Happy 11th Birthday, Maria!!

Maria celebrated her 11th birthday a few weeks ago! (Yes, I'm behind on blogging AGAIN.)

One of her gifts was a new dress made by her aunt.

Maria decided to wear it while she continued opening presents.

More presents...these were from her American grandparents who got to watch via FaceTime on the iPod.

Happy 10th Birthday, Maria!!

Can you believe she's 10 ?!?! In case you would like to start with a look back at her 9th birthday and those before that, please go ahead and click on the links :)

We actually began Maria's birthday celebration on Wednesday, Sept. 8th. Dany knew that he had a meeting late on Thursday afternoon, so Maria started opening presents and eating cake a day early. Who can complain? :) She chose Pasta ala Carbonara for supper. Yummy!

We schooled on Monday (Labor Day) so that we could take Maria's birthday off! A lady from church invited us over for a nice breakfast and then playtime!

She had a sandtable, which the little ones especially loved...

Maria spent a good bit of time hoola-hooping...

Matteo played some ring toss...

And, Maria got another cake!

Here is Elena ready to claim a piece for herself :)

Another gift...

Here's "Happy Birthday" #1...

Happy Birthday, #2









Here's Chiara enjoying a birthday card from Grandma and Pipa...

Just so you know, it's her big brother fussing at her at times in the video, not me!

Dinner entertainment

The girls have been learning the first chapter of the Gospel of John in Latin. To help them memorize it, they created a chant/song to go along with it, and they were chanting at the end of supper the other night.

The Braces are Back

Maria got her braces back on on Monday. She finished Phase I of her orthodontia care back in October, and now we begin Phase II. Phase I consisted of a night brace and 4 front braces. After getting 2 baby teeth pulled (unexpectedly) on Monday, she got a full set of braces on top. Eventually, she'll get some on the bottom, too.

Those two teeth were loose. One was hanging by just a bit, so I wasn't surprised when the doctor came out and told me that he took the tooth out. He also told me at the time that she had another loose baby tooth, but that it's wasn't very loose and he was afraid it would bleed too much if he took it out now. About 5 minutes later, he came back out with a smile on his face and handed me a small envelope with 2 teeth in it, proudly announcing that he got the 2nd tooth out. Orthodontists are strange people! :)

I said, "Oh, poor Maria!"
The doctor answered, "Oh, no! The 2nd tooth was actually easier than the first. It just popped out!"
The easy for the one NOT on the receiving end to say!

However, Maria said later that it really wasn't a big deal :)

In other orthodontic news, I had the orthodontist looking Cati's mouth, and he wants to see her officially for an appointment in 6 months. Cati thinks this is very exciting!

Piano

I don't have time for a big homeschool post, but I did want to share a video of Maria playing the piano. She's really improving, and the most amazing part is that she's doing it all herself. Dany's supposed to oversee their piano lessons, but he's super-busy this semester. So, Maria's just been going through her instruction book and teaching herself. And, I think she's doing a pretty good job of it!

Brace-free!

Maria got her braces off this morning!

Maria is free of her night brace (head gear) and braces in time for enjoying some sticky goodies on Halloween! She wore the night brace for a little more than a year. She wore the braces for 8 months. (Click on the links to see the blog posts that marked those events.) She now has a retainer that fits on those front 4 teeth that she has to wear whenever we're home during the day.

Now, we wait to see what orthodontic work, if any, that she'll need in the future. From the beginning, her orthodontist said that she would need 2 sets of braces. Now, he says that we'll just wait and see. We will see how the rest of her permanent teeth come in.

Happy 9th Birthday, Maria!

Yesterday was Maria's 9th birthday!


Here is Maria with her birthday balloons from Aunt Ginny. Notice the little hands at the bottom of the photo ready to grab them!



Here she is ready to tear into the presents!

She got a very nice scrapbook kit from family in Atlanta.

She got a very heavy box from Grandma and Pipa...what is in there that's so heavy??

Birthday phone call from the Rosamonds...we'll have to wait to find out.

Books!

A LOT of books! A whole set of 56 Nancy Drew books!

Then she opened a card from her great-grandmother.

Here are more gifts from Grandma and Pipa...a nightshirt...

...and some new earrings!

We got her a set of Boxcar Children books.

And some new hairclips.

Cati found a snowglobe in the house, wrapped it up and gave it to her :)

Then, she opened some new fall clothes from Aunt Ginny.

After enjoying some lasagna, it was time for cake!

Everyone has been waiting for this all day!

Look at the stressed-looking faces on the side wondering, "How many pictures do we have to take before we can eat?!?!"

After singing, we all finally got to enjoy the cupcakes! If you listen carefully, you can hear Dany's family on the phone joining in the singing.

On eve of her 9th birthday...

Here's a look back at Maria's past 8 birthdays!


Here's the original birthday. She lost her title of smallest baby birth weight to Elena this year. Maria was born 2 days before her due date on September 9, 2000 weighing 9lbs. 1oz.



1st birthday in Athens, GA with lots of friends and family.



A more subdued 2nd birthday with family in Cave Spring, GA.



Her 3rd birthday in Salt Lake City, UT.

Her 4th birthday in Salt Lake City with her 2 best friends.

Her 5th birthday, also in Salt Lake.

Her 6th birthday in our house in Greensburg, PA.

Her 7th birthday when she decided to help decorate the cake...

Her 8th birthday...

She's grown up so much and the time has passed so quickly! I'll post pictures of her 9th birthday tomorrow night or Thursday.

Here's a cute video of Maria displaying her vocal and dancing talents at age 3 that I ran across a while ago. Enjoy!