're going to go watch him. Breaks my heart. I'd love to be there. He'll come home on Monday and will start his new school on Thursday. He already has his Spiderman backpack that he is super excited about! More to come on that when he actually starts. But I have to tell you that Matt is an official celebrity. He is on the front page of the Houston Chronicle's Outdoor section. Check it out. I'm not sure how long it will be posted out there. http://www.chron.com/sports/texashuntingandfishing/

Doug had his annual guys weekend last weekend and I can't stop laughing at the fact that there was actually leftover beer brought back and that he was exhausted because they were out late but up at 7:00am each morning. Once you have kids you have trouble sleeping in. Sounds like they had fun though and unfortunately we don't have any incriminating photos to post.

Well let me tell you a little about this girl they call "Marlie". In the last week she has decided she can say as much as Matt. She is talking nonstop and we can make out a lot of it. My memory is coming back as she is now at the stage where she wants something and is frustrated when she tries to communicate and we don't understand her. So there's been lots of crankiness lately but we're so proud of her. So far her favorite color is "yellow" (she says it beautifully) and her favorite phrase is "I want to get down" although it sounds more like "I un a ge own". In the mornings she just says it over and over until someone comes to get her. She has also taken to the Brown Bear book and we've read it about 100 times in the last week. I can't get her interested in other books but we'll keep trying.

This weekend we met my dear friend Phuong and her daughter Mikayla at the Children's Museum. I've known Phuong since junior high and her daughter is 4 days younger than Marlie. Mikayla bought Marlie her buggy for her first bday that she loves! We had a blast but sometimes it's hard to believe that we're Moms of these little helpless creatures. Mikayla is as sweet as can be. I compare Marlie to Matt all the time so Marlie seems sweet to me. But not even close to Mikayla. She is so calm and easy going. I just had to hug her and squeeze her! It was great! We can't wait until they're old enough to want to go shopping! Maybe they'll be college roommates someday. You never know. I have put some pics in the slideshow as well!

Please Don't Stop the Music

Those of you who know me well know that I LOVE music. If I could be anything I'd be a singer and play the guitar. I'd have the voice of Christina Aguilera, play the guitar like John Mayer (minus the weird facial expressions of course), dance like JT and my style would be my favorite pair of jeans, flip flops and a hip top. Of course I can't sing or play the guitar. I could probably be a back up dancer for JT but that's about it. Well okay that might be a stretch.

So I'm happy to note that my kids love music too! Like their Momma, neither of them can sit still when they hear a good song. The other day we were driving home from school and I looked in the rear view mirror and both were dancing in their seats. Hilarious! And Marlie was the hit of the show the other day when she danced like crazy when we heard a sax player on the street corner when we were walking out of the Astros game.

Matt's favorite artist is Jack Johnson (which they do a great skit of on SNL). He has been able to sing the entire song "Upside Down" (off the Curious George soundtrack) since he was just learning to talk. If he wants me to pick him up he knows to sing the first few lines of Dave Matthew's "Everyday" and he loves for me to sing "Please Don't Go" by KC and the Sunshine Band. I don't know why but that song has stuck with me over the years.

So if you ever see us dancing at the grocery store or in the mall just ignore us. We're just in our own world having fun. It's a good excuse for me to dance....I just blame my silliness on the kids!

Off to the Races!

This weekend my cousin and her boyfriend came to visit so we headed out to the horse track on Saturday night to see the horses! As most of you know Matt has been obsessed with horses since he was very young. We had Matt's 2nd birthday at the race track and celebrated with all of our family including my Uncle Johnny who has a few quarter horses that were racing too. It was a blast for everyone!

Matt screamed like a girl at his birthday party when a horse got close but this weekend he just wanted to pet them the entire time. He'd watch the horses go onto the race track and give all the jockeys the "thumbs up". He told me he wanted to ride the horses but I said that those horses are really fast so we can't ride them. He promised he would hold on tight! So we'll have to head down to the ranch in the Fall when it's cooler so he can ride.

Marlie actually reached out to touch the horse too! She had fun betting her college fund on the races. Kidding of course! We ended the night up $12ish dollars so that's not bad. We'll be back in a few weeks when my Uncle's horse Romancing Mary comes back to Houston to race. It's really exciting for the kids and us. I'll keep you posted on the date in case anyone else would like to join us!

Momma's Birthday

Happy Birthday to me.....well my Birthday was Thursday but we waited until Saturday to celebrate. We went to dinner downtown and then to the Cubs....I mean Astros game. It was tons of fun! I'm not sure what the best part of the night was. Maybe when Matt stopped in about the 4th inning and asked where Craig Biggio was. Or watching Marlie focus intensely on the game and clap when the crowd went crazy. She did sleep for about 45 minutes and it was wonderful holding her tight! Or maybe listening to Matt say that his favorite was Lance (as in Berkman) 717 times on the ride home.

If you haven't heard the Biggio story let me tell you quickly. My Brother's team played UH in town last Spring. Craig Biggio was at the game and sat one row behind us. We all tried hard not to stare but it was difficult. Okay well maybe just for me. On our way out Matt gave him a five and I wish I would have had the camera because I would have loved to take a picture with him....I mean I would have loved for Matt to take a picture with him. So that's when we taught Matt about Craig Biggio and how he remembered I'll never know.

Another cool thing happened this weekend too. Matt caught his first fish! It was HUGE..check out the picture below! Doug said that Matt had an attention span of zero the entire time. I wonder where he gets that from......hmmm......if you ever see the Maziurs out and about you'll see Doug about 10 steps ahead of us. Always in a hurry to get to the next place and he says I'm slow. Funny the rest of you know that I'm rather quick but oh well. Matt asked if the hook hurt the fish which I thought was sweet. He gets that from his Momma!

New Baby in the Family

Nothing is more exciting than a new baby! On Monday, July 14th our new nephew Tim came into the world. The paparazzi was there to greet him. Matt stared at him for a long time and later when he saw another baby being wheeled into the nursery he asked where "our" baby was. This is the 2nd boy on Doug's side of the family so we're excited for Matt to have a playmate.

We also celebrated our neice Sam's 7th birthday. Matt is attached to Sam at the hip and Sam is so wonderful to love him back and not get annoyed with the question "Where is Sam" every 5 minutes.

Someone call CPS!

The Maziurs had a great weekend and I'll have to expand on that in my next posting. But for now let's talk about how we were afraid to go out in public with our kids for fear someone might call CPS! Both had swollen right eyes which means Dad must have a great right hook! If only it were Halloween and Doug could stroll around the neighborhood with us in a wife beater yelling at us! Oh maybe next year.

Marlie got her black eye trying to walk at Chick-fil-A. The play area just jumped out and got her! It turned black and blue immediately! She was upset but Dad was even more upset that it happened on his watch. No biggie these things just happen.

Matt got a mosquito bite one night and 2 mornings later he woke up with his eye swollen shut. Looked like he had been in a boxing match. We think he had an allergic reaction to the bite.

We're starting to look better so we'll be out and about this weekend without hats and big glasses to disguise who we are.

4th of July

We had a great weekend...where do I start? The kids were in a parade at school on Thursday and then we celebrated Doug's birthday that night! Matt had fun helping make a brownie cake with strawberries and cool whip....yes it looked a little better than Marlie's cake...I will get better at this! Of course Matt took ALL the credit for the cake, but that was the point right? Friday we went to our neighborhood parade and spent the day at the pool. We stayed up late and did fireworks in the backyard. I'm living life through my children and did my first Roman Candle too. I know how pathetic is that? Maybe I'll even go to a water park in my old age. We climbed up to the top of our fence and watched the fireworks in our neighborhood. Matt was more interested in his glow sticks and the fact that we were sitting on the fence but he had fun so all was good. Saturday morning Doug and Matt went fishing. I think Matt talking constantly might have scared the fish away because they only got bites. Oh well....he says the funniest things so we can deal with the fact that there is never a quiet moment in our house!

But let's get to the important stuff.....first I'm happy to report that Marlie is not only saying "Momma" but she says "MY Momma"! Okay I will admit she said "Hannah" first - that's one of our lovely dogs that wakes us up early in the mornings when our kids happen to sleep late. Oh and she's walking too. We thought her chongo (aka ponytail for you gringos) on the top of her head might have been throwing her off balance but she's got it now. And another big thing.....Matt gets up in the mornings, goes potty and then gets dressed all by himself before I come up to get him. Now those of you without kids might wonder why I even mentioned that but the rest of you know how wonderful this little step is. I told Doug I was going to try to train him to do that (I know what you're thinking...he's not a dog) and Doug reminded me that he's only 2 - well almost 3. But let me tell you parents that kids are SO trainable. Just keep them in their little routine and life is so much easier. I'm positive that's why I can lay my kids in bed at 8:30 every night with no fuss. Then I have time to sit here and bore you with every little detail of my little peas lives! HA!

And in case I haven't told you.....I think the world of my kids. I never in my life imagined that I'd love my children this much. Even with snotty noses and spaghetti all over their face. And I'm loving being able to spend more time with them. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to enjoy these little stages. So I want to say Thank You to all the men and women who are fighting in the war. I can't even imagine the amount of praying I'd be doing if my children were there. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! God Bless America!