the day has come

i never thought that this day would come, but there is a mini-van parked in our garage and my name (and matt's) are on the title. i always thought that i would just move up to an suv for hauling kids and gear around. there was no way i was going to drive a mini-van.

that is until we rented one when we went to florida after mason was born. the dual sliding doors were what sold me. i didn't have to worry about bumping other cars with doors while loading and unloading kids. i didn't have to crouch over into an unnatural position to strap mason into his rear facing car seat. madelyn could get in on the same side as mason. it was just easier.

matt and i started saving and now we have taken the plunge. we got a 2011 toyota sienna. i really, really love it. it is probably the fanciest thing i have ever owned. madelyn has expressed her pleasure with the new ride too. (although there was a slight meltdown when we went to install her car seat after she had spent hours sitting in the regular seats during our 'tour' of the car). today she was thankful that the car had speakers so that she could hear her "bob music" (aka veggietales). she can see the speaker in the door so that was what prompted her declaration of gratitude.


thankfully, we stopped for bagels on our way to the dealership! i thought that it would take an hour or two to get everything taken care of, but it took almost four hours!!! and matt didn't have a valid drivers license (i know - long story) so he had to run home and get it which left me with both kids for at least an hour during the 'tour' of the car. i was not snacked-up enough for that long of an outing with the kids. we survived and the kids really did a great job of waiting patiently. mason even took a nap on my shoulder while we were in the business office signing all the forms. any way, back to the bagels.

einsteins has new "mini-bagels" 2 for 99 cents so we them for mason to chew on while we all had our bagels. he really thought that this was neat and enjoyed the chewie goodness! isn't he cute with his 'my size' bagel? love.

ka-chow

i was shocked to learn that i have never posted about madelyn's love for the movie "cars" before. i discovered this when grandma was here and the first morning madelyn asked her to watch "my car movie". grandma was upset that she didn't know about madelyn's interest because she had seen some cute cars themed footed jammies and didn't get them.

so, yes, madelyn's current favorite movie is cars. it started around christmas when i recorded every movie that abc family broadcast for future viewing. we watched it almost every day for two or three weeks before matt and i decided to go ahead and purchase it (we were getting tired of fast-forwarding through all the commercials). the movie set we purchased even came with a lightning mcqueen and mater toy cars (they are two of the main characters in the movie).

madelyn has also recently added some sally sunglasses (the girl car in the movie) when her other ones started to break. she really wants some cars underwear but they only come in boy styles and i don't think that she needs them that bad.

i wonder if some of her affection for the movie comes from the influence of the boys in her class. she still loves ariel and other characters, but cars has been a long running favorite now.

grandma was able to find madelyn (and mason) cars pajamas (not that i was really worried about that). i apologize from robbing the grandparents from an unspecified number of cars licensed purchases by not posting this new interest. it does seem that she has a renewed interest in veggietales videos; mainly because we just got two new ones. she has never paused in her love of veggietales music even though i have been trying to get her to branch out a little. i am just thankful that there is an extensive library of their music out there and that the public library carries several. love.

so happy together

madelyn loves to have mason sit with her. she asks to hold him and then remembers that he is pretty heavy so then she asks to just have him sit next to her. he is usually pretty accommodating but not for too long. usually just long enough for me to get my camera and for madelyn to get a few hugs in.

the funny thing is that she always sits right next to him on the floor - physically touching - and then gets mad at him for touching her toys or leg or whatever. i try to explain that she could get up and move to where he can't reach her. i think that she just wants him to play by her rules and she really does want to play with him.

not that madelyn needed another reason to love going to sams club, but she loves that she can choose to sit next to mason in the cart. he was actually smiling in the first few pictures of madelyn's arm wrapped around him but with my phone most of them came out blurry because madelyn doesn't hold still long enough.

mason likes having her around too. although he has discovered that he

has a chance at getting some toys when she isn't around. i couldn't figure out what he was doing on the way home from dropping madelyn off at school on monday. he was just grunting a lot and his head was really far forward. at a light i turned around to check things out and discovered that he was trying to get her books that she normally takes away from him.

i think that she is going to be in trouble when he finally gets to crawling. love.

rocking hand-me-down

i was going to write something with this yesterday but i couldn't get the picture to load and accidentally hit 'post' instead of 'save' - oh well. madelyn still uses her rocking horse so i wasn't really sure how it was going to go when i attached the seat support for mason to use it that madelyn would not fit in. she was so excited to help him with riding it and didn't complain at all that she couldn't have a turn on it. i think she had just as much fun bouncing mason as she did riding it herself. and mason can hold on and bounce on his own - when madelyn lets him... love.

just kickin' it

mason makes it hard for us to keep madelyn from being too physical with him because he laughs hysterically when she kicks at him or bounces on him. it looks like it might hurt but he just laughs and laughs! we just tell madelyn that the second he cries she has to stop.

they were cute laughing and kicking their legs together on sunday afternoon so i had to share. love.

fashion icon

madelyn is a master at layering and really enjoys selecting her outfit each day. i let her where whatever she wants for the most part. i give a little guidance for the purpose of her being warm enough or decent enough to be out in public but the rest is up to her if she feels so inclined. matt isn't really a fan of her fashion choices but tries to be supportive because she gets so excited about it.

on saturday she wore a red christmas shirt with lime green shorts over black leggings (i suggested the leggings for warmth). when we went out she added a red and pink striped fleece, her gray and green snow boots, and striped hat.

on sunday she wore a bright yellow "summer" tank over a white long sleeved t-shirt (again suggested for warmth) with a grey corduroy skirt and brown tights with multiple colored polka-dots. she added a green fleece printed with hearts and pink glitter shoes when we went out.

for school today i asked her to go pick her clothes while i finished feeding mason breakfast. she came back with a navy and white striped 3/4-sleeve shirt, a purple and pink striped tank with silver hearts, and khaki pants (at least the pants were a neutral). white ankle socks and bright blue shoes completed her look. (this is what she was wearing in the picture in the chair with mason in the last post.)

i make sure that she gets her hair neatly done so that she doesn't look totally dishevelled. although she requests to wear her hair "straight" (aka no accessories) most often. at least she lets me comb it willingly when i let her select her clothes. she just doesn't see the need for neat hair; she doesn't complain or wiggle when i comb and fix her hair though and excitedly goes to the bathroom to see what it looks like.

i love her creativity and try to support her fashion choices. i almost look forward to seeing what she will pick to wear each day. love.

"i love gavin!"

i can't believe that this hasn't made the blog yet; madelyn has a friend at school named gavin. she often pretends to talk to him or "gavin's mom" on the phone. gavin is usually in most of her stories about school. she tells us that he is "so funny" and that she sits by him at lunch because he "makes [her] laugh". during valentine's week at school madelyn called out, "bye, gavin. i love you." as she was saying goodbye to all her friends and gavin returned an, "i love you," back to her. matt has gavin on his radar (half jokingly) and wished that i had not told him the last story. last night there was no denying her affection for her beloved gavin. love.

valentine's day

we had a pretty exciting valentine's day (well for us). i was, thankfully, feeling better and made breakfast for everyone. madelyn and mason got goodie bags from grandma (and big pop). she is starting to think that every occasion equals toys. today when we were in sams she saw some easter m&ms and when i told her why they were different colors than normal she said, "and maybe we need some easter toys".

back to valentine's day. after mason woke up from his nap be headed over to chuck e. cheese for fun and lunch. this was the first time for madelyn and mason. madelyn was slightly overwhelmed - not scared, just really quiet as she took it all in and waited to get the go ahead from us to go check out all the games.

we ate pizza first (i know. not the first choice of most after suffering from food poisoning) and then matt and i went around to play games with madelyn while grandma stayed at the table with mason.
i was surprised how far our 'tokens' went. matt and i had a really hard time not stepping in to do each game correctly for madelyn - we are just that competitive. madelyn had a great time trying all the games and i think that we will go back again. it actually wasn't too crowded and kind of fun.

matt and i tried to test drive mini-vans again but all the dealerships were closed (for sunday) so we just peeked in the windows. then we raced back home to get ready for our bid date night! matt had some gift certificates so we were getting treated to a nice dinner out and even had grandma to babysit. matt and i had a really nice time being alone for once and having a real conversation. the sad part was that we were home by 8:15pm and made it in time to put the kids to bed. it wasn't sad that we were so early but that i felt like it was 11pm!

madelyn is still marveling over the candy and sticker treats. every day she wishes me, "happy valentine's day, mommy!" i usually get a sweet hug and kiss and/or a sticker. she has decided that valentine's day is best celebrated by sharing stickers. when we went to music class that friday she brought a sheet of heart stickers and suck them on everyone in the class before they could even get in the door and take off their coats. any of the kids that she could get to hold still received multiple stickers. the best part was that when we were getting bundled back up at the end of class she started asking everyone for her stickers back and putting them back on the sheet. i was able to stop her before she got more than four back.

we were grateful that big pop was willing to let us borrow grandma for valentine's day so that matt and i could have a night out to celebrate our relationship. i thought that it was a really perfect day. love.

betty brinn with grandma

grandma came for a visit this weekend and we hit the ground running by taking her to the betty brinn children's museum on thursday morning. we hadn't been since madelyn first started walking so i was looking forward to seeing what she thought of it. not only did madelyn love it, but mason had a really great time too!


it was a little crowded at first because there was a kindergarten class (i think that is what grade it was) but then it really wasn't so bad and we really enjoyed two or three hours of fun - and maybe a little learning too.

madelyn likes seeing how the older kids do things and then jumps in and even tells them how to do it better (in the second video) - i wonder where she could possibly get that from...





it was hard to get madelyn to move between exhibits. between all the kids running around and all of the new 'toys' she could play with she just didn't lose interest with whatever she was doing very quickly. madelyn didn't want to leave at lunch time so i feel like this is a trip downtown that we will make again soon - and next time i want to bring daddy!

and here are just some more pictures of our morning at the museum:

grandma visited thursday through monday. i spent friday night through sunday morning in bed with food poisoning and, yes, fell even further behind. many of you haven't heard from me directly in a while and all i can do is apologize - sorry. i am going to try and do some catch up tonight and maybe i might get caught up this weekend. love.

looking good

mason shows promise for crawling, as you can see. he gets into this position and then can't get out of it. while he might not be crawling, he is getting around. he either scoots while sitting or rolls around. i know that he will get it together eventually, but it is taking so much longer than madelyn did! at least he stopped the back scooting.

mason has at least four upper teeth coming in. it has been rough as he has dealt with swollen gums, discomfort, lack of sleep (he would just scream and scream at bedtime), and congestion. the first one to be visible, but not break through, was the upper, left, lateral incisor. with all the swelling it still hasn't broken through, but the left, central incisor has (on the 16th). he is going to look like he has a crazy cross bite with his two central lower teeth and just his left teeth on top. unfortunately he has already discovered grinding with only three teeth! i am hoping that this is short lived.

on the 17th he started saying "da-da-da". it is mostly just a noise, but it does seem like he is calling me "ma-ma" and matt "da-da" now. mason is a little chatter box, but the camera distracts him into silence. i snuck up on him during lunch a few days ago and got him chattering. i also got a little of his finger food skills. he actually gets more in his mouth than the video shows, but you can see both of his techniques - pincher with his left hand and fisting with his right.

this kid is going to be standing before crawling at the rate he is going. he can pull himself up to standing and tries on everything he can reach. the problem is that he is so heavy that whatever he is pulling on usually ends up on top of him. everything that madelyn pulled up on early can't handle mason's weight/strength but it hasn't stopped him from trying. if he did cry so much i would take pictures of the items he has ended up under.

mason has also made strides with book time. this week he has finally gotten to where he will sit still and listen to an entire board book without trying to eat it or squirming all over trying to skip to the eating part of the bedtime routine. it was like a switch went off and now he loves to listen to books - which i love! madelyn likes that he doesn't pull on the book now too. she found it to be pretty distracting when she tried to join us for bedtime stories.

and there is your update on mason. love.

time flies

saturday night we got together with some friends and their families. this group of friends were people we met when matt was at children's and someone was due every month january through june. there were 6 families, 11 kids and 2 on the way. it is so crazy how fast everyone grows up! the first group shot of the kids from these families was in january 2008.

and since i started this post three days ago, here are the other things that have been going on. (did i mention that time flies?):

- i gave madelyn her baseball glove that we got her when she was born because her hand is almost large enough for it. she was so excited and couldn't wait to show daddy her "hand catcher".

- mason started eating egg yolks this week. it sounds disgusting but his breakfast of egg yolk, avocado, and grains (yes, mixed together) is gobbled up.

- when madelyn wants something that we don't want her to have she says, "i will hold it so it doesn't get lost," with a smile and a nod. it makes us laugh every time. she is just so sure about it. she is a master at negotiations. matt and i really have to stay on our toes.

- mason loves watching hands open and closing. fast, slow, high, or low, he loves them all. madelyn likes that she can make him laugh for a long time just opening and closing her hand where he can see it.

- on saturday madelyn told us that her favorite color was white now. this was an interesting shift from her favorite of orange over the past several months, so we asked her more about it. apparently milk is her inspiration and "milk" is her favorite word. that part wasn't all that surprising based on her milk consumption.

- madelyn never did the "cry when toys are taken away" milestone at 7 months. mason on the other hand has mastered it, but it is a very fake cry with a scrunched up nose and everything. i guess it takes an older sibling to help you reach that particular milestone.

- the most common question from madelyn this week is "what is the deal with...?" like, "mom, what is the deal with your knees?" or "what is the deal with my cup?" i am not too sure where she picked this up, but i am afraid that she might have gotten it from me.

-madelyn likes to layer her clothes for warmth, but she doesn't use appropriate layering items. for example she might put a short-sleeved t-shirt on under a smaller short-sleeved shirt. the best was when she wore an elmo tank top with ruffled sleeves under her turtle-neck dress. it looked funnier than it sounds as i type it...

- daddy gave mason his first ride in the playroom swing/chair tonight. and as you can see in the picture, he loved it. madelyn got in with him too, but there aren't any pictures i can post because she wasn't wearing more than underwear. mason was okay with her joining him but then she started to move around too much for his comfort.

- there are very few pictures of madelyn lately because she will not keep a shirt on when she is home! it is mainly because she is so messy and wants to wear pjs all day - they usually don't make it past lunch from food mess or playing with the dogs mess. there were some really, really cute ones today of the kids sitting side by side 'reading' a book in the chair in mason's room, but madelyn was only in her underwear. we just keep those pictures to embarrass her with later. love.

that's my girl

madelyn couldn't stop reading for lunch and asked to bring her book to the table (we don't normally allow toys or books at the table when food is present). seeing her using the plate to keep her book open and her other hand to pick up her sandwich reminded me of how i used to (and still do) keep reading.

unfortunately she wasn't willing to let me take a good photo. although she did ask to see it after i took it which is why she smiled in this one.

it is fun to see her really try to read now. she asks me each word she can't remember and tries to read to mason. i say "tries" because she wants to sit next to him and read so that he can see the book but then gets upset when mason just grabs it and tries to put it in his mouth. love.

super bowl

we had our own super bowl party at home with our family today. we munched on chili-cheese dip, had hot dogs and pistachio fluff for dinner, and jiffy pop for dessert. this was a game day type of feast for us and madelyn was over the moon for the jiffy pop (a first time treat).

if you asked madelyn who was going to win, she would answer enthusiastically, "chargers! go chargers!" daddy is so proud.

madelyn was very interested in one of the early commercials where a dog's bark collar gets put on a man and the dog eats all his doritos. i would describe it as outrage that the dog would eat all his chips and wanted me to explain what was on the man's neck, etc. here is her retelling (not the best of the three versions she told us before i could get to the camera):

we never make popcorn, but i was feeling nostalgic when i saw the jiffy pop at the grocery store and thought that it would be fun for our family party. once i got it open the directions (on the inside) say not to use it on a ceramic top stove. gee - that would have been nice to know before i opened it! but as always i have to know why you shouldn't do it - what are the risks? apparently it is just that the heat isn't consistent and the popcorn may not pop (and it might scratch the surface of the stove). after watching a youtube video of someone popping it on a ceramic top i gave it a try. really not a big deal at all. anyway, we ended up with some yummy popcorn and madelyn thought that the jiffy pop dome was the neatest thing ever. i actually think that it scared her a little bit.

a fun evening at home with the family. love.

logistics

there are a lot of logistics to be worked out and planned just to get through each day with minimal stress and tears in the life of a mom, but i came across a few new ones on tuesday that i thought i would share.

of course it was snowing on tuesday because it was my morning off and i had several errands to run. the first was easy. (other than driving on the slushy roads. not that it was dangerous, grandmas! i just had to drive slower.) we went by the library to drop off books, but with the other errands we didn't have time to get new ones.

next we went to the dollar store to get valentines for madelyn to take to school next week. it was early and the weather was poor so we got to park pretty close. i always struggle a little with getting in and out of the car because i have to get them out on both sides of the car. (did i mention that i am really excited about not having worry about that with a minivan?) since madelyn is older and can stand on her own, she gets out first and stands next to me while i work on getting mason out of his car seat and grab my diaper bag/purse.

i feel bad making madelyn stand in the falling snow while i try to get mason's arms to cooperate with my removing him from the car seat. i always have a little panic because i can't see madelyn while i am doing this either. i just keep asking her to stay close and within the protection of the open door. by the end she is so close that i almost can't lift mason out and stand up; i have to ask her to please move so that i can close the door.

so anyway, returning to the car it was snowing a little harder and i quickly put everything into the car and got to work on getting mason settled. once i was done with him, i turned around and looked at madelyn - her head was covered in snow! she had decided not to wear her hat and her hood had fallen off. i just laughed and brushed off her head as we worked our way around the car.

mommy dilemma #1: prioritizing when loading the car.

next we were off to buy produce and other food items for mason's baby food. madelyn loves the organic market because they have little wire frame carts that she can push. as we were making our way through the produce department madelyn exclaimed that she needed to go to the bathroom. madelyn seemed to be a little panic ed so i took her cart and hunched over to push it and the full-sized cart with mason as quickly as possible to the restrooms. i am sure i was quite a sight practically running to the other side of the store!

once at the restroom entrance i grabbed mason and the diaper bag from the cart and hurried madelyn back to the ladies room. since madelyn was all bundled up she couldn't get her pants down and onto the toilet by herself. all i could think is - what am i going to do with mason? so i made a quick decision to put him on the floor. i put my purse as far from the toilet as possible and put mason's back towards it as i sat him on the public restroom floor - yuck. thankfully it was a very clean restroom in a clean store, but i wasn't fond of setting my infant who puts everything in his mouth (including the hands he was now using to explore the floor) on the floor of a public restroom.

mommy dilemma #2: multiple kids in a public restroom.


after we finished our shopping i needed to get everyone back into the car - including the groceries. i had two bags of groceries, a diaper bag/purse, and two kids to get to the car with no one (including me) slipping and falling. not wanting to try and push a cart through the snow i started to gather everything up. first i put the diaper bag and both grocery bags (at least 30lbs.) on my left shoulder. i could barely put my arm down far enough to pick mason up. as i pulled him up he lost both shoes and a sock! thankfully, madelyn helped me out. but at this point i just couldn't put everything back down to get his shoes back on; so out into the snow i went with my barefoot boy that i was holding with one arm. he was flailing (happily) and i was trying my hardest not to drop him with the weight of the groceries on the same arm. i had to hold madelyn's hand with my other hand. i am sure that, yet again, i was quite a sight.

mommy dilemma #3: braving judgement when your kids aren't wearing socks/shoes.

i hope that you have enjoyed my reflections of everyday logistics. love.

still catching up

i am still very behind on, well, everything; so here is my attempt at an update. (i started this post yesterday.)

- mason had his first teething biscuit on tuesday. madelyn had one too. i don't think that barley is her favorite flavor based on the face she made, but she did have another one today. (they come packaged in twos so maddie and mason have been splitting them.)

- mason is a patient little guy and that has been a really great thing - until recently. he has decided that he can cry - patiently - hour after hour in the wee hours of the morning until he breaks us. i think that it is his top teeth coming in but it doesn't always make me very sympathetic. last night he slept, but it took a while to go down - like three hours. tonight he felt asleep right away so hopefully he makes it all night.

- madelyn loves to play peek-a-boo with mason. i wish she could have refrained in the video below because i was trying to get him clapping his 'coins'. he was happily clapping the two coins in his hands together like symbols and then got distracted. it is almost a three minute video so besides mason laughing there isn't too much to it. (madelyn's hair looked like that when i picked her up from school. i guess he didn't want to wear her barrette any more.)


- madelyn just gets funnier and funnier. she has been testing out the things we say -mainly from discipline - on us and it makes us crack up. today she told me to pretend to be asleep and when i did she told me with finger wagging, "if you come out i will turn off your light. if you come out again no movies and no music." these have been her consequences recently for choosing not to clean up her toys in a timely fashion before bed (taking them away hasn't been enough motivation). but i am happy to say that after three nights of sad bedtimes, tonight she cleaned up all of her toys before bathtime the first time we asked and got to read books at bedtime.

- madelyn loves to wear her costumes recently. i don't have a lot of pictures of her wearing them because she usually wears the skirts without a shirt, but this week she put them on over her dress after school so i was able to get a few.

and just to make mommy out to be a liar she didn't repeat what she had been telling us about her purse and toolbelt before i got the camera. but she is still cute so i posted the video anyway. i just thought that she was funny carrying her tools in her 'purse', wearing a skirt over her dress, and wearing her leather toolbelt.

- mason was just going on and on while i was working yesterday so i thought that i would take some video but he was more interested in listening to maggie. (and i am not crazy, he was wearing a red and blue stripped jacket that made sense of the red pants with that shirt.)

- mason has gone back to "gak, gak, gak" as a favorite 'word' and added "boom, boom, boom" today.

i know that this is a random post but i didn't want anyone to go into withdrawal. love.