miscellaneous

just a few pictures and stories to share from the past week.

- mason has reached the stage where everything he can get his hands on goes in his mouth. madelyn has been learning this the hard way. every stuffed animal she brings to him ends up getting really soggy or "dirty" as madelyn calls it. i have had to blow dry a few so that she would stop complaining about it.

- madelyn was cracking me up one day in the car. if i could have gotten to my camera i would have taken video just for the audio. she was over the moon excited about the changing leaves. "oooo! i see it! i see it! those leaves are yellow! look there are some on mason's side! mason, see the leaves? see the leaves? i see them! i see them!" and then she saw a yellow jeep. "look, mommy, that car matches." yes, madelyn, yes, it does. matching has been a popular observation lately.

- this picture is matt and mason taking in a football game last weekend. they just looked so cute lounging.

- i just loved this fall outfit of madelyn's that she wore to school on monday. it was her idea to have braids, but it was too late to give her two so this was my compromise that is now my favorite way to fix her hair. it has been the best for keeping her hair out of her mouth during meals and snacks.

- apparently madelyn is making quite an impression on the staff at her school. everyone seems to know her and they all comment on how she says the funniest/cutest things. her teacher's favorite is that madelyn comes into the room most mornings and announces "i'm here now!" while raising her arms up over her head. she does something similar in the mornings by announcing "i'm awake now!" as if we have been waiting for her to wake up to start the day.

- matt was reading to the kids and they were both paying attention. mason now laughs at the books when i turn the pages. he seems to like "goodnight moon" and "goodnight gorilla" the most.

- mason is spending more and more time sitting up in his bumbo chair. he has also started to follow daddy and madelyn as they move around him and not just mommy.

- madelyn to mommy and daddy, "what are you doing?
- mommy, "we're hanging out."
- madelyn, "what are you hanging, daddy?"

- on one of the rough nights last week madelyn spent the early morning hours in our bed so that i could try to sleep a little more. when matt got up madelyn told me, "daddy's going to work." i replied, yes, daddy is going to work. madelyn then said, "i work downstairs." yes, mommy works downstairs. madelyn - "i work downstairs too." and then she rolled over and snuggled with friend again.

with two kids things just happen faster than i can get them recorded here and i think that it is just going to get worse. expect these random posts to increase. love.

sleep stalling

it has taken me so long to post about this because i have been so tired, but madelyn slept all night last night so as promised here is the latest on our recent sleeping problems.

a few weeks ago madelyn started stalling when going to bed at night. we had a short stint with this when we first potty trained, but got past it. so we will put her down at 8 and she comes up with excuses to be awake until finally falling asleep at 10pm which leaves us with a crabby girl the next day. it was mainly annoying, but not too bad.

then this stalling starting working its way to nap time too. it would take an hour or more of back and forth trips to her room and the bathroom before she would finally go to sleep for 2-4 hours. obviously she still needed the nap.

we took a tip from 'love and logic' and told her that she could choose to go to sleep or stay awake but she could not come back out of her room. that solved the going to bed problem pretty well and also worked at nap time.

then this week it all changed. not only did she start stalling going to bed but she started waking up at night and refusing to go back to sleep - or even go back to her room. wednesday and thursday nights were the worst because not only was madelyn waking up at 2 or 3 in the morning and staying awake until matt got up for work, but mason started getting up a few times a night to eat! this meant no sleep for me.

it was really the worst time for this to happen too. matt and i both were under a lot of stress with work and staying up late at night working. i even had to have matt come home one day this week so that i could meet a deadline, resolve some urgent problems, and attend a two hour plus meeting. so matt and i were already worn thin and then the kids stopped sleeping.

it wasn't too surprising that mason stopped sleeping through the night because madelyn stopped right after her 4-month appointment too as a sign that it was time to start solids. i want to wait a little longer on solids with mason because he isn't quite sitting up well enough just yet. once madelyn gets back to sleeping through the night i will let him fuss for 10 minutes before going in to feed him so that i can see if his waking up is a new habit or if it really is hunger. i am hoping that it isn't really hunger and that he will go back to sleeping through the night again. either way, he is going to be starting solids soon.

so back to madelyn. the two worst nights this week she was complaining about "monsters" - under her bed, in the curtains, outside, etc. i don't think she was actually afraid, but had found something to say that made us cave and stay in her room or let her come into our bed. she did the same thing with saying that she needed to go potty because that was a guaranteed success at putting off bed time.

another element to this has been asking to leave the lights on. again, she isn't scared of the dark because she gets up and turns them on herself and can see well enough to climb up on her bookshelf to reach the remote to her fan/light. i am very anti-nightlight because i feel that it just creates more shadows to be 'scared' of at night (speaking from personal childhood experience and slight fear of the dark). and several other moms have confirmed that theory for me. i also think that they reinforce the idea that there is something to be afraid of in the dark. a nightlight will only come in if nothing else works.

it seems that this is just a phase for kids her age - especially around halloween. they were talking about it on 'the view' this week and several friends/neighbors commented that their kids are going through the same thing right now.

what has been working has been praying with her (like we normally do) and then explaining that monsters are pretend and that God is always with her to protect her - there is nothing to be afraid of. last night she told me that "monsters are pretend" while we were getting ready for bed and agreed that, yes, God would keep her safe and there is nothing to be afraid of. i even heard her comforting mason with "there is nothing to be afraid of" earlier in the day. and i am super happy to report that madelyn went to bed around 8pm and didn't wake up until almost 8:30am! i think she slept well because she was exhausted and we ran her humidifier for some white noise to drown out the wind and train noise outside since noises seem to be the main source of her discontentment at night.

i am praying that she is going to go back to sleeping peacefully all night with the lights off again. she was so proud of herself this morning for staying in her room all night and bragged to mommy and daddy about the good job she did. she did ask for light at nap time, but she also didn't want to lay down in her room at all. i left her blinds open as a compromise and she has been down for over two hours now.

stay tuned, but i am hoping that this saga is now over. love.

trunk or treat

halloween weekend has begun! and madelyn finally gets to wear her red wig. friday night the whole family headed out to our church's 2nd annual "trunk or treat". there were 40-50 cars parked out with the trunks open and decorated for trick or treaters, a hayride, and food (including fire toasted s'mores). we all really enjoyed it - except for the crazy strong (and cold) wind! poor madelyn liked wearing her wig but it kept blowing all over the place and sliding off her head. it would have fallen off it i didn't have it bobby-pinned to a braid in the front of her hair. at least it was warm to wear since i made it with a ski cap and put a lot of yarn on it.

it was probably 50/50 for the people who knew that she was ariel and those who just thought she was a beautiful princess but everyone loved her wig (or at least lied about it). it was really cold out, but at least it wasn't snowing or raining. nothing was going to keep madelyn from trick or treating though. she loved getting "treats" for her pumpkin.

madelyn was very patient waiting her turn to get a treat. we waited the longest at the car with the glow stick bracelets and necklaces - the lady just didn't see madelyn standing there and madelyn was "waiting [her] turn". madelyn finally ended up with a purple glowing bracelet and just thought that it was the greatest thing.

mason spent the night snuggled tight in his stroller. he did so great dealing with the wind and even let daddy carry him for a little bit before taking a short snooze while we ate some food inside.

we took madelyn's wig off when we went in to eat some hot dogs, nachos, and caramel apples. we even let her eat a piece of candy (smarties) before going back out into the cold for s'mores (which she didn't want more of and daddy gave her the first bite before i was ready with the camera) and a hayride.
daddy took mason to the car while madelyn and i waited for the hayride. we waited a long time and it was really, really cold. i put my gloves on her hands trying to keep her warm. i tried to take a picture of us, but this was the best one i got. madelyn was too tired to look at the camera and smile.

i am so glad that i got to go this year! love.

rough night

last night was a rough one. both kids went down okay (for the first time this week) and then the fun started. matt and i were both up working when mason woke up at 11:30 because he had some snot in his nose and didn't like how it felt. i fed him and put him back down. he woke up again about 15 minutes later and matt went in to burp him. mason was crying again 10 minutes after matt had left his room. i went back in to suck out his nose. he didn't even open his eyes. once i was down i burped him again and he was down.

matt and i called it a night around 2am. madelyn woke up at 3:30 and didn't go back to sleep. she felt warm so i gave her some motrin hoping that would help her sleep, but instead i kept going back and forth to her room before finally laying down with her. and that is about the time that mason woke up again around 4:30. since madelyn wasn't sleeping i brought her into our bed so that i had a even a slim chance at sleep. matt had to get up at 5:30am so he took madelyn out to watch a movie when he got up so that i could sleep a little before mason woke up.

when i got up around 7am madelyn was passed out in front of the fireplace and she stayed that way until about 11am. when she woke up she said that she was ready to go to the park! we stayed home all day instead.

she got some more motrin before bed tonight because she was still a little warm but i don't think that she is really sick. i think that it is just a side-effect from her flu shot. we'll see how she feels in the morning. love.

mason's 4 month check-up

mason is a big boy. when the nurse picked him up to weigh him she commented on him feeling heavier than he looks. i was glad to hear that someone else felt that way too. here are his stats:

height: 27-1/4 inches (97/98th percentile)

weight: 17 lbs. 6 oz. (89th percentile)

head: 43cm (70th percentile)

bmi: 25th percentile

once again he outweighs madelyn at this age (she was 15lbs. 12oz.), but she was taller (28 inches). i wouldn't call mason chunky though; he is just really solid.

at four months mason still has blue eyes and light blond hair (maybe a touch of red in their too). he is super happy all the time! and i mean all the time. he is currently crewing on everything and drooling everywhere - happily. he hasn't rolled over from back to front yet, but he is really, really close. he likes to lay on his back and rock while holding his feet - i call him my little circus bear. unlike his sister he does not have any teeth at four months. the doctor did say that she expects him to start solids before the next appointment. since he is sleeping 11-12 hours a night she said that when he starts waking up at night that is when we should start solids. madelyn started one or two weeks after her four month check-up so we will see what mason does. mason is much more vocal that madelyn was (at least from what i remember). he says "ah-goo", "ma", "hi", and squeals.

madelyn got her flu shot during mason's appointment and was really excited about it. while we were in the waiting room madelyn was telling the other kids that she was "going to see dr. d. i'm getting a flu shot! yea!" the other parents in the waiting room all broke out laughing when she said this. one of them said that she should be the poster child for the flu shot. and she kept that enthusiasm right through to getting the shot. she watched as she got it and cried for like half a second before checking out her bandaid and asking for her sticker. i was so proud of her! she did mention a few times that it hurt but there was no drama. she even watched mason's shots and told him that it would be okay.

halloween continues

i had wanted to carve the pumpkin(s) over the weekend, but madelyn made some bad choices at nap time (i am going to post about sleeping later) so we had to wait and do it monday night.

madelyn was really excited about it and did a really good job helping me hollow it out. the whole process took a little too long to keep her interest so i actually finished the carving after she went to bed. she did help with the 'poking' of the template - sort of. i was trying to direct her 'poking' so that i wouldn't get confused by them once i took the paper off to start the actual carving. i think that the end result is pretty nice. we took it out tonight to test it out. as you can see, madelyn was pretty happy about it.

we have two more smaller pumpkins from our garden that i am going to try and 'carve', but it doesn't look like i am going to have the time. oh, and if you can't tell, the pumpkin is ariel. love.

halloween begins

saturday was almost entirely halloween themed. we began the day with a halloween play date at kyle and lacy's house, home for quick 'naps', church, and then to "boo at the zoo".

in case you can't tell from the pictures, mason is flounder and madelyn is ariel (from the little mermaid). i was pretty proud of mason's outfit that i made - he had to wear a bib at the party because i don't want to wash it before next weekend and more halloween festivities. i made madelyn a long, red yarn wig, but we didn't wear it to the play date because it is pretty hot and not really good for wearing inside. instead she wore her ariel crown and necklace that we brought back from our trip to disney this summer. since madelyn's costume doesn't really fit in her car seat i didn't dress her until we got there and couldn't get her and mason together for a picture with all the distractions of the party. i plan on getting some of them together next weekend when they wear their full costumes.

i had posted pictures of the 'treats' and snacks i made for the play date but the hostess is like martha stewart! she had all kinds of themed snacks and drinks, gift bags for the kids, and homemade pumpkin body scrub for the moms! (did i mention that she works full time too?) she had also set up a craft table (with color sheets and a halloween foam craft) and a play-doh table (with orange, yellow, green, and black play-doh). she is truly amazing.

we had a very nice time and it was fun to see all the kids that we haven't seen in almost a year. there have been a whole new round of babies since the last time we got together for a play date (which is part of the reason that it has been so long).

here is mason and his new friend, evelyn. evelyn is three days younger than mason.

and here is madelyn playing at the play-doh table with her friends kyle, paige and miss lori.

after 'naps' (more about this in a separate post) we went to church and then "boo at the zoo". we weren't really too sure what to expect with this event and couldn't decide if going to the zoo after dark was a good idea or not because madelyn has been complaining about "monsters" lately. we also had second thoughts when the traffic for the zoo was all they way back to the interstate. madelyn was too excited about going to the zoo to turn back so we sat in traffic for quite a while - people were walking faster.

i think madelyn enjoyed it. we had packed pb & j sandwiches for all of us to eat for dinner which is always a hit. madelyn loves a picnic. the zoo isn't really set up for after dark guests and it was really crowded. if you didn't know what you were looking for and where, it would have been hard to find what was going on. we were originally going to go on friday night but it was still raining. i am not sure if it is always this crowded or if it was double the traffic because of the rain out on friday. i don't think that this is something we are going to again any time soon, but there were some amazing jack-o-lanterns and that made the trip enjoyable (even for matt who really hates anything where there are crowds). and madelyn showed no sign at all of fear which made it all the better.

the only activity madelyn participated in was making an origami bat. she actually did a good job at following the instructions and the staff worker was very kind and patient with helping her. once the bat was folded madelyn got to draw on a chalk face before saying a very sweet "thank you" upon returning the chalk. love.

i have a problem

and admitting it is the first step, right? i just can't seem to ever do what's easiest. on top of everything i normally have going on i have been making halloween costumes, putting together baby and big sister/brother gifts, and getting ready for a halloween playdate on saturday.

i originally thought that there were only going to be 10 kids so i had gotten goodie bags together with each child's name and specially selected gifts. madelyn helped me hole-punch and tie up each bag and was very proud of her contribution. i had made one extra bag just in case there was someone there that i wasn't expecting but then i started to worry that one wouldn't be enough and checked the evite list. good thing i did because there are going to be 22 kids! way more than our normal group.

back to the store for 'plan b'... instead of gift bags i made straw, lollipop, halloween ring combos. madelyn helped with these as well but kept asking where the bags were. oops. i guess it is better that i caught the larger number before we got there so that i could fix it. i was also asked to bring a snack. just some cookies or fruit? nope. i had to make peanut butter spiders. i don't think that there is any hope for me, but i hope that i can keep from passing this over achieving disorder to my children... love.

feeling fancy

i guess today was a "fancy" day because madelyn had to put on almost all her jewlery before leaving the house this morning. she wore bangle bracelets from her wrist to her elbow, three necklaces, two watches, and two rings. what was even more amazing was that she kept them all on through two stores, jacket off and on-ing, and music class.

she was even looking at her watch to tell me what time it is - "time for the store". madelyn was also excited to show her jewels to her friend ava and her music teacher, miss sarah. she kept telling me that "she was so beautiful." love.

new seats

i am exhausted today so this is going to be short. i just felt bad about not having any pictures to post yesterday so i made sure to take some of mason today.

mason had an exciting day with a few firsts. he has sat in the bumbo chair before, but i remembered that we had a tray for it this morning and thought that he might like sitting in it more if he could reach some toys. madelyn got really into it and wanted him to play with all of his toys at once. i think he got a little overwhelmed in the playroom. not only did he have a lot of toys to play with but madelyn was playing with a lot of her noisy toys too. she just wants to teach him everything she knows.

before dinner i brought up the highchair so that mason can sit at the table with us instead of straining to see all the action from his swing. it didn't last very long because having him there was too distracting for madelyn and matt wasn't home for dinner so it was just me and i was already spent from a very busy work (and kid) day.

i was expecting to have some good posts from our weekend activities but the weather doesn't look particularly promising for the weekend so we will see. love.

502

i am so bummed! i missed acknowledging my 500th post! anyway - here's to 502. love.

bitten

no pictures today, but there are stories that must be told...

- i got an injury report today when i picked madelyn up from school. at first i thought that it was a note that madelyn got in trouble but upon reading it i learned that she had been bit. madelyn wouldn't give someone a train she was playing with so they bit her on the finger. apparently it was a very hard bite because she still had a red arc on her pointer finger when she went to bed tonight. thankfully it didn't break the skin. her teacher said that they washed it and put on an ice pack. and of course everything was fine once they gave her friend to snuggle. when i asked madelyn about it when we got home she said, "that boy ate me".

- mason got a new quilt to lay on from his great aunt celeste (and great uncle john). when we showed madelyn that mason's name was on the back of it madelyn was a little sad. that is until i showed her the quilt that great aunt celeste made for her when she was born with her name on it! it is now known as "my special blanket. see my name on it?" she brought it to school this week for nap time. and when we skyped with grandma and big pop she must have tried to show them her name at least ten times. "she my name? see my name? m-a-d-a". okay so she doesn't know how to spell her name just yet...

- madelyn is always my helper and now instead of telling me that mason is ready to roll over when he gets fussy she just rolls him over herself. she isn't rough, she just isn't as gentle as i am. mason doesn't cry so it isn't too rough. she even rolls him back to his belly after he calms down on his back. when he is on his belly sometimes she tells him, "crawl, crawl, crawl, mason, crawl." he must be hearing her because he has started to pull his knees up under him today.

- madelyn's naps have been more consistently four hours and yesterday i may have found out why. usually i put her down and then have some lunch and a few moments to myself before heading back to the office and turning on the video monitor so that i can see when she wakes up. on tuesday i was really busy and went straight back to the office after putting madelyn down. the picture on the monitor seemed a little bright to me but sometimes it seems bright during daytime naps. as i looked at the picture i realized that madelyn wasn't in bed; she was sitting on the floor in front of her dresser 'reading' library books. after looking at books for a while she got into bed and laid there for a while. then this is what i heard about an hour after i had said good bye to her:

"ready to go to sleep, friend?"
"yes? okay." (snuggling up with friend under the covers)
(a few minutes pass)
"oh. i need to turn the light off, okay?" (gets out of bed to turn the light off)
(snuggles back in and goes to sleep.)

we are happy to have matt back home after two days away on a business trip. he was only gone one night, but missed two bed times so it felt like longer to me. love.

mason sounds

mason has been making a high pitched squeal a lot lately. it doesn't even sound like something that should be coming out of him. i call it his beluga whale 'song'. unfortunately there isn't an off button for this sound - its too happy. i was able to get a little video of it tonight.

he has also taken to his teething ring in the past few days. he works hard to pick it up off his lap or belly and then chews on it for a while. he cries when he drops it of when it slides down onto his wrist/arm and he can't get it back into his hand.

here is the video of his whale calls:


mason was also in a giggling mood this afternoon. getting up to get the camera disturbed him so i didn't get too much that was actually of him laughing (at least not in a cute way). i did think that it was cute how he was trying to get the camera. enjoy.



one quick maddie note. we were riding in the car this afternoon and i started to say something and then stopped. madelyn says, "mommy, what are you thinking?" which i thought was cute. and then she was asking me some question that i didn't know the answer to (i don't remember what it was) so i said, "i don't know. you'll have to ask God some day." to which madelyn responded, "i'll ask God some day. i love God. God loves us!" love.

swingin' on sunday

today was a quiet day at home. after daddy made waffles for breakfast we walked down to the park. madelyn wanted to pick up every leave she saw and was really excited to see them 'raining' down from the trees at the park when the wind blew - it was really pretty (see the video for a taste). i am not sure if fall is her favorite season or she is just excited after learning about it in school, but she is definately intrested in all things fall! she loves wearing her jackets, hoods, and hats too.

at the park, everyone took a turn swinging. madelyn is getting really good at her leg pumping and pushing others. mason just likes hanging out in the fresh air.

after the park we took a stroll around the neighborhood until the wind started to annoy mason and we had to head home for lunch and naps. love.

madelyn, madelyn, madelyn...

tonight's post is a collection of pictures from the past few days and some little stories.

- i gave madelyn a lorna doone cookie on friday and she looked at it and told me that "grandma gave this to me" very matter of factly. i corrected her that, no, we bought these cookies at the store the day before. but then i remembered that grandma had given her some lorna doone cookies almost a year ago!!

- we were watching the news last night and a car commercial came on. madelyn said "slow down!" to the car racing around on wet roads. i thought that it was pretty funny that she was so concerned for its safety. she is so interested in cars lately. their speed, their color, the people driving them, where they are going, stopping, going, etc.

- madelyn likes that mason 'talks' to her in the car and she has started to have 'conversations' with him while we drive. today she was pointing out all the "hills" and "mountains" out the window. "do you see it, mason? there are two hills over there. one. two. do you see it, mason?" and if matt and i would try to join in she would tell us that she was talking to mason, not us.

- madelyn was so cute imitating mason while they were 'talking' to each other this morning that i had to get my camera. here are the best of the bunch - where they are both looking any way.



- tonight at church i got paged out of service. the kids share a number so i wasn't sure which one needed my attention, but assumed that it was mason. nope. it was madelyn. she had peed on the floor! she told them that she needed to have her diaper changed and that was when they realized that she was wearing wet underwear. at least it didn't get on her dress because i did not have a change of clothes for her (i haven't carried even a change of underwear for months). when i got there i asked her if big girls went pee-pee in their underwear and she gave an expressive, "no" (imagine mock-horror at the idea of going pee-pee in underwear). of course i was mortified. at least the lady running the toddler room tonight said that madelyn was cracking her up with all of her expressions and enthusiasm - she couldn't believe that she was only two. since there wasn't really much i could do they sent me back into the service. after church madelyn said that she had to go potty and matt took her. i guess she was telling him that she went in her pants and then said "madelyn, madelyn, madelyn" while shaking her head. i am pretty sure that she got that from me.

who knows what adventures await us tomorrow! love.

notes from the day

i wasn't going to post today because i have a million other things to do but there are a few things that i wanted to note but there are no pictures.

- today's theme song was "b-i-b-l-e". madelyn started singing it at breakfast out of no where. it has been weeks and weeks (if not months) since we last sang this song so it took me a minute to notice what she was singing - even though she was singing it quite clearly. and she sang it all day too. i tried to get her sing it for the camera, but she wouldn't. i just got pouty face and saying that she didn't want to sing the "book song".

- madelyn made mason laugh for the first time. she was doing this crazy high pitched squeal while jumping all around mason's car seat as we were getting ready to take maddie to school. she was pretty excited that he was finally laughing at her!

- here is a long video of mason doing what mason does while he is awake - 'talking', laughing and smiling. believe it or not, this video was done when he was both hungry and exhausted. right afterwards i fed him and he passed out.

- madelyn wet the bed for the first time on monday night! it didn't wake her up and she didn't even realize that she was wet until she went to the bathroom and her underwear were wet. crazy.

- tonight we were trying to get her to hurry into the car when we were heading to the grocery store. we had promised her a cookie from the bakery since we were going after dinner so we told her that she had better "hurry before they run out". madelyn - "the cookies aren't going to run out. they are going to walk out."

that's all. love.

mason's a sleeper

it hasn't been a temporary event - mason is sleeping through the night! he sleeps from about 7:30pm to at least 7am. as soon as he got that part straightened out he decided that he is going to start napping too. he has been taking a short nap (30 minutes to an hour) about an hour after waking up and then taking a four hour nap in the afternoon starting about 1:30.

at night i read him "goodnight moon" before feeding him and he really seems to enjoy it. he studies the pages and becomes less active and ready for sleep as i read. sometimes madelyn joins us for story time which is a treat for me. i love snuggling both kids on my lap and reading to them.

it has been so weird to suddenly have him sleeping so much during the day. it starts to make me nervous and i will go in a check on him once he gets to four hours. its the same thing in the morning when it gets to 8am and i still haven't heard from him. he is usually wide awake and just laying there sucking his thumb. so, really, who knows how long he sleeps because he waits in silence for me to come and get him. sometimes i will hear him rocking side to side but he doesn't cry out.

speaking of rocking, he loves to hold his feet and rock back and forth, side to side. he is just a happy kid and keeps himself so content all the time. we are really blessed to have had two super easy babies. love.

tiger cubs

the high today was only going to be 47 but it was sunny and not very windy so i just couldn't stay home. we are going to have long stretches indoors this winter and i am trying to put off the cabin fever as long as possible.

we got a special surprise on this trip too - two new baby tiger cubs! i had no idea that there were cubs born this summer. it was neat to see them running around and playing. they even got the female tiger up and about. usually the tigers are sleeping when we come to see them so this was a nice change.

we have been taking a different path through the zoo each time we have gone recently. i just let madelyn pick the order to see the animals and off we go. it has really stretched my limited sense of direction. so we take the long way every now and then. today we got to see the wolves as a result (this was the first time we have ever seen them). the funny part is when madelyn is positive that she didn't want to see a certain animal until i say that we are going to head home and then all of the sudden it is a must see.

during our trip we also enjoyed the sun shining through the autumnal leaves, but there is just something wrong about seeing them above the flamingos - to a florida girl anyway. they also had halloween decorations around and madelyn would just laugh and laugh at them. i am not sure why she thought that they were so funny. she wouldn't let me take a picture of her with them though.

later she was interested in posing with some of the animals, but wouldn't hold still. she just kept trying to look at the animal instead of at the camera! here is her best pose with the baby gorilla statue. remember she asked for this picture and posed for it herself - notice her signature hand hold.

mason slept just about the whole time but when he was awake he took interest in the trees overhead and the lighting in the exhibits. more about him in my next post. love.

apple holler

since we are going to church on saturday nights now we have been trying to have some family time on sunday. this week we went to apple holler. i am not too sure how to describe it. it is a destination apple orchard on the illinois/wisconsin state line. every time we pass it on the way to chicago i say that i want to go there some fall - well this was the year!

it was really cold, but sunny so there were quite a few people there. it didn't hurt that there is no admission price, just activity fees (in tickets, not cash). i can't imagine what it would have been like on a warmer day. matt thought some of the crowd was due to both the packers and the bears having a bye week. we were there shortly after it opened and got to do a few things without any lines. including madelyn's first choice - a pony ride! when we were walking over from the parking lot madelyn saw the ponies and started to cry and pull daddy's arm when we started walking away from them towards the entrance.

on the way to the pony rides we stopped to feed the goats. one of them was really, really hungry and would even 'ram' other goats out of the way while madelyn did some feeding.

they have this long bridge that the goats can walk on that madelyn thought was pretty neat (daddy and i did too).
and now for the pony ride! madelyn didn't hesitate at all. she just went right up to the pony and let the worker put her on it. she held on tight and told us that she did a couple of times afterwards. here is video of her first pony ride:

there were so many unique things to do there, but like anywhere else we go, if there is a playset that is what she wants to do.
this picture shows the view of all the goings on at apple holler.
madelyn and i rode the tracker 'train'. my ride was free and once i got in i realized why - let's just say that my legs worked as a safety bar over madelyn's lap. matt said that he should have taken a picture of me trying to get in.

i think the 'cow' maze was another favorite activity from the day. she didn't hesitate and just took off running through the maze. i had to work to keep up with her. i think we would have lost her in the corn maze because we wouldn't have been able to watch her over the 'walls'.

poor mason didn't enjoy it much because he was too warm with his fleece jumper, blanket, and hat. at least i thought that was the problem. it wasn't until we got home that i realized that he had a diaper explosion that went up his back and down one of his sleeves! so gross! i stripped him down and after a bath he was back to his super smiley self. love.