mason at the park

on friday evening i took the kids down to the park because it was the most beautiful day. mason climbed up on the equipment all on his own to play the 'bells' and went on to try the slide for the first time (with help). here he is happily playing the 'bells'.

now, this one shows mason trying to climb up the slide and then just climbing off and turning around to climb back on again. madelyn interrupted him, but he did this for a while. just off and on over and over. he took a pretty good spill, but never cries. he just climbs right back up on the slide. enjoy. love.

poor matt

the hits just keep on coming. now our kitchen faucet has started leaking. at least he had madelyn to 'help' him with the difficult task of removing the faucet that was unrepairable. matt has spent his memorial day going to every hardware store in town trying to find a faucet that is acceptable that does not have to be special ordered.

he finally found one (at the fifth store) and headed home to install. the directions were horrible! after two tries and four hours he still had no water coming out of the faucet. we decided that it must have been a faulty faucet and matt started working on packing everything up to return it. that's when he realized that the handle turned in two directions - vertically and horizontally! geez! the directions definitely did not make that clear or even imply it in any way. the good news was that we had a plan and matt was finally able make it work. finally. poor matt. he did decide that after spending a day under the sink he could never be a plumber.

hopefully, this will be the last of our water related problems for a while... love.

it figures

matt and i arranged for a babysitter tonight so that we could run a few errands and discuss several topics that needed uninterrupted conversation. we have had a very intense weekend of cleaning and chores around the house and were looking forward to showering up and having an evening out together.

so it was only fitting that matt was not finished installing our water softener when it was time to get ready to go. not only was he not finished but water was going everywhere and he had to turn off the main line to the house. the babysitter was due in about 30 minutes. after a quick discussion we decided that we wouldn't cancel and were still planning on going out - without showering. we were not looking too cute, but we thought that we could just go somewhere more casual than we were originally planning.

and then i noticed that madelyn's cheeks were a little flushed after her nap and she was just laying on the couch while i was getting dinner together - not good signs. sure enough she had a 100/101 degree fever! do we cancel? no it is too late, we are going out. at least to get the parts matt needs to fix our water pipes. we figure that we will just pay the sitter for her trouble.

so we tell her the situation and leave her with a feverish madelyn and no running water; meaning no flushing toilets. did i mention that this was her first time sitting for us? thankfully she is a super sweet girl from church who watches mason in the nursery every week. we'll see if she is free the next time we call her...

off we go. we find what matt needs (or at least what he thinks he needs). and stop by chili's for some dinner and conversation/planning. during dinner i think that i feel like a filling has fallen out. sure enough, yes, matt confirms that there is a relatively large hole in one of my molars! ugh! something else to try and squeeze in next week! at least it doesn't hurt.

after dinner we aren't really sure what to do, but we have only been gone for an hour and a half so we want to do something. only now we realize that it is sunday night and everything is closed. we literally have no where to go. normally we would go walk around the mall or target, but everything was already closed for the night. we went to get some ice cream before giving up and going home so matt could try to fix our water situation. he did say that we would try this again so i sort of got a rain check for a less stressful evening out.

all in all, i am thankful that we sucked it up and headed out for some time together away from the house. of course i am hoping that nothing else goes wrong tonight as matt is still working away downstairs. i just don't was to have to go to the emergency room or anything tonight.

hopefully, madelyn will be fever-free in the morning and we can have another productive day around the house. love.

she did it!

madelyn could barely wait for breakfast to be over so that she could get dressed and go to get her red nail polish. i told her that if she could go a whole week without sucking her thumb (with the exception of when she was asleep and we couldn't catch her) then we would go out and get her what ever color she wanted for her finger nails and toe nails - she picked red. she said that her "nails are already pink".

so she had her shoes on and was ready to go before i could even change out of my pajamas. thankfully she gave me about five minutes to put on something presentable. we just went up to walgreens to make her selection. i tried to show her all the options available, but she was only interested in red. dark red.

i suggested getting one with some 'sparkles' to try and make it a little more youthful. we also got a nail pen to draw white flowers on her big toes and quick dry drops. (the drops because all i could see were red smudges on everything while we waited for the polish to dry.) madelyn carried everything to the register herself - she didn't want them to go into the basket. after telling the cashier all about painting her nails red, we went home to get started.

she did a really great job of holding still while i painted all her nails, but the drying was a little more trying. it has been a very long time since i have painted someone else's nails and madelyn's are very, very little in comparison to the brush. but i did a pretty good job if i do say so myself. here is a picture of her toes.

i didn't get a picture of her finger nails because they were still drying and she would squeeze her fingers together when i would ask to see them. i didn't want her to smudge. and i thought that i would get video of her excitement later, but she didn't want any part of talking for a video. she did call nana and grandma to tell them about her special red nails though. and she walked into church showing her nails to the greeter at the entry. she is very proud of her red nails.

she has already lost the polish off her pointer fingers and there have been many requests to 'fix' them. i think i will wait a few more days before touching all her finger nails up for her. we are so proud of her for choosing to stop sucking her thumb! love.

mom, look at my funny face

madelyn was playing upstairs while i was working this morning. i heard her call out, "mom! mom!" and hustle down the stairs. as she burst through the office doors she told me, very excitedly, "mom, look at the funny face i can do! look at my funny face."
she must have been playing in the bathroom and figured out that she can roll her tongue. it took a few attempts for me to get a good shot of her accomplishment because she kept pointing with her finger and laughing. here are some of the outtakes. love.

inked

since it has pretty hot (for here), i decided that the kids and i would just have a relaxing morning at home today. we started with a trip to the park before it got too hot for it to be fun.

we have been working with madelyn on riding her tricycle and scooter because she has close to no interest in them. she practices on the sidewalk in front of the house and has been making real progress. she has even been asking to ride them to the park. we have been a little hesitant because there is a pretty good hill on our way to the park and we weren't sure she could make it.

today when she suggested that she ride her scooter to the park i said, "yes". she actually made it three houses down but started to complain about her leg hurting as soon as we started up the steeper part of the hill. let's just say that the rest of our trip to the park was made up of crying, 'breaks', walking the scooter, dragging the scooter, and "i want my daddy" (because daddy would just carry it for her and probably carry her too). i told her that we could rest for a little bit and then keep going, but she chose to 'ride' her scooter. once we got within view of the park she perked right up because there were other kids there. we had fun for a while and then headed home because both kids were pretty red faced and it was time for mason's nap. the trip home was filled with everything the trip there was except she added actually carrying her scooter. i am proud to say that she got it there and back under her own power.

(i took this picture because mason had both feet up relaxing in the wagon on the walk home like he was sunning himself poolside and madelyn was sweating and crying carrying her scooter. mason took one of his feet down when i stopped to take the picture.)

after some quick water refreshment, i put mason down for his nap and madelyn and i headed out to cool off in the pool (well, i just got splashed). then back in for lunch and getting everything ready for the start of my workday.

mason went back down for another nap and madelyn and i headed down to the office. she spent time drawing and tracing her hand on a pad of paper. she was giving me each master piece after it was complete. when i went up to get mason from his nap she came up after me and said that she had put the drawings up high so mason couldn't get them. once i was done nursing mason i headed back down to see just what she meant. she had licked (i am guessing) the paper so that it would stick to the wood and glass of the french doors to the office. i have no idea how she knew to do that!

i guess the paper got a little boring because she drew "mommy, daddy, mason, and baby madelyn" on her arm (they/we are just heads with faces).

and then while watching the movie cars during my meeting she colored in her belly button. she did a pretty neat job so i didn't notice at first and when i asked her about it she had no idea what i was talking about.madelyn and mason were such good buddies today too. madelyn even called out from the playroom that "mommy! me and mason are playing together!" while i was making dinner.

i was trying to get a picture of mason's gap in his teeth today, but i think you can see it in this picture if you click to enlarge it. matt agrees with me by the way about the gap. his two front teeth are definitely spacing like he is going to keep a gap.

this picture is of him happily shaking a toy (one of his favorite activities) after dinner. note the messy hair from him styling it during dinner. mason just has a thing for rubbing his hair with his food. love.

my guess

apparently, i never mentioned that i think the baby is a girl. i thought that i already had and that is why i didn't mention it when i posted that madelyn thinks it is a boy. but there have been several requests for my guess and i thought i would go ahead and post about it.

based on my other pregnancies, my guess is on girl. my doctor said that would be her guess as well. but we won't find out for sure until june 17. and, yes, there was only one baby in the 7 week ultrasound. love.

summer's here!

with our second 90 degree day in a row, summer is officially here! after work we headed out to cool down in the pool. i decided to let mason try the pool out too. he did way better than i expected him to do. the only time he had trouble is when he would try to crawl and the water came up over his mouth. but it didn't even seem to bother him at all; i don't think that he drank any of the water either.

he is getting so steady. he was even able to stand up without holding on while madelyn was bouncing all over the place. and he got up there by climbing up by himself. he just climbed up on something for the first time yesterday. he hadn't even tried to climb on anything until yesterday and then he could just do it.

mason also took a step over the weekend. he usually drops and crawls even when he could probably just reach between objects but he forgot and took a step to get from the coffee table to me laying on the couch.

he has started carrying/dragging things around with him and this has led to a few little bloody injuries to his lips when he slips. nothing too dramatic (not at all like his sister would do). speaking of his mouth, it looks like mason is starting to have a gap between is upper front teeth. they are still crooked but the front two seem to be spreading apart. still a very cute smile.

mason loves to take things out and put them back. madelyn never really ever did that. today he was pulling all the shorts out of madelyn's drawer, opened another drawer and putting them all in there, and then he would close that one too. yesterday, he was putting all the socks i was pairing while folding laundry back into the basket. it became a fun game for both of us.

here is some video of madelyn showing us how fun the pool can be. love.

family weekend

saturday morning we had a pancake breakfast and then loaded up the car to meet some friends at the zoo for fun and lunch. since i always tell madelyn that she has to wait for daddy to come to the zoo with us to ride the carousel, train, etc. she was really, really happy that daddy was going with us! (and she just loves her daddy.) while we were waiting for our friends daddy took madelyn to ride the carousel.

madelyn loved having friends at the zoo with her. she must have talked non-stop - because there was someone to talk to (besides me of course). there were two kids her age and they had fun running around together and comparing their knowledge of the zoo and its animals. when one of the boys kept running off, madelyn took on the roll of wrangler and kept telling him that, "your mommy doesn't want you to run," and calling him back or telling him where to go (i really can't imagine where she gets that from :)).


i don't know why we didn't get a group picture or any other pictures at the zoo. at least i sent the camera with matt when they went to the carousel.

after the zoo we went home for rest/naps. madelyn tagged along with daddy when he went to walk the dogs and took them to the groomer to get shaved (lady) and a shed eliminating treatment (maggie). she was really upset to leave them at the groomer, matt said, because she didn't want to leave her doggies. we went to pick them up after church and she couldn't have been happier. she talked to them the whole ride home.

sunday we made the trek over to whole foods. normally this would take 20-30 minutes but because of an interstate closure it took more like 45 minutes! we just love whole foods and wish there was one closer to us. after we got home this afternoon, matt set up the pool in the backyard. we are going to have weather in the 80s all week and today was pretty hot so i thought that it would be a good idea. madelyn spent 2 or 3 hours playing in and around the pool today. she did take a break off and on to help daddy plant some seeds/plants in the garden and to play with the dogs. mason took a 3 hour nap instead. i think we might get him in some this week though.

madelyn's imaginary friends of choice this weekend have been mike and sully, the monsters from monsters, inc.. it is a little bit of a random choice, but she stuck with it all weekend. she would even tell other people about them. her purse at the zoo? it was carrying pretend yogurt and apples for mike and sully's lunch. the funny part was that she couldn't always remember their names and would ask me, "what are the names of the blue monster and the green monster?" we'll see how much longer they stick around. love.

miscellaneous

a few random comments. madelyn has gone through a phase of going to 'sleep' in her closet. she took a blanket into her closet and set up a bed of sorts in there. so she will either go into her closet to pretend sleep or actually take a nap. she closes the doors too so when she would be actually sleeping it made her difficult to find because she doesn't answer.

mason showed the first sign of separation anxiety last week when we dropped him off at the church nursery. he just burst into tears. it was the same girl that watches him every week so that is how i know that it is the start of this phase. he didn't cry quite as much this week, but he looked back at me saying good-bye and started the pout and some crying. hopefully his anxiety will be as short lived as madelyn's was.

the picture is from friday morning. mason was standing next to madelyn and she was giving him eskimo kisses. i really should have gotten it as video, but didn't. love.

zip line

madelyn was invited to a friend/neighbor's birthday party last saturday afternoon. it was at a local gymnastics facility. the gym was great and the staff was even better! they were so good with all the little kids and keeping them all safe and entertained. they even arranged the kids for this group picture.

in addition to the gym equipment they had several large inflatables for them to play on too. madelyn really liked jumping on the trampolines ("they're like my bed!") and a very tall inflatable slide.

as one last special treat, madelyn got some help from a neighbor to try to zip line. love.

baby #3 on the move

i have been really uncomfortable in the car recently and then last sunday i realized that i was just feeling the baby move! i forget to pay attention for these early subtle movements so i haven't felt them as often as i did with the other two. mainly i just never sit down and am so tired in the evenings that i fall asleep instead of thinking about anything.

anyway, i wanted to note it and can't wait for the ultrasound on june 17 to find out boy or girl. madelyn is still firm that it is going to be another brother. love.

good night, light

after a lot of back and forth, i sprung for the good nite light for madelyn. i have always thought that it was just too expensive but i had some birthday money left so i didn't feel too guilty about getting it and figured that i could always return it.

after the first morning i was sold. she came into our room around 6am and i asked if the sun light was on. she said, "no", and went back to her room with no complaint or hesitation. and when 7am came around she came out to tell us with great excitement that, "the sun is on! come and see!" her excitement to show us continued for at least a week and she still mentions it every now and then.

this is the best $34/35 i have ever spent! and i would highly recommend it to anyone who wants an extra hour of sleep. madelyn stays in her room every morning until 7am (that is what time we have set the 'sun' for in the morning). it doesn't matter if everyone else is awake and in the living room, she waits for the sun light to come on before she comes out to join us. love.

mother's day

unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures on mother's day. our church did a nice 'i love you, mom' video with some of the little kids telling why they loved their moms. madelyn made the video twice. the first was she and i kissing on our way into the church and then another with her saying "i love you, mommy" into the microphone when they interviewed kids in their classrooms during service (i was actually volunteering in the room when they did the video of her but was not close enough to hear what she had said). we went to the saturday night service and the video was a great way to start mother's day.

i had volunteered to help in the toddler room sunday morning (for obvious reasons, they were having trouble getting enough volunteers). so i got up and made pancakes for everyone before getting dressed and heading to church by my self. when i got home matt took the kids to the park for a picnic lunch (i sort of tricked him into it by saying at the last minute that i was staying home to take a nap). i got to have a nice rest while the kids got to spend some fun time with their daddy.

matt said that i could pick where we went for dinner and my pregnant belly has really, really been craving chili's chicken crispers with steamed vegetables so chili's was my pick. but i was so disappointed to find out that they don't do a beer batter any more! when did that happen?! i know that we don't eat out much but, man! they just have a normal crispy breading/batter. it was good and we enjoyed our meal out, but i was so disappointed because i had been craving it for weeks and weeks.

madelyn wished me "happy mother's day" for several days more. it was so great to have her (and mason) to celebrate the day with. love.

morning out

tuesday morning i decided to take the kids to the children's museum. we got an annual pass the last time we went because the admission of that visit went towards an annual pass. we thought that it would be a nice inside destination as an alternative to the zoo. it is a longer drive but i think that it is worth it for a few hours of fun.

they had a new business in the play town and madelyn spent a long time there. "the animal hospital" is small but impressive with a microscope with real slides, a wide variety of animals to examine, and a computer to research the illnesses/animals. we got there shortly after it opened so she had the place to herself for a while. until the school groups arrived! there were more than one and they were all way over excited to be there. madelyn got overwhelmed a few times. and i had to play things down so that she wouldn't be too scared. the kids were out of control and much older than madelyn - and running everywhere.

kids were jumping in front of her when it was her turn, snatching things out of her hands, and generally acting poorly. madelyn handled it all very well. she would get a little pouty and try to find me for eye contact, but she did not act rudely towards the kids. and i was proud of her for that self-control.

at one point madelyn had climbed up a platform to drop a golf ball down a ramp and then at least five or six other kids swarmed her and she couldn't get down and couldn't see me. i had seen one of the girls just start stroking her hair as madelyn got shoved back into the corner. i was going to give it one minute before i went up there to get her (i think that it is good for her to choose how to handle dealings with other kids). she was able to get back to the stairs and came down telling me, "that girl touched my hair!" while i thought that it was inappropriate for the girl to touch her hair without saying anything to her, i tried to tell madelyn that the girl just thought that her hair was pretty. and then asked if she saw the girl's braids with beads. it was just an awkward situation but she seemed to bounce right back from it and move on.


we took a break from the older kids in the '3 and under' section of the museum so mason could stretch his legs a little. he didn't have much interest in any of it the last time we went but this time was totally different! he was everywhere and tried everything. it was actually hard to get he and madelyn to move on to another area.

mason was kind of funny trying to figure out the 'spike' texture on the railings in this video. plus, you can see how he squats on his knees often.

and here mason is 'sliding' for the first time. i don't think he really understood what was happening.

after the toddler/baby section we went back to the little town where things had quieted down a little because madelyn wanted to go 'shop' in the grocery store part. a little girl, maybe 6, came up and asked if she could push mason around in the stroller. i told her that he was just going to stay with us, but thank you for asking. madelyn and i finished what we were doing and started walking again with mason. the little girl came back over and said that "he is very handsome". it just struck me as funny that she felt so compelled to come back over and that she would use a word like "handsome" instead of "cute.


we got another break from the school groups in the arts and crafts area because they weren't allowed in there either. madelyn and i had fun making flowers on popsicle sticks. our last stop was in the temporary fitness exhibit. here is madelyn trying to figure out the dancing game (as she dances it moves the ball conveyor belt to the right so that they can roll down the ramps in front of her). i like how she just gives up on following the lights at the end. love.

best night

friday night we went to the brewer's game with matt's work and it turned out to be a wonderful evening at the ball park! unlike last year, matt had arranged for an official tailgating spot so there was much more room and it was less stressful with the kids (the regular parking made it difficult to keep an eye on them because you had to cut between cars to get to the food, etc.).

the tailgating was a little rough on mason because he had to spend most of the time in his stroller because the parking lot asphalt isn't really ideal for crawling. next year we will bring the pack-n-play for baby #3. madelyn was in heaven. everyone was happy to see her and more than willing to say "hi" back to her when she greeted them. not to mention there were lots of cookies and other special treats.

one of the ladies set up a "princess castle" in the back of her car with madelyn's toys where madelyn spent most of the pre-game.

and then she got to "say hi and give high-fives to the sausages. and then i said bye." the racing sausages are always a crowd pleaser and they made their way through the tailgating area. matt was able to take madelyn over where she got her picture taken with almost all of them.

and then the moment that madelyn had been waiting for was finally here - game time! she actually cried when we started setting up in the parking lot because she wanted to go into the stadium. as we were making our way up someone (whom i am pretty sure had a fun time pre-game) called to us, "go brewers family!" of course madelyn wanted to know why he would say that. so i explained that we were all wearing brewers shirts and we are a family. she had already put on her jacket, and zipped it up per usual, so she didn't believe me that she was wearing a brewers shirt. she always tells us that the "m" on her shirt is for madelyn, but she unzipped her jacket to take a look and was very pleased to see that she was indeed wearing a brewers shirt.

as we walked in both kids were given pennants (that are now hanging in their rooms). then madelyn found a penny press machine so we got her a "bernie brewer" penny. we were barely inside the stadium and madelyn was ecstatic! she didn't want to say "go brewers" until we were in our seats so we made our way towards the section. after a bathroom stop, we sat down in the second inning. we were sitting right under bernie's watchtower where he slides down after each home run and were explaining it to madelyn when there was a home run. it was almost on command because she said, "i want to see him slide," and "crack" there was a home run. slide, splash, and fireworks. then madelyn said she wanted to see it again - and there was another home run! and then there was another one! she got to see it all three times in the same inning.

after that she was given a 'rally towel' with bernie on it that was handed out before we got to our seats. she really liked this and mason liked playing peek-a-boo with her. mason did beyond great! because of everything else we had going on friday, he had only gotten about one hour worth of napping all day. he was so tired but he never cried or fussed. he even sat still wonderfully during the game (i think we were there four or five innings) - way better than madelyn did at this age.

and then the icing on the cake was ryan braun throwing a ball up into the bleachers - right to matt. madelyn thinks that it is so cool that "daddy caught a ball in his hand" for her. but i must say that at the game she was probably more excited about the bag of popcorn someone gave her in a ziplock bag with the sliding closure.

we stayed just a little bit longer for the sausage races and then left a little after 9. both kids were in bed by 10pm. it was a very late night and we could not have been prouder of how they both behaved. a great time with the family. love.

so happy together

madelyn and mason have become really great playmates in the past week or two. i can't really explain what is different since they have always played well together. maybe it is becoming more like friendship than just fun.

i let mason check out the train table for the first time this week. (and, yes, madelyn is wearing a sweater.) he thought that it was pretty great and actually didn't do as much damage to the track as i was expecting.



mason and madelyn have lots of games they play in the car together, but they are starting to find fun games inside too. this is video of the 'tent game'. this is the first and only time mason cried while playing this game - of course. love.

another book lover

mason sneaks off to look at books when he needs some 'alone time'. he will just go off to his room and look at his books quietly (or sometimes he does go into madelyn's room to look at hers). i just love how content he is browsing.

he has strong opinions about what is read to him though. if he doesn't like a story he will close the book and start squirming. it doesn't mean that he won't ever want to hear that book read to him or even like to look at it himself; he just doesn't want to hear it at that moment. he settles into you if he likes the book.

the video shows him browsing in his room. love.

Charlotte's Web

madelyn and i finished charlotte's web a few weeks ago and i told her that when we finished i would get her the movie (from netflix). often while reading the book she would ask me if a character would be in the movie or if something would happen in the movie.

the night we finished the book she started crying for the movie. it took a few days for it to arrive, but she was extremely excited when it finally got here and could barely make it to the opening credits. once it started playing all she wanted to know is when would he get the butter milk bath. when that didn't happen in the first five minutes she lost all interest in the movie. at least until daddy came home and then she excitedly told him what she was watching before continuing to ignore it.

oh well, at least she enjoyed the book.

in other movie news, her current favorite is "chicken little". we had picked up the golden book version from the library and then matt just happened to be loaned a copy of the movie from a co-worker (he didn't even know that he had the book). madelyn has watched it many, many times. it is pretty cute but they do karaoke to the spice girl song "if you want to be my lover" which i can't believe is in a children's film. thankfully, madelyn thinks that they are singing "if you want to be my mother". love.

mason eats...

...and eats, and eats. madelyn ate a lot, but mason eats more than an adult. matt and i often sit and watch in amazement as mason out eats all of us at every meal. thankfully, he isn't picky and eats just about anything put in front of him. we usually feed him bits and pieces without really paying attention to total amount.

last week we went to a potluck with our bible study and mason ate two hot dogs, one hamburger, two or three handfuls of fresh fruit, a handful of cooked vegetables, string cheese, some raw vegetables, and at least 8oz. of water. and this was all consumed in about a half hour period of time.

he has also started to eat two waffles, a banana, and some dry cereal for breakfast. i almost need to go to the grocery store twice a week now!

he has finally started making attempts at signing. his sign for "more" is close to clapping but not as vertical. and then he signs for "water" like madelyn used to with an open hand to the mouth. sitting in the high chair is also one of his favorite times to give high fives and clap his hands - once he is done eating that is...

mason is getting pretty close to free standing too. he can do it and i have seem him do it on several occasions but he doesn't want to do it. if i hold him out and say, "1, 2, 3, ta-da", before i let go he just slowly lowers himself to sitting. he doesn't fall down, it is very controlled. i think that he is just afraid to fall so it doesn't want to stand up on his own.

and since he is afraid to fall and hurt himself we have been fairly accident free with mason. he just has a natural reflex to turn his face away from hard surfaces when he falls. that is until he has become obsessed with reaching the tops of tables. he keeps hitting chairs on the way down! he has a nice deep bruise on his cheek from our dining room chair and then he got a new one on his forehead yesterday when we were at a playdate - again from a dining table chair. he was trying to keep up with the older kids. at least this time it doesn't seem like too bad of a bruise. there is just a line from the edge of the chair and it was much less visible this morning which made me feel even better.

he is getting really fast at getting up stairs even though he gets very little practice and makes no effort to climb up on anything else. the funny thing is that he doesn't 'climb' up the stairs, he 'walks up them' - his knees never touch the stairs.

and he is still sweet as ever, tall, and lean. love.

sunny weather

last friday was warmer and sunny so we went to a park other than the neighborhood park before music class. we had fun and some other friends even came up to join us. before they got there i let madelyn do something that i never would have guessed i would do...

shortly after we got there, with the blanket spread out, mason settled with toys and books, and a bag with drinks and snacks; madelyn said that she had to go to the bathroom. there are no bathrooms near this park so i asked her if she could wait. she told me that she could but then can running back a few minutes later saying that she couldn't. so off we headed to the woods because there is no way i could have gotten everything loaded back into the car and get home before she would go in her pants.

it was pretty early in the morning, before 9am, so there wasn't anyone around. i left mason on the blanket - in plain sight - and helped madelyn poop in the woods. thankfully, i had wipes with me for quick clean-up before snacks and was able to clean her up. i did have to run back to the car for a bag to pick up the mess, just like i would with a dog, but i didn't have my normal supply - of course. so i used one of mason's diapers to take care of it.

madelyn thought that this was pretty great and when we were at the neighborhood park today she told me that she would just go "potty in the woods". i explained that, no, we would just go home.

mason just hung out on the blanket while i took care of madelyn. he doesn't really care for grass and pretty much stays where i put him. i did let him swing for a little while and go this picture that shows his newer bottom teeth. madelyn enjoyed taking a rest on the blanket using mason's hat for shading her eyes while we waited for our friends to join us.

i still can't believe that i let her poop in the woods. love.

more notes on the kids

i can barely stay awake at the end of the day so blogging has unfortunately fallen to the bottom of my list of things to do. so here is just a list of notes and pictures.

- mason likes hair, but he almost immediately tries to release it when you say "gentle"

- our two little thumb-suckers

- i call this one, "maybe crumbs weren't a good idea". mason eats everything and i run out of appropriate food sometimes. after he ate almost everything in the bag, i turned it over to dump the last few pieces out and there were a lot of crumbs - a lot. he still thought that it tasted pretty good.

- yesterday madelyn was reciting a book in the car and i helped her with the last line - "then you are a star". she said, "no, i am not a star!...i don't have my sunglasses." i told her that i didn't have her sunglasses. she told me that she couldn't be a star without her sunglasses. that's when i realized what she was talking about; people often call her a "movie star" when she is wearing her sunglasses. i tried to tell her that she could still be a 'star' without sunglasses, but she said that she was "just madelyn".

- for some reason madelyn likes to play under our dining room table with her toolbox - and mason.

- mason heads to his high chair when we ask him if he wants to "eat" - that is one word he definitely knows.

- he also knows madelyn's name and finds her whenever i ask where she is

- madelyn cut up her own banana at breakfast

- mason really likes music. he always notices music and will try to use anything as an instrument. and shows real interest in playing instruments correctly. madelyn has always liked music, but mason is much more focused about it.

- madelyn told me that dragons are real and pretend. they are "real" on little einsteins. okay, madelyn.

now off to bed. love.

imagination station

we didn't have a lot of plans for this weekend other than chores around the house so we took the time to pack up a picnic lunch and check out a new park today that we have been hearing about for a while. it did not disappoint. madelyn thought that it was the greatest and mason enjoyed watching everyone running around and laughing.

with young kids it is a two parent trip because you can't keep a constant eye on your kids when they are running around. it was mostly older kids or parents with only one small child. the surfaces were much too warm in the full sun so mason had to be carried almost the whole time. in fact, the one time he got excited and crawled over to something it was burning hot when he put his hands on it. really, it hurt my hand when i touched it.

madelyn helped me pack up our picnic basket before we left, but it was everything she could do just to take a few bites of her sandwich before hitting the park. i think it helped that she had picked the towel for she and mason to eat their lunch on. we did have a blanket, but madelyn wanted to sit on a beach towel. mason really seemed to enjoy eating lunch outside too.

here are just a few more pictures from our fun lunch and play.

madelyn really enjoyed these chimes. they were the most beautiful tones. no matter who played them it always sounded like legitimate music.

mason did try to cruise around a little in the beginning but a few hot touches and he wanted no more of it.
madelyn and i see-sawed together. this see-saw sits four and isn't as jarring as the see-saws i rode as a child with the tires under them to try and lessen the impact. this was was super smooth.

when she laid down in this hammock swing she told me that she "has one of these in florida with big pop" which surprised me until i remembered that she swung in a hammock when we went to florida last september - and then i was really surprised!

i think we will wait for mason to be toddling around better before going back again - he just gets so heavy and a stroller isn't really possible there. all in all a fun time out of the house. love.