tears, a parade, and sparklers

yesterday was a long and fun one. madelyn got off to a rocky start, but seemed to do better after her nap. she spent most of the morning crying. we went to babies-r-us to try out the double strollers again. and she started to melt down from the second we put mason's carrier into the cart. she was crying because she wanted to sit in the cart. once we got into the store we put her up in the main basket of the cart and had a moment of peace. then we asked her to sit in one of the strollers and she started to cry because she didn't want to. when her fit wouldn't end matt started to carry her outside, but then she said that she wanted to sit in the stroller. once we got her in the stroller she started crying because she didn't want to get out. and it just kept going that way. she has never had a melt down like this in public before and i was glad that we were the only people in the store. i am pretty sure that she was just tired from staying up later than normal the night before. or maybe she was just having a bad day.

after that morning display of ugliness we probably should have just skipped the local 4th of july parade, but madelyn loves a parade and i wanted to at least give it a try. we could always leave, right? it was such a nice morning out and we got to walk through the farmer's market on our way to the parade route. we went stollerless and it was nice to not have to fight the crowd with one. mason slept through the whole thing in my moby wrap. although i did have to cover his ears a few different times because the bands were too loud and made him squirm with discomfort.

as i expected, madelyn was in heaven watching the parade! she was an angel too. she is funny because she dances as the band is coming, but once they are in front of her she just stands and stares at the marching. she called out "hi" to everyone that went by - "hi, kids!", "hi, people!", "hi, man!", etc. and was super excited when someone gave her a flag to wave! she had been asking us for one after seeing some other kids waving flags, so it was really nice that someone walked by handing them out. and the people in front of us kept making their son share the candy thrown by the floats with madelyn. i felt bad for him because madelyn could care less about getting any candy, although she really did enjoy eating one of the lollipops while she danced.

the parade lasted about an hour and had a few different fly overs before it got started. i was surprised that it was so long but madelyn never lost interest and stood almost the entire time too. after the parade we headed home to eat some lunch and put madelyn down for a nap. as i mentioned at the beginning of the post, madelyn was in a much better mood after her nap. she let herself downstairs to help daddy with his chores outside. her favorite job? poop spotting. matt was ridding the yard of dog poop and madelyn was so excited to have helped him find the "dog poopie". she told me all about it as we were heading down to one of our neighbor's house for some dinner.

madelyn had a lot of fun playing with her friends - and managed to get two long scratches on the left side of her face - for a few hours before we went to another neighbor's house for sparklers.

as many of you know, i grew up in south florida and i know a few things about mosquitoes, but i have never seen them swarm so much outside of a swampy area! we were being bit all over by them and there were so many! i couldn't believe it! i don't think i have seen a single mosquito all year and then there were an overwhelming amount last night. not even the sparkler smoke would get rid of them. i stayed long enough to watch madelyn with the sparklers, but then i took mason home to get away from the bugs.

madelyn stood perfectly still while her sparkler was lit and stared at the spark/flame. she did try to touch it a few times, but thankfully there were not any sparkler related injuries. there were a lot of little kids (like 8 under the age of 4) running around with the sparklers so i was really surprised that there weren't any injuries.

all in all it was a wonderful way to spend the 4th and we are lucky to have such wonderful neighbors to have fun with. love.

"mine fell off too"

during my pregnancy madelyn became very interested in bellybuttons so i was surprised that it took her so long to ask about mason's. two days ago i was changing mason's diaper and she asked about his bellybutton. she touched his 'stump' and then lifted her own shirt to look at her bellybutton.

i explained that mason's 'stump' would fall off soon and then he would have a bellybutton too. i also explained that she had one when she was a baby, but it fell off to make her bellybutton. she told me that "mine fell off too" and ran off to tell daddy that hers fell off too. and daddy told her that his fell off too. now she confirms that hers already fell off every time she comes to watch me change mason's diaper.

she asks to touch the 'stump' during diaper changes and tells me that it is going to fall off soon. and reminds me that "mine fell off too". she actually does a great job about being gentle when touching the 'stump' and tells me that it is scratchy.

i had meant to include this info in my last post but couldn't remember when i was posting so here it is as its own post so that i don't forget again. love.

"i'm learning!"

last night i was playing with madelyn in the playroom and she got out her refrigerator magnet toy. after playing with it for a while she declared excitedly, "i'm learning!" the refrigerator asks you to find certain foods/letters and madelyn was doing a pretty good job. i was surprised that she equated this 'game' with learning. i don't think that we have ever made reference to "learning" before but maybe she picked it up from the pbs kids intro - "learn something new everyday". she was just so excited about the idea that she was learning something (and repeated it more than once with a big smile) that i had to make note of it here.

after sharing friend with mason for most of the week, madelyn has decided that he needs his own 'friend' to keep him company. she has been tucking this costumed bear in with him whenever he is in the swing. she still shares friend, but understands that this bear is really more his size.

yesterday was my first day alone with both kids. matt had to go to work for few meetings and madelyn, mason, and i just hung out at home all day. i actually got a lot done during the day. madelyn spent the morning drawing on a new easel (that she got as a present from mason) and playing out in her sandbox while mason hung out with me in the office. i was finishing up something for work and trying to get my list together for baby announcements - which i got out too, by the way.

i didn't really have a good way to get both kids out for a walk because we still don't have a double stroller (i have been hesitant to get one) and madelyn has been insisting on riding her bike on our walks. so last night i decided to try out my new moby wrap. and i love it!! i don't really find the baby bjorn style carriers comfortable and didn't really have luck with the sling we got for madelyn. so i have been reading up on reviews for wraps and it was almost unanimous for the moby wrap. it is so comfortable and versatile - i highly recommend it. i wore it today when i took madelyn to the park by myself (matt is still working on staining the deck). i was able to 'wear' mason and pull madelyn in the wagon (today's transportation of choice).

this morning we were all sitting around reading (books/newspaper) and madelyn decided to read one of my books. in case you can't see the title it is toilet training in less than a day. she was telling me about the illustrations of kids putting a doll on a potty. i told her that it was a book on potting training before she started 'reading' it and she was eagerly looking at the pages even though there weren't really many illustrations. i would say that currently her interest in bodily functions peaks when we are outside of the house and there is potential for a public restroom. when we are at home she just wants us to change mason's diaper. she will come to tell me that "mason/brother needs a clean diaper" even when his diaper has already been freshly changed. love.

sibling love

i had mason laying on a blanket during a rare awake stretch and madelyn had to get in on the action with a blanket of her own to lay on. she was having a little bit of an attitude problem yesterday. i think that something must be going on with her (teeth, growth spurt, etc.), but matt thinks that it was more of a frustration about having mason around to take mom and dad's attention. she shows no frustration towards mason so i don't think that's it. she actually asks for him first thing in the morning, insists on kissing him goodnight, and wants him to do everything with her. today she was happily giving him "big hugs" after lunch.

here are some pictures of them sharing some sibling love yesterday (okay so it was madelyn sharing the love, but i am sure mason would of shared if he could).

most of these pictures were at madelyn's request. here she is laying on her blanket just like mason. it was so funny to see her doing "belly time" and other laying down activities (grabbing her feet, rolling side to side, etc.).

madelyn was saying, "hi, mason. nice to meet you. how are you doing?" while shaking his hand. it cracked me up to hear her be so formal with him.

here she is showing me how much bigger she is than mason by laying next to him. this is a picture that she requested and is saying "cheese" in the picture.

madelyn loves to give mason kisses. i call them "magic kisses" because he stops fussing/crying the second she kisses him. it really is remarkable how he reacts. and it is only with madelyn that he stops crying like that too. (by coincidence he is smiling in this picture.)

she was comparing the size of their feet. this is a recreation of her original comparison and not as good as the first, but i couldn't get the camera turned on fast enough and had to ask her to do it again.

and i just thought that this one was cute of the two of them looking at each other. love.

i usually post after madelyn goes to bed, but now with mason i am just going to have to post when i can.

this morning i was playing with madelyn in the playroom and she got out the costumes that she got for her birthday. she hasn't been interested in wearing them yet, but i talked her into putting on the tutu this morning (it is under the dress) and that was all it took! then she wanted to put on her wings too. to wear the wings she had to put on the dress that they attach to with velcro. once i had her all assembled she was very happy about it. until she walked out of the playroom that is...

i tried to get a picture of her but she started pulling at the dress wildly saying that she didn't want it! once i suggested that she go look at her wings in the mirror she ran off to see. (that is her new thing. when i fix her hair she tells me that she is going to go look in the mirror and runs to her bathroom to take a look.) that made her happy to be wearing the costume again and she came out to tell daddy that she was "wearing a costume". i think i told her that they were costumes when she opened them on her birthday so the word kind of surprised us. it also made her sound very grown up.

after breakfast she went to mason's room to read and i thought that she looked cute in her little outfit sitting down to read so took the photo op.

the costume came off when madelyn had an "icky diaper" and requested a "clean diaper". its been like seeing mason in diapers has made them too babyish for her and she is more aware that she has one on. i hope to finish up a few more things today so that i can read the potty training book tonight - wish me luck!

and you can see that mason was really enjoying all the excitement... love.

first doctor office visit

yesterday we took mason for his first doctor office visit. we could only get an appointment during madelyn's nap time, so we had a babysitter come over for an hour to stay with her. that is the nice part about summer time - it is really easy to find a babysitter when you need one!

mason is doing great! he is already back up to 8lbs. 7.8oz. so we don't have to come back for a two week appointment (typical schedule) and will do a three week appointment instead because she isn't worried about him returning to birth weight. he was still measuring 22 inches long and his head came in at 35.5cm.

he is also pretty strong. the doctor was a little surprised when he showed off how he can already roll up on his side and hold his head up most of the time. madelyn had really busy legs when she was an infant, but mason has a busy body. he moves practically non-stop when he is actually awake that is...

before our trip to the doctor, we took the kids to the grocery store. once again madelyn had a fit about mason's carrier going in her seat in the cart. at target we put the carrier in the cart's basket, but that wasn't really going to work for grocery shopping. instead matt pushed a cart with madelyn and i pushed on with mason. we are pretty sure madelyn's need to ride in the cart is directly tied to her expectation of a snack while shopping. we are going to try giving her a snack to carry and see if that makes a difference in her attitude.

mason had his first bath at home on monday night. he isn't really fond of having his diaper off so he cried through a lot of it. except when we go to washing his hair. he loved having his hair washed! he got really calm and quiet while looking up at us. he really seemed to enjoy the feeling of having the water poured over his head. i am just relieved that he found some of it positive.

sleep note - i was nervous about how last night was going to go because he was sleeping really heavily for a long time before i wanted him to go down for the night instead of eating. but i am happy to report that he went down at 10:30pm and did not wake up again until 4:30am! it actually made me a little nervous when i woke up, realized what time it was and that he hadn't made a peep all night. after eating he went back down until 5:30 and then he was wide-eyed and alert for about an hour before starting to nap again. i forgot how nice that early morning eye contact can be when they are just calm, quiet, and content.

i will try to do better about adding pictures of mason. i don't like to use the flash on him when his eyes are open and the rest of the time he is sleeping. but i know that pictures are what my readers want, so i will do my best to deliver in the future. love.

adventures in big sister-ing

madelyn seems to enjoy being a big sister. yesterday she took on the task of 'reading' to mason while he relaxed in his swing. she came up to "touch mason" (a new favorite activity) and then said, "i'll read to you, okay?" she picked her new happy birthday, maisy! book and told mason "this is maisy" while showing him the book cover before sitting down to read.

she told him about all the pictures and then sang him the "happy birthday" song when she got to that part of the book. this book has flaps and pulls so it was cute to see her trying to tell him about what he couldn't see.

she has also become very interested in her (and mason's) diapers. she has been telling us about what is going on in her diaper, sometimes before it even happens, and demanding a "clean diaper". she has mainly done this while we are out running errands. i was going to wait a few more weeks, but i think that i might think about starting to potty train her in the next week or so. she starts preschool next week so i might wait until she gets settled there but i would hate to miss this window of interest. right now it is just funny to see her pulling on her diapers while telling me that she needs to go pee-pee and needs her "wet diaper changed".

as part of her diaper interest, she has been watching and 'helping' with mason's diaper changes. we haven't used the changing table for madelyn's diapers in a long time - at least 6 months. we just change her on the floor because she got too big for the changing table to be worth using. not to mention that she was just too heavy for me to be lifting while pregnant. anyway, she has been asking to be changed on the changing table every now and then since mason came home. i guess she didn't want to wait and climbed up on top of it in mason's room and laid down for daddy to change her diaper yesterday! i missed it, but it doesn't surprise me that she could get up there on her own.

in non-mason news, madelyn has been doing more art-and-craft type projects. last week we made paper bag puppets with markers, googlie-eyes, and pom-poms. yesterday daddy helped madelyn use stencils and paint to decorate a bird house kit she received as a big sister gift. today they are going to hang the bird house and hope that something moves in soon.

madelyn and daddy finished up this session of swimming lessons the night we were admitted to have mason. they had been working on "dunking" and matt said that madelyn would jump in from the side of the pool and happily go under water before being 'caught' by daddy and brought back up to call out "again!" happily. i was a little surprised by this since she has always been really careful to keep her face out of the water in the tub and wading pools. but we have come to expect this type of fearlessness from our little adventurer. love.