home sweet home

it is really great to be back home! my trip went really well, but it is always nice to get back home. it is amazing how dramatically different mason looks after being away for three days and even madelyn is noticeably different to me. mason gave me more of a reaction than madelyn ever did at his age. but madelyn was definitely glad to see me now. she held my hand the whole ride home from the airport and mason cried because he couldn't turn his head enough to see me.

everything went fine while i was gone. not that i was really too worried. it was a little concerning that we had yet to have any success feeding mason from a bottle, but matt wasn't worried about it and he was the one who would have to deal with a cranky boy. by the end of the first day he did take a full bottle from matt so that was reassuring to me.

matt enjoyed the time at home with the kids too. i was happy for that too - its good for him. he said that his favorite part was watching how they interact with each other. doing prayers at night madelyn would give her typical, "thank you for mommy and daddy and mason and friend..." but added another toy that she had chosen not to take care of and gave to other kids (aka goodwill). so she said thanks for it, but then remembered that she didn't have it - "where did it go? oh yeah...i gave it to other kids" - and then she went on with her prayers. this just cracked matt up - and still does when he retells it.

i guess madelyn was a little jealous that mason was getting to spend so much time nursing when i got home because she lifted up my shirt and asked me to feed her. it took me a minute to react because it was so out of the blue, but she accepted my answer of no and we moved on pretty quickly.

mason must have worked on biting while he was using a bottle when i was gone because he is definitely good at it now! i didn't yell out but i removed him and said firmly, "no biting, mason". to which mason instantly made the saddest face i have ever seen and began to cry. i only had to do it twice before he stopped biting me.

on a happier, funnier, note, mason has started to suck his big toe like he does his thumb. he has been able to put his feet in his mouth for quite some time now, but this was the first time i have seen him go to town sucking on a toe. he was so happy.

he still isn't doing much in the moving department but he is becoming a really, really good reacher when he is sitting up. he can reach all the way out to where it looks like the circulation must be cut off to his legs, get what he wants, and sit back up without falling. we have also heard 'talking' that sounds like "da-da" when he sees matt, but it hasn't been repetitive enough to be certain.

so that is the latest on the gang and here are some other miscellaneous notes:

- i took madelyn for a free show at the planetarium down the road sunday morning before i left for kansas. just she and i went since mason and daddy weren't really that interested. madelyn is almost obsessive about the moon and its phases when we are out after dark (even when we are home she looks for it out the window) so i thought that she might enjoy the planetarium but probably would not have tried it when she is so young if it wasn't free. she really did love it. there were a lot of fun things to look at in the lobby and she liked seeing the winter sky star show once we were inside. she did ask to leave at the very beginning of the show, but then she got really into it (maybe i just didn't explain what was going to happen well enough). we also saw some friends there so that made it special to her too. i think that we will go again sometime soon.

- we had a new mattress for matt and i delivered while i was out of town. matt is so very excited because he believes our old one (a sleep number bed) is the root of all his back pain. we will see if the new one makes a difference. i am just glad that he would finally spend the money to find out. madelyn had a lot of fun mattress shopping with us over the past month. she liked trying them all out and bouncing on them (not that we encouraged the later).

- after months of not eating the crust of her sandwich (i think she learned this at school), madelyn has decided that she can only eat sandwiches made with the end of the loaf. she even gets upset when she has already eaten them both and there is a lot of middle slices left. you just never know...

love.

little mermaid

this morning we went to a local production of "the little mermaid and the prince". and it was about what you would imagine when i say "local production". the theater was nice and they had it set up cute with blue streamers hanging from the doorways to give it an underwater feel and there were bubbles falling from the ceiling - which the kids loved.

madelyn was super excited about seeing ariel, but it wasn't "ariel" in this production. i can't remember the official name but either "the little mermaid" or the "sea witch" was named something like "desdemona" (i am guessing that they were the literary names). all i know is that the names were difficult for me to understand and the kids around me seemed to be confused as well. but we all got over it and enjoyed the show.

they would get kid volunteers from the audience for each of the three acts. madelyn really, really wanted to volunteer but didn't quite get how it worked. she kept trying to the attention of the girl on the other side of the theater instead of the one who was right next to us. and then she would just try to go up on stage any way. maybe she will have the hang of it when we try another show sometime. she was really sad when it was over and didn't want to leave the theater.

and here are just some more catch up notes:
- madelyn is becoming quite the fashionista. she is most particular about shoes and hair, but is pretty opinionated about what she wears overall.

- mason's 'spots' cleared up after two days with the steroid cream - like night and day difference! we are now just to an eczema lotion and i can't believe how much better he is doing or that i waited so long to take care of this. the little bonus of going to the doctor is that we got to find out how heavy mason is getting. he was 21 pounds, 13 ounces! that is 2 pounds in less that a month. the nurse commented that he was going to be a football player one day at this rate. its funny because i have been thinking lately that he is feeling so much slimmer and lighter i was starting to worry that he wasn't getting enough milk. maybe i am just getting stronger with my p90x workouts... :)

- madelyn seems to have made "junior the asparagus" her imaginary friend. junior is from veggietales and it seems like he is who she imagines to be with her most often. she will tell me that junior is following her in the grocery store, riding on her lap in the car, and telling her something funny.

- one night when i came up from working out, two hours after putting the kids to bed, i found madelyn sitting on the toilet and an entire roll or toilet paper in pieces at her feet. i told her that was very bad and she started to tear up. since it was so late i helped her finish up and get strait to bed. in the morning she went in the bathroom and was upset to still find the mess. i told her that she would have to clean it all up since she had made it. it was cute because she got right to it and kept coming out to give me updates about how much was left for her to clean up - very happily too.

- yesterday both kids took a nap from 1:00 - 4:30pm! that was just worth noting. and it was on a day that i really, really needed them to so that i could prepare for a presentation next week.

- i must have been taking a little too long getting mason's lunch together because he grabbed the spoon out of the bowl and started feeding himself. i was pretty shocked.

probably won't be any posts this week as i am heading out until wednesday night for work and it will just be matt and the kids at home. love.

"mason has spots"

and you can imagine how excited the packed waiting room at the doctor's office was to hear madelyn call that out to the nurse when they called mason back. madelyn and i took mason to the doctor so that i could show them his dry skin at his worst. i have been going back and forth about whether i should bring him in but when i took off his pajamas this morning i knew that today was the day.

the dry skin patches are red and about the size of a quarter. this morning they were covering his entire chest and most of his belly. they don't really look like dry skin, more like raw skin. it doesn't seem to bother mason in the slightest, but i have been worried that it might leave scars. he does grab at his chest in a way that looks like scratching when his shirt is off. the doctor prescribed a steroid cream that should have him cleared up by saturday or she wants us to come back.

and here he is just being happy mason (and saying "ma-ma"). love.

spell it

she has been able to spell her name for a little while, but was feeling in the mood to do it for the camera today. love.

trip to the zoo

needing to spend some quality time with madelyn (and mason), i took the kids to the zoo on friday morning. i get so distracted with all my responsibilities at the house that i rarely get to have fun with madelyn; i have been in such discipline mode this week that i feel like "mean mommy" (see separate post). i don't think that madelyn sees me that way at all, but i feel like it so it is nice to get out of the house and away from work once in a while.

it almost wasn't warm enough to go - it was overcast and in the 20s but we braved it anyway. i am glad that we did because it was a lot of fun.

madelyn chose her own outfit for the day and it wasn't the warmest choice. she did finally let me put her gloves on after we had been there for an hour. and it was nice that madelyn was fairly agreeable about getting her picture taken - most of the time. i even got some natural smiles for once! mason was super snugly in his stroller. i was looking forward to him being able to really take everything in, but he slept through most of it.

the highlights of the trip were seeing the red panda and the playing tiger cubs. the red panda was very cute playing in the snow (i was too slow with the camera to get a good picture) and used a half, hallowed out log filled with snow as a slide. and then we got to see the two tiger cubs running all over, climbing trees, splashing in a pond, and playing with each other. madelyn was just cracking up watching them.

it has been a crazy weekend, in a good way. there was a lot to get done and i had four hours of spa time on saturday and we went to a friend's house today to watch the vikings game (they are huge fans with super bowl tickets so it was a big game). madelyn had a lot of fun and was super cute in their red doctor glasses. especially because they matched her hair bands and shirt. (madelyn selected her hairstyle - she has become very particular).

here are a few other notes from the week:

- madelyn has been 'reading' to friend pretty regularly. she gets so much of the story correct. even things that we haven't read for almost a year.

- madelyn has become obsessed with hearing everything matt and i are saying. i often hear, "what did you say, mom?" or "what are you talking about with daddy, mom?". today she was saying in the car, "mason, be quiet. i can't hear what mom is saying." she just doesn't want to miss a thing.

- we had a radon mitigation system installed this week. this was not a planned expense and it was not cheap. basically we did a $10 test from home depot. the results came back on wednesday, we called a company on thursday, they came out on friday, and the system was installed on monday. the limit for safety is a reading of 4 and ours was over 24! we really wish that we had not put off doing the test. thankfully, we were able to get a system in quickly and now it is taken care of. but of course, cleaning out the basement is how madelyn found rudolph and i've already explained what a joy that was...

so i am blogging right now (really yesterday afternoon) and madelyn is playing a game on my phone. and then she just fell asleep mid-game. so funny. love.

no pictures

i can't even tell you how busy i have been! matt and i have started a workout at night (p90x) and by the time the kids are down and the work out is over i have nothing less to give and blogging has fallen to the bottom of my to-do list. i have no pictures (at least none to post) but a long list of notes about things the kids have been doing. so here we go..,

- madelyn has discovered the negotiating power of the phrase just "one more..." if we say no to something she will ask for "one more" because she knows that there is a good chance we will cave. we are really trying to be stricter about this. i think she has more success using this tactic with daddy...

- if she doesn't like dinner she says that we can "save it for tomorrow if you want".

- mason has started to communicate, and even matt agrees that he says "ma-ma" - not like a first word - but clearly and seemingly for me. today he added "mo" when eating. and yesterday i got some video of him trying to wave. he is very clearly trying to figure out how to communicate with us.

- matt and i must say "honey" and "sweetie" to each other a lot because madelyn has started to call us by these pet names from time to time.

- another one of madelyn's favorite expressions is "it's nothing". sometimes we have to tell her, "yes, actually it is something, madelyn."

- madelyn told me that one of her friends at school, gavin, bumped her today but told her that he was sorry. and then she told me that she gave him one of her common explanations - "it happens". she makes us laugh a lot around here by telling us that, "it's okay, mom/dad. it happens sometimes."

- last night mason took his first real bath in the tub with madelyn! madelyn was ecstatic and i think mason was a little overwhelmed because she kept trying to teach him how to splash - it was just a little too much action for him. i will say that it was really nice not to have to mess with the toddler tub. we took some cute pictures, but i try to refrain from posting nudity. :)

- it's so neat to see how different mason plays with the same toys madelyn had at his age. he is really into the texture of things and loves to rub his fingernails on them to check it out. he also 'carries' toys more than madelyn did. he likes to pick toys up a lot more than i ever noticed madelyn do. and not just to put them in his mouth; he picks them up to move them around.

so there are a few updates to tide you over as i try to figure out how to get more personal time in my day for blogging... love.

madelyn is in love...

...with a reindeer named rudolph.

and of course she had to fall for someone matt wants to drop kick. here she is after church showing rudolph's lovely (and at the volume of a jet engine) 'singing' voice. she leaves the frame for a minute to get behind me and make noises to get rudolph to smile for the camera.

today when she went to school with daddy she said, "i love you, rudolph," on her way out the door.

and this rudolph isn't really that snugly. it has a hard plastic base and weighs a ton, but that hasn't stopped madelyn from taking it to bed with her. she treats it like a person and congratulates him on a "great job" singing or smiling or whatever she is pretending that he is doing.

we just hope that this isn't a future indication of her selections for affection... love.

snowman

sunday morning matt helped madelyn and i make our first ever snowman! madelyn has been waiting patiently since christmas for there to be a deep enough snow for making a snowman. why has she been so anxious? because she gave me a snowman kit for christmas and couldn't wait to use it.

the snow was really powdery (not ideal for snowman making at all) but i sprayed a water bottle while matt and madelyn tried to get it to pack. we stopped with only two levels because my face was freezing and it wasn't working out so well. it was just enough for madelyn to use all the snowman kit pieces and she was fully satisfied.

when we went inside i checked the temperature and it was only 5 degrees out. it was really windy so i am guessing that it felt a lot colder than that. it wasn't the perfect weather, or snow, but i think that madelyn thought that it was the perfect snowman.

mason slept this one out. it was way too cold for him to be outside for too long so we did it during his morning nap. love.

growth spurt?

this week has just been about getting back into the swing of things - which is why there haven't been any posts. i guess the theme of this week is sleep. not that matt or i feel any more rested because we have been so busy, but the kids sure have been sleeping. the question is how do they know to only sleep in on days that matt and i can't? it is like they have a sixth sense. madelyn didn't sleep past 7am the whole time i was off, but monday morning i had to wake her up at a quarter to 8am so that she wouldn't be late for school.

mason has consistently been sleeping through the night and napping 4-6 hours a day in two naps. (if you look closely at the picture of him, you can see his two little bottom teeth.) but the real surprise has been madelyn. she slept late on monday and then on tuesday night she went to her room to suck her thumb around 5pm and didn't come back out. i went in to check on her and she was asleep so i let her sleep until 6:30 when i woke her up for dinner. she didn't want to eat though; she just asked for a drink of water and to go back to bed. i think she was awake for 20 minutes before going down for the night a little before 7pm and didn't wake up until 7am. this is totally unheard of for her!

when i picked her up from school on wednesday and she was still in a deep sleep, her teacher asked if she might be going through a growth spurt. of course! that must be it. and she was super, super cranky when i woke her up to go home too. like screaming/crying in the parking lot, not wearing her coat (by choice), and not getting in the car kind of cranky. thankfully she got that out of her system by the evening and was pleasant when daddy ventured out with both kids by himself for the first time last night. i had a meeting at the church so he took the kids to do the grocery shopping before the snow fell today.

the picture of madelyn is from after school when she had finally gotten herself out of her post-nap funk. she is wearing the kid-sized moby wrap that we gave her for christmas. once i got friend all settled into it she asked to go to the park. i had to explain that it was a little too cold and snowy/icy for a walk to the park. she settled for just running around the house wearing him.

matt and i are hoping that this sleeping surge lasts until saturday. love.

i've fallen and i can't get up

madelyn's new pretend game is that she has fallen and can't get up. who knows where this is coming from, but essentially she lays herself on the ground and will call for me to help her get up because she is "stuck". the funniest part is that she will wait there until i can come to her and i am the only one that can 'free' her. and she will wait a really long time too when you consider that she could get up at any time all on her own it is pretty silly.

another recent interest that seems worthy of noting is madelyn's interest in veins. yes, veins. i forget how it got brought up but a few months ago we were talking about veins and i showed her how she can see them in her wrists. now she will even complement us on our veins or ask if we have veins. it is a weird point of interest but still cute.

today i was showing madelyn the cracks in her thumb from her sucking it all the time. we talked about how sucking her thumb is hurting it and if she stopped it would get better. i think that it might actually make a difference. although she did say that she is just going to suck the other thumb now. and now she says that she has a "crack thumb". she means "cracked thumb", but the mistake is probably a more accurate description of her relationship with her thumb...

now that matt and i can switch off on bed times with the kids, i get to pray with madelyn. she always says what she is thankful for and what she wants God to help her with the next day as part of our prayer routine. mostly she is thankful for our family and friend and asks God to help her not to be scared, but last night she asked God to help her "not to pee in my car seat". amen! love.

baby it's cold outside

we haven't had any more snow, but it has been really cold. when we went out for some errands and the home depot kids' workshop (a calendar) on saturday morning it was -4 with a -23 wind chill. it took a while to get everyone bundled up and into the car (movements take a lot more effort when you are wearing so many layers and gloves). madelyn looked so cute in her first ever scarf, but she was not interested in posing for a picture. in fact, she screamed every time i got the camera out. i was able to sneak this picture in the car because the interstate sound drowned out the sound of the camera turning on.

running errands was a little challenging because its like a race from the time you open the car doors until you have the kids safely inside your destination. with the extreme cold breathing can hurt and poor little mason had a hard time when the wind would blow in his face. i try to hide his face against me with a blanket on his back and neck but he would just pull away and turn his face to the wind. madelyn used to do the same thing when i would try to protect her. mason handles wind and cold much better than madelyn did though.

we have just been hanging out at home as much as possible. we had a quiet (and perfect) new year's eve at home. i had gone to the grocery store with the kids in the morning while matt was at work and bought some nice steaks from the butcher counter for our dinner. it was a splurge, but we were celebrating, right? then we put the kids to bed early, watched a movie (four christmases), and went to bed at 9:30. it was lovely! its a good thing that we went to bed early because neither one of the kids slept very well (it must have been the full, blue, moon).

mason is starting to sit up really well too and spends about half his time that way. today he has even started to catch himself when he tips side to side. he still just falls when he goes backwards though. he is enjoying sitting up and playing with his toys. madelyn is enjoying that mason can sort of 'play' with her too. but she does get a little upset at him for putting everything in his mouth.

i was able to get a little video of his back scooting today. i think he was just high-tailing it away from madelyn's oral examination...

i am torn about the crawling. i really want him to achieve that milestone, but selfishly it would be easier for me to work if he waits longer. i am hoping that he starts before my trip at the end of the month because i will be really, really bummed if he crawls for the first time when i am gone. we'll just have to wait and see. love.