mason sounds

mason has been making a high pitched squeal a lot lately. it doesn't even sound like something that should be coming out of him. i call it his beluga whale 'song'. unfortunately there isn't an off button for this sound - its too happy. i was able to get a little video of it tonight.

he has also taken to his teething ring in the past few days. he works hard to pick it up off his lap or belly and then chews on it for a while. he cries when he drops it of when it slides down onto his wrist/arm and he can't get it back into his hand.

here is the video of his whale calls:


mason was also in a giggling mood this afternoon. getting up to get the camera disturbed him so i didn't get too much that was actually of him laughing (at least not in a cute way). i did think that it was cute how he was trying to get the camera. enjoy.



one quick maddie note. we were riding in the car this afternoon and i started to say something and then stopped. madelyn says, "mommy, what are you thinking?" which i thought was cute. and then she was asking me some question that i didn't know the answer to (i don't remember what it was) so i said, "i don't know. you'll have to ask God some day." to which madelyn responded, "i'll ask God some day. i love God. God loves us!" love.

swingin' on sunday

today was a quiet day at home. after daddy made waffles for breakfast we walked down to the park. madelyn wanted to pick up every leave she saw and was really excited to see them 'raining' down from the trees at the park when the wind blew - it was really pretty (see the video for a taste). i am not sure if fall is her favorite season or she is just excited after learning about it in school, but she is definately intrested in all things fall! she loves wearing her jackets, hoods, and hats too.

at the park, everyone took a turn swinging. madelyn is getting really good at her leg pumping and pushing others. mason just likes hanging out in the fresh air.

after the park we took a stroll around the neighborhood until the wind started to annoy mason and we had to head home for lunch and naps. love.

madelyn, madelyn, madelyn...

tonight's post is a collection of pictures from the past few days and some little stories.

- i gave madelyn a lorna doone cookie on friday and she looked at it and told me that "grandma gave this to me" very matter of factly. i corrected her that, no, we bought these cookies at the store the day before. but then i remembered that grandma had given her some lorna doone cookies almost a year ago!!

- we were watching the news last night and a car commercial came on. madelyn said "slow down!" to the car racing around on wet roads. i thought that it was pretty funny that she was so concerned for its safety. she is so interested in cars lately. their speed, their color, the people driving them, where they are going, stopping, going, etc.

- madelyn likes that mason 'talks' to her in the car and she has started to have 'conversations' with him while we drive. today she was pointing out all the "hills" and "mountains" out the window. "do you see it, mason? there are two hills over there. one. two. do you see it, mason?" and if matt and i would try to join in she would tell us that she was talking to mason, not us.

- madelyn was so cute imitating mason while they were 'talking' to each other this morning that i had to get my camera. here are the best of the bunch - where they are both looking any way.



- tonight at church i got paged out of service. the kids share a number so i wasn't sure which one needed my attention, but assumed that it was mason. nope. it was madelyn. she had peed on the floor! she told them that she needed to have her diaper changed and that was when they realized that she was wearing wet underwear. at least it didn't get on her dress because i did not have a change of clothes for her (i haven't carried even a change of underwear for months). when i got there i asked her if big girls went pee-pee in their underwear and she gave an expressive, "no" (imagine mock-horror at the idea of going pee-pee in underwear). of course i was mortified. at least the lady running the toddler room tonight said that madelyn was cracking her up with all of her expressions and enthusiasm - she couldn't believe that she was only two. since there wasn't really much i could do they sent me back into the service. after church madelyn said that she had to go potty and matt took her. i guess she was telling him that she went in her pants and then said "madelyn, madelyn, madelyn" while shaking her head. i am pretty sure that she got that from me.

who knows what adventures await us tomorrow! love.

notes from the day

i wasn't going to post today because i have a million other things to do but there are a few things that i wanted to note but there are no pictures.

- today's theme song was "b-i-b-l-e". madelyn started singing it at breakfast out of no where. it has been weeks and weeks (if not months) since we last sang this song so it took me a minute to notice what she was singing - even though she was singing it quite clearly. and she sang it all day too. i tried to get her sing it for the camera, but she wouldn't. i just got pouty face and saying that she didn't want to sing the "book song".

- madelyn made mason laugh for the first time. she was doing this crazy high pitched squeal while jumping all around mason's car seat as we were getting ready to take maddie to school. she was pretty excited that he was finally laughing at her!

- here is a long video of mason doing what mason does while he is awake - 'talking', laughing and smiling. believe it or not, this video was done when he was both hungry and exhausted. right afterwards i fed him and he passed out.

- madelyn wet the bed for the first time on monday night! it didn't wake her up and she didn't even realize that she was wet until she went to the bathroom and her underwear were wet. crazy.

- tonight we were trying to get her to hurry into the car when we were heading to the grocery store. we had promised her a cookie from the bakery since we were going after dinner so we told her that she had better "hurry before they run out". madelyn - "the cookies aren't going to run out. they are going to walk out."

that's all. love.

mason's a sleeper

it hasn't been a temporary event - mason is sleeping through the night! he sleeps from about 7:30pm to at least 7am. as soon as he got that part straightened out he decided that he is going to start napping too. he has been taking a short nap (30 minutes to an hour) about an hour after waking up and then taking a four hour nap in the afternoon starting about 1:30.

at night i read him "goodnight moon" before feeding him and he really seems to enjoy it. he studies the pages and becomes less active and ready for sleep as i read. sometimes madelyn joins us for story time which is a treat for me. i love snuggling both kids on my lap and reading to them.

it has been so weird to suddenly have him sleeping so much during the day. it starts to make me nervous and i will go in a check on him once he gets to four hours. its the same thing in the morning when it gets to 8am and i still haven't heard from him. he is usually wide awake and just laying there sucking his thumb. so, really, who knows how long he sleeps because he waits in silence for me to come and get him. sometimes i will hear him rocking side to side but he doesn't cry out.

speaking of rocking, he loves to hold his feet and rock back and forth, side to side. he is just a happy kid and keeps himself so content all the time. we are really blessed to have had two super easy babies. love.

tiger cubs

the high today was only going to be 47 but it was sunny and not very windy so i just couldn't stay home. we are going to have long stretches indoors this winter and i am trying to put off the cabin fever as long as possible.

we got a special surprise on this trip too - two new baby tiger cubs! i had no idea that there were cubs born this summer. it was neat to see them running around and playing. they even got the female tiger up and about. usually the tigers are sleeping when we come to see them so this was a nice change.

we have been taking a different path through the zoo each time we have gone recently. i just let madelyn pick the order to see the animals and off we go. it has really stretched my limited sense of direction. so we take the long way every now and then. today we got to see the wolves as a result (this was the first time we have ever seen them). the funny part is when madelyn is positive that she didn't want to see a certain animal until i say that we are going to head home and then all of the sudden it is a must see.

during our trip we also enjoyed the sun shining through the autumnal leaves, but there is just something wrong about seeing them above the flamingos - to a florida girl anyway. they also had halloween decorations around and madelyn would just laugh and laugh at them. i am not sure why she thought that they were so funny. she wouldn't let me take a picture of her with them though.

later she was interested in posing with some of the animals, but wouldn't hold still. she just kept trying to look at the animal instead of at the camera! here is her best pose with the baby gorilla statue. remember she asked for this picture and posed for it herself - notice her signature hand hold.

mason slept just about the whole time but when he was awake he took interest in the trees overhead and the lighting in the exhibits. more about him in my next post. love.

apple holler

since we are going to church on saturday nights now we have been trying to have some family time on sunday. this week we went to apple holler. i am not too sure how to describe it. it is a destination apple orchard on the illinois/wisconsin state line. every time we pass it on the way to chicago i say that i want to go there some fall - well this was the year!

it was really cold, but sunny so there were quite a few people there. it didn't hurt that there is no admission price, just activity fees (in tickets, not cash). i can't imagine what it would have been like on a warmer day. matt thought some of the crowd was due to both the packers and the bears having a bye week. we were there shortly after it opened and got to do a few things without any lines. including madelyn's first choice - a pony ride! when we were walking over from the parking lot madelyn saw the ponies and started to cry and pull daddy's arm when we started walking away from them towards the entrance.

on the way to the pony rides we stopped to feed the goats. one of them was really, really hungry and would even 'ram' other goats out of the way while madelyn did some feeding.

they have this long bridge that the goats can walk on that madelyn thought was pretty neat (daddy and i did too).
and now for the pony ride! madelyn didn't hesitate at all. she just went right up to the pony and let the worker put her on it. she held on tight and told us that she did a couple of times afterwards. here is video of her first pony ride:

there were so many unique things to do there, but like anywhere else we go, if there is a playset that is what she wants to do.
this picture shows the view of all the goings on at apple holler.
madelyn and i rode the tracker 'train'. my ride was free and once i got in i realized why - let's just say that my legs worked as a safety bar over madelyn's lap. matt said that he should have taken a picture of me trying to get in.

i think the 'cow' maze was another favorite activity from the day. she didn't hesitate and just took off running through the maze. i had to work to keep up with her. i think we would have lost her in the corn maze because we wouldn't have been able to watch her over the 'walls'.

poor mason didn't enjoy it much because he was too warm with his fleece jumper, blanket, and hat. at least i thought that was the problem. it wasn't until we got home that i realized that he had a diaper explosion that went up his back and down one of his sleeves! so gross! i stripped him down and after a bath he was back to his super smiley self. love.