tofu dinner

maddux seems to love tofu as much as the other two did!  it is so nice that he is starting to eat finger foods.  it takes a lot of the chaos out of meal times.  now we can all eat together again!

the video also shows another fun dinner-time game - watch mason fall asleep.  he has all but stopped napping now.  there is just something about a warm, full belly that makes his eyelids feel heavy.  he perks right back up when that food starts to hit his bloodstream.  he is very entertaining - particularly because he will keep right on eating, even when his head starts rolling and he almost falls out of his chair.  love.

more maddux firsts

maddux is pulling up to kneeling with extreme ease.  he also starting drinking from a straw today.  love.

i might have a problem...

so this was my latest purchase.  we paid about $10 out of pocket and the retail value is between $60-70.  if i had been able to buy it the way i wanted to, it would have only been $5 out of pocket.  the store paid me $1 for every 6-pack of soap and $.50 on every toothpaste!

the reason i might have a problem is because i found out my grocery store is open 24 hours and went at midnight to get the soap.  whenever things are on sale with coupons like this, the shelf clears out right away.  i got all of my items, had my plan for breaking up the transactions (into 5) and found out that i was not at the 24 hour store (that one is about another mile down on the same road).  this location's sale prices did not start at midnight (like the 24-hour location i had called to ask), instead they started when they opened at 7am.  my plan was to be there with all three kids at 7.

but the kids slept until 8.  they only sleep that late when we have somewhere to be early.  i think we made it to the store by 8:30 (i had a 9:30 meeting to hurry back for too).  and the shelf was empty of soap.  instead of coming back later, i decided to make the other purchases.  even paying more out of pocket i was still getting some great deals.

while i was standing off to the side checking my receipt, i saw all of my items from the night before that had not yet been restocked!  i grabbed up all the soap and deodorant and got back in line.  i paid just $4.50 out of pocket for the soaps and three deodorants and left with a $5 coupon towards my next purchase!

i might be crazy, but matt loves it!  guess what all the men in our lives are going to be getting for christmas...  love.

house - week 9

i was expecting there to be more to share this week, but we were still excited about the progress.  almost all the doors were hung and trimmed.  they were just starting the baseboards.  the kitchen is going in starting next week.  love.

french doors into master bath.  you can also see the tray ceiling.

front door and coat closet.

corner windows in the boys' room.

madelyn posing in front of the 'kids' hallway' where the french doors are to the closet that will hold all of our audio/visual components.

maddux on the move

happy 2nd birthday, mason!

since mason couldn't really tell us what he wanted for his birthday i gave him options until he grunted his 'yes' to one.  like madelyn, his requests involved mainly food and playing. 

i am posting this too far after his birthday and can't remember exactly what we did for the day.  i think we really hung out at home after our fun filled saturday.  maddux started to really pick-up speed crawling and madelyn and mason were enjoying their toys-r-us gifts from us.

i didn't really work with mason on saying that he was "one", but i did try to teach him "two".  he figured out how to say it in time for his birthday.  the camera cut off just as he was saying it, but i think you can just catch it at the end.

mason posing with his thomas mega block train.  he was too excited to look at the camera and this might have been my fifth try at a good picture so it will have to do.

mason was the most careful present opener.  he would stack up every piece of ripped paper.  but that is just mason.

here are a few videos of him opening his gift.  i love how patiently he opens them.  and how he asks madelyn to help him (with a point and/or a "sis") - much to her delight.  she could not stand how slowly he went!

the flash over exposed it a little, but maddux got in on the action too.

mason wanted a cookie ("cook") for his birthday so i baked them in a pan like a cake and stuck in a candle.  he loved it.  and we love him.  love.

open mouth kisses

maddux has been open mouth kissing for maybe a month now, but it is one of those things that is difficult to catch with video - until today.  here he is giving madelyn 'kisses'.

he also reaches up for me when i pick him up.  love.

birthday saturday #3: toys-r-us

after lunch we took them to toys-r-us to pick out their birthday present(s).  this part was not a surprise.  madelyn has been talking about what kinds of toys she was going to pick out for weeks.  we gave them each $20 to pick what ever they wanted.  the thought was that it would be more economical for us with all of the house expenses and it would ensure that they really loved their new toy(s) since our space is so limited.

i thought that the trip would take longer than it did, but they both picked out what they wanted pretty quickly.  mason selected a thomas the train mega block set.  madelyn picked a strawberry shortcake sweets shoppe set and a my little pony set with two ponies.  she had some back and forth with a disney princess set too, but really wanted strawberry shortcake and my little pony because she didn't have that any toys like those before her birthday.

i can't believe that i didn't take any pictures, but we were just having too much fun celebrating.  love.

birthday saturday #2: friendly's

we knew that lunch would be a more successful surprise.  madelyn was so excited when we pulled into the parking lot.  we normally guide the kids to healthy options when they order in restaurants, but for their birthdays we let them pick whatever they wanted and order for themselves.

madelyn picked chocolate milk, macaroni and cheese with hot dog slices and a 'cone head' sundae for desert.  mason picked the same meal, only with white milk to drink.  normally the sundaes are super cute and have a ton of reece's pieces under the ice cream scoop (for mom and dad).  i don't know if they were out of reece's or if the person who made the sundaes was having a bad day, but we don't think mason's even had 'eyes' or 'nose' and neither of them had candies in the bottom of the dish.  oh well.  the kids didn't seem to notice and enjoyed their sundaes very much.

birthday saturday #1: cars 2

we were able to get free tickets to see cars 2 for a private showing. we were really excited because madelyn and mason love, love the original movie! and none of the kids had ever been to a movie theater before.  i wasn't worried about the other two because they can sit and watch a feature length film no problem (especially one they haven't seen before).  maddux was a different story.  i didn't want to bring in the carrier because it great limits our seating options and he doesn't really like being in it, so i wore him in the moby wrap and hoped for the best.

we didn't tell the kids where we were taking them and once we got there, they still didn't know. even when mason saw the "car" posters and we were checking them out, they still didn't know.  once we explained where we were and what it meant, madelyn was pretty excited (mason was already excited by all the cars signs, posters and cutouts).

we were given vouchers for free drink, popcorn and fruit snack after we picked up our tickets and took a family picture in the lobby that will be sent to us later (i will update the post when we get it).

we found seats and watched the coming attractions.  madelyn kept asking when it was going to start - there were a lot of previews.  even a man sitting behind us groaned when yet another one started.  it has been so long since i have seen a movie that i forgot how loud they are!  it was hurting my ears but it didn't seem to phase the kids and maddux was even able to fall asleep for most of it.

now, any of you who follow me on facebook know that we weren't pleased with the movie and had to leave.  i had read several reviews and watched the trailers before we went.  i was warned that there were guns and violence.  i knew that a car was tortured and killed (off screen).  and i knew that matter gets into trouble where he might die.  but i figured how bad could it be if it was only rated 'G'.  i was wrong.  i thought that the violence was bad.  madelyn asked to leave three times and we finally did.  several families, with older kids, had already walked out.  i would have enjoyed it if the kids weren't with us, but instead i was worried about how scared madelyn was.  it wasn't so much that the movie was bad, it just should not have been rated 'G' and it was a far departure from the tone of the first movie.  there was no way we could have expected it to be the way it was.  oh well.

i think it will be a while before we go to the movie theater with the kids again.  love.

members night at the zoo

normally we don't go to post-dinner-time activities. mostly because we are just too tired to wrangle the troops at the end of the day. the zoo was putting on an after-hours members night between the kids' birthdays so we thought that it would be nice to take them.  it was a mostly sunny evening with scattered showers in the area, but it didn't damper our night.  in fact, we had a wonderful time!

as with every trip to the zoo, the kids had to have their picture taken in the penguins.  what i didn't take a picture of was daddy trying to fit his head in one.  (are you getting tired of these penguin pictures, yet?)












there was a good turn out but it wasn't all that crowded feeling.  it was so nice to be outside on such a nice evening.  the kids were just happy to have daddy with them at the zoo.  madelyn had fun showing him all the things that were 'new' since his last trip with us.

as part of 'members night' all of the members got a zoo bag. madelyn was really happy to carry it for us.

one of the truly new things at the zoo is a train ride.  the kids have been wanting to give it a try, but i have told them that we have to wait for daddy to ride it.  thankfully, the line was short and they finally got to have their ride.  it is just a little train that goes around a little track two or three times.  it doesn't actually ride 'around' the zoo or anything.  i was laughing because two other kids squished into the coal car with them.  the coal car turned out to be an unfortunate choice because about half-way through their last lap it started pouring!  they were in the only car without a roof and the 'conductor' apologized because the train couldn't go any faster.  maddux and i tried to hide from the rain by standing really close to a concession stand and i used an umbrella to try and cover him in the stroller.  thankfully, the rain was short lived, but we were all pretty wet for the rest of our visit.

the evening light was almost magical in maddux' eyes.  this picture is moments before it started pouring.

the kids had fun doing a 'find the animal' mural.  mason was really cute trying to find all the animals that he could reach to point out.

towards the end of our visit we came across a face painting station and madelyn can't pass up an opportunity to get something on her face.  mason picked the most complicated option and did a great job holding still for the girl doing the painting (who obviously knew what she was doing because she was fast).

after our fun night, i wish that our zoo was open past five more than once a year. and it was a great way to kick off our birthday celebration weekend!  love.

two more teeth

maddux got his upper left (his right) tooth last week.  i think it was wednesday, but i can't be too sure.  it didn't look like there was any activity on that side of his mouth and i only found it randomly (i don't put my fingers in his mouth too often because he bites!).  and today the second upper right (his left) tooth came in so i really needed to get this noted.  that way i can fill in his baby book once we get it out of storage (it didn't make the cut as an apartment necessity).

baby pull-ups

now that maddux is on the move, it is a little more difficult for me to give a bath to the other two while matt is at golf on thrusdays.  he is really too big for the bouncy chair (he tries to jump out and ends up getting stuck to the side hanging over the edge).  so to distract him long enough to quickly shampoo the other two i put the arc with toys on it.  he just saw it as a way out.  the end makes me laugh - he was just scared, not hurt.  love.

foreclosure?

so our robin stopped coming back and the eggs were gone (no idea what happened there).  the nest sat vacant for about three weeks.  then one day a new bird was in the nest and we can probably count on one hand the number of times we have seen it leave.  even when matt walks within a few feet of it going to and from work, it doesn't move.  we were even starting to wonder if it was alive.  we will see if any babies come.  love.

twins

"ariel" (aka madelyn) and "baby ariel" in their matching dresses.  we weren't even going out, she just wanted to match.  love.

sipping like a big kid

i started water with maddux a few weeks ago, but have just recently been consistent about it. maddux loves water!  i am starting to think that he might be part camel like mason and i.  we practically have to pry it away from him at the end of a meal. 

he is getting so big!  love.

bittersweet

madelyn's birthday was also filled with sadness when my grandma, me-ma, died at the age of 91.  she died without pain, in her own home, with my mom by her side.
i was filled with sadness that afternoon and had to explain to madelyn why.  i told her that me-ma was probably going to heaven to be with jesus today and i was going to miss her.  that is why i was sad, but i am also happy because me-ma gets to be with jesus.  madelyn said that she was sad too because she wouldn't get to see me-ma when we go to florida.  i said, yes, that was true.  after a moment spent quietly madelyn asked, "but will i still get to see her bird?"  and that made me laugh and tell her that i thought we would.

i was also sad that me-ma never got to meet maddux and that we had to postpone our bi-annual trip to florida this year because of matt's new job.  we were planning on going in the early spring but matt won't have enough vacation time until september.  i last saw me-ma when mason was 8 weeks old - almost two years ago.  it makes me that much more grateful for skype.  me-ma would sometimes come in to say hi to the kids and sing patty-cake to them while we were on with my parents. whenever mason heard her, he would come running over to the monitor to watch her clap and sing.

me-ma was a beautiful artist, a talented seamstress, generally crafty, a strong woman with a laugh that will stay with me and a blessing in my life.  she will be greatly missed and was greatly loved.  love.

happy 4th brithday, madelyn!

the day madelyn has been waiting for has finally arrived - her birthday!  madelyn is so excited to be 4!  we have had some tears over the past week about not having a party (and not getting presents) but we talked through all her concerns and she was happy about everything by the time her big day arrived.

since madelyn and mason's birthdays are so close together we are going to celebrate them together on saturday, but we still wanted to make their actual birthdays special.

we had a small gift for madelyn in the morning - an ariel t-shirt.  and then we started her special, pre-planned, menu for the day.  for breakfast she chose cinnamon rolls. and "since [she is] a big girl now" she wanted to ice them herself.  of course, mason had to help too.

and then we got dressed to go to the moms group i attend.  it just so happened that their summer session started on her birthday and she was going to get to play with some other kids - sort of like a party.  the happy (and colorful) girl was kind enough to pose for a birthday picture.  she chose to stand up against the door so that i could see how tall she was - mason followed suit.

on our way to moms' group we stopped by wal-mart for madelyn to get one of her birthday presents - a rainbow pony.  matt and i decided to let the kids pick out their own gift(s) from us this year.  we are taking them both on saturday, but i wanted her to have something new to play with on her actual birthday.  (unfortunately, she lost the pony for some of the afternoon after choosing to bite her brother's hand and then lie about it while we were getting in the car.)

madelyn enjoyed going to the moms group.  we were all pretty hungry so we headed home for some pb&j (madelyn's choice).  additionally she picked out applesauce, string cheese, carrots and grapes (i was pretty impressed at the healthy choices because madelyn usually just goes for the carbs and sweets - unfortunately, just like mommy).

dinner was her easiest (and most surprising) choice.  she wanted wanchai ferry sweet and sour chicken.  this is something that we used to keep in the freezer for those times when there is very little time for dinner prep but then the kids started eating more and one bag isn't enough for the family.  now i use it as an occasional something special on nights when daddy golfs (because madelyn and i like chopsticks); the kids eat the sweet and sour chicken and i eat something else.  anyway, for her birthday i got two bags and we all ate with her!  (madelyn calls it "chicken with pink sauce and pineapple in it" and this is the only brand/recipe she likes.) 

as i started to prepare dinner madelyn reminded me that she is a big four-year-old now.  yes, that is right.  and now that she is a big four-year-old, she can help make her dinner.  she was quite delighted to stir the chicken in the pan but then decided that it was taking too long and i could do the rest while she played.

all day long madelyn had been insisting that you couldn't have a birthday without balloons.  "do you remember how in wisconsin we had balloons for my birthday?" "i think we need to get some balloons for my birthday."  "i need four balloons for my birthday.  because i am four."  and so on.  it was hard for me to keep it a secret that daddy was already planning on picking up balloons for her on his way home from work.  she was very excited when she watched him take them out of the car - but not as excited as i would have thought after all the talk during the day.

the birthday girl with her sweet and sour chicken dinner and birthday balloons.

now it was time for desert! (and she didn't even have to eat her vegetables first - because she is the birthday girl.  she will usually choose not to have desert instead of eating her vegetables.)  madelyn didn't want cake this year.  she wanted strawberry ice cream.  we ended up having cookies and cream with strawberry slices on top.  we just put the balloon candles in the ice cream.  the air vent in the kitchen kept blowing the candles out before i could get them to the table.  so we lit them again on the table and handed it to her.  she blew them out before we could sing or take a picture.  oh well.  and then she told us that her wish was to get a rainbow pony.

even though we asked both sets of grandparents not to send too many presents (because of our limited storage situation, maddux crawling and that they usually

send way too much), madelyn ended up with a pretty good pile of gifts.  even she said that her grandparents sent too much!  she opened her gifts and they quickly became added to her 'hoarding' baskets with her other toys. 

i think that she enjoyed her birthday even though she had been concerned about having a birthday without any friends to invite over.  the celebration will continue on saturday when we celebrate madelyn and mason's birthdays together on daddy's day off.  love.

sitting in circles

maddux is starting to crawl.  he doesn't have it all figured out, but he is starting to have forward momentum instead of always working his way backwards.  his latest thing is to get on all fours and then sit up, over and over and over.  essentially, he works himself around in a circle.  another funny thing about maddux is that he sits with his legs ramrod straight!  no wonder he had so much trouble figuring out how to sit up on his own.  enjoy.  love.

house - front door!

i couldn't help but swing by the house since we had driven all the way down for ballet.  and to my surprise the front door was installed!  (the plan is to paint it red.) the painters were finishing up with the primer coat so we couldn't go in but it was neat to see an actual door on the house.  love.

madelina ballerina

despite the look on her face, madelyn loves ballet!  she just started last week but i forgot to take a picture.  madelyn did not want to have her picture taken today though.  i have been driving her down to a studio near our new house.  i must be crazy - 40 minutes there, 30 minute class, 40 minutes back.  i am hoping to get preschool recommendations and maybe have madelyn make a few friends.  and of course dance!

i don't know much about what they do because we can't watch or hear what is going on.  madelyn's only report is that she didn't get to be the leader or wear a red dress (like they did in one of the ballet pieces in the studio recital we attended the week before her first class).

she loves wearing her hair in buns (at her request) and wearing her "pretty pink leotard".  mason wishes that he could be in the class.  he went in and sat down the first day before i could catch up to him - maybe when you are older, buddy.  love.

happy father's day, daddy

i think matt had a wonderful father's day.  he got to sleep in, i cooked a complete menu of his choosing, he spent the day watching golf and planning the landscaping for our house and we went to look at another house our builder is working on.  i think the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been an afternoon nap.

both kids helped him with the landscaping plans too.  mason told him all about the plants in each book and madelyn sat by his side while he drew it all out telling him that she loved him and was glad that he stayed home all day with us (as oppossed to going to work).

we love our daddy very much and am so thankful to have him in our lives.  we would not be the same without him.  we love you!  love.

house - week 8

there wasn't really much new at the house since our thursday night visit.  they were finishing the ceilings up when we stopped by.  matt did take some pictures of the house from across the street though.

we spent the morning picking all of the counters, back splashes and sinks throughout the house.  we are really pleased with our choices (and their costs).  at one point i thought that matt must have the kids' high fever because he went with some pretty 'wild' choices for the kids' bathroom.  you will just have to wait until they are installed to see just how 'wild' we got! love.

where's madelyn?

an impromptu game of peek-a-boo broke out with maddux and madelyn when he leaned over to see where she went when she bent over to find something she dropped.  when i told her that he was looking for her, she started putting her hand up on the tray which kept him from looking for her.  oh well.  love.

testing our wings

we spent the morning selecting counter tops for the house - more on that in another post.  since we were going to be down by the house we thought that we would pack a lunch and our swimsuits for some fun in the sun.  madelyn could not have been more excited!  her new mermaid ("and dolphin") flotation device helped add to the excitement.

it was a little overcast, but still warm (around 80).  the pools however were not warm.  matt (i think a little dramatically) declared that they must be around 65 degrees.  once you got in it wasn't all that bad.  to mason, who had a fever, thought that it was wonderful and got right to splashing everyone. 

madelyn and mason were both a little panicked about being in regular pool (versus the kiddie pool we are in the for above picture that is only 1-1/2 feet deep at the deepest point).  mason wouldn't even get in the water any more.  i was able to coax madelyn into letting me carry her for a little bit and worked up to a doggie paddle.  if you ask her about it she will declare - "i know how to swim now!", but she has a very, very long way to go before i would call it 'swimming'.

here is a little bit of her in action.  love.

somersaults

mason started doing somersaults after watching "so you think you can dance?" and now he can't stop.  (don't get too excited about the underwear - we are taking a break now that he won't even go into the bathroom, let alone use the potty.)  love.

 

house - week 7-1/2

unfortunately, madelyn ran a fever all day.  we had a meeting scheduled at the house at 7:15pm and my idea was to take the kids to the pool beforehand (we have a key now!) but it was a bit too cold and i didn't want her to feel left out.  instead we ate a quick snack/meal at the park next to the pool.

the view of our house from the park/pool parking lot (gray house in the middle of the shot).

i was nursing maddux when i realized that we could see our house very clearly from the park!  i couldn't wait to finish eating (and letting this kids play) so that i could get a closer look. 

matt and i are both very happy with the siding and are looking forward to seeing the stone added next week.  they are also expecting our cabinetry, prime painting and front door mid-week since the drywallers are finishing up on friday. 

we are going to be down that way picking out counters this weekend so i am guessing we will be stopping by again (and hopefully taking a dip in the pool).  there should be a lot more to take pictures of inside when we go out next week!  love.

there is that smile!

while his big sister and brother were napping after our afternoon at the zoo, maddx was mister smiles again.  i was glad to see that he was back to his normal self, but i wished that he had been like this when we were taking pictures!  oh well.

not only was he all smiles, but he was chatty too.  i took a little video to share  i think this was the first he discovered that if he can see it, he can get to it.  he even took his first proper crawling 'step'!

maddux didn't stop at crawling either.  he sat himself all the way up for the first time too!  we were planning on lowering his crib last weekend and didn't get to it but it has to happen this weekend for sure!

he is really starting to get all over the place and i am going to have to keep a closer watch on what scraps of paper and stickers his sister and brother leave laying around.  he has already gotten a few stickers into his mouth.

i love this 'dismount' at the end of the first video (and all of the smiles and giggles).  the second video just gives a taste of his moving around.  nothing too exciting.  i was actually trying to catch him sitting himself up but he gets distracted by our bed.  love.

brave

after pictures i took the kids to the zoo.  i was looking forward to spending some time out in the sunshine.  i was just going to let mason skip his nap and hope that maddux fell asleep.  i was also hoping to get some more pictures of the kids but they were done with having their picture taken and were less free with their smiles.  mason did insist that i take his picture in the penguin though and was calling for madelyn to come and join him.  once i took his picture he was willing to move along.

as a reward for being so patient and listening carefully at jcp, i let the kids eat the ring pops they got for easter (i think they were from easter...).  i consider ring pops an outside only treat.  i was a little nervous because madelyn was eating a red one in her white dress and mason was eating a blue one - his first ever - and he isn't very good about containing his drool with hard candies.  but, whatever, pictures were over and that is what washing machines are for, right?  there were several people who commented on how brave i was to let her have a red one while she was wearing white.  i am happy to report that she did not get a single spot on her dress.  mason's shirt didn't fare as well...

first patient pose

leaning towards impatient

fake, unwilling smile (i asked her to sit and she held still for about half a second)

mason and his ring pop

i couldn't take them on the carousel, but the 'statue' one was almost just as good.

she even wanted her picture taken several times (although i think that had more to do with delaying mason's turn)

mason looks in pain, but this was his distracted 'smile' - he was even saying "cheese"

there were several things to do and animals to see that were new for us on this trip.  the touch tank was open for the first time (for us anyway).  mason held out his two fingers the entire time so that he wouldn't forget to be gentle.  i let them go on their own too because i didn't want to leave a sleeping maddux in the stroller on his own. (imagine them standing on a deck and me standing in the yard - i could touch mason if i had to.)



the other 'new' thing to do was to prepare (pretend) food for the animals in a zookeeper play kitchen.  the kids really had fun doing this and i was surprised at how well all of the kids there (maybe 8-10) were all sharing with each other.  madelyn was excited that there were "animals" too (aka rats and bugs).  i told her that those were food for some animals too.  she laughed and told me "no they aren't, mom." like it was the best joke i could have told her right then.  i just left it at that.
we ended up being there for about three hours.  maddux was starting to get a little fussy (the kid must have been starving at this point) and mason was starting to have a little more trouble being a good listener after not napping.  we had to pass through the last few exhibits a little quickly to get back to the car.

madelyn and mason both fell asleep in the car which made for a relaxing drive home for me.  it was a little odd that madelyn fell asleep but it had been a lot of time in the sun (for us apartment dwellers anyway).  mason usually looks just precious when he sleeps in the car, but by the time i got the car parked and could safely take a picture, he had gotten into this double chin and frown pose.

mason stayed asleep while i carried him upstairs and into bed.  madelyn woke up and came inside.  she chatted with me a little bit while i nursed maddux. what was more odd was that she snuggled up in a chair and went back to sleep.

it all became clear when she woke up from the nap crying and complaining of a sore throat.  i felt her head and went to the the thermometer.  her temp was almost 102.  now everything was making sense.  i gave her some motrin.  about an hour later she was up and playing, but you could see on her face that she wasn't feeling her best.  the prayer is for her to feel better quickly and for it not to spread to the others.

my day still wasn't done.  after inhaling my dinner i went out to run errands and grocery shop while matt stayed home with the kids.  i was exhausted by the time i finally got home and was able to put my feet up for a little bit before going to bed.  love.