A Few of My Favorite Things

This post is about favorite things--both mine and Maura's. I'm currently enjoying one of my very favorite things--nap time. Although I LOVE being home with my girl, there are few times in the day that I look forward to more than nap time. I love having a few minutes to myself to get something done, nap or just waste a little time. I also love how refreshed Maura is after nap time and how we can go on to enjoy the rest of our day. My other current fav? This flower!! We've had it for less than a month, and in that time period, it's grown from a little shoot to this gorgeous flower with four different flower heads. I'm going to be really sad when it dies, because I've really enjoyed it.

Anyone who has ever had or know a toddler knows how they get stuck on certain things. They love routines and familiar things, and sometimes they just don't want anything to do with anything else. Following are some of Maura's current favorites that I don't want to forget about.


Maura's current favorite lunch is macaroni and cheese and grape tomatoes. Every day I ask her what she wants for lunch, and every day she replies, "macamoni and cheese and matoes with ranch dressing." I figure that at least she's getting a serving of veggies under all that ranch dressing, so we do indulge in this tasty treat pretty often. This child can chow down on some macaroni--she eats almost the entire packet of Easy Mac! Who would have guessed it of my little skinny mini!

Maura with her mato. What is really funny about this being a favorite is that neither Brent nor I care for fresh tomatoes. I know that at some point she's going to figure out that we NEVER eat them with her and she'll probably decide against them, but for now she loves them. I took this picture to document her tomato addiction for proof in the future.

THE PACI!! I always thought I would try to avoid these in my kids because I've heard so many horror stories about how hard it is to break kids of them, but several sleepless nights when she was a newborn changed my mind. It's been a love affair ever since. Now that she's older, she's only allowed the paci at night and naps, but it's amazing how she finds them around the house and is always popping up with one in her mouth. She was much more finicky about her paci when she was younger, rejecting all by one brand. She's much less selective now, and will suck on any one that she can find. Not sure how we're going to get rid of this one. Right now, I'd rather tackle potty training than getting rid of the paci, so it may be awhile that she gets to keep it!

Maura loves her Noah's Ark. It's her current favorite toy. She takes all the animals out and lines them up two by two and says all their names. This one was a hit on Christmas Day and she's not stopped playing with it ever since.

Maura has a lot of "favorite books." This child LOVES to read and will ask for books at any opportunity, especially before bedtime. I will have to say that this one is her current favorite. She's fascinated with Thomas lately, which is funny, because she's only ever read about him in this book. I finally rented a Thomas video from the library so that she could see what it was all about and she loved that too. We read this every single morning, sometimes multiple times in a row!

Maura's favorite pets, Luna and Thea. She LOVES these cats and talks about them all the time. She keeps up a running commentary about where they're going, where they're sitting and what they're doing. She says, "Awwww, very nice kitty!" when she pets them and puts her head down on them to feel their fur on her face. She pretty much mugs Thea whenever she sees her because Thea isn't smart enough to run away! We do have to closely supervise her with the cats to make sure she doesn't love them a little too much.

Two of Maura's favorites combined. She loves bath time and I have a hard time keeping her from climbing in before I take off her clothes. She just gets in there and swims and splashes and pours water. She's holding up one of her other favorites, a Little People boy that she's named Matt(presumably after my brother-in-law.) She takes this guy everywhere and he tries out all kinds of crazy things, like going down slides and falling down steps!

And, last but certainly not least--Maura's Blankie. This child is a blankie LOVER. She would take it everywhere if she could. I try to limit the blankie to nighttime and naps because I can't stand the thought of it dragging all over the place and then going into her bed, but she begs to get up in the crib so she can be with Blankie. It's the first thing she asks for after bath each night and she bunches it up and lays down on it in the middle of the floor. She hugs and kisses it and we have a lot of convincing to do to keep it in the crib most of the time! Whenever she gets tired or hurt, though, it's the very first thing she thinks of! She calls it her "soft, purple blankie." I have a feeling that this one is going to be with us for a very long time.