welcoming christmas 2009

madelyn is really excited for christmas this year! it has been amazing how much she remembers from last year too. she knew that we had a tall tree and put a start on top. and she remembered loving her "baby jesus" from the nativity set. i am looking forward to making new memories this year.

she helped daddy start hanging ornaments while i went up to work in the church toddler room on sunday morning (we set up the tree before church on saturday night). as you can see in the picture, madelyn likes for all the ornaments to hang in a row on the bottom branches.

in addition to the small nativity set that madelyn loved last year, we now have a 'little people' nativity set for more appropriate playing. the other set isn't glass or ceramic, but it isn't really for playing either. i think that she still prefers it to the little people set though. you can see that she goes right back to it in the video. i am just glad that she loves jesus and is looking forward to celebrating his birthday at the end of the month! love.

gingerbread

madelyn has been interested in gingerbread men since she got a baking set for christmas last year that has a gingerbread man shaped cookie cutter. since christmas is once again around the corner and i had some time off from work, i thought that we would try to make some.

after the house cleared out yesterday, daddy, madelyn, and i got set up on the table to roll out some dough and make some cookies. madelyn didn't want to wait for them to bake, she just wanted to eat the raw dough! i don't have a rolling pin (never needed one or just used the side of a can) so we used the one from madelyn's baking set. now that i think about it we should have used her little cookie cutters instead of buying some - oh well.

we made gingerbread men/women and trees. we only baked about half the dough because we were getting tired of rolling to dough out and didn't need too many cookies. i must say that they turned out pretty well considering that i had never made them before and haven't really baked much since madelyn was born. we all made a cookie to enjoy. they weren't that pretty, but there will be time to decorate some that look pretty later. here is some video of madelyn (and daddy) making a masterpiece.

and just in case you were wondering about mason while we were all having yummy fun, he was just hanging out in the exersaucer. daddy told him that maybe he could make his own next year. love.

thanksgiving visitors

the kids have been spoiled for the past few days with quality time with uncle derek, papa, and nana. madelyn enjoyed showing them her playroom and mason showed off his smile.

madelyn was particularly excited for uncle derek to come. when we would ask her who was coming she would say, "derek!" and we would ask who else was coming, "santa!" after a few days of this we got her to remember that papa and nana were coming too. she started telling neighbors that "papa and nana are coming to my house for thanksgiving" by the time they got here.

we had a nice day at home for thanksgiving and then headed out for christmas shopping on black friday. we went out for bagels and then to toys-r-us for papa and nana to do their shopping for the kids. the place was pretty crowded but manageable. for some reason both of my kids started to loose it at the same time and i decided that we would cut out and leave matt with his parents and brother to finish their shopping. i was glad that i left when i did because both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. madelyn fell asleep right away which is really unusual for her. i think that they were both tired from being away from their own beds - me too.

after everyone came back from shopping, matt and i went out by ourselves to test drive minivans. we are still a few months from a purchase, but we wanted to use the opportunity for free child care to check a few out. we are still on the fence about which make and model but at least we have an idea for how each one drives and the features available. you will have to keep reading to see what we end up with...

today we hung out at home. madelyn got to open up a few christmas presents from papa and nana so that they could see her. she got a "little einsteins" bath set and plush toys, a thomas train, and a coloring book in addition to a few other gifts that they had given over the past few days. madelyn was really excited about the "rocket" toys (from "little einsteins"). she had been playing with them in the store when nana took them to buy so she knew they were coming. she she saw the wrapped gifts she said, "can i have my rocket now?"

after presents we all got showered and dressed (and shaved) for a few posed pictures. we were going to take a group shot and i wanted a few close up shots of them with the kids for the kids' photo albums where i keep family pictures so they can work on names with faces. here are some of the better ones from my bunch. mason wasn't really cooperating because he was so hungry and tired (from missing his nap) by the time we were ready for pictures so madelyn is in most of them. at least she was in pretty good spirits.

papa, madelyn, and nana. aren't madelyn and nana cute in their matching purple?

derek got the best pictures with the kids. i think the one of him with madelyn (and friend) is the best of the day - don't they look great?

and since we were all dressed, we got a picture of our family too. the small group pictures were less formal so madelyn was allowed to bring in her toys.

after we said our good-byes and matt took them to the airport madelyn and i both fell asleep! i sat down on the couch and put my feet up while madelyn laid down on the floor (she was originally snuggled up with me but got up to play before falling asleep next to the couch). mason took a long nap in his crib too, but he went to sleep before everyone left.

bellies were full, kids were spoiled, football and basketball games were watched, and rest was had. i think everyone had a nice visit. love.

happy birthday, daddy! (and happy thanksgiving too!)

madelyn has been waiting (not so) patiently for daddy's birthday to get here and today was the day! she and i have been working on birthday cards for him (i didn't take a picture...) for the past few weeks. there was lots of gluing involved and not a lot of time we could work on them without daddy finding out. of course madelyn couldn't keep the secret so he knew that we were making cards. when i asked madelyn was she wanted to put on the front of her card to daddy she said, "um... a palm tree, i think." i don't know what would inspire a palm tree, but i think we did a pretty good job of making one - complete with button coconuts - out of crayons, construction paper and a last minute popsicle stick.

matt got an amazing birthday dinner, courtesy of yours truly, and had his parents and brother here to celebrate with us. for desert/birthday cake we had "frosty pumpkin pie". this is an ice cream version of pumpkin pie that matt loves (i make it).

the candles for the cake is one of the reasons madelyn has been excited for daddy's birthday to get here. when we were picking up some halloween candy last month we found some fun candles that spell out "h-a-p-p-y-b-i-r-t-h-d-a-y" and madelyn was really happy to get them for daddy. so happy that she carried them to the cash register, told the clerk that they were for her daddy's birthday, and told daddy that we got him "surprise birthday candles" when he got home that night (obviously madelyn does not have a future as a spy). here she is putting the candles on the cake for daddy (she had been singing softly to herself before everyone else came to see what she was doing).



now we are all full and relaxing a little before bed. i wanted to share a little before finally letting myself rest after a really long day!

papa, nana, and uncle derek flew up yesterday afternoon to visit for thanksgiving. we failed to get a picture around the table tonight (i look pretty rough so it is probably just as well), but papa had us take one of him while he was holding both kids today - unfortunately the flash didn't go off for this one which came out the best.

this is the largest number of people we have had stay with us since mason was born and we had to do some bedroom shifting. mason is sleeping in matt and my room in the playyard, madelyn is sleeping on mason's crib mattress on the floor of mason's room, derek is sleeping in madelyn's room, and papa and nana are staying downstairs in the guest room. the sleeping wasn't so great last night which was too bad since i had a migraine starting during dinner and then a long day of cooking today. (although, the cooking today wasn't too bad because i had made a lot of the sides and pre-work on tuesday and wednesday.) mason woke up at 12 and madelyn woke up at 1 before settling back down at 2. mason got up once more at 5 before madelyn got up around 6:30 and woke him up again when she came into our room crying. i am hoping tonight goes better for everyone.

tomorrow we are going to brave christmas shopping so that papa and nana don't have to ship the kids' gifts. the plan is to go late morning so that we catch the lull between the pre-dawners and the late sleepers. i know that the kids and i will be happy to get out after being inside for the past few days. it will be nice to stretch our legs a little.


while we were waiting for papa, nana, and derek on wednesday, mason kept getting up on his knees. he has done it many times before but after his big roll-over on monday he is really ready to get moving. and with the baseball bottom i just thought that it was cute enough to post.

happy thanksgiving! i hope that you all had a wonderful day with lots of good eats. bring on christmas! love.

quick one

this is going to be quick because matt and i are preparing for a visit from papa, nana, and uncle derek for thanksgiving (and matt's birthday!) tomorrow. i felt that it was worth noting that mason slept for 12 hours last night though! i am so glad that i started him on two meals from the second day of solids. it paid off for me in sleep.

here is a picture of mason from yesterday and one of madelyn in the same outfit. it took me a while to find the one of madelyn because i was looking in october, november, and even december. where was it you ask? january! you might notice it is pretty tight on mason and it fit madelyn comfortably when she was two months older than he is now. it makes me question the measurement of his height at his last appointment (which said that he was 3/4 inch shorter than madelyn at 4 months)! he has outgrown some of the other clothes that madelyn was still wearing in january! january! crazy! love.

rolling over

mason rolled from his back to his belly for the first time today! i thought i was going to get it on video and probably would have if madelyn hadn't walked in. i missed the actual roll because i was working but i turned around and saw that he had made it over and took this picture of his final resting position. i am pretty sure i missed madelyn's first back to belly roll over too (at 10 weeks!)

after rolling over he sort of commando crawled about 6-10 inches! mason is really strong and much more coordinated that madelyn was so i expect that he is going to start moving quickly here. madelyn just did things sooner because she never stopped moving and was much smaller (in weight and build) than mason.

here is the video that would have been his first back to belly roll over.


he also added a new "ba" sound to his vocal skills and can now push up on straight arms. and bananas was the new food for the day. love.

madelyn's first report card

a 2 year old progress report for madelyn.all 1s - "can do this" - for large/small motor and language/communication. two 2s - "i'm getting better":
- "shares and cooperates with other children - still working on sharing:)"
-"recognizes name in written form - knows hers starts with an m"

at least there are no 3s - "i need more experience with this". of course i took it more as a failure on my part. how could i not have taught her to recognize her own name?! and you know that i came home and started trying to get her to spell her name and read it when i wrote it. and, yes, i know that i am overreacting. and i am not really upset about it.

here are a few other stories:

- madelyn has had a stopped up nose and blowing it a lot. when she needs to blow it she parks a finger in a nostril. she isn't picking/digging, but just holding a finger in it. the other night madelyn was using blowing her nose as a stall tactic. she went and got her step-stool to reach her tissue and i went to see what she was doing. she happily greeted me with "look! i found a pink one!" yep, she had made her nose bleed and just thought that it was a new kind of booger. at least she wasn't freaked out by the blood.

- madelyn likes to play hide and seek with daddy. the funny part is that she doesn't hide. she goes to hide, but then she jumps out and yells as soon as daddy stops counting. and then when she looks for daddy she looks in the most ridiculous places, like in mason's exersaucer or under the couch pillows.

love.

christmas parade

this afternoon we went to the local christmas parade. it wasn't really cold enough for madelyn's hat, but she really wanted to wear it. she even complained about being hot in the car on the short ride over to the parade route. mason was awake when we got there but since it was his prime napping time he conked out for a little bit.

i have been trying to get madelyn to write a letter to santa all week in preparation for the parade because the post office collects them and will send a response from the north pole. while we waited for the parade she finally agreed to write something for santa to bring her. when we would ask her what she wants for christmas she would say presents. what kind of presents? with bows on top. what do you want inside the presents? toys.

one of the coolest things - at least to matt and me - is the remax bus that throws an open flame (a la hot air balloon). it is neat to see and the warmth is incredible! especially on a cool night.

about half way through the parade madelyn crashed. i don't know how she could even think about sleeping with it being as noisy as it was with marching bands and honking horns less than a foot from our seats. she is her father's daughter.

while she was sleeping live reindeer came by and i thought that was really neat. there were three of them and the pictures here show the largest and the smallest. how cute are the itty bitty antlers on the young one?

i am definitely getting into the christmas spirit! it was too bad that madelyn missed most of it but we had a nice time. it was a great day to be outside.

saturday we went to run errands as a family in the morning and then madelyn and i went out by ourselves once mason was down for his afternoon nap. we went shopping for a christmas present for mason from madelyn. she is a very discerning shopper! she took her time to look at every single toy and when i would ask if she wanted to get something for mason she would think a minute and then reply, "um...not quite..." and there was no convincing her otherwise. once we had looked at all the toys she asked to go back and see one that was a maybe in the beginning before making her choice. i hope he likes it!

on saturday night we stayed after church to watch up! it was a very sweet movie, but not really a kids flick. madelyn asked to leave three times but would start watching again until the last time she asked to leave towards the end. it was not her attention span that was the problem either. madelyn has no trouble watching a full length movie. i think the only reason she was actually willing to leave was because she was tired. when i asked her if she liked the movie during the car ride home she said, "yes, it was real funny." not that she had laughed even once during the film. love.

miscellaneous catch-up

time is just getting away from me! here is a long update:

- madelyn is starting to wean off napping. she is basically only napping every other day right now (at least 3 hours). when she naps it is always a long nap, but she just doesn't take one everyday. her behavior doesn't seem to be effected by napping or not so it hasn't been too big a deal - except that i have no alone time. yesterday she napped for four hours and then slept from 8pm until 7:22am! it is a huge improvement over the pre-5am wake-ups we have been dealing with for the past few weeks.

- mason is still up and down when it comes to napping but we are starting to get a little more regular. the problem is that he wants to nap it is usually time to take to or pick up madelyn from school. and his overnight sleeping has been really rocky, but the solids seem to be making a difference. last night he woke up twice to eat, but would then wake up an hour after each feed. the good news is that he would let daddy put him back to sleep instead of needing to eat. progress.

- madelyn's new favorite phrase is "not quite" - as in, "do you want to wear this shirt today? not quite." it makes her sound so sophisticated!

- i found a veggietales cd at the library that has "b-i-b-l-e" on it. i let it be a surprise for her when we were listening to it. and she was really, really excited to hear larry singing her favorite song! when i started singing along she said, "no singing, mom! larry is singing to me."

- while we were at the library she sat at the puzzle table with another little boy and this was their conversation:

madelyn: hi, what's your name?
boy: devon. (i can't remember what his actual name was, but it was something like this.)
madelyn: hi, devon. nice to meet you.
madelyn: what's my name?
madelyn: what's my name?
boy: what's your name?
madelyn: i'm madelyn g. (she said her full name)
madelyn: we're playing puzzles. what puzzle are you doing? i'm doing this elmo puzzle. do you need some help?

this boy was at least madelyn's age and she definitely dominated the conversation!

- madelyn is really in to building forts and always asks to sleep in them.

- i joined matt for a work dinner on tuesday night and we got a babysitter. since it was the school week our regular sitter wasn't available so we had to use a new one - lexi. madelyn has never met lexi, but was really excited that a sitter was coming over. all day she kept making pretend phone calls that went like this - "hi, lexi! how are you doing? you are coming to my house tonight and we are going to have pizza, okay? okay. see you soon!" she was trying to make this 'call' again but since she has never met lexi, she couldn't remember her name. she came over to me and said, "what's the word i don't know?" i thought that it was so cute that she said "word" instead of "name" and that she knew to ask about it in the first place.

- we have been talking to madelyn about having a new baby at our house (not that there is a baby on the way now). here is her response, "one mommy, one daddy, one madelyn and one mason is enough." not that it is her choice.

- another frequent expression is "my/his/your fault". she is interested in blame. not in a mean spirited way, more in getting a handle on the meaning of the word. when something happens she will say, "its not my fault."

- our new thing for dinner preparation is having a dance party! madelyn and i jam to pass the time i am busy in the kitchen and we are waiting for daddy to come home. now that mason has an exersaucer he gets to join in the fun too. one day i was holding mason and sort of dancing around. madelyn said, "mom, can i hold mason and dance with him?" the videos are just a taste (don't worry, madelyn was fine and didn't even cry).

- madelyn likes to 'get mason' when he wakes up from his naps. when she hears him crying on the monitor she says matter of fact, "mason's awake! i will go get him. you stay here, mom. stay here."

- we got more than one veggietales cd at the library and today we switched from the one with "b-i-b-l-e" on it to a different one. madelyn didn't know the songs and was bopping along with the music instead of singing. when i asked her if she liked this cd she said, "i don't know the words yet. i am trying." and when she didn't recognize the voices singing she asked if they were "junior's friends" (she often tells me which character is singing each song). you can see that mason is learning to have a love for veggietales too...

- mason is just the sweetest, content little guy. here he is laughing at himself in the mirror. and, yes, he is always hanging next to the walls. he really does like looking at the light coming through the curtains though. believe it or not he laughs at them when they move (from the ac, fan, madelyn, or him).

and with that i think i am caught up. we have a pretty busy weekend so hopefully i will get it all posted quick instead of falling behind again. love.

sunday afternoon

from this...

to this...

...in less than five minutes. love.

two meals a day

i am going to have a long miscellaneous post next, but wanted to share about mason's adventures in eating. after the first day (in the last post), i upped him to two meals a day and today we moved from oatmeal to sweet potatoes. mason was very enthusiastic about the change! he ate 2-1/2 ounces. it seemed like a lot to me - especially considering that he was only eating about 4-6 'spoonfuls' of the oatmeal.

this is exciting for several reasons. first, mason was obviously ready for solids and hungry! second, he might start sleeping through the night again four weeks from now (at least that is how long it took for madelyn). the lack of sleep is really starting to wear on me. mason is getting up three or four times a night and has been doing so for about two weeks now.

and not to be left out madelyn joins him some nights. like last night she stayed awake for two hours between his feedings. isn't that sweet of her?

speaking of not wanting to be left out... madelyn wanted to eat like mason and wear a bib. i can't even remember the last time madelyn wore a bib. it has been at least a year and it wasn't willingly. not only did she want to wear the bib, but she wanted me to take her picture! i was tempted to ask if she was feeling okay. she doesn't actually want to wear it when eating (except for in this picture). she just asks to put one on after mason is finished and sometimes she gets one for friend. actually, friend probably gets to wear one more often than madelyn does.

madelyn is also enthusiastic about what mason is eating. although i am trying to keep that enthusiasm in check after she offered mason one of her teddy bear graham crackers today. love.

mason's big day

today was a big day for mason! he had his first meal this afternoon. not that i think you could call it much of a meal. after the first bite he was willing to take it off the spoon, but then he would look down and it would all run out. he wasn't pushing it out. it was like he just didn't know what to do. i think that he might have gotten at least one spoonful swallowed during the process - total.

at least he was a happy and willing participant. after getting up to feed him three times last night, i plan on jumping him up to two meals a day as soon as he figures out how to swallow. it took madelyn four weeks of 'solids' to start sleeping through the night again. i am hoping that it doesn't take mason quite so long. here is video of his first 'meal'.


this isn't really part of mason's "big day" but yesterday we picked up an exersaucer from one of the neighbors (we have such generous neighbors, when i asked several volunteered to lend me their exersaucers). mason is so happy to be upright! the video isn't very exciting but it shows how he is starting to get good at using his hands to reach for things. he reaches for toys pretty well when he is laying down too.

tonight was "baby dedication" night at church and we were one of five families to stand up during the service. i asked a stranger to take this video so that we would have some record. (i really should have asked someone to take a family picture too, but i can't think of everything.) the best part of the video is watching all the kids squirm and then madelyn squats down to flash the whole church for most of it! oh well. after service there were ice cream sundaes - much to madelyn's delight!

they gave mason a little 'bible' book and a certificate for the dedication. they also gave us a framed paper with his name, what his name means - "overcomer", his birth date (which was unfortunately wrong), and Revelation 2:17 - "To everyone who conquers...I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it."
love.

mason can too

last night matt and i were looking back at posts of madelyn at mason's age. it's really easy to compare since they are two years and four days apart in age. november was four to five months for madelyn and it is four to five moths for mason - see easy!

we were looking at pictures of madelyn sitting up and only holding on to one finger but we had never tried to do it with mason. today i gave it a try and this is a picture of him looking up at me towards the end. that is why he is leading over so far, i was starting to loose him but he looked up at me when i called his name. love.

anniversary at the zoo

yesterday matt and i celebrated 8 years of marriage! we didn't really do anything special but it was still a pretty nice day. i spent the morning with madelyn and mason at the zoo while matt went to work and was a little camera happy.

madelyn, however, was not so camera 'happy' at first. she had chosen to bring minnie mouse to the zoo and was really cute holding her up and saying, "look at the...minnie!" when i tried to take the picture she tried to hide minnie and walk away quickly with her hand blocking the camera. if only she was wearing her sunglasses then she would have really looked like she was avoiding the paparazzi.

the elephant has done this the last few times we have come but this was the best picture i have gotten. the elephant is standing on the very edge of his yard and reaching his/her trunk across the 'moat.' madelyn is waving "hello" to the elephant.

madelyn's favorite thing in the monkey house is this statue of a baby gorilla. she really wanted me to take her picture with it and then started to examine it. for some reason she wanted to open its mouth on this trip.

this video is of the tiger cubs playing, but the funny part was after seeing them 'play' like this madelyn said, "hey, they aren't being nice!" another lady explained to her that is just how tigers play and it really is nice.


after the tigers we walked for a while and madelyn was carrying everything in her pockets. what can i say, the kid just loves her pockets. she stopped on a rock to rest and drink her water (her description). and after i took her picture she took a seat on every large rock in the vicinity and asked me to take her picture resting!and mason was either sleeping or smiling happily!
we were singing songs on our way out and madelyn was running happily with the wind blowing her hair that i couldn't manage to capture (mainly because i couldn't run backwards with the stroller fast enough to stay ahead of her). and since i was snapping away i just happened to catch her eating it! don't worry she wasn't injured and didn't even make any thing of it.


here she is making mason laugh when we got back home. (he wasn't injured either!)

later that night madelyn was helping keep mason happy while i was making dinner and when i saw what she was doing i had to take a picture. it is hard to see because he is wearing a patterned onesie but he is covered in little stickers! at least he was happy. and madelyn was having a pretty good time too. she has been such a great big sister and big helper lately. she is always comforting mason for me whenever he starts to fuss. tonight she told him, "don't worry big boy. mommy is right here. it's okay." matt felt a little sad that daddy being here wasn't a comfort. love.