Sisterly Affection?

Honestly, Sydney is really nice to Madelyn usually. Except for that time she hit her over the head with a (plastic) gold club, but she did it to all of us, so that made it a little better right? And then there was Tuesday. We could have done without it. Sydney tried to walk across Mady twice (as in step on the middle of her tummy), kicked her in the head (not hard, but still) and head butted her on accident (running across the couch, tripped, smack). Then we had some sweet moments though, so maybe she was trying to make up for it. While laying here with Mady Sydney even tried to get Mady to hold her hand. Sweet. Let's skip the golf clubs next time, though. (P.S. Blow the pic up by clicking on it to see that Mady has a little smile too!)

Zoo Day

I know I totally promised to post these pictures ages ago, but here they finally are! Two weeks ago we enjoyed some fantastic weather and I convinced myself to be brave and take my two munchkins to the Zoo. We love our zoo pass and try to use it regularly. We missed going in February, but still, we're doing pretty good. I think we've been about 10 times since we got the pass last June, so it has definitely been worth it! I called my friend Casey and got her and little Kenzie (just a few months older than Sydney) to join us. We always have fun with them and Kenzie's got some mad vocab skills, so maybe hanging out with her will inspire Sydney to try a few new words too! Here are the big girls with their drinks and snacks watching the hyenas scarf down a wildebeest leg. On second though, it may have been a cow. Haven't seen many wildebeests around here lately.

As always, the favorite attraction for both girls I think was the geese. Why are they so fascinating? This goose was particularly bold and walked right up to Kenzie and stole the vanilla wafer out of her hang. Kenzie was not sure what to think.
Sydney just waved to them and said hi. She didn't have any food at the time and when I did give her something to toss to them, she ate it. Note to self, never give her pet food.

Here we are checking out the monkeys. Sydney was was too distracted to pose for a picture, but here's proof that we were all there together.

Here are our little monkeys in the monkey house. Sydney is usually the follower but she was on one that day and was a crazy little maniac. She ran around, pounded her little fists on the doors (no animal windows though), etc. Kenzie was a good friend and followed her lead. Sorry Casey!

Here we are on the hippo statue in the middle of the Zoo. I have no idea what Sydney has in her mouth. Don't ask me why I dressed us all in jeans. We were totally sweating.

Mady completely unsure about the whole affair.
Sydney during lunch - she played right next to our bench the whole time. I was so proud of her for staying close I didn't even care too much that she was playing in the dirt and had gotten FILTHY. She wore white, I bleached the shirt, and I managed to stop her from eating any poop, chewed gum, or discarded teddy grahams, so I counted it a success.
Mady spent most of her time in the front carrier asleep. Good thing since I was trying to keep an eye on Sydney!
Proof of the gorgeous weather. We were in heaven.

It's really nice again here this week so maybe we'll get out and about! I'm all about these mild winters.

Great Coupon

Not an update, just an FYI. For all you coupon shoppers like me out there in need of diapers or wipes, here's a real gem for you! Click here to print a $5 (or $3) off coupon for any Huggies diaper product (you can use either coupon on diapers OR wipes). Right now out here anyway, the Huggies diapers are on sale at Albertsons for $7, which, when you use the coupon, makes them $2. The wipes refills are $6 regular price (and they're my favorite wipes ever!) at Walmart, so when you use the coupon, they are $1. I bought $36 worth of wipes last week for $6. Go stock up if you need them. I think it will only let you print the coupon twice, but it does not print a different barcode each time, and I just printed it once and then copied it a lot. It worked for me! Happy cheap diaper shopping!

Funny Little Monkeys

This is a very random post and if you're sick of seeing the two little monkeys that run my house you can skip it, but I need to preserve these moments. Sydney is in such a funny phase right now! She's 18 months old on her way to 12 I think. I walked in the living room and found this the other day - Sydney helping herself to a show with some pancake mix on the couch - presumably for a snack? Also note her "Wow, look at that!" face. It's because she got caught with the remotes and is changing the subject. Stinker!

Here"s our little Mady Cakes looking all big. She's 7 weeks old today! She's becoming more and more responsive to outside stimuli (namely us) which is great. Little smiles creep in now and again to melt your heart.
Sydney decided to teach her dolly a much needed lesson about the dangers of drinking and driving (see bottle on floor). Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Sydney might be enjoying the carnage a little more than she should. Also the dolly was not wearing a seat belt. Naughty.

This is a daily occurrence in our house now. I had to rearrange my pantry so the lower shelves held items Sydney could play with. She's sort of into everything. Last week she loved water pitchers, this week it's the colander. Who knows what her next love will be.

Hopefully not this! I know they grow up fast, but this is a little too fast! Last night we were making dinner and I hear Sydney saying "mwuh mwuh." When I turned around I saw this. Yup, apparently this girl loves Indiana Jones because she was totally kissin' on him.

When my parents came out they brought Sydney a baby doll of her own to play with to help with any feelings of jealousy. She's done really well, and she loves that doll. I brought up my doll stroller from when I was a kid and she loves that thing. Poor doll had a few spills at first, but the kid's a pro now, even if the doll is riding upside down sometimes.

Sydney is such a little copycat right now. She'll feed her baby doll, tap the bottle on her wrist to check the temperature (she doesn't miss a beat!), burp her baby, and try to help change Mady's diaper. Aaron mentioned the other day how observant she is and that she's learning right now how to be a mom. Kind of scary that she's learning while I am, but kind of neat too.

She wants to do everything we do. Sometimes this is great like when I brush my teeth, she wants to brush hers. Other times it doesn't work so well, like when I'm cutting chicken or something - I know, we're totally mean parents and won't let her use knives or uncooked meat yet. Talk about overprotective! We're making smoothies in this picture and Sydney is scarfing the fruit down almost as fast as I could get it in the blender.

Mady is my snuggler. Sydney always preferred snuggling with Aaron. Mady prefers me. Different shapes I guess, but I like having a snuggle budy. It's cozy.

Look - proof that we had flowers. Beautiful crocuses. It's been really nice out here and all of our bulbs have been coming up and starting to bloom. Then the evil beastie bunnies came and devoured them all. I hate those varmints. It's wabbit season again.

That's My Kid

One of my favorite memories/stories of me as a kid was from when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My mom was working in the garden and I came to her informing her that I was STARVING to death (I think I was really convinced that I was). She told me she would be in soon to make dinner, and despite my protestations, sent me back to the house.

I then proceeded to forage for food (since I was actually going to die any minute). I remember going for a hot dog, but it was a new sealed package and I wasn't allowed to use sharp knives, so I had to skip that. I went for some cheese, but again, no sharp knives were allowed. I tried cutting off a slice of cheese with a butter knife, but it didn't work (shocker). In desperation I decided to use the one thing that would work and was also not banned - my teeth. When my mom came in from the house she found teeny teeth marks all over the edges and corners of the large brick of cheese in the fridge. Good thing I was such an obedient child and didn't cut my fingers off.

Back to me all grown up, today Sydney was sitting on the counter while I got lunch ready and when I turned around, this is what I saw.

Whose kid is she anyway!?!

Shelvsies

I'm totally late posting this, but a few weeks ago we built some shelves in our garage to improve our storage solutions and make things all nice and organized! Aaron did an awesome job with the design & construction and we now have 2 awesome new seriously sturdy shelves. Here's the photo journey:

Aaron securing those suckers to the wall and Sydney with her own little power tools. She had a blast trying to run to the neighbor's house at least 6 times. She knows they have a dog and a cat. Caleb & Michelle, you almost had a visitor a lot of times. She likes you.

My studly hubby finding some studs to work with.

Goofing around

Sydney couldn't be bothered to sit still and look at the camera. There were things to do and tools to play with.

Ok we finally got her to look in the right direction

There's a smile!

The finished product! We've been cleaning out our basement and taking things out to the new space. Now our basement will be cleaner. Yay! Maybe one day soon we'll finish it!

Props to Aaron for an awesome job on design & construction! I love my handy man!

One of Those Days

We've had one of those days today. There was not much of this going on

But this one was into everything. I think she was trying to see how big of a mess she could make. It went really well in case you were wondering.
What an appropriate toy she found (it's a devil's pitchfork if you can't tell) while we were cleaning the basement - yeah, it's a disaster at the moment .
And this was her running away when I tried to change her diaper. Awesome.


Even when I tried to be a great mom and take these kiddos to the park, nothing went right. The stroller was packed, Mady was in the front carrier crying her eyes out and Sydney was running around whining and fussing. We were about to walk out when Mady spewed all over me. Out of the carrier she came while I cleaned me, it, and the floor (she cried the whole time). Sydney wouldn't stop fussing, so she got put down for a nap and the whole park excursion got cancelled. It just went on and on today, so it seemed completely appropriate when I found this poem while cleaning out the aforementioned basement earlier:

The baby is teething; The children are crying. Your husband just called and said "Eat dinner without me."
One of these days you'll explode and shout to all the kids, "Why don't you just grow up and act your age!" And they will...
Or, "You guys get outside and find something to do -- without hurting each other And don't slam the door!" And they don't.
You'll straighten their bedrooms until it's all neat and tidy, toys displayed on the shelf, hangers in the closet, animals caged. You'll yell, "Now I want it to stay this way!" And it will...
You will prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't had all the olives picked out and a cake with no finger traces in the icing and you'll say, "Now this is a meal for company." And you will eat it alone...
You'll yell, "I want complete privacy on the phone. No screaming, Do you hear me?" And no one will answer.
No more plastic tablecloths stained. No more dandelion bouquets. No more iron-on patches. No more wet, knotted shoelaces, muddy boots or rubber bands for ponytails.
Imagine.... a lipstick with a point, no babysitters for New Years Eve, washing clothes only once a week, no PTA meetings or silly school plays where your child is a tree, no car pools, blaring stereos or forgotten lunch money.
No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks, no wet oatmeal kisses, no more tooth fairy, no more giggles in the dark, scraped knees to kiss or sticky fingers to clean.
Only a voice asking, "Why don't you grow up?" And the silence echoes: "I did"

After reading it the first time (and almost crying) I had to just sit down and hug Sydney - Mady was blissfully asleep at the moment. I need good reminders like that sometimes to keep me from getting frustrated too much. Tomorrow we're attempting the zoo. Who doesn't love 74 degree days in March? Halle-freakin'-lujah for that zoo pass we have.

Holy Awesome Bag Batman!

Since adding Numero Dos we've needed a bigger diaper bag. The little guy just wasn't cuttin' it. Then my fabulously talented friend Kiffon MADE me this beauty (She sells them). That's right. And she didn't even know I was a pink and brown girl. Oh yeah. I'm in love.

This baby has 10 pockets and is loaded with goodies in all sorts of fantastically coordinating fabrics!
Included are (from left to right) A Hooter Hider (Aka nursing cover for the slightly more boring. The back of that baby is so dang soft too. Seriously, Sydney stole it and snuggled it when she found it.) A diapers/wipes holder, and a changing pad. Below that you can see the fancy button (for some reason it's one of my favorite parts) and the keychain clip (for people like me whose keys fall into the unknown depths of their bags and are lost for 10 minutes while standing at the car).

Had to include this shot of my own little accesory who happened to be wearing a shirt that matched the bag exactly. Awesome.