first trip

on wednesday night i left for my first business trip since having mason. thankfully i was only going to be away for just over 24 hours (i have an amazing boss who wants to limit my travel). the short length of the trip made it easier to go but not any easier to leave. madelyn started crying before we left the house but stopped. once we stopped to drop me at the airport she was hysterical! matt said she cried the whole way home, but when i called to let matt know i had landed she was able to talk to me happily on the phone. it is so weird to talk to her on the phone! her voice sounds so different. it is nice that she is willing to carry on a conversation on the phone now - it was actually hard to get her off the phone!

the report from matt was that everyone did great. mason did a good job with the bottle and madelyn had a lot of fun with daddy all day. the highlight was playing dress up (or so she told me on the phone as i waited for my flight home). matt tried to get a picture of her dressed as a cheerleader and wearing her birthday hat - she didn't really want to hold still.

the best part of a trip is coming home. madelyn was so excited to see me and held my hand the whole way home. it was hard on my shoulder, but how could i resist. she kept telling me that they came to pick me up at the airport and that she loved me very much while rubbing my hand on her cheek. when we got home i put madelyn to bed while matt changed mason's diaper and got him ready for bed. after i was done with madelyn i went and got mason from matt. mason pushed back from my shoulder so that he could see my face and once he had eye contact he broke out in a huge smile and started laughing! he was so excited to see me that it took him a while to start nursing - he just wanted to smile at me. the funny thing is that whenever i would come home when madelyn was an infant she always felt way bigger than when i left, but mason felt much smaller to me.

its so good to be home! love.

touch-a-truck

i got a wonderful "i love you" from my children on saturday morning - sleeping until 8am! mason really woke me up at 7:45am but that was the only time he got up after going down at 7:30pm. madelyn didn't get up until 8:30. even better, i was asleep by 10pm so i woke up pretty refreshed. matt was happy too since i had asked to be the one to sleep in.

we took madelyn to "touch-a-truck" at a local library. it was 34 degrees when i got up with mason, so we bundled up. madelyn was more excited about touching trucks that i thought she would be! she wanted to make sure she 'touched' all the trucks. she wanted mommy, daddy, and mason to touch the trucks too. i told her that mason was still too little to touch trucks, but mommy and daddy would join her in the touching. she has been very concerned about all of us participating in which ever activity she is - it is very sweet.




there were motorcycles, a fire truck, a police car, a tow truck, a semi cab, a mail truck, and several military vehicles. when asked, she said that the firetruck was her favorite truck. and she didn't want to stop touching trucks once we left either. every truck she saw she pointed out and announced that she was going to touch it too. i had to clarify that the trucks we got to touch were special and we couldn't just touch any truck we saw. thankfully that was quickly accepted.

we also went to a movie night at church on saturday night. (we have been going to saturday evening service after the church asked members to switch so that there would be more room on sunday mornings for visitors.) the movie was monster inc. and they served hot dogs and popcorn. madelyn looked so cute sitting with her feet dangling and eating her hot dog that i had to try and get a picture - its pretty blurry. madelyn did a great job watching the movie. it was one she had never seen before so i wasn't sure how long she would last if she didn't like it. or if she would think that it was too scary. i think that she was more upset that it ended eventually. i am glad that they are going to do this again at the end of the month and show the movie up!. it was a nice (free) family activity. love.

update: i forgot to mention two things. one, we had our first snow 'flurries' of the year on saturday. two, mason has started going to the church nursery. madelyn didn't go until 5 or 6 months old, but mason is so awake so much more and 'talks' so much that we had to start dropping him off. love.

family photos

we didn't have any luck with a family photo while we were in florida so i made an appointment to try again. plus, we haven't had any pictures of mason done yet and we had some taken of madelyn at 3 months. the photographer was so great and both kids were in great, cooperative moods. unfortunately mason feel asleep by the time we got to his individual shots.

mason was letting me tickle him today and this is just a taste since we was getting tired of laughing by the time i thought to get a camera.

i am heading off on my first business trip since having mason tomorrow. i am only going to be gone for 26 hours, but that is going to be long enough for all of us. matt will be home with the kids by himself for the first time. we will see how much i am missed... love.

"i did it!"

madelyn and i spent the late afternoon playing in the front yard. we (she) played golf, watched bees, rolled in the grass, did somersaults, drew with chalk, and discussed "birdberries". mason was taking a long nap in his swing (4 hours plus) so i could keep and eye on him from the front yard.

we started with golf and i was trying to teach madelyn to use both hands to hold the club and line up with the ball. she tried for a while and when she hit it she would yell triumphantly, "i did it!", as shown in the picture. mainly she just wanted to retrieve balls i would hit. it isn't that easy to hit a plastic ball, smaller than a real golf ball, in tall grass.

once she tired of that we talked about our collection of pumpkins on the front step and she drew a "train" with chalk on the step. before watching the bees gather pollen off the flowers for at least 20 minutes. the video is just showing her concern about the bees not stinging her. she got stuck on that point but she had been telling me all about pollen and what the bees were doing.

our next stop in the yard - a tree. we can't remember what it is called and i am too tired to look it up right now. it is sort of like a crabapple tree, but with small cherry like fruit. any way madelyn just noticed the 'cherries' hanging from the branches for the first time today. she was jumping around the tree trying to touch them. during our conversation about the 'fruit' not being good for her to eat, i told her that they were for birds to eat. madelyn named them "birdberries" - one word.

to round out our trip around the front yard i taught her how to barrel roll down the incline and to do somersaults properly. she gets a little scared doing them in the house because she landed hard on the wood floors once and now does a little side land instead of going all the way over her head. i told her that it was good to practice in the grass because it was softer than inside. now she does a mean somersault - even inside the house!

here are some more pictures from our front yard adventure.

the two smaller pumpkins are from our garden.

check out that impressive form!

so i mentioned that mason took a long nap in his swing today. he did wake up twice for about 5 seconds each, but it was at least a 4 hour nap. and he did the same thing yesterday too - sleeping in his swing for 3-4 hours. i thought that he was just getting into a napping routine, but then i noticed that his cheeks were a little red this evening and took his temperature. yep, he has a fever. i gave him some tylenol before bed so hopefully that will take care of it. he was also spitting up a lot today! he is either catching something or getting his first tooth. madelyn used to get warm and spit up a lot when she had teeth coming in. he has been drooling excessively and licking his bottom gums for the past two days too. only time will tell... at least he doesn't seem bothered or uncomfortable by any of it. love.

building with daddy

on saturday we got up and dressed for a morning of errands. madelyn was most excited about "building something with daddy" at home depot. as soon as she was dressed she put on her apron. she actually wanted to put it on before she was dressed but i convinced her that she would be cold out without pants. i took this picture of her while she was being silly before we left - it is the only way i could get a picture without her crazy photo smile face. she wore her apron and sunglasses in every store we stopped by and got quite a few "so cute" comments. she was embarrassed and shy that strangers were talking to her, but it wasn't enough to make her take either item off.

this kids' workshop was a "special event" with a firetruck, k-9 unit, and some halloween fun. here are some pictures:

daddy had to put the project on the ground so that madelyn could hammer. it was just too high on top of the table. she does a surprisingly good job hammering! it was also really windy (and a little rainy) so daddy did most of the work so that we could check everything out before it started to rain too hard to be out with mason.

here is her finished fire house bank. it has three compartments - one for saving, one for spending, and one for sharing. she makes special note of the "grooves" on each side that the lid slides on and off in.

she would have sat in the fire truck all day! she was so happy in there that she just sat there smiling and we had to go up and get her so that someone else could have a turn. it was just too bad that they were out of the plastic fireman hats by the time we got there. she really wanted one after seeing other kids wearing them.

they had little carnival games with halloween themed prizes. the only one madelyn could really do was the bean bag toss.

at noon they dropped a huge assortment of candy and balloons in a pumpkin decorated tarp from a crane. we thought that it was going to be some pumpkins dropped to go "splat", but it was just a lot of candy. we probably wouldn't have gone over if we knew it was candy.

because madelyn was one of the younger kids she got to go with the first group (the older kids went second so no one got trampled). you can tell that madelyn didn't really get that she should go get the candy by the way she stood on the outside of the group of kids stuffing their bags with candy. when she did work her way up she took two popcorn balls and two mini tootsie rolls.

here are just a few more notes about madelyn:

- we have some white mushrooms coming up in the yard all of the sudden that are making matt crazy, but to madelyn they are wonderful "mushmellows". at least she has a firm understanding that these are not for eating. she just likes to pick the tops off and feel them.

- she is starting to get the hang of using the computer mouse. she doesn't have it quite mastered yet, but she knows what she is trying to do and how it coordinates with what is on the screen. and every now and then she even clicks on the right thing all by herself!

- madelyn has a real interest in our stopping, going, and speed while driving in the car. yesterday i realized that when she is saying stopping she is really saying "stop me". she means stopping, but just isn't saying it properly because she is mishearing it from us. she doesn't do it anymore because i corrected her - she now says "stopping".

- i don't know how common this is, but when i ask madelyn what a letter i am pointing to is she gives me the sound instead of the letter's name. not for all letters, but she does it for "s" and "c" almost all the time. love.

what's up, monkey?

before we went out on errands saturday i took a picture of mason in his brewers track suit because it will probably be the last time he wears it - too bad that it was the first time. it is a 3-6 month size and i was waiting for him to wear it when matt would be around. it could barely zip up. and the nylon (or whatever fabric it is) does not really do much to absorb spit up. oh well.

as usual mason just hung out while we ran around and did the building project at home depot. i always feel bad when he spends a lot of time strapped in - either in his carrier or in his swing. once he woke up and we were home i got him out and on his belly. his head got too heavy for him for a few weeks after a noticeable growth spurt, but it seems like he is getting the hang of it again. not only is he able to lift his head up high again but he is starting to take a real interest in the toys around him. madelyn loves to pick toys from mason's room for him to look at. i have to limit her to 5 so that he has some room to move a little. related to his head getting too heavy he also stopped rolling over with that last growth spurt. he is getting really close to rolling over again and this time in both ways.

yesterday he was extremely interested in this monkey on his playmat. he was concentrating so hard trying to grab the monkey while staring it down. i imagined that he was saying "what's up, monkey?" while he was 'talking' to it.

its so much fun to see mason begin to interact with toys and he has almost gotten quick enough to track madelyn. i really can't wait until he can laugh at her! love.

new discoveries

mason made a few new discoveries between last night and this morning. the first was discovering that he can laugh and squeal very loudly! at first he was surprised, but then he realized that it was fun to be loud. he stops when ever i get the camera or there would be video.

the second discovery was his feet. he likes to hold them up in the air like seen in this picture - same as madelyn at this age. he grabbed one of his feet last night, but hasn't done so since. and he has had lots of time because this boy has no interest in napping during the day! he is the polar opposite of madelyn who took two 4 hour naps a day and would sneak in a third 2-3 hour nap. for the past week mason does good to get three hours total! i don't mind because he sleeps at night and that is all that matters.

madelyn loves to help. and it really doesn't matter what she is helping with - she loves it all. today she helped pick groceries off the shelf and put them in the cart at the grocery store and then helped me prepare dinner. she helps with dinner pretty much every day and as she learns (and obeys) food prep rules she gets to help with more and more of the process. since she as mastered "don't touch raw meat", she got to help put the glaze on our salmon. she also ate a good portion of it with her creamed spinach as a result. dinner has been the one meal that madelyn hasn't really embraced and she will often choose to go to bed hungry instead of eating it.

today at the grocery store i asked madelyn to pick up a bag of mini marshmallows and instead of settling for the white ones, madelyn selected the multi colored ones. as i have posted several times before, madelyn is really good about putting things back that we aren't going to purchase, but there was no talking her out of these marshmallows. in fact, she carried that bag of marshmallows through the whole store with the tightest grip. and when she put it up on the belt so that we could buy them she told the cashier about buying her marshmallows. as a reward after dinner she got to eat 5 of them. a very small price to be for eating her dinner.

and mason spent dinner prep and dinner hanging in his swing and playing with the toys on it. he focuses so hard and is getting really good at grabbing what he sees. not to mention that he is obviously proud of his accomplishments. pretty soon he will be sitting up and he can join us at the table in his highchair! it is so fun to see him begin to show interest in toys - i know that it makes madelyn pretty excited too. love.