This summer's house project

Mark started taking the old aluminum siding off the back side of the house this weekend to reveal pretty well preserved wood clapboards.  Well, Mackinna was out playing in the yard when he pulled the first couple of pieces and she was really quite alarmed.  She ran from her swing set up to the deck and nearly in tears, shouted at her father, "Daddy don't take down my house!! I like my house."

Hopefully she'll like it even more when we are finally finished pulling siding and nails, filling nail holes, fixing missing boards, pressure washing, scraping, priming and painting-- that should about 6 months from now!

Another Sea dogs game- this time it wasn't raining

We went to the Sea dogs game last night.  It was about 20 degrees warmer than the last one, and it wasn't raining so that was a plus.  Kaden and I stayed till the end this time- long enough for us to realize Kaden is obsessed with Slugger.  He can't get enough of him.  At one point some people stood up and obstructed Kaden's view- you should have seen him crank his neck to see around them.  Every time Slugger came into site Kaden pointed and shouted, "ehh. Eehhhhh"  As if to say, "look, look there he is."  Its funny how much he loved the same mascot that his sister is still afraid of.  Slugger tried to get Mackinna to give him a high five- she did not find that amusing.  Mark gave him a high five though so not to leave the poor guy hanging.  Mackinna did like the trash monster last night though- primarily because he was wearing orange crocks, just like her.

They had fireworks after the game- which I think must be Kaden's first.  He really liked them.   He did the same point and shout at the fireworks- like he wanted to make sure we were seeing them.  His sister slept through them; even when we tried to wake he she had no interest in budging.  She just can't hang with the party animal Kaden, up into the wee hours of the night.  Kaden took a 45 minute nap yesterday and still managed to stay awake till 9:30.  He did fall asleep on the walk back to the car, once he wasn't so busy watching Slugger & fireworks.

No pants

Its still warm and sunny and we are still loving it.  Right now Mackinna is inside napping in her shirt, fleece jacket and undies, because it was so hot out that her legs were "really warm" and she needed to remove the capri pants she was wearing.  But yes, her upper body is fine in the fleece coat.

Spring is in finally here

Even the snowbank across the street is officially melted as of this afternoon. We are pretty thrilled. I was getting worried I'd have to buy Kaden a new winter coat because he's to fat to fit in his for another day, but it seems that we are finally okay to wear spring coats. Uncle Matt & Aunt Kate visited this weekend and enjoyed the nice weather with us. Here are some photos -

Portland Head Lighthouse

Aunt Kate & Mackinna at the lighthouse

Self inflicted of Mommy & Kaden

Kaden liked eating the rocks

Mackinna told him not to.

Daddy & Uncle Matt skipped rocks, well they tried to anyway

It was sunny and warm and wonderful here today so we ate lunch in the yard to celebrate.  Kaden and I were playing on a blanket and Mackinna was wondering around talking to folks in her imaginary world and just being Mackinna.  I wasn't paying much attention to her, then I looked up to notice she's pushing my garden gnome in the baby swing.  She carried him all around the yard, up on her shoulder, talking to him the whole way.  She showed him "neighbor Tim's" house, her playhouse, her little table... he got the entire tour in her caregiver tone of voice.   Then she proceeded to bring him inside.  When I asked her why she was doing this- she responded, "He's cold outside mommy."

The Big Cousin

We had a visit from "Baby Dylan" this weekend. Mackinna was a HUGE baby hog. When I was holding him, she said, "I think he wants me to hold him Mommy," and "He says he wants to come see me." When he did have him she just sat perfectly still and stared at him.

If he started fussing while she had him, she gave him his pacifier and whispered sweet things to him. I heard her say, "Its okay Dylan, I have you." "I right here, I right here." "Dylan look here is your pacifier." Jill kept hitting Shawn and asking him if he was listening to this. It was cracking us up. She just has so much love for HER baby cousin. When they left she cried because she wanted them to stay and immediately started talking about when she would see him again.

Kaden really just wanted to poke the poor baby.

Opening Day

Friday marked opening day for the Seadogs and rainy cold weather couldn't keep us away. Kaden and I made a brief appearance but left shortly after I got my seadog biscuit. Kaden enjoyed himself until he realized it was 7:00 and not only was he cold and wet, but he was no where near his bed and my french fries were all gone. He had his first fry at the game- it was quickly followed by his second, third and eventually most of the order. He just kept reaching in and taking more- even if he still had some in his other hand.

Mark and Mackinna stayed till the 7th inning because Mackinna really wanted to see the lighthouse go up (which requires a Seadog homerun) It never happened. I think she's over it. Slugger stopped by but she was not impressed. I guess she forgot that by the end of last season, she had grown to like him. She waved to him, but did not want him too close. She ate her popcorn that she had been talking about all winter and had a blast. Mark is quite pleased to have her as his baseball buddy.

At the museum

We went to the children's museum with Jada and "Auntie Man" yesterday. Here are some pictures. Aren't they cute kids?

She's a keeper

The other day Mackinna was taking a long time in the bathroom, and didn't answer when I called in to her, so I went in to check on her to find her with her pants around her ankles over in the cupboard.  She had used the last of the toilet paper and was in the process of pulling out a new roll to put on.  I didn't even know she knew where the extra rolls were kept, forget about knowing that its proper to replace them when you finished a roll.   The girl could teach some people I know a thing or two about that!

J

Mackinna just made me watch the video of her singing the ABCs.  She just loves to watch videos of herself.  If you've watched this video you may have noticed that Mackinna leaves out the letter J every time.  Well, while watching the video just now, Mackinna exclaimed, "J!  J, Kenna on the computer!"  She cracks me up.

The calendar says its spring... but we live in Maine

It was in the 50s yesterday and sunny- it was pretty windy and there is still snow on the ground, but we were willing to overlook that and take a walk to the park. Kaden tried the swing and just loved it. Here's a photo- notice how you can see the ground in some spots!

Conversations with Mackinna

I haven't been so good about writing lately, but that doesn't mean Mackinna has stopped saying funny things. Here are just a few...

She has "lots" of babies in her belly, and periodically in the middle of whatever she's doing, she'll just say, "uhp one just came out." She's also mentioned that sometimes they come out of her arm pit.

She asked the other day if Uncle Robby could drive the trailer down her so she could try to pull it with her truck. The power wheels pulling a trailer with Robby's truck on it- what a sight!

Dylan Shawn Dittrich was born on 3/31- so the kids have a baby cousin, but when talking to Kaden, I am not allowed to refer to Dylan as his cousin, because Mackinna will say, "NO he's MY cousin." She has also been known to correct me when I call him Dylan- she insists that we call him Baby Dylan.